August 14, 2004
Why I'm Voting For Bush...
... because he's NOT John Kerry! Sounds like a dumb reason, huh?
Actually, I have a ton of reasons. The fact that Bush isn't Kerry is just a bonus.
I'll be gone today.
Open Thread:
Why are you voting FOR Bush?
or
Why are you voting FOR Kerry?
I want the actual "for" reasons not the stupid he's not the other guy reasons.
Posted by rosemary at August 14, 2004 09:39 AM | TrackBackHERE are at least 1,470 reasons I am not voting for Bush.
Posted by: Maria at August 14, 2004 09:46 AMOh wait! That's not what you asked! ;o)
Okaaaay. Some reasons I will vote for Kerry instead of Bush:
Kerry's proposed economic policies;
Kerry's proposed foreign affairs policies;
Kerry's proposed education policies;
Kerry's position on stem cell research;
Kerry's position on energy and the environment;
Kerry's stance on civil liberties;
Kerry's ideas on handling national security and terrorist threats; and finally, but not least of all
Kerry's stance on taxes for the wealthy, social security and health coverage.
Oh yeah, and one last reason:
JOHN EDWARDS INSTEAD OF DICK "Go F**k Yourself" CHENEY!
Posted by: Maria at August 14, 2004 10:07 AMWhy I'm voting for Bush:
1. He's got the right idea for winning the War On Terrorism: "We will make no distinctions between the terrorists and the countries that harbor them."
2. He backed the Federal Marriage Amendment, recognizing that judicial activism made a constitutional amendment necessary.
3. He's firmly anti-abortion, and his record reflects that.
Those are the main points.
Posted by: Robin Munn at August 14, 2004 10:16 AMWhy I'm voting for Bush
1) He is winning the war on Terror as opposed to Kerry's secret plan.
2) He will follow through on the promises the US has made to the Iraqi and Afghan people and not flip-flop and run.
Kerry will not cut Planned Parenthood funding.
Plus the Bush family has been in my life way too long. Our current president 4 years. His father 12 years and I lived in Florida when Jeb was elected. Nevermind Cheney. That is just too much time. Need different dynamics and ideas.
Posted by: Friday at August 14, 2004 10:57 AMOops my name is Frida not Friday! :)
Posted by: Frida at August 14, 2004 10:58 AMI know what Rose means, and the negativity sucks, unfortunately being against the incumbant (or at least not being For him) is only the start of being FOR Kerry. If you are FOR Bush, even a little bit, you need go no further and negativism is the natural reaction to the challenger.
1.) Health Care: I have to say that, not knowing who Kerry was until late last year except as an automatic "no" vote to any GOP proposals, I've been pleasantly surprised that I can indeed support him. He's liberal enough and knows the DC game well enough to push through meaningful health care reform and not drop the ball the way the Clintons did. I have more hope that he can do it because I believe that Bush is done trying to tinker with the broken system, evenwith a hostile congress. The GOP has had 4 years to fix the appalling state of the administration of the finest health care professionals in the world and I am singularly unimpressed with their efforts to date.
2.) International Good Will: I am for Kerry because we need a break on the diplomatic front, and POTUS has used up his "benefits of the doubts" reserves on the world statge and I believe that his unilateral abbrogation of strategic treaties like the ABM was reckless and the breaking of or opposition to the anti-proliferation treaty, the test ban treaty, and the antio-landmine treaty, the chemical weapons ban has made us a global pariah, Ditto on environmental treaties and trade agreements. I am for Kerry because we need his foreign policy expertise, patient study of complex issues, and intellectual curiousity coupled with the good will he will engender internationally so that we not only are the most powerful natioin, but a leader the free world is willing to follow.
3.) Economy. Eat the Rich! Well, maybe not that severe, but it would be nice not to see so much crony capitalism and just the plain old dog-eat-dog kind of capitalism where the playing field is more level. I am for Kerry because I think he will be more willing to curb the deregulation movement which has continued unabatted since Reagan and has created S&L fiascos, energy company piracy and consentration of the media into the hands of rich partisans. Never have no many media outlets been controlled by so few, and their influence on our culture and politics is disproportional to their numbers.
4.) Taxes. Eat the Rich! OK, OK, how about just some responsibility on the spending side. At least I've seen a plan for deficit reduction by Kerry. I am for Kerry because of the reasons he DID vote against the imfamous $87 Billion. The plan he wanted insisted that the government make appropriate cuts to pay for it. I found that singularly responsible handling of my security with my money.
5.) Education. I am for Kerry because I believe that he will actually give teachers the tools they need and not merely the pressure of additional tests by fully funding NCLB.
6.) The War. Yep, that's the biggie isn't it. I am for Kerry because he will get Rumsfeld's resignation. More importantly he will change the overall diplomatic dynamic by being more sensitive (yep, that's a good thing) to the interests of the major acters in the Middle East, not so much to cow-tow to them but to co-opt them into assisting in re-establishing stability in the region. He will bring more realistic expectations to what is possible there because his political future does not depend on a quick sucess, just stability, because he can blame the other guy for much of the mess in the first place.
7.) Leadership. I am for Kerry because I believe he has the ability to become a statesman and not merely a politician. When he says "folloow me" my first instinct is not to scoff or find fault with his plan, but to get out of my chair and say, "OK, Where to?" I am for Kerry because he is not an embarassment to his native language and speaks with a gravitas and conviction that makes me believe he thinks he's doing his best for me and not what is best for folks like him. I am for him because he is dignified and intelligent, well read and willing to listen.
8.) That certain je ne se qua.: I am for him because I admire his record of a lifetime of service to this nation. I admire his courage in battle and his courage after coming home to stand up against what he believed in his heart to be great evil. I admire his ability to attract rich African-American women to fund his lifestyle instead of cashing in on his positioni and connections. I think that Americans are more sophisticated than the reckless cowboy image the world has of us, and we deserve a leader who will gain the respect of the world as a the product of the most advanced civilization ever created.
9.) And yes, he is not Bush. I would never bothered with the analysis of Kerry if I was not deeply unsatisfied with out president.
Reasons to vote FOR Bush? Hmmm....
1) He at least partly recognizes that we are at War for our very survival as a free nation and civilization.
2) The FMA was despicable, but it's off the table for now. Marriage is still in the hands of the states, as it must be. If Bush proposes or supports another FMA or such, the Democrats will at least be more likely to oppose it merely because it is supported by a Republican. If Kerry is President however, he will cave in to the Santorumites at every turn, and his Democratic sycophants will give him a free pass every time on the grounds that electing more Democrats and promoting their shallow economic issues are supposedly more important. Expect a Federal Anti-Privacy Amendment in exchange for more federal government handouts.
3) Kerry is a Communist traitor who stabbed his fellow soldiers in the back and is continuing to do so. I used to merely loathe him but I now hate him.
4) I love Condi.
Posted by: Steven Malcolm Anderson the Lesbian-worshipping gun-loving selfish aesthete at August 14, 2004 12:26 PMWhy I will vote for Bush:
1) He has expanded School Choice, and is still working to bring us Social Security Choice.
2) Because cutting taxes during a recession, even if it runs up the deficit mildly, is sound fiscal policy that every Democrat President from Roosevelt to Kennedy would have acknowledged.
3) He has the right idea on fighting the war, and gave us the liberation of Iraq, the greatest humanitarian intervention in U.S. history and the absolute right step in reforming the Middle East.
4) He's a good, honest, humble man who cares more about the ideas he believes in than partisanship. I trust him and believe in him.
Why I am voting for Bush:
Kerry's proposed economic policies;
Kerry's proposed foreign affairs policies;
Kerry's proposed education policies;
Kerry's position on stem cell research;
Kerry's position on energy and the environment;
Kerry's stance on civil liberties;
Kerry's ideas on handling national security and terrorist threats; and finally, but not least of all
Kerry's stance on taxes for the wealthy, social security and health coverage.
Being as Kerry has detailed practically none of these, has weaseled on all of them, and has no record of success at any of them.
Bush came into office a proven and popular leader, having beaten out Texas' most popular governor ever in his first attempt. He took the office of the Presidency with good grace, attempted to work with the Democrats and seemed resigned to being a fairly lame-duck President. He was tolerant of the childish sour-grapes antics of the Democrats in Congress, particularly in the area of post confirmations. He proved himself a national leader on 9/11 and since. He has NOT allowed other countries to weaken American sovereignty. Bush has lowered taxes and thusly aided in one of the fastest economic recoveries ever. He has pushed for a real space program, that encourages private development. He embodies real civil liberty principles rather than demagogic race-baiting. He has directed forces which now have somewhere between half and two-thirds of the top leadership of al Qaeda imprisoned or dead. He removed Saddam Hussein from power. And he drives moonbats absolutely nuckin' futz.
Posted by: John Irving at August 14, 2004 01:47 PMOn the international front, I was just reading through the archives of my mother's online journal, and it struck me that she noted quite a few instances of 'Hate America First' abroad when Clinton was President.
IOW, the more things change, the more they stay the same... :)
Posted by: B. Durbin at August 14, 2004 03:25 PMI am voting for Kerry because he's NOT Bush! Sounds like a dumb reason, huh? Actually, I have a ton of reasons. The fact that Kerry isn't Bush is just a bonus. There!
Posted by: marko at August 14, 2004 05:17 PMI am leaning more towards Kerry for several reasons.
1. Divided government. Republicans will be more true to their priniciples if dumb ideas have a D after them instead of an R. They will not receive the arm twisting they have been now, as well. Kerry will be prevented from doing his worst ideas due to newly found Republican backbone, and Kerry will prevent the bad ideas of conservative statists from taking place. These are definite pluses.
2. Bush would have nothing to lose in his second term. Kerry would, being his first term. Kerry would be less likely to push bad ideas if he might pay for them the next election. Bush does not have another election.
3. The GOP will put someone better up in 2008, and we would have a chance to move the GOP away from the Satanorumite statist direction it has been moving in.
4. Kerry can stop there from being a President Hilliary, a plus in and of itself.
5. I want a Republican in there, not a less crusty version of LBJ, as E J Dionne of the Washington Post would say. Some people give away the depths of Democratism in their soul when they speak of how past Democrats would approve of Bush's policies. Disgruntled Democrats should go back to their party and take their fellow LBJ disciples in the GOP with them. Telling me why he is like a Democrat is the best way to win my disapproval of Bush.
6. The GOP needs new leadership. A Kerry presidency would be the opportunity for more Republican minded, in the older Republican sense of it, not the disgruntled Democratic sense, men and women, to push for GOP to regain territory it had lost, and would stop the mindless push for the last remaining conservative Anglo Democratic regions, a push that has cost us more than what we have gained.
7. Lastly, cleanup of some of the mess that has occurred under Bush's watch (some does go back to Clinton, as well) can be cleaned up during the Kerry term. That gives the GOP a little more space in the blame game. The Dems having some power will have to contribute to the process. If it is not cleaned up, both will have some blame, not just one side. A good atmosphere to get it accomplished.
It is not merely who is, in the abstract, better, but who, given the current political situation, in the world, the nation, and the two parties, will be the best fit to fulfill the role of president in such a place? This includes how he or she would act, given the current political divisions, but it also includes how the other branches and the two parties shall react with him or her in office. Right now, it would appear more to be Kerry.
Posted by: Edmond the Libertarian at August 14, 2004 06:29 PMThere are a few people who rank up there with the moonbats that Kerry drives "absolutely nuckin' futz," as well. Steven Malcolm Anderson the Lesbian-worshipping gun-loving selfish aesthete knows who I am referring to. ;-)
Posted by: Edmond the Libertarian at August 14, 2004 06:46 PMi love you lizzy aka mrs k
Posted by: amy at August 14, 2004 07:53 PMEdmond the Libertarian:
You have just given me the _ONLY_ good argument for voting for Kerry that I have ever heard! Too bad nobody said any of that during the entire Democratic convention.
Posted by: Steven Malcolm Anderson the Lesbian-worshipping gun-loving selfish aesthete at August 14, 2004 08:28 PMFor me, it comes down to Foreign Policy. There is a clear and distinct difference between the two candidates. We know what Bush's FP is like. And I support it. I liken Kerry's to be a more "European" style of Foreign Policy. And after watching Europe's weakness in the face of political adversity in both the Sudan and Iran, I fear that a Kerry Administration would be a threat to the future American security.
Posted by: Gilly at August 14, 2004 08:48 PMI'll for President Bush because quite simply he is a man...of honor, of substance and positive values.
Posted by: Roy at August 14, 2004 11:33 PMYet another one of the reasons I won't be voting for GBW:
Via Usuallyunusual.com
"Ten Senior Military Officials Condemn Bush and Cheney's Personal Attacks on Kerry
WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 /U.S. Newswire/—Ten senior military officials released the following statement today in response to the Vice President’s attacks on John Kerry today:
“We are deeply disappointed by the tone and tenor of President Bush and Vice President Cheney’s personal attacks on John Kerry, a decorated combat veteