Monday, July 19, 2004
"My dad thinks my mom's funny even though she's really not – Jenna Bush
Big Oil: Chuck Lewis
What more can be said? Maybe it’s just the extent of their power. Lewis appeared on Moyers’ NOW, describing the “seamless” connection between government and Big Oil. The Center for Public Integrity reports note, in part, that “U.S. oil and gas companies have at least 882 subsidiaries located in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and even the tiny European principality of Liechtenstein, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found. Further, the investigation revealed that at least a half dozen U.S. oil and gas companies have actually re-incorporated in tax haven countries.”
There’ s much more at http://www.publicintegrity.com/oil/, including Big Oil in the Elections: (Sample: “Koch Industries could be the biggest oil company you have never heard of—unless, that is, you hang around the halls of government in Washington. Koch is the leading campaign contributor among oil and gas companies for the 2004 election cycle, giving $587,000 so far,”)
Mercatus:
Referenced on the pbs web site and on the Moyers program, this profile conveys their power. This must be countered!
In 2001, the new Bush White House sought suggestions for government regulations to kill or modify. A small think tank called the Mercatus Center named 44 it didn't like -- among them, rules governing energy-efficient air conditioners and renovations to electric-utility plants.
Ultimately, 14 of the 23 rules the White House chose for its "hit list" to eliminate or modify were Mercatus entries -- a record that flabbergasted Washington lobbying heavyweights. A year later, the National Association of Manufacturers failed to persuade the administration to embrace even one item on its regulatory wish list. Now it's trying to copy Mercatus. "We said, 'Why were they more successful than we were?' " says Lawrence Fineran, the manufacturers' vice president for regulation…
Mercatus's rise owes much to the oil-and-gas company Koch Industries Inc., (pronounced "coke"), a privately owned company in Wichita, Kan., that contributes heavily to Republican causes and candidates. A Koch family foundation has given Mercatus and George Mason University a total of $14.4 million since 1998, according to public documents analyzed by the Public Education Center, a Washington group that tracks environmental issues….
Public Citizen, a consumer group founded by Ralph Nader, dismisses Mercatus as "a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries and other corporate interests."… Mercatus's 29-person staff works from a warren of small offices decorated with Mexican folk-art paintings in George Mason's law school in Arlington, Va. The center spends about 9% of its $6.8 million budget on its in-house regulatory program. Much of the rest of the budget is devoted to seminars and outside research on economic issues including regulation. http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB108994396555065646,00.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: The usual: The Opposition bombs the police; the U.S. bombs Fallujah.
A Thug, But He’s Our Thug In case you missed Friday’s story:
Allawi Accused of Murdering Prisoners :Paul McGeough, the chief correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald cited eyewitnesses who corroborated that Iyad Allawi personally executed several prisoners in late June.
They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city's south-western suburbs. They say Dr Allawi told onlookers the victims had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and they "deserved worse than death" . . . Iraq's Interior Minister, Falah al-Naqib, is said to have looked on and congratulated him when the job was done. Mr al-Naqib's office has issued a verbal denial. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694568757.html?oneclick=true
Let’s remember that Allawi was a Baathist hit man in London, then broke with Saddam and organized terrorist operations against Saddam.Both Allawi and the American embassy deny the account. Interesting that the informants who bring us this story do not think of themselves as whistleblowers; they actually approve of summary executions. The Sydney Herald broke the story, foreign press followed, but the U.S. press has been hesitant, with the Washington Times being the first, and few covering it at all. The limited official reaction- a ‘non-denial denial’, some call it- from new ambassador John Negroponte:
"If we attempted to refute each [rumor], we would have no time for other business. As far as this embassy's press office is concerned, this case is closed."
More War Crimes. Hesitated posting this…
Young male prisoners were filmed being sodomised by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to the journalist who first revealed the abuses there.
Seymour Hersh, who reported on the torture of the prisoners in New Yorker magazine in May, told an audience in San Francisco that "it's worse". But he added that he would reveal the extent of the abuses: "I'm not done reporting on all this," he told a meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union.
He said: "The boys were sodomised with the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking. And this is your government at war."
He accused the US administration, and all but accused President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney of complicity in covering up what he called "war crimes". http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=541472
Bad Accounting Returns: Elizabeth Price of the Wall Street Journal takes us beyond our corrupt business practices at home.
