Friday, February 06, 2004
Synchronicity
President Bush asked Congress to eliminate an $8.2 million research program on how to decontaminate buildings attacked by toxins - the same day a poison-laced letter shuttered Senate offices.
Critics said Thursday they were surprised by Bush's request, included in his 2005 budget proposal. Its release coincided with the discovery of the poison ricin in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's office on Monday.
"It is a stunning example of the budget choices this administration has made, where tax cuts for elites are more important than public health or adequate homeland security," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
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Buried in documents justifying the Environmental Protection Agency's budget plan is an acknowledgment that Bush's proposed research cut "represents complete elimination of homeland security building decontamination research."
In the documents, the agency said that losing the research money would "force it to disband the technical and engineering expertise that will be needed to address known and emerging biological and chemical threats in the future."
Just one example of many.
posted by chris at 12:24 PM
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Thursday, February 05, 2004
Re-elect President Medicare works!
A media firm working for President Bush's re-election campaign has a share of the administration's publicly funded $12.6 million advertising effort touting the new Medicare law.
National Media Inc. of Alexandria, Va., is purchasing $9.5 million worth of television advertising for a 30-second commercial that the administration intends to educate older Americans about changes in Medicare such as the new prescription drug benefit, executives involved in the advertising campaign said Wednesday.
Critics of the new law contended the firm's involvement is evidence that the administration is mounting a political rather than educational campaign for the new law.
Don't these people have any sense of propriety?
posted by chris at 12:28 PM
There was no failure of intelligence
The truth is that much of the intelligence community did not fail, but presented correct assessments and warnings, that were overridden and suppressed. On virtually every single important claim made by the Bush administration in its case for war, there was serious dissension. Discordant views - not from individual analysts but from several intelligence agencies as a whole - were kept from the public as momentum was built for a congressional vote on the war resolution.
Precisely because of the qualms the administration encountered, it created a rogue intelligence operation, the Office of Special Plans, located within the Pentagon and under the control of neo-conservatives. The OSP roamed outside the ordinary inter-agency process, stamping its approval on stories from Iraqi exiles that the other agencies dismissed as lacking credibility, and feeding them to the president.
At the same time, constant pressure was applied to the intelligence agencies to force their compliance. In one case, a senior intelligence officer who refused to buckle under was removed.
There's much, much more.
posted by chris at 9:57 AM
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Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Marriage, not civil unions
The highest court in Massachusetts declared yesterday that the state legislature may not offer "civil union" instead of marriage for same-sex couples, a ruling that paves the way for the first state-recognized same-sex marriages in U.S. history.
The ruling, which amplified the Supreme Judicial Court's Nov. 18 decision striking down Massachusetts's opposite-sex-only marriage laws, was delivered in an advisory opinion sought by the state Senate.
After the November ruling, the Senate took up a bill that would have granted same-sex couples all "the protections, benefits and obligations of civil marriage" -- but called the arrangement something else. That was the approach Vermont's legislature took when it set up civil unions after that state's high court ruled in 1999 that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples unlawfully denied equal benefits to same-sex couples. . . .
. . .By eliminating the possibility of a legislative alternative, the decision left opponents of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts with no option other than an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as an opposite-sex institution only. But under Massachusetts law, the earliest such an amendment could be adopted is 2006.
Getting closer!
posted by chris at 10:33 PM
Buying our own advertising to lie to ourselves
From the Center for American Progress:
Just two days after the White House proposed serious budget cuts and the President said he's "calling upon Congress to be wise with the taxpayer's money," the Bush Administration announced a massive taxpayer-funded television ad campaign to promote its controversial Medicare bill. Specifically, the White House will use $9.5 million from the Department of Health and Human Services – money that is supposed to be used to implement the law and could go to restore some of the cuts to social services for the poor – on political commercials that "rebut criticism of the new Medicare law." The TV ads will be augmented by $3.1 million in print, radio and Spanish-language ads. The effort represents an "uncommonly aggressive campaign by the administration and congressional Republicans to promote legislation that already has become law" by using scarce taxpayer funds expressly for partisan political purposes at a time when lawmakers are trying to amend the bill. And while the White House claims to be very concerned with the deficits, the new ads – and the past record of opening the spigot of taxpayer money for partisan political purposes – raises questions. First and foremost, does the blatant misuse of taxpayer funds for political purposes violate federal law under 31 USC 1301(a) and 5 USC 7321? Secondly, how much other waste, fraud and abuse is being promoted throughout the government?
