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
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
What’s Happening, Iraq:
The U.S. authority has warned the fledgling Iraqi government that it cannot carry out its threat to declare martial law, telling them that only the US “Coalition” has that right even after June 30. Ah, “sovereignty.” Following the Watergate script, the Administration is selectively releasing documents that supposedly demonstrate that they haven’t nurtured torture.
Also, Aljazeera notes that beheading, however shocking to us, is a common practice.
As for beheading, that practice continues with US backed Afghan soldiers boasting that they beheaded four Taliban fighters in tit-for-tat executions following the decapitation of a government soldier and an interpreter employed by the US military or so...(Note: human rights groups for years have condemned Saudia Arabia’s practice of using beheading as a form of capital punishment.) http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9BDDA023-7D09-4C0C-9FE7-F6335BB02C06.htm
As to the New ‘Ambassador to Iraq’ I haven’t commented on this ‘distinguished diplomat’; I know we’re supposed to forgive, but we shouldn’t forget.
Negroponte would become one of those incendiary figures -- like Oliver North or Elliot Abrams, both linked to the scandal -- whose name human rights campaigners summon when recalling the deeds done in Central America during the 1980s.
Rumors about human rights abuses centered on Battalion 316, a death squad headed by one Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, chief of the national police force, that eliminated contra opponents. Some American politicians traveled to Honduras to investigate, including Tom Harkin, then a Democratic congressman from Iowa, who thought that Alvarez and Negroponte were too cozy for the ambassador not to know what had been going on with the death squads.
Negroponte has long denied knowledge of the battalion and its activities. His critics have long been bewildered by this conundrum: If Negroponte did know of the abuses and the death squads, why didn't he howl to the highest quarters? If he didn't know, what measure is that of an accomplished diplomat?
"If you look at the cables," says Harkin, now a senator, "Negroponte never protested the human rights abuses. When I visited Negroponte and asked him about Battalion 316, he said all that was communist propaganda."
"His mission," Larry Birns says, "was to convert Honduras into an unsinkable aircraft carrier to supply and maintain the contra cause against the Sandinistas." http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=5d92f0a6884b7cc650c233c5f601a7df&lat=1087841957&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW5RH05B4A34E4EBA439543FF085AE0
Seymour Hersh:
His latest in the New Yorker addresses how American policy is secretly encouraging the division of the country by encouraging Kurds to move beyond their territory while officially Washington supports Iraqi unity. He also notes:
In early November, the President received a grim assessment from the C.I.A.’s station chief in Baghdad, who filed a special field appraisal, known internally as an Aardwolf, warning that the security situation in Iraq was nearing collapse. The document, as described by Knight-Ridder, said that “none of the postwar Iraqi political institutions and leaders have shown an ability to govern the country” or to hold elections and draft a constitution. http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040628fa_fact
Ashcroft Under the Gun
MSNBC’s Lisa Meyers:
The 9/11 commission is busy writing its final report, but is still investigating critical facts, including the conduct of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. NBC News has learned that the commission has interviewed two FBI officials who contradict sworn testimony by Ashcroft, about whether he brushed off terrorism warnings in the summer of 2001. In the critical months before Sept. 11, did Ashcroft dismiss threats of an al-Qaida attack in this country? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5271234
Cheney Lie:
More powerful when viewing the tape, but…
Transcript, CNBC’s “Capital Report,” June 17, 2004
Gloria Borger: “Well, let’s get to Mohammed Atta for a minute, because you mentioned him as well. You have said in the past that it was quote, “pretty well confirmed.”
Vice President Cheney: No, I never said that.
BORGER: OK.
Vice Pres. CHENEY: Never said that.
BORGER: I think that is...
Vice Pres. CHENEY: Absolutely not.
Transcript, NBC’s “Meet the Press,” December 9, 2001.
Vice-President Cheney: “It’s been pretty well confirmed that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April.”
Amen. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/
Bush the Uniter:
Seems that he’s bringing together Muslims and Hindus in India. They’re all protesting Bush policy. [Note Allahu Akbar is ‘God is the Greatest’ in Arabic; Har Har Mahadey is the Hindu equivalent.
Thousands of Shia Muslims rallied here Sunday for a rally to protest the US occupation of Iraq, with leaders launching a scathing attack on President George W. Bush for his "inhuman policies" towards Iraq.
Dozens of Shia leaders who addressed a rally at the historic Ramlila ground in central Delhi also called on the UN to intervene in Iraq to end the occupation by US forces and to act against excesses by them
Thousands cheered the emotionally charged speeches and shouted slogans against the US. It was perhaps for the first time that crowds could be seen shouting slogans like "Allah-o-Akbar and "Har Har Mahadev" in the same breath. http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&showcomments=1&id=24274
Bush Fading:
(1) He’s lost the one issue that the public had generously granted him. As the Washington Post story / poll (Richard Morin Dan Balz) headlined, “Bush Loses Advantage in War on Terrorism; Nation Evenly Divided on President, Kerry
Public anxiety over mounting casualties in Iraq and doubts about long-term consequences of the war continue to rise and have helped to erase President Bush's once-formidable advantage over Sen. John F. Kerry concerning who is best able to deal with terrorist threats, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58293-2004Jun21.html
(2) Other polls: They demonstrate a wide swing: The Investors Business Daily has Bush ahead by 3 points, the Washington Post/ABC poll has Kerry more comfortably (8 points) ahead. They and other polls have Bush’s support no higher than 44%. As I often state, history has shown that while incumbents usually remain in the lead at this stage, if they poll below 50%, they are in trouble. The fates of Bush Sr. and Carter illustrate this point.
(3) Kerry held a “brief, secretive meeting” (AP) with Edwards, the favorite of most for VP. The Raleigh News Observer (Amy Gardner) points out that unlike past elections, North Carolina is “in play” and if Edwards is chosen, it could go Democratic.
If North Carolina elected a president today, President Bush would win -- but not nearly by the margin this Republican-friendly state handed him four years ago, according to a new statewide poll.
In the poll, 47 percent of likely voters chose Bush, a Republican, while 42 percent selected Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat.
The divide would narrow further if Kerry selects Sen. John Edwards as his running mate, according to the survey, conducted June 13-16 for a partnership of The News & Observer, WRAL-TV and WUNC radio. http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1358875p-7482121c.html
Evangelicals Endorse Social Action, not Bush:
They may have the usual positions re abortion, gay rights, stem cells et al, but this call has a bit of a balancing affect. From the LA Times (Larry M. Stammer)
The National Assn. of Evangelicals is circulating a draft of a groundbreaking framework for political action that strongly endorses social and economic justice and warns against close alignment with any political party.
Steeped in biblical morality and evangelical scholarship, the framework for public engagement could change how the estimated 30 million evangelicals in this country are viewed by liberals and conservatives alike.
It affirms a religiously based commitment to government protections for the poor, the sick and disabled, including fair wages, healthcare, nutrition and education. It declares that Christians have a "sacred responsibility" to protect the environment. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-me-evangelicals20jun20,1,6103291.story?coll=la-news-politics-national
Happy Summer! The Parks are short of funds The Washington Post (Blaine Harden):
Report Criticizing Bush Administration for Funding Shortage Has Not Been Released to Public
A federal report says that a shortage of operating funds from the Bush administration is crippling this park, where 3.2 million people last year visited rain forests, alpine trails and one of the nation's longest wild coastlines.
"Core operations of the park are not funded sufficiently to meet the basic goals and mission of the park as defined by Congress," says the report, called the Olympic National Park Business Plan. It says the park receives only about half the money it needs.
But the business plan -- a detailed enumeration of the kind of chronic budget shortfalls that are forcing cutbacks in national parks across the United States -- has not been released to the public. Handsomely printed copies are gathering dust here at park headquarters.
A National Park Service official, who asked not to be identified out of fear of retaliation, said the report has not been released because the Bush administration "doesn't like bad news. They don't like to see or hear about it or fix it. And they punish the messenger."
No order has been issued to withhold the report, according to William "Bill" Laitner, superintendent at Olympic. http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=2026b883c829a8d46359c2d272cfc9c6&lat=1087841957&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW5RH05B4A32E6EBA439543FF085AE0
HMOs win, patients lose and Congress stays in coma
That’s the Yahoo headline. Can’t disagree…
In the latest tug of war between patients and their HMOs, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court sided Monday with insurers. For the third time since 1987, the court ruled that federal law prohibits patients from suing HMOs in state courts for malpractice. But in handing the insurance industry a victory in this dispute over refusing to pay for care recommended by doctors, the court did the nation a favor. It called attention to Congress' failure to enact legislation that could protect millions of patients from bad medical decisions by cost-conscious HMOs. www.yahoo.com
-R
The U.S. authority has warned the fledgling Iraqi government that it cannot carry out its threat to declare martial law, telling them that only the US “Coalition” has that right even after June 30. Ah, “sovereignty.” Following the Watergate script, the Administration is selectively releasing documents that supposedly demonstrate that they haven’t nurtured torture.
Also, Aljazeera notes that beheading, however shocking to us, is a common practice.
As for beheading, that practice continues with US backed Afghan soldiers boasting that they beheaded four Taliban fighters in tit-for-tat executions following the decapitation of a government soldier and an interpreter employed by the US military or so...(Note: human rights groups for years have condemned Saudia Arabia’s practice of using beheading as a form of capital punishment.) http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9BDDA023-7D09-4C0C-9FE7-F6335BB02C06.htm
As to the New ‘Ambassador to Iraq’ I haven’t commented on this ‘distinguished diplomat’; I know we’re supposed to forgive, but we shouldn’t forget.
Negroponte would become one of those incendiary figures -- like Oliver North or Elliot Abrams, both linked to the scandal -- whose name human rights campaigners summon when recalling the deeds done in Central America during the 1980s.
Rumors about human rights abuses centered on Battalion 316, a death squad headed by one Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, chief of the national police force, that eliminated contra opponents. Some American politicians traveled to Honduras to investigate, including Tom Harkin, then a Democratic congressman from Iowa, who thought that Alvarez and Negroponte were too cozy for the ambassador not to know what had been going on with the death squads.
Negroponte has long denied knowledge of the battalion and its activities. His critics have long been bewildered by this conundrum: If Negroponte did know of the abuses and the death squads, why didn't he howl to the highest quarters? If he didn't know, what measure is that of an accomplished diplomat?
"If you look at the cables," says Harkin, now a senator, "Negroponte never protested the human rights abuses. When I visited Negroponte and asked him about Battalion 316, he said all that was communist propaganda."
"His mission," Larry Birns says, "was to convert Honduras into an unsinkable aircraft carrier to supply and maintain the contra cause against the Sandinistas." http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=5d92f0a6884b7cc650c233c5f601a7df&lat=1087841957&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW5RH05B4A34E4EBA439543FF085AE0
Seymour Hersh:
His latest in the New Yorker addresses how American policy is secretly encouraging the division of the country by encouraging Kurds to move beyond their territory while officially Washington supports Iraqi unity. He also notes:
In early November, the President received a grim assessment from the C.I.A.’s station chief in Baghdad, who filed a special field appraisal, known internally as an Aardwolf, warning that the security situation in Iraq was nearing collapse. The document, as described by Knight-Ridder, said that “none of the postwar Iraqi political institutions and leaders have shown an ability to govern the country” or to hold elections and draft a constitution. http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040628fa_fact
Ashcroft Under the Gun
MSNBC’s Lisa Meyers:
The 9/11 commission is busy writing its final report, but is still investigating critical facts, including the conduct of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. NBC News has learned that the commission has interviewed two FBI officials who contradict sworn testimony by Ashcroft, about whether he brushed off terrorism warnings in the summer of 2001. In the critical months before Sept. 11, did Ashcroft dismiss threats of an al-Qaida attack in this country? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5271234
Cheney Lie:
More powerful when viewing the tape, but…
Transcript, CNBC’s “Capital Report,” June 17, 2004
Gloria Borger: “Well, let’s get to Mohammed Atta for a minute, because you mentioned him as well. You have said in the past that it was quote, “pretty well confirmed.”
Vice President Cheney: No, I never said that.
BORGER: OK.
Vice Pres. CHENEY: Never said that.
BORGER: I think that is...
Vice Pres. CHENEY: Absolutely not.
Transcript, NBC’s “Meet the Press,” December 9, 2001.
Vice-President Cheney: “It’s been pretty well confirmed that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April.”
Amen. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/
Bush the Uniter:
Seems that he’s bringing together Muslims and Hindus in India. They’re all protesting Bush policy. [Note Allahu Akbar is ‘God is the Greatest’ in Arabic; Har Har Mahadey is the Hindu equivalent.
Thousands of Shia Muslims rallied here Sunday for a rally to protest the US occupation of Iraq, with leaders launching a scathing attack on President George W. Bush for his "inhuman policies" towards Iraq.
Dozens of Shia leaders who addressed a rally at the historic Ramlila ground in central Delhi also called on the UN to intervene in Iraq to end the occupation by US forces and to act against excesses by them
Thousands cheered the emotionally charged speeches and shouted slogans against the US. It was perhaps for the first time that crowds could be seen shouting slogans like "Allah-o-Akbar and "Har Har Mahadev" in the same breath. http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&showcomments=1&id=24274
Bush Fading:
(1) He’s lost the one issue that the public had generously granted him. As the Washington Post story / poll (Richard Morin Dan Balz) headlined, “Bush Loses Advantage in War on Terrorism; Nation Evenly Divided on President, Kerry
Public anxiety over mounting casualties in Iraq and doubts about long-term consequences of the war continue to rise and have helped to erase President Bush's once-formidable advantage over Sen. John F. Kerry concerning who is best able to deal with terrorist threats, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58293-2004Jun21.html
(2) Other polls: They demonstrate a wide swing: The Investors Business Daily has Bush ahead by 3 points, the Washington Post/ABC poll has Kerry more comfortably (8 points) ahead. They and other polls have Bush’s support no higher than 44%. As I often state, history has shown that while incumbents usually remain in the lead at this stage, if they poll below 50%, they are in trouble. The fates of Bush Sr. and Carter illustrate this point.
(3) Kerry held a “brief, secretive meeting” (AP) with Edwards, the favorite of most for VP. The Raleigh News Observer (Amy Gardner) points out that unlike past elections, North Carolina is “in play” and if Edwards is chosen, it could go Democratic.
If North Carolina elected a president today, President Bush would win -- but not nearly by the margin this Republican-friendly state handed him four years ago, according to a new statewide poll.
In the poll, 47 percent of likely voters chose Bush, a Republican, while 42 percent selected Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat.
The divide would narrow further if Kerry selects Sen. John Edwards as his running mate, according to the survey, conducted June 13-16 for a partnership of The News & Observer, WRAL-TV and WUNC radio. http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1358875p-7482121c.html
Evangelicals Endorse Social Action, not Bush:
They may have the usual positions re abortion, gay rights, stem cells et al, but this call has a bit of a balancing affect. From the LA Times (Larry M. Stammer)
The National Assn. of Evangelicals is circulating a draft of a groundbreaking framework for political action that strongly endorses social and economic justice and warns against close alignment with any political party.
Steeped in biblical morality and evangelical scholarship, the framework for public engagement could change how the estimated 30 million evangelicals in this country are viewed by liberals and conservatives alike.
It affirms a religiously based commitment to government protections for the poor, the sick and disabled, including fair wages, healthcare, nutrition and education. It declares that Christians have a "sacred responsibility" to protect the environment. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-me-evangelicals20jun20,1,6103291.story?coll=la-news-politics-national
Happy Summer! The Parks are short of funds The Washington Post (Blaine Harden):
Report Criticizing Bush Administration for Funding Shortage Has Not Been Released to Public
A federal report says that a shortage of operating funds from the Bush administration is crippling this park, where 3.2 million people last year visited rain forests, alpine trails and one of the nation's longest wild coastlines.
"Core operations of the park are not funded sufficiently to meet the basic goals and mission of the park as defined by Congress," says the report, called the Olympic National Park Business Plan. It says the park receives only about half the money it needs.
But the business plan -- a detailed enumeration of the kind of chronic budget shortfalls that are forcing cutbacks in national parks across the United States -- has not been released to the public. Handsomely printed copies are gathering dust here at park headquarters.
A National Park Service official, who asked not to be identified out of fear of retaliation, said the report has not been released because the Bush administration "doesn't like bad news. They don't like to see or hear about it or fix it. And they punish the messenger."
No order has been issued to withhold the report, according to William "Bill" Laitner, superintendent at Olympic. http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=2026b883c829a8d46359c2d272cfc9c6&lat=1087841957&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW5RH05B4A32E6EBA439543FF085AE0
HMOs win, patients lose and Congress stays in coma
That’s the Yahoo headline. Can’t disagree…
In the latest tug of war between patients and their HMOs, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court sided Monday with insurers. For the third time since 1987, the court ruled that federal law prohibits patients from suing HMOs in state courts for malpractice. But in handing the insurance industry a victory in this dispute over refusing to pay for care recommended by doctors, the court did the nation a favor. It called attention to Congress' failure to enact legislation that could protect millions of patients from bad medical decisions by cost-conscious HMOs. www.yahoo.com
-R
Monday, June 21, 2004
"He has led this country with moral clarity," McCain said of Bush in praising his stewardship of the war on terror as commander-in-chief.
"There have been ups and downs as there have been in any war, but like you, he has not wavered in his determination to protect this country, and to make the world a better, safer and freer place. You will not yield, nor will he.” –McCain on Bush
Well, he is a conservative Republican…
9/11 The Narrative Struggle:
Faced with the embarrassments that occurred, the Administration (with Bob Woodward’s help) has tried to spin tales of the heroic Bush. The toughest period to explain is Bush’s frozen, impassive 7 or more minutes after being informed of both attacks on the Trade Towers. Fahrenheit 9/11 rams home the presidential inaction- Bush continued to read with the kids until, as widely reported, “at the suggestion of an aide, Bush got up and went to a holding room.” So, there is a new line coming from the White House: The Washington Post (Joel Achenbach) provides this overly generous account.
The President told us his instinct was to project calm, not to have the country see an excited reaction at a moment of crisis . . . The President felt he should project strength and calm until he could better understand what was happening."…
But even the harshest critics concede that the nation's spiritual leader rallied in the days thereafter. His bullhorn performance on the rubble of the World Trade Center is considered a bravura moment. He made compelling appearances at the National Cathedral, before Congress, and in a news conference in the East Room of the White House. When professional baseball resumed play, he courageously walked to the mound in a crowded stadium and threw out the first pitch.
Some of these images will reappear in the months ahead as the election nears and the commercials begin to saturate the airwaves. The president has surely had some excellent moments.
And seven excruciating minutes. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53548-2004Jun18.html
Meanwhile, the conservatives keep up the pressure to accuse some 9/11 Commission members of “distorting” the conclusions. William Safire leads the charge today.
Blame the commission's leaders for ducking responsibility for its interim findings. Kean and Hamilton have allowed themselves to be jerked around by a manipulative staff.
Yesterday, Governor Kean passed along this stunner about "no collaborative relationship" to ABC's George Stephanopoulos: "Members do not get involved in staff reports." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/21/opinion/21SAFI.html
Moderate Republican Kean clarifies that the Commission’s conclusions are “not inconsistent” with Administration claims of “contacts” between Saddam and al-Qaeda. I look forward to the re-statement of American “contacts” (and much more) with the Taliban, both two months before 9/11 and since.
Meanwhile, the criticisms continue. This from the Financial Times:
"The Bush administration has misled the American people. It has isolated the US, as American diplomats and commanders pointed out this week. And its bungling in Iraq has given new and terrifying life to the cult of death sponsored by Osama bin Laden. Above all, it inspires little confidence it is capable of defeating the spreading al-Qaeda franchise, which always was the clear and present danger."
Back in the U.S.A.: Costs of Higher Eduction (Public)
Arianna Huffington, former conservative, former “candidate” for Governor…
The cost of a college education at a four-year public university has risen a devastating 35 percent since George W. Bush took office. He promised to be "the education president," but in what we now know to be the classic Bush bait and switch, he then did just the opposite, delivering a tax-slashing economic agenda that forced public colleges and universities in all but one state to raise tuition in 2003.
As an added little gift for the new grads, the Bush administration's latest budget-cutting guidelines will lead to a $550 million reduction in federal assistance to those college students in need of financial aid.
Happy graduation, kids! Enjoy your decades of indebtedness -- at least those of you who are not forced to forego college altogether.
How did we get to the point as a society where low taxes are more important than providing the opportunity for as many of our children as possible to get a higher education? Where we'd rather shut students out of college classrooms than shut down the tax shelters that are costing states billions in revenue each year?
Nowhere are these perverted priorities on greater display than in California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is steadfastly refusing even to consider closing corporate tax loopholes or raising taxes on the top 1 percent -- even in the face of a multibillion-dollar budget deficit. Instead, he is looking to balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable -- including the state's college students.
He has put forth a budget proposal that would, among other things, slash $660 million from the state's public colleges and universities, increase undergraduate tuition over the next three years by more than 30 percent (this on top of a 40 percent tuition increase since 2002), deny admission to 25,000 qualified students, cut financial aid, lead to larger class sizes and fewer course offerings, and eliminate state support for outreach programs that help prepare disadvantaged students for college. http://www.salon.com/opinion/huffington/2004/06/18/college_costs/print.html
Voting Irregularities: Race
Greg Palast has been on this issue since November, 2000. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
In the 2000 presidential election, 1.9 million Americans cast ballots that no one counted. "Spoiled votes" is the technical term. The pile of ballots left to rot has a distinctly dark hue: About 1 million of them -- half of the rejected ballots -- were cast by African Americans although black voters make up only 12 percent of the electorate.
This year, it could get worse.
These ugly racial statistics are hidden away in the mathematical thickets of the appendices to official reports coming out of the investigation of ballot-box monkey business in Florida from the last go-'round.
How do you spoil 2 million ballots? Not by leaving them out of the fridge too long. A stray mark, a jammed machine, a punch card punched twice will do it. It's easy to lose your vote, especially when some politicians want your vote lost.
While investigating the 2000 ballot count in Florida for BBC Television, I saw firsthand how the spoilage game was played -- with black voters the predetermined losers. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/06/20/ING2976LG61.DTL&type=printable
What’s Happening, Iraq:
The Daily Headline: Guantanamo claims challenged
Each day brings a re-confirming story as to one of the Administration’s long-known-to-be absurd claims. This one from the NY Times’ Tim Golden and Don Van Nattan, Jr.
For nearly two and a half years, American officials have maintained that locked within the steel-mesh cells of the military prison here are some of the world's most dangerous terrorists — "the worst of a very bad lot," Vice President Dick Cheney has called them.
The officials say information gleaned from the detainees has exposed terrorist cells, thwarted planned attacks and revealed vital intelligence about Al Qaeda. The secrets they hold and the threats they pose justify holding them indefinitely without charge, Bush administration officials have said.
But as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on the legal status of the 595 men imprisoned here, an examination by The New York Times has found that government and military officials have repeatedly exaggerated both the danger the detainees posed and the intelligence they have provided. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/21/politics/21GITM.html?hp
Falluja:
First we laid siege, then withdrew. Now, having lost Falluja, all we can do is bomb it. So we had this weekend's bombing, killing somewhere between 22 and 40 residents. Not a good strategy to win the “hearts and minds.”
The US occupation force also acknowledged the Saturday air strike.
At a press conference in Baghdad, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said he did not dispute Iraqi accounts that over 20 people were killed in the strike.
He said there was "significant intelligence" that members of Abu Mussab Zarqawi's network were in the house, but there was no evidence Zarqawi himself was there.
Witnesses had confirmed earlier that US warplanes carried out the strike around 10 in the morning.
They said the victims were crushed under the rubble after two missile strikes demolished the house. Relatives brought 22 bodies for burial at a cemetery after the blast.
Aljazeera's correspondent in Baghdad, Abd Al-Adhim Muhamad, said several Falluja residents told him by phone that US warplanes had hovered over the city and eventually fired two missiles.
Today's air raid is the first attack on the town 50km west of Baghdad after US marines withdrew at the beginning of May after a month of fierce clashes.
Twenty-two people have been killed and 20 injured in a US raid on a house in Falluja, according to medical sources and witnesses. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/10BAF2F2-8DAA-48C5-8F39-7A58080F0B32.htm
Actually, it is, again, “their” city: U.S. dollars are being doled out to Saddam’s guys to maintain order in the city. The New York Times magazine (Jeffrey Gettleman)
Three Iraqi officers with big, Saddam-style mustaches and constellations of stars on their shoulders sat along one side of a table in a stuffy little office in the back of the station, counting out stacks of cash: $150 for sergeants, $250 for majors, $300 for colonels; all in crisp U.S. bills, all provided by the U.S. government. The line of soldiers waiting for their pay snaked out the door, through the railway station and into the heat. Many were dressed in faded combat fatigues with a jaunty eagle insignia on their shoulders, signifying high rank in Hussein's army; some had red triangles just below their shoulders, the mark of the Republican Guard. In just a few weeks, Falluja had gone from de-Baathification to re-Baathification. The problem, it seemed, had become the solution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/20/magazine/20FALLUJA.html
Arafat Shift?
Underreported and underemphasized in the media was this reputed change from Arafat:
In what appears to be a significant departure from the erstwhile Palestinian position, Yasir Arafat has voiced his willingness to recognise Israel as a "Jewish state."
The remarks were made in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz on Friday. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/099302D3-6D30-487D-BD86-B796CC3E6A71.htm
Next Expose / Critique on the Way
Reports from the Guardian’s Julian Borger and a few other independent journalists note the coming publication of a new condemnation of the Bush policy. This one- Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror-from a anonymous, veteran intelligence official who’s followed radical Islamism since the early 1980’s. Here’s an interesting aside as to bin Laden’s popularity, from an interview at www.talkingpointsmemo.org :
But within Saudi Arabia I think they're kind of the society's Robin Hood. It's an oppressed society, the Saudi government is a tyranny, and I think they have a tremendous audience in Saudi Arabia. I remember reading in The National Interest in 2002 that a poll taken by the Saudi government showed 95 percent of Saudis between 18 and 40 supported Osama bin Laden. Domestic support is not an issue for bin Laden. He's always wanted to protect the oil industry in the sense of its infrastructure, its natural production of oil. He's found a way through this type of murder to affect the American economy, probably, without destroying the future potential of the energy industry in Saudi Arabia.
Borger’s piece:
A senior US intelligence official is about to publish a bitter condemnation of America's counter-terrorism policy, arguing that the west is losing the war against al-Qaida and that an "avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked" war in Iraq has played into Osama bin Laden's hands.
Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror, due out next month, dismisses two of the most frequent boasts of the Bush administration: that Bin Laden and al-Qaida are "on the run" and that the Iraq invasion has made America safer.
In an interview with the Guardian the official, who writes as "Anonymous", described al-Qaida as a much more proficient and focused organisation than it was in 2001, and predicted that it would "inevitably" acquire weapons of mass destruction and try to use them.
He said Bin Laden was probably "comfortable" commanding his organisation from the mountainous tribal lands along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4951524-111026,00.html
The Failed Occupation: The Washington Post’s Rajiv Chandrasekaran offers his summary [Part I] of our failure.
The American occupation of Iraq will formally end this month having failed to fulfill many of its goals and stated promises intended to transform the country into a stable democracy, according to a detailed examination drawing upon interviews with senior U.S. and Iraqi officials and internal documents of the occupation authority…
The Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. entity that has administered Iraq, cites many successes of its tenure. Nearly 2,500 schools have been repaired, 3 million children have been immunized, $5 million in loans has been distributed to small businesses and 8 million textbooks have been printed, according to the CPA. New banknotes have replaced currency with ousted president Saddam Hussein's picture. Local councils have been formed in every city and province. An interim national government promises to hold general elections next January.
But in many key quantifiable areas, the occupation has fallen far short of its goals.
The Iraqi army is one-third the size U.S. officials promised it would be by now. Seventy percent of police officers have not received training. When violence flared across the country this spring, many soldiers and policemen refused to perform their duties because U.S. forces had failed to equip them, designate competent leaders and win trust among the ranks.
About 15,000 Iraqis have been hired to work on projects funded by $18.6 billion in U.S. aid, despite promises to use the money to employ at least 250,000 Iraqis by this month. At of the beginning of June, 80 percent of the aid package, approved by Congress last fall, remained unspent.
Electricity generation remains stuck at around 4,000 megawatts, resulting in less than nine hours of power a day to most Baghdad homes, despite pledges from U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer to increase production to 6,000 megawatts by June 1.
Iraq's emerging political system is also at odds with original U.S. goals… http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54294-2004Jun19.html
Kurds Act Out: This is the stuff that can lead to a civil war. The Kurds push the Arabs out, saying it always was their land; the Arabs fight back. NY Times’ Dexter Filkins:
Thousands of ethnic Kurds are pushing into lands formerly held by Iraqi Arabs, forcing tens of thousands of them to flee to ramshackle refugee camps and transforming the demographic and political map of northern Iraq.
The Kurds are returning to lands from which they were expelled by the armies of Saddam Hussein and his predecessors in the Baath Party, who ordered thousands of Kurdish villages destroyed and sent waves of Iraqi Arabs north to fill the area with supporters.
The new movement, which began with the fall of Mr. Hussein, appears to have quickened this spring amid confusion about American policy, along with political pressure by Kurdish leaders to resettle the areas formerly held by Arabs. It is happening at a moment when Kurds are threatening to withdraw from the national government if they are not confident of having sufficient autonomy.
Arabs will not react passively if they perceive the Kurds expelling Arabs from the north. Already, in heavily-armed Falluja, anti-Kurdish sentiment pervades. The Washington Post recently quoted one Iraqi who blamed the U.S. and the Kurds--participants in the April attack by the U.S. on the city--for the death of his daughter. "I will send my brothers north to kill the Kurds," he said . The displacement of Arabs from the (oil-drenched) north might be all the spark that the (resource-light) Sunni areas require to lead to an all-out civil war.
And in that situation, what will the U.S. do? The Kurds are our allies in every significant sense: One of the most betrayed people in the history of the world, they fought with us to overthrow Saddam. We may well find ourselves having to deploy forces to separate Iraq's different ethnicities, a very dangerous situation for our troops. How this will play out in practice in a place like Kirkuk--multiethnic, resource-rich and claimed by Arabs and Kurds alike--is incredibly difficult to determine. And it puts the U.S. in something close to a worst-case scenario. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/20/international/middleeast/20KURD.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=
Juan Cole: Israel, The Kurds, Iran
Sy Hersh is reporting [in Haaretz] that hundreds of Israeli intelligence agents are operating in and from Iraqi Kurdistan, gathering information on Iran's nuclear program and stirring up Syrian Kurds to make trouble for Bashar al-Asad in Syria. I have talked about the likelihood of such a presence here in the past. The nexus of disinformation about the Saddam government and about terrorist activity in Iraq may lie in tales fed to Mossad by the Kurds, who in turn passed it to Washington. The Kurds have steadily and implausibly alleged a Saddam/al-Qaeda connection. www.juancole.com , http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/441208.html
Australian Bishop Withdraws Support of War This is notable, as PM Howard has been a zealous supporter of Bush, is up for re-election, and this fellow has been a notable supporter.
As the only Anglican bishop to have publicly endorsed the Australian Government's case for war, I now concede that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction. It did not pose a threat to either its nearer neighbours or the United States and its allies. It did not host or give material support to al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups.
But did the Australian Government and the Australian Defence Force really believe that Iraq possessed WMD and would employ them in support of its national interests? Definitely. Were intelligence assessments of Iraq's WMD arsenal and its ability to mount military operations exaggerated and inaccurate? Certainly. But in the absence of any clear mitigation, there is no alternative to concluding that the March 2003 invasion was neither just nor necessary. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/17/1087245036392.html?oneclick=true
Redeploying U.S. Troops: The Administration / Military is trying to cope with the troop shortage. There are no easy answers. Jim Lobe from Asia Times:
The planned redeployments, the most sweeping since the onset of the Cold War more than 50 years ago, are all part of a global strategy to build, in Rumsfeld's words, a "capability to impose lethal power, where needed, when needed, with the greatest flexibility and with the greatest agility".
As for where the "need" is, Pentagon officials state publicly that would be defined by threats to "stability". But a closer look at where Washington is most interested in acquiring access to military facilities suggests the determining factor may be proximity to oil and gas-producing areas, pipelines and shipping routes through which vital energy supplies pass.
To most analysts, the proposed redeployments make a lot of sense. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the need for big US military bases that housed conventional forces in Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe evaporated from a strategic point of view, while the steady build-up of well-equipped and well-trained forces in South Korea, where Washington has stationed nearly 40,000 troops for the past 25 years, made it more than a match for North Korea.