Lax accounting controls by the U.S.-led governing authority in Iraq made it impossible to say whether Iraq's oil wealth was properly used for development of the country, a United Nations oversight board said yesterday.
The International Advisory and Monitoring Board on Iraq -- following the release of an independent audit by KPMG International -- said Iraq's oil proceeds, frozen assets and transfers from the U.N. Oil for Food Program appear to have been "properly and transparently" accounted for in a trust fund set up for Iraq.
The U.N. watchdog for the $10 billion trust fund, the Development Fund for Iraq, said "controls were insufficient to provide reasonable assurance" that proceeds from petroleum sales from May 22, 2003, just after the war began, to Dec. 31, 2003, were spent "for the purposes intended." http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108993745900465507,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
Pepe Escobar: Iraq Today
The first two acts of former Central Intelligence Agency asset turned Prime Minister Iyad Allawi were to call a US air strike on an alleged safe house in Fallujah, and to sign a martial-law order to be imposed on an Arab "sovereign" state by a Western, Christian army. Saddam Hussein also imposed martial law on Iraq. Last year, the talk in Baghdad was that the Americans wanted an "American Saddam". Now they have one. ..
[The Iraqi} Patriot Act was appropriately announced to the Iraqi population by Bakhtyar Amin, the new minister of justice and human rights. Some Iraqis may welcome their Patriot Act because it supposedly tackles the security nightmare bequeathed by the Americans. People in Baghdad still remember Saddam Hussein's ultra-harsh security state: it was ugly, but there was plenty of security. But Baghdad sources tell Asia Times Online that many people are wondering whether the Patriot Act will be enough to save Allawi's Iraq. Much of the Sunni triangle - including the major cities of Fallujah, Ramadi, Samarra and Baqubah - is now controlled by the resistance. These cities are nothing less than autonomous republics. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FG16Ak02.html
Iran:
The September 11 commission's report, due out Thursday, says Iran may have facilitated the 2001 attacks on the United States by providing eight to 10 al-Qaeda hijackers with safe passage to and from training camps in Afghanistan, US media reports said. Time and Newsweek, in similar reports quoting congressional, commission and government sources, said Iran relaxed border controls and provided "clean" passports for the so-called "muscle hijackers" to transit Iran to and from Osama bin Laden's camps between October 2000 and February 2001. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1504&e=1&u=/afp/20040717/pl_afp/us_attacks_iran
Elections:
The Congressional Black Caucus and a few other legislators recently called for UN observers to verify our elections.
Congresswoman Corrine Brown, Jacksonville Democrat, was especially outspoken, noting. "I come from Florida, where you [the GOP leadership] and others participated in what I call the United States coup d'etat. We need to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Over and over again after the election when you stole the election, you came back here and said get over it. No we're not going to get over it and we want verification from the world."
She was then censured by the House of Representatives.
Humor: Very needed in times like these. These links require sound.
http://www.ava.nu/thisland.htm
Mark Fiore has been a steady resource. A sample (and access to his archive) can be found here: http://sfgate.com/columnists/fiore/
Shrinking Coalition:
The ‘Coalition of the Willing’ started with 32 nations-- the vast majority, however, only provided moral support. Only the UK and Australia provided forces for the invasion.
But of those 32, four have already left. Spain, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic and four more are in the process of leaving -- Philippines, Thailand, Norway and New Zealand. A partial ‘make-up’ comes from several other nations that have pledged to increase their troop levels -- South Korea, Azerbaijan and Georgia. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50417-2004Jul14.html
What’s Happening, Afghanistan: Sudha Ramachandran for Asia Times on why the scheduled elections MUST happen. As Bush recites on the campaign trail, the Iraqis and Afghans “need to hear from America that they can count on the American people. You see, when we give our word, we keep our word.” Translated: ‘Keep your promise to these countries. Vote Bush’.
Why then the rush to hold presidential elections in October when the situation is not conducive for any election? The rush to hold the presidential elections in Afghanistan in October has to do with the fact that the United States goes to the polls in November. President George W Bush, who has nothing to hold up as achievements on the foreign-policy front, is hoping to present the Afghanistan election, the country's "return to democracy", as a major accomplishment of his administration. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/FG17Ag01.html
Bush Military Record: Still Out there…
The Associated Press asked a federal judge yesterday to order the Pentagon to quickly turn over a full copy of President Bush's military service record.
The White House has released partial documentation of Bush's military service in the Texas Air National Guard but has not complied with a Freedom of Information Act request from the news service for any record archived at a state library records center in Texas, the AP said in a court filing.
Records released so far do not put to rest questions over whether Bush fulfilled his National Guard service during the Vietnam War, the AP said in papers filed in federal court in New York.
Those records came from federal clearinghouses. Texas law requires separate record keeping for state National Guard service, and those records should exist on microfilm in Austin, the AP said.
"A significant, ongoing controversy exists over the president's military service during the Vietnam War, specifically whether he performed his required service between May and October 1972," lawyers for the AP wrote.
There also are allegations that potentially embarrassing material was removed from Bush's military file in 1997, when he was running for reelection as Texas governor, the AP said.
"The public has an intense and legitimate interest in knowing the facts concerning the president's military service," the lawyers wrote. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/07/17/ap_seeks_order_to_release_bushs_military_record?mode=PF
Bush at Harvard: Fleshing out the record, so to speak…
The Harvard Crimson ran a piece highlighting the recollections of a former Business School prof.
Yoshihiro Tsurumi, an avowed opponent of Bush’s current views and policies who was a visiting associate professor of international business at HBS between 1972 and 1976, said Bush was among 85 students he taught one year in a required first-year course. In the class on “Environment Analysis for Management,” incorporating elements of macroeconomics, industrial policy and international business, Tsurumi said students discussed and debated case studies for 90 minutes several times a week.
Tsurumi—now a professor of international business at Baruch College in the City University of New York—said he remembers the future president as scoring in the bottom 10 percent of students in the class. Thirty years after teaching the class, Tsurumi said the twenty-something Bush’s statements and behavior—“always very shallow”—still stand out in his mind.” http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=503181
Kerry Campaign prepares for election irregularities: Today’s NY Times:
Mindful of the election problems in Florida four years ago, aides to Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, say his campaign is putting together a far more intricate set of legal safeguards than any presidential candidate before him to monitor the election.
Aides to Mr. Kerry say the campaign is taking the unusual step of setting up a nationwide legal network under its own umbrella, rather than relying, as in the past, on lawyers associated with state Democratic parties. The aides said they were recruiting people based on their skills as litigators and election lawyers, rather than rewarding political connections or big donors.
Lawyers for the campaign are gathering intelligence and preparing litigation over the ballot machines being used and the rules concerning how voters will be registered or their votes disqualified. In some cases, the lawyers are compiling dossiers on the people involved and their track records on enforcing voting rights. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/19/politics/campaign/19VOTE.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=
Bush Ad: Kerry is Anti-Parent:
Kerry’s “extreme voting record.”
When it comes to issues that affect our families, are John Kerry’s priorities the same as yours? Kerry voted against parental notification for teenage abortions. Kerry even voted to allow schools to hand out the “morning-after” pill without parents’ knowledge. He voted to take control away from parents by taking away their right to know.
John Kerry has his priorities. The question is, are they yours?
Other:
Bush continues to make absurd claims.
So, for example, We’re going to continue to bring fiscal discipline to Washington, D.C. See, it starts with understanding that we’re not spending the government's money, we’re spending your money. And we must be good stewards with your money in the nation’s capital. (Applause.)
Fiscal Discipline?
Bush Daughters: Ah, the timing. The Bush girls, known for ‘naughtiness’ (underage drinking) now are reported to be “applying to become a teacher in Harlem” and “working with AIDS victims in Africa.” (after November) What’s next: Junior will announce that in his second term he will push universal health care and fight polluters.
Polls: Kerry’s Month: Predictable
Wisconsin: Kerry 48%, Bush 42% (American Research Group)
Florida: Kerry 47% Bush 44% (American Research Group)
Minnesota: Kerry 49% Bush 46% (Hubert Humphrey Institute)
Wisconsin: Bush 48% Kerry 46% (Hubert Humphrey Institute)
Iowa: Kerry 50% Bush 46% (Hubert Humphrey Institute)
According to Zogby: Since the Edwards announcement, Kerry has gained in Florida, Missouri, NH and Tennessee
-R
Big Oil: Chuck Lewis
What more can be said? Maybe it’s just the extent of their power. Lewis appeared on Moyers’ NOW, describing the “seamless” connection between government and Big Oil. The Center for Public Integrity reports note, in part, that “U.S. oil and gas companies have at least 882 subsidiaries located in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and even the tiny European principality of Liechtenstein, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found. Further, the investigation revealed that at least a half dozen U.S. oil and gas companies have actually re-incorporated in tax haven countries.”
There’ s much more at http://www.publicintegrity.com/oil/, including Big Oil in the Elections: (Sample: “Koch Industries could be the biggest oil company you have never heard of—unless, that is, you hang around the halls of government in Washington. Koch is the leading campaign contributor among oil and gas companies for the 2004 election cycle, giving $587,000 so far,”)
Mercatus:
Referenced on the pbs web site and on the Moyers program, this profile conveys their power. This must be countered!
In 2001, the new Bush White House sought suggestions for government regulations to kill or modify. A small think tank called the Mercatus Center named 44 it didn't like -- among them, rules governing energy-efficient air conditioners and renovations to electric-utility plants.
Ultimately, 14 of the 23 rules the White House chose for its "hit list" to eliminate or modify were Mercatus entries -- a record that flabbergasted Washington lobbying heavyweights. A year later, the National Association of Manufacturers failed to persuade the administration to embrace even one item on its regulatory wish list. Now it's trying to copy Mercatus. "We said, 'Why were they more successful than we were?' " says Lawrence Fineran, the manufacturers' vice president for regulation…
Mercatus's rise owes much to the oil-and-gas company Koch Industries Inc., (pronounced "coke"), a privately owned company in Wichita, Kan., that contributes heavily to Republican causes and candidates. A Koch family foundation has given Mercatus and George Mason University a total of $14.4 million since 1998, according to public documents analyzed by the Public Education Center, a Washington group that tracks environmental issues….
Public Citizen, a consumer group founded by Ralph Nader, dismisses Mercatus as "a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries and other corporate interests."… Mercatus's 29-person staff works from a warren of small offices decorated with Mexican folk-art paintings in George Mason's law school in Arlington, Va. The center spends about 9% of its $6.8 million budget on its in-house regulatory program. Much of the rest of the budget is devoted to seminars and outside research on economic issues including regulation. http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB108994396555065646,00.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: The usual: The Opposition bombs the police; the U.S. bombs Fallujah.
A Thug, But He’s Our Thug In case you missed Friday’s story:
Allawi Accused of Murdering Prisoners :Paul McGeough, the chief correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald cited eyewitnesses who corroborated that Iyad Allawi personally executed several prisoners in late June.
They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city's south-western suburbs. They say Dr Allawi told onlookers the victims had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and they "deserved worse than death" . . . Iraq's Interior Minister, Falah al-Naqib, is said to have looked on and congratulated him when the job was done. Mr al-Naqib's office has issued a verbal denial. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694568757.html?oneclick=true
Let’s remember that Allawi was a Baathist hit man in London, then broke with Saddam and organized terrorist operations against Saddam.Both Allawi and the American embassy deny the account. Interesting that the informants who bring us this story do not think of themselves as whistleblowers; they actually approve of summary executions. The Sydney Herald broke the story, foreign press followed, but the U.S. press has been hesitant, with the Washington Times being the first, and few covering it at all. The limited official reaction- a ‘non-denial denial’, some call it- from new ambassador John Negroponte:
"If we attempted to refute each [rumor], we would have no time for other business. As far as this embassy's press office is concerned, this case is closed."
More War Crimes. Hesitated posting this…
Young male prisoners were filmed being sodomised by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to the journalist who first revealed the abuses there.
Seymour Hersh, who reported on the torture of the prisoners in New Yorker magazine in May, told an audience in San Francisco that "it's worse". But he added that he would reveal the extent of the abuses: "I'm not done reporting on all this," he told a meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union.
He said: "The boys were sodomised with the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking. And this is your government at war."
He accused the US administration, and all but accused President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney of complicity in covering up what he called "war crimes". http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=541472
Bad Accounting Returns: Elizabeth Price of the Wall Street Journal takes us beyond our corrupt business practices at home.