THE AD'S DISTORTIONS: The new Medicare ads urge citizens to call 1-800-MEDICARE to hear more about the new law. And in "Big Brother" style, when you call that number you have to actually say out loud "Medicare improvement" in order to get information. The information you then receive is filled with distortions. The hotline claims the new Medicare "is the same Medicare you have always counted on" – failing to disclose that the law includes provisions which try to force more seniors into private HMOs. The hotline claims that seniors will be able to find "immediate savings between 10% to 15% from a new drug discount card program." But the cards, which were written into the bill by one of President Bush's closest business associates, actually do not guarantee any savings at all. The hotline also says the new prescription drug program under Medicare "will provide significant savings for seniors." But as the Center for Economic and Policy Research notes, "seniors in the middle income quintile will pay an average of $1,650 a year in out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs in 2006 - a figure nearly 60% more than they paid in 2000."
posted by chris at 10:18 PM
AWOL
Recently, stories about Bush going "missing" during his Air National Guard Service in the 1970s have been resurfacing in the media. The Boston Globe first broke the story back in May 2000 during the Bush/Gore campaign for the presidency, but no one picked it up. Now that John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, is doing well in the Democratic primaries, the story is starting to pick up some steam. Here's an excerpt from the Globe's original piece:
[B]oth accounts [of Bush's service] are contradicted by copies of Bush's military records, obtained by the Globe. In his final 18 months of military service in 1972 and 1973, Bush did not fly at all. And for much of that time, Bush was all but unaccounted for: For a full year, there is no record that he showed up for the periodic drills required of part-time guardsmen.
Bush, who declined to be interviewed on the issue, said through a spokesman that he has ''some recollection'' of attending drills that year, but maybe not consistently.
From May to November 1972, Bush was in Alabama working in a US Senate campaign, and was required to attend drills at an Air National Guard unit in Montgomery. But there is no evidence in his record that he did so. And William Turnipseed, the retired general who commanded the Alabama unit back then, said in an interview last week that Bush never appeared for duty there.
After the election, Bush returned to Houston. But seven months later, in May 1973, his two superior officers at Ellington Air Force Base could not perform his annual evaluation covering the year from May 1, 1972 to April 30, 1973 because, they wrote, ''Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of this report.''
The White House, of course, refuses to clarify any of this, so White House spokesman Scott McClellan is dutifully repeating the agreed-to talking points.
posted by chris at 4:28 PM
Extension granted to 9/11 Commission
President Bush reversed himself Wednesday and said he now supports giving a commission investigating the 9/11 attacks more time to produce a final report.
The commission is scheduled to finish its work on May 27. But panel members last month asked Congress for a two-month extension, citing a need for full analysis of reams of documents about the disaster.
Bush had resisted that request for months, saying through his spokesmen that the administration wanted the panel to complete its work as soon as possible. Privately, White House aides feared that delaying the commission's final report would result in a potentially damaging assessment of the administration's handling of pre-attack intelligence in the heat of a presidential campaign.
More.
posted by chris at 1:55 PM
L.A. versus Wal-mart
In a show of hostility toward a company promising to bring hundreds of jobs and rock-bottom consumer prices to poor, blighted neighborhoods, the Los Angeles City Council this month may ban Wal-Mart from opening its popular "supercenters," sprawling new stores that sell discount groceries along with many other bargain goods.
No other city so big has ever taken on the retailer, which has been facing growing resistance in smaller communities around the country to both the size and the business tactics of its rapidly expanding chain of more than 2,900 stores.
And, unlike other places in conflict with Wal-Mart and other "big box" national retailers, Los Angeles is hardly trying to save its small-town charms. With nearly 4 million people and roads choked with traffic, it has none.
Rather, city leaders here say they fear the arrival of the retailer's biggest stores would drive down local wages, as rival businesses struggle to survive; wipe out more jobs than they create; and leave more residents without health insurance -- and with no choice but to use public hospitals and clinics that are already overrun by demand.
"They're a goliath, but we're a goliath, too -- and we want to send them a message," said Eric Garcetti, the Los Angeles councilman proposing the restrictions against the retailer, which appear to have strong council support. "We don't believe their business model is good for the kind of economic development that we want in the places where we need it most. And we want people to realize that the 10 cents they may save on a jar of pickles could mean paying another $5 in taxes for all the extra visits to local emergency rooms."
In recent years, Wal-Mart has encountered similar objections in communities from Atlanta to Albuquerque. But its plan to bring dozens of supercenters -- which are twice as large as its traditional stores -- for the first time to California is provoking a particularly strong backlash. The company, which is furious with the measures that some cities are crafting to block its expansion, is aggressively fighting back.
Because, as a corporation, Wal-mart thinks it has all the rights that people do. It even introduces its own ballot measures.
Thanks, Jason for the link.
posted by chris at 11:29 AM
Tauzin makes drug policy, then joins drug lobbyists
W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (La.), one of the most powerful Republicans in the House, will not seek reelection when his 12th term expires at the end of this year and will vacate the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee effective Feb. 16.
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A Democrat until he switched parties in 1995, Tauzin was widely expected to succeed Jack Valenti as president of the Motion Picture Association of America but turned down the job -- and its more than $1 million salary -- late last month.
Soon after, he received a larger offer to head the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the trade group that represents drug giants such as Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co., though no contract has been offered, sources said.
Tauzin was one of the principal authors of the Medicare prescription drug bill, which included several provisions expected to vastly expand the market for prescription drugs among the elderly. In addition to adding hundreds of billions of dollars for drug benefits, the law bars the federal government from directly bargaining down the price of drugs, a provision PhRMA pressed for.
Looks like Tauzin was just getting a headstart on his new job.
posted by chris at 11:07 AM
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Tuesday, February 03, 2004
More budget madness
From The Daily Mislead:
On the same day the White House unveiled its 2005 budget, President Bush calculatingly obscured the reason the nation now faces a record $500 billion deficit. He said, "The reason we are where we are, in terms of the deficit, is because we went through a recession, we were attacked, and we're fighting a war."
But according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the single biggest cause of the deficit is the president's massive tax cuts for the wealthy -- which he conveniently did not mention. Specifically, 36% of the deficit comes from the tax cuts, while only 31% comes from defense/war-related spending increases, and the rest comes from the economic slowdown. In fact the president actually acknowledged in last year's budget that the deficit is primarily his fault. Table S-3 of Bush's 2004 budget "shows unambiguously that the administration's fiscal 2004 budget proposes a massive annual increase in the deficit" and that without those proposals the nation would return to surplus. In other words, the president is falsely invoking national security, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and the war in Iraq to hide the fact that his tax cuts for the wealthy have created the largest deficit in American history.
posted by chris at 2:46 PM
Strategy of diversion and delay
Badly wounded by the total collapse of its pre-war contentions that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, the administration of President George W. Bush has embarked on a strategy of diversion and delay.
It hopes to divert attention from the role played by senior administration officials in influencing and exaggerating the intelligence assessments of the Iraqi threat in the run-up to the war by focusing debate instead on flaws in the intelligence and how it can be improved in the future.
It hopes to delay until well after the November presidential elections the reporting deadline for a proposed commission that will study the fiasco.
More.
posted by chris at 12:51 PM
Best spin of the day
Attacks in Iraq like the Arbil suicide bombings show efforts to build a new Iraq are succeeding and that extremists are using violence to stop the process, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said on Monday.
posted by chris at 12:50 PM
Bush's budget
President Bush has drafted an election-year budget that shows considerably more political concern for his conservative base, which is upset over the government's steady growth, than for any need to assuage moderate voters in November.
The proposed cuts, in dollar terms, will have little impact on the budget deficit, which the White House put at $521 billion this year. But the names of several programs on the chopping block -- housing assistance for the elderly, vocational education, lead-hazard reduction, local law enforcement grants -- allow the president to argue that he has put forth a tough-minded spending plan for 2005.
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But that decision is risky. The budget calls for $1.24 trillion in additional tax cuts over the next decade, much of it aimed at the wealthy, critics say. Fiscal discipline, they say, is expected on only one side of the ledger.
Meanwhile, the programs Bush seeks to eliminate will follow him on the campaign trail. Under his budget, the $247 million Even Start family literacy program would be eliminated. The Eisenhower regional math and science consortiums and the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Math and Science Education would be killed. HOPE VI, a $149 million program to revitalize blighted housing projects, would go.
Also gone: dropout-prevention efforts, elementary and secondary school counseling assistance, aid to migrant and seasonal farmworkers, the Smaller Learning Communities initiative, and a bevy of local law enforcement assistance programs.
Even as the economy fails to generate significant job growth, Bush would slice federal vocational and adult education funding by 35 percent, from $2.1 billion to $1.4 billion. Assistance for workers dislocated by the North American Free Trade Agreement would be eliminated. Rural development assistance would be cut, as would housing aid for Native Americans and the elderly. The foreign aid budget would dramatically boost funding to combat the spread of AIDS, but it would also slice $404 million from child-survival and child-disease programs.
There goes the whole "compassionate conservative" thing. The Center for American Progress has
much, much more.
UPDATE: Other budgetary issues: ANWR, the environment and defense. Ugh.
posted by chris at 12:12 PM
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Monday, February 02, 2004
One hell of a dinner bill
In January, Halliburton acknowledged it may have over billed for contract work ranging from laundry service to oil-field reconstruction in Iraq and credited the U.S. government for $6.3 million in case an investigation confirmed the overcharges. The company said its auditors discovered possible overcharges by a Kuwaiti subcontractor and that there might have been kickbacks or improper payments made.
The food-service billing allegations, the Journal reported Monday, involve meals served at Camp Arifjan, the U.S. base south of Kuwait City. The Journal cited an e-mail memo sent Friday to U.S. Army contracting officials that indicated in July, a Saudi subcontractor hired by KBR billed for 42,042 meals a day on average but served only 14,053 meals a day. The difference in cost for July was more than $3.5 million, according to Pentagon records. The Pentagon last year paid KBR more than $30 million for meals at the camp from January through July, according to the Journal. That bill included charges for almost four million meals the government says were never served.
Who the hell does the accounting for Halliburton?? Somebody needs to fire them.
UPDATE: How much do you think Halliburton paid in taxes last year?
posted by chris at 10:17 PM
Citigroup does the right thing
Citigroup, the world's largest financial institution, has agreed to stop investment in mining, drilling and logging programs in certain tropical forests following four years of protests organized nationally by the Rainforest Action Network and locally by NYU students.
Citigroup adopted its environmental policy to deforestation and protect human rights and endangered ecosystems. . . .
. . .The new policy also requires that indigenous people near investment projects have representation and access to information about the project.
In line with the new environmental guidelines, Citigroup also audited its energy consumption in the 10,000 buildings that it leases or owns worldwide, and plans to report annually on the greenhouse gases produced by all of its energy investments.
Story.
posted by chris at 9:36 AM
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Sunday, February 01, 2004
Passing the blame
President Bush has agreed to support an independent inquiry into the prewar intelligence that he used to assert that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, Republican and congressional sources said yesterday.
The shift by the White House, which had previously maintained that any such inquiry should wait until a more exhaustive weapons search has been completed, came after pressure from lawmakers in both parties and from the former chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq.
There was no official confirmation from the White House yesterday, but sources in the government said Bush's announcement of support for an independent commission is imminent. Vice President Cheney has begun to call lawmakers on the intelligence committees, who have encouraged the administration to proceed with an inquiry.
The White House has not settled on what type of independent review it would favor and has not backed any specific plan.
Story. Yet the Bush administration refuses to allow the 9/11 Commission to do its job.
posted by chris at 11:51 AM
Watch the rhetoric
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who has made a fight against corporate special interests a centerpiece of his front-running campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, has raised more money from paid lobbyists than any other senator over the past 15 years, federal records show.
Kerry, a 19-year veteran of the Senate who fought and won four expensive political campaigns, has received nearly $640,000 from lobbyists, many representing telecommunications and financial companies with business before his committee, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
For his presidential race, Kerry has raised more than $225,000 from lobbyists, better than twice as much as his nearest Democratic rival. Like President Bush, Kerry has also turned to a number of corporate officials and lobbyists to "bundle" contributions from smaller donors.
More. See also OpenSecrets.org
posted by chris at 11:44 AM
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