In addition, the presence and behavior of US forces in both Western Europe and Northeast Asia, particularly in South Korea and Okinawa, have become increasingly unpopular and a lightning rod for growing anti-Americanism and resentment. Reducing their "footprint" might have the opposite effect.
Indeed, Washington withdrew its troops altogether from Saudi Arabia over the past year in large part because their presence there had become politically untenable.
Nonetheless, both the plans - and the ways they are being developed and implemented - are provoking growing criticism at home, as well as abroad. The reasons for this are not difficult to understand, particularly in light of the Iraq war.
In the first place, the planned redeployments appear designed to ensure that the US could indeed enforce a "Pax Americana", based on its ability to exert unilateral military control over the production and flow of energy resources from Central Asia, the Gulf region and the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of West Africa in the face of potential rivals.
In that respect, the strategy is an update of the controversial 1992 draft Defense Planning Guidance written under the auspices of current Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and national security adviser, I Lewis "Scooter" Libby - both of whom played key roles in driving the Bush administration to war in Iraq. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FF17Aa03.html
Phliadelphia Inquirer Editorial: Harsh…deservingly so…
What matters is that Americans grasp a central point: The multipronged rationale behind this rushed invasion has been revealed as a house of cards.
(Deposing Hussein always was a legitimate strategic goal, given his history as an aggressor and butcher - but not in this reckless way, with these wrongful justifications.)
Consider the house of cards, and two other glaring facts.
First, preparation for the invasion's aftermath was tragically inept. That easily predictable failure has cost many Iraqis, Americans and others their lives.
Second, the prison abuses, which stem from poor planning for occupation and a bid to place U.S. behavior above international law, have lost America the moral high ground it rightfully occupied on Sept. 12, 2001.
Now, ask yourself, along with those 27 American diplomats and warriors: Have the last two years made America more secure, more respected?
The answer is obvious and appalling. The answer is no. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/8964906.htm?ERIGHTS=-8229334262747501747philly::rcsherman@rcn.com&KRD_RM=5prsmqnntpolnrttllllllllnl|Richard|N
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"There have been ups and downs as there have been in any war, but like you, he has not wavered in his determination to protect this country, and to make the world a better, safer and freer place. You will not yield, nor will he.” –McCain on Bush
Well, he is a conservative Republican…
9/11 The Narrative Struggle:
Faced with the embarrassments that occurred, the Administration (with Bob Woodward’s help) has tried to spin tales of the heroic Bush. The toughest period to explain is Bush’s frozen, impassive 7 or more minutes after being informed of both attacks on the Trade Towers. Fahrenheit 9/11 rams home the presidential inaction- Bush continued to read with the kids until, as widely reported, “at the suggestion of an aide, Bush got up and went to a holding room.” So, there is a new line coming from the White House: The Washington Post (Joel Achenbach) provides this overly generous account.
The President told us his instinct was to project calm, not to have the country see an excited reaction at a moment of crisis . . . The President felt he should project strength and calm until he could better understand what was happening."…
But even the harshest critics concede that the nation's spiritual leader rallied in the days thereafter. His bullhorn performance on the rubble of the World Trade Center is considered a bravura moment. He made compelling appearances at the National Cathedral, before Congress, and in a news conference in the East Room of the White House. When professional baseball resumed play, he courageously walked to the mound in a crowded stadium and threw out the first pitch.
Some of these images will reappear in the months ahead as the election nears and the commercials begin to saturate the airwaves. The president has surely had some excellent moments.
And seven excruciating minutes. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53548-2004Jun18.html
Meanwhile, the conservatives keep up the pressure to accuse some 9/11 Commission members of “distorting” the conclusions. William Safire leads the charge today.
Blame the commission's leaders for ducking responsibility for its interim findings. Kean and Hamilton have allowed themselves to be jerked around by a manipulative staff.
Yesterday, Governor Kean passed along this stunner about "no collaborative relationship" to ABC's George Stephanopoulos: "Members do not get involved in staff reports." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/21/opinion/21SAFI.html
Moderate Republican Kean clarifies that the Commission’s conclusions are “not inconsistent” with Administration claims of “contacts” between Saddam and al-Qaeda. I look forward to the re-statement of American “contacts” (and much more) with the Taliban, both two months before 9/11 and since.
Meanwhile, the criticisms continue. This from the Financial Times:
"The Bush administration has misled the American people. It has isolated the US, as American diplomats and commanders pointed out this week. And its bungling in Iraq has given new and terrifying life to the cult of death sponsored by Osama bin Laden. Above all, it inspires little confidence it is capable of defeating the spreading al-Qaeda franchise, which always was the clear and present danger."
Back in the U.S.A.: Costs of Higher Eduction (Public)
Arianna Huffington, former conservative, former “candidate” for Governor…
The cost of a college education at a four-year public university has risen a devastating 35 percent since George W. Bush took office. He promised to be "the education president," but in what we now know to be the classic Bush bait and switch, he then did just the opposite, delivering a tax-slashing economic agenda that forced public colleges and universities in all but one state to raise tuition in 2003.
As an added little gift for the new grads, the Bush administration's latest budget-cutting guidelines will lead to a $550 million reduction in federal assistance to those college students in need of financial aid.
Happy graduation, kids! Enjoy your decades of indebtedness -- at least those of you who are not forced to forego college altogether.
How did we get to the point as a society where low taxes are more important than providing the opportunity for as many of our children as possible to get a higher education? Where we'd rather shut students out of college classrooms than shut down the tax shelters that are costing states billions in revenue each year?
Nowhere are these perverted priorities on greater display than in California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is steadfastly refusing even to consider closing corporate tax loopholes or raising taxes on the top 1 percent -- even in the face of a multibillion-dollar budget deficit. Instead, he is looking to balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable -- including the state's college students.
He has put forth a budget proposal that would, among other things, slash $660 million from the state's public colleges and universities, increase undergraduate tuition over the next three years by more than 30 percent (this on top of a 40 percent tuition increase since 2002), deny admission to 25,000 qualified students, cut financial aid, lead to larger class sizes and fewer course offerings, and eliminate state support for outreach programs that help prepare disadvantaged students for college. http://www.salon.com/opinion/huffington/2004/06/18/college_costs/print.html
Voting Irregularities: Race
Greg Palast has been on this issue since November, 2000. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
In the 2000 presidential election, 1.9 million Americans cast ballots that no one counted. "Spoiled votes" is the technical term. The pile of ballots left to rot has a distinctly dark hue: About 1 million of them -- half of the rejected ballots -- were cast by African Americans although black voters make up only 12 percent of the electorate.
This year, it could get worse.
These ugly racial statistics are hidden away in the mathematical thickets of the appendices to official reports coming out of the investigation of ballot-box monkey business in Florida from the last go-'round.
How do you spoil 2 million ballots? Not by leaving them out of the fridge too long. A stray mark, a jammed machine, a punch card punched twice will do it. It's easy to lose your vote, especially when some politicians want your vote lost.
While investigating the 2000 ballot count in Florida for BBC Television, I saw firsthand how the spoilage game was played -- with black voters the predetermined losers. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/06/20/ING2976LG61.DTL&type=printable
What’s Happening, Iraq:
The Daily Headline: Guantanamo claims challenged
Each day brings a re-confirming story as to one of the Administration’s long-known-to-be absurd claims. This one from the NY Times’ Tim Golden and Don Van Nattan, Jr.
For nearly two and a half years, American officials have maintained that locked within the steel-mesh cells of the military prison here are some of the world's most dangerous terrorists — "the worst of a very bad lot," Vice President Dick Cheney has called them.
The officials say information gleaned from the detainees has exposed terrorist cells, thwarted planned attacks and revealed vital intelligence about Al Qaeda. The secrets they hold and the threats they pose justify holding them indefinitely without charge, Bush administration officials have said.
But as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on the legal status of the 595 men imprisoned here, an examination by The New York Times has found that government and military officials have repeatedly exaggerated both the danger the detainees posed and the intelligence they have provided. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/21/politics/21GITM.html?hp
Falluja:
First we laid siege, then withdrew. Now, having lost Falluja, all we can do is bomb it. So we had this weekend's bombing, killing somewhere between 22 and 40 residents. Not a good strategy to win the “hearts and minds.”
The US occupation force also acknowledged the Saturday air strike.
At a press conference in Baghdad, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said he did not dispute Iraqi accounts that over 20 people were killed in the strike.
He said there was "significant intelligence" that members of Abu Mussab Zarqawi's network were in the house, but there was no evidence Zarqawi himself was there.
Witnesses had confirmed earlier that US warplanes carried out the strike around 10 in the morning.
They said the victims were crushed under the rubble after two missile strikes demolished the house. Relatives brought 22 bodies for burial at a cemetery after the blast.
Aljazeera's correspondent in Baghdad, Abd Al-Adhim Muhamad, said several Falluja residents told him by phone that US warplanes had hovered over the city and eventually fired two missiles.
Today's air raid is the first attack on the town 50km west of Baghdad after US marines withdrew at the beginning of May after a month of fierce clashes.
Twenty-two people have been killed and 20 injured in a US raid on a house in Falluja, according to medical sources and witnesses. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/10BAF2F2-8DAA-48C5-8F39-7A58080F0B32.htm
Actually, it is, again, “their” city: U.S. dollars are being doled out to Saddam’s guys to maintain order in the city. The New York Times magazine (Jeffrey Gettleman)
Three Iraqi officers with big, Saddam-style mustaches and constellations of stars on their shoulders sat along one side of a table in a stuffy little office in the back of the station, counting out stacks of cash: $150 for sergeants, $250 for majors, $300 for colonels; all in crisp U.S. bills, all provided by the U.S. government. The line of soldiers waiting for their pay snaked out the door, through the railway station and into the heat. Many were dressed in faded combat fatigues with a jaunty eagle insignia on their shoulders, signifying high rank in Hussein's army; some had red triangles just below their shoulders, the mark of the Republican Guard. In just a few weeks, Falluja had gone from de-Baathification to re-Baathification. The problem, it seemed, had become the solution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/20/magazine/20FALLUJA.html
Arafat Shift?
Underreported and underemphasized in the media was this reputed change from Arafat:
In what appears to be a significant departure from the erstwhile Palestinian position, Yasir Arafat has voiced his willingness to recognise Israel as a "Jewish state."
The remarks were made in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz on Friday. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/099302D3-6D30-487D-BD86-B796CC3E6A71.htm
Next Expose / Critique on the Way
Reports from the Guardian’s Julian Borger and a few other independent journalists note the coming publication of a new condemnation of the Bush policy. This one- Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror-from a anonymous, veteran intelligence official who’s followed radical Islamism since the early 1980’s. Here’s an interesting aside as to bin Laden’s popularity, from an interview at www.talkingpointsmemo.org :
But within Saudi Arabia I think they're kind of the society's Robin Hood. It's an oppressed society, the Saudi government is a tyranny, and I think they have a tremendous audience in Saudi Arabia. I remember reading in The National Interest in 2002 that a poll taken by the Saudi government showed 95 percent of Saudis between 18 and 40 supported Osama bin Laden. Domestic support is not an issue for bin Laden. He's always wanted to protect the oil industry in the sense of its infrastructure, its natural production of oil. He's found a way through this type of murder to affect the American economy, probably, without destroying the future potential of the energy industry in Saudi Arabia.
Borger’s piece:
A senior US intelligence official is about to publish a bitter condemnation of America's counter-terrorism policy, arguing that the west is losing the war against al-Qaida and that an "avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked" war in Iraq has played into Osama bin Laden's hands.
Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror, due out next month, dismisses two of the most frequent boasts of the Bush administration: that Bin Laden and al-Qaida are "on the run" and that the Iraq invasion has made America safer.
In an interview with the Guardian the official, who writes as "Anonymous", described al-Qaida as a much more proficient and focused organisation than it was in 2001, and predicted that it would "inevitably" acquire weapons of mass destruction and try to use them.
He said Bin Laden was probably "comfortable" commanding his organisation from the mountainous tribal lands along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4951524-111026,00.html
The Failed Occupation: The Washington Post’s Rajiv Chandrasekaran offers his summary [Part I] of our failure.
The American occupation of Iraq will formally end this month having failed to fulfill many of its goals and stated promises intended to transform the country into a stable democracy, according to a detailed examination drawing upon interviews with senior U.S. and Iraqi officials and internal documents of the occupation authority…
The Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. entity that has administered Iraq, cites many successes of its tenure. Nearly 2,500 schools have been repaired, 3 million children have been immunized, $5 million in loans has been distributed to small businesses and 8 million textbooks have been printed, according to the CPA. New banknotes have replaced currency with ousted president Saddam Hussein's picture. Local councils have been formed in every city and province. An interim national government promises to hold general elections next January.
But in many key quantifiable areas, the occupation has fallen far short of its goals.
The Iraqi army is one-third the size U.S. officials promised it would be by now. Seventy percent of police officers have not received training. When violence flared across the country this spring, many soldiers and policemen refused to perform their duties because U.S. forces had failed to equip them, designate competent leaders and win trust among the ranks.
About 15,000 Iraqis have been hired to work on projects funded by $18.6 billion in U.S. aid, despite promises to use the money to employ at least 250,000 Iraqis by this month. At of the beginning of June, 80 percent of the aid package, approved by Congress last fall, remained unspent.
Electricity generation remains stuck at around 4,000 megawatts, resulting in less than nine hours of power a day to most Baghdad homes, despite pledges from U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer to increase production to 6,000 megawatts by June 1.
Iraq's emerging political system is also at odds with original U.S. goals… http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54294-2004Jun19.html
Kurds Act Out: This is the stuff that can lead to a civil war. The Kurds push the Arabs out, saying it always was their land; the Arabs fight back. NY Times’ Dexter Filkins:
Thousands of ethnic Kurds are pushing into lands formerly held by Iraqi Arabs, forcing tens of thousands of them to flee to ramshackle refugee camps and transforming the demographic and political map of northern Iraq.
The Kurds are returning to lands from which they were expelled by the armies of Saddam Hussein and his predecessors in the Baath Party, who ordered thousands of Kurdish villages destroyed and sent waves of Iraqi Arabs north to fill the area with supporters.
The new movement, which began with the fall of Mr. Hussein, appears to have quickened this spring amid confusion about American policy, along with political pressure by Kurdish leaders to resettle the areas formerly held by Arabs. It is happening at a moment when Kurds are threatening to withdraw from the national government if they are not confident of having sufficient autonomy.
Arabs will not react passively if they perceive the Kurds expelling Arabs from the north. Already, in heavily-armed Falluja, anti-Kurdish sentiment pervades. The Washington Post recently quoted one Iraqi who blamed the U.S. and the Kurds--participants in the April attack by the U.S. on the city--for the death of his daughter. "I will send my brothers north to kill the Kurds," he said . The displacement of Arabs from the (oil-drenched) north might be all the spark that the (resource-light) Sunni areas require to lead to an all-out civil war.
And in that situation, what will the U.S. do? The Kurds are our allies in every significant sense: One of the most betrayed people in the history of the world, they fought with us to overthrow Saddam. We may well find ourselves having to deploy forces to separate Iraq's different ethnicities, a very dangerous situation for our troops. How this will play out in practice in a place like Kirkuk--multiethnic, resource-rich and claimed by Arabs and Kurds alike--is incredibly difficult to determine. And it puts the U.S. in something close to a worst-case scenario. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/20/international/middleeast/20KURD.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=
Juan Cole: Israel, The Kurds, Iran
Sy Hersh is reporting [in Haaretz] that hundreds of Israeli intelligence agents are operating in and from Iraqi Kurdistan, gathering information on Iran's nuclear program and stirring up Syrian Kurds to make trouble for Bashar al-Asad in Syria. I have talked about the likelihood of such a presence here in the past. The nexus of disinformation about the Saddam government and about terrorist activity in Iraq may lie in tales fed to Mossad by the Kurds, who in turn passed it to Washington. The Kurds have steadily and implausibly alleged a Saddam/al-Qaeda connection. www.juancole.com , http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/441208.html
Australian Bishop Withdraws Support of War This is notable, as PM Howard has been a zealous supporter of Bush, is up for re-election, and this fellow has been a notable supporter.
As the only Anglican bishop to have publicly endorsed the Australian Government's case for war, I now concede that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction. It did not pose a threat to either its nearer neighbours or the United States and its allies. It did not host or give material support to al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups.
But did the Australian Government and the Australian Defence Force really believe that Iraq possessed WMD and would employ them in support of its national interests? Definitely. Were intelligence assessments of Iraq's WMD arsenal and its ability to mount military operations exaggerated and inaccurate? Certainly. But in the absence of any clear mitigation, there is no alternative to concluding that the March 2003 invasion was neither just nor necessary. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/17/1087245036392.html?oneclick=true
Redeploying U.S. Troops: The Administration / Military is trying to cope with the troop shortage. There are no easy answers. Jim Lobe from Asia Times:
The planned redeployments, the most sweeping since the onset of the Cold War more than 50 years ago, are all part of a global strategy to build, in Rumsfeld's words, a "capability to impose lethal power, where needed, when needed, with the greatest flexibility and with the greatest agility".
As for where the "need" is, Pentagon officials state publicly that would be defined by threats to "stability". But a closer look at where Washington is most interested in acquiring access to military facilities suggests the determining factor may be proximity to oil and gas-producing areas, pipelines and shipping routes through which vital energy supplies pass.
To most analysts, the proposed redeployments make a lot of sense. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the need for big US military bases that housed conventional forces in Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe evaporated from a strategic point of view, while the steady build-up of well-equipped and well-trained forces in South Korea, where Washington has stationed nearly 40,000 troops for the past 25 years, made it more than a match for North Korea.
In addition, the presence and behavior of US forces in both Western Europe and Northeast Asia, particularly in South Korea and Okinawa, have become increasingly unpopular and a lightning rod for growing anti-Americanism and resentment. Reducing their "footprint" might have the opposite effect.
Indeed, Washington withdrew its troops altogether from Saudi Arabia over the past year in large part because their presence there had become politically untenable.
Nonetheless, both the plans - and the ways they are being developed and implemented - are provoking growing criticism at home, as well as abroad. The reasons for this are not difficult to understand, particularly in light of the Iraq war.
In the first place, the planned redeployments appear designed to ensure that the US could indeed enforce a "Pax Americana", based on its ability to exert unilateral military control over the production and flow of energy resources from Central Asia, the Gulf region and the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of West Africa in the face of potential rivals.
In that respect, the strategy is an update of the controversial 1992 draft Defense Planning Guidance written under the auspices of current Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and national security adviser, I Lewis "Scooter" Libby - both of whom played key roles in driving the Bush administration to war in Iraq. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FF17Aa03.html
Phliadelphia Inquirer Editorial: Harsh…deservingly so…
What matters is that Americans grasp a central point: The multipronged rationale behind this rushed invasion has been revealed as a house of cards.
(Deposing Hussein always was a legitimate strategic goal, given his history as an aggressor and butcher - but not in this reckless way, with these wrongful justifications.)
Consider the house of cards, and two other glaring facts.
First, preparation for the invasion's aftermath was tragically inept. That easily predictable failure has cost many Iraqis, Americans and others their lives.
Second, the prison abuses, which stem from poor planning for occupation and a bid to place U.S. behavior above international law, have lost America the moral high ground it rightfully occupied on Sept. 12, 2001.
Now, ask yourself, along with those 27 American diplomats and warriors: Have the last two years made America more secure, more respected?
The answer is obvious and appalling. The answer is no. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/8964906.htm?ERIGHTS=-8229334262747501747philly::rcsherman@rcn.com&KRD_RM=5prsmqnntpolnrttllllllllnl|Richard|N
-R