Lax accounting controls by the U.S.-led governing authority in Iraq made it impossible to say whether Iraq's oil wealth was properly used for development of the country, a United Nations oversight board said yesterday.
The International Advisory and Monitoring Board on Iraq -- following the release of an independent audit by KPMG International -- said Iraq's oil proceeds, frozen assets and transfers from the U.N. Oil for Food Program appear to have been "properly and transparently" accounted for in a trust fund set up for Iraq.
The U.N. watchdog for the $10 billion trust fund, the Development Fund for Iraq, said "controls were insufficient to provide reasonable assurance" that proceeds from petroleum sales from May 22, 2003, just after the war began, to Dec. 31, 2003, were spent "for the purposes intended." http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108993745900465507,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
Pepe Escobar: Iraq Today
The first two acts of former Central Intelligence Agency asset turned Prime Minister Iyad Allawi were to call a US air strike on an alleged safe house in Fallujah, and to sign a martial-law order to be imposed on an Arab "sovereign" state by a Western, Christian army. Saddam Hussein also imposed martial law on Iraq. Last year, the talk in Baghdad was that the Americans wanted an "American Saddam". Now they have one. ..
[The Iraqi} Patriot Act was appropriately announced to the Iraqi population by Bakhtyar Amin, the new minister of justice and human rights. Some Iraqis may welcome their Patriot Act because it supposedly tackles the security nightmare bequeathed by the Americans. People in Baghdad still remember Saddam Hussein's ultra-harsh security state: it was ugly, but there was plenty of security. But Baghdad sources tell Asia Times Online that many people are wondering whether the Patriot Act will be enough to save Allawi's Iraq. Much of the Sunni triangle - including the major cities of Fallujah, Ramadi, Samarra and Baqubah - is now controlled by the resistance. These cities are nothing less than autonomous republics. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FG16Ak02.html
Iran:
The September 11 commission's report, due out Thursday, says Iran may have facilitated the 2001 attacks on the United States by providing eight to 10 al-Qaeda hijackers with safe passage to and from training camps in Afghanistan, US media reports said. Time and Newsweek, in similar reports quoting congressional, commission and government sources, said Iran relaxed border controls and provided "clean" passports for the so-called "muscle hijackers" to transit Iran to and from Osama bin Laden's camps between October 2000 and February 2001. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1504&e=1&u=/afp/20040717/pl_afp/us_attacks_iran
Elections:
The Congressional Black Caucus and a few other legislators recently called for UN observers to verify our elections.
Congresswoman Corrine Brown, Jacksonville Democrat, was especially outspoken, noting. "I come from Florida, where you [the GOP leadership] and others participated in what I call the United States coup d'etat. We need to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Over and over again after the election when you stole the election, you came back here and said get over it. No we're not going to get over it and we want verification from the world."
She was then censured by the House of Representatives.
Humor: Very needed in times like these. These links require sound.
http://www.ava.nu/thisland.htm
Mark Fiore has been a steady resource. A sample (and access to his archive) can be found here: http://sfgate.com/columnists/fiore/
Shrinking Coalition:
The ‘Coalition of the Willing’ started with 32 nations-- the vast majority, however, only provided moral support. Only the UK and Australia provided forces for the invasion.
But of those 32, four have already left. Spain, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic and four more are in the process of leaving -- Philippines, Thailand, Norway and New Zealand. A partial ‘make-up’ comes from several other nations that have pledged to increase their troop levels -- South Korea, Azerbaijan and Georgia. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50417-2004Jul14.html
What’s Happening, Afghanistan: Sudha Ramachandran for Asia Times on why the scheduled elections MUST happen. As Bush recites on the campaign trail, the Iraqis and Afghans “need to hear from America that they can count on the American people. You see, when we give our word, we keep our word.” Translated: ‘Keep your promise to these countries. Vote Bush’.
Why then the rush to hold presidential elections in October when the situation is not conducive for any election? The rush to hold the presidential elections in Afghanistan in October has to do with the fact that the United States goes to the polls in November. President George W Bush, who has nothing to hold up as achievements on the foreign-policy front, is hoping to present the Afghanistan election, the country's "return to democracy", as a major accomplishment of his administration. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/FG17Ag01.html
Bush Military Record: Still Out there…
The Associated Press asked a federal judge yesterday to order the Pentagon to quickly turn over a full copy of President Bush's military service record.
The White House has released partial documentation of Bush's military service in the Texas Air National Guard but has not complied with a Freedom of Information Act request from the news service for any record archived at a state library records center in Texas, the AP said in a court filing.
Records released so far do not put to rest questions over whether Bush fulfilled his National Guard service during the Vietnam War, the AP said in papers filed in federal court in New York.
Those records came from federal clearinghouses. Texas law requires separate record keeping for state National Guard service, and those records should exist on microfilm in Austin, the AP said.
"A significant, ongoing controversy exists over the president's military service during the Vietnam War, specifically whether he performed his required service between May and October 1972," lawyers for the AP wrote.
There also are allegations that potentially embarrassing material was removed from Bush's military file in 1997, when he was running for reelection as Texas governor, the AP said.
"The public has an intense and legitimate interest in knowing the facts concerning the president's military service," the lawyers wrote. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/07/17/ap_seeks_order_to_release_bushs_military_record?mode=PF
Bush at Harvard: Fleshing out the record, so to speak…
The Harvard Crimson ran a piece highlighting the recollections of a former Business School prof.
Yoshihiro Tsurumi, an avowed opponent of Bush’s current views and policies who was a visiting associate professor of international business at HBS between 1972 and 1976, said Bush was among 85 students he taught one year in a required first-year course. In the class on “Environment Analysis for Management,” incorporating elements of macroeconomics, industrial policy and international business, Tsurumi said students discussed and debated case studies for 90 minutes several times a week.
Tsurumi—now a professor of international business at Baruch College in the City University of New York—said he remembers the future president as scoring in the bottom 10 percent of students in the class. Thirty years after teaching the class, Tsurumi said the twenty-something Bush’s statements and behavior—“always very shallow”—still stand out in his mind.” http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=503181
Kerry Campaign prepares for election irregularities: Today’s NY Times:
Mindful of the election problems in Florida four years ago, aides to Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, say his campaign is putting together a far more intricate set of legal safeguards than any presidential candidate before him to monitor the election.
Aides to Mr. Kerry say the campaign is taking the unusual step of setting up a nationwide legal network under its own umbrella, rather than relying, as in the past, on lawyers associated with state Democratic parties. The aides said they were recruiting people based on their skills as litigators and election lawyers, rather than rewarding political connections or big donors.
Lawyers for the campaign are gathering intelligence and preparing litigation over the ballot machines being used and the rules concerning how voters will be registered or their votes disqualified. In some cases, the lawyers are compiling dossiers on the people involved and their track records on enforcing voting rights. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/19/politics/campaign/19VOTE.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=
Bush Ad: Kerry is Anti-Parent:
Kerry’s “extreme voting record.”
When it comes to issues that affect our families, are John Kerry’s priorities the same as yours? Kerry voted against parental notification for teenage abortions. Kerry even voted to allow schools to hand out the “morning-after” pill without parents’ knowledge. He voted to take control away from parents by taking away their right to know.
John Kerry has his priorities. The question is, are they yours?
Other:
Bush continues to make absurd claims.
So, for example, We’re going to continue to bring fiscal discipline to Washington, D.C. See, it starts with understanding that we’re not spending the government's money, we’re spending your money. And we must be good stewards with your money in the nation’s capital. (Applause.)
Fiscal Discipline?
Bush Daughters: Ah, the timing. The Bush girls, known for ‘naughtiness’ (underage drinking) now are reported to be “applying to become a teacher in Harlem” and “working with AIDS victims in Africa.” (after November) What’s next: Junior will announce that in his second term he will push universal health care and fight polluters.
Polls: Kerry’s Month: Predictable
Wisconsin: Kerry 48%, Bush 42% (American Research Group)
Florida: Kerry 47% Bush 44% (American Research Group)
Minnesota: Kerry 49% Bush 46% (Hubert Humphrey Institute)
Wisconsin: Bush 48% Kerry 46% (Hubert Humphrey Institute)
Iowa: Kerry 50% Bush 46% (Hubert Humphrey Institute)
According to Zogby: Since the Edwards announcement, Kerry has gained in Florida, Missouri, NH and Tennessee
-R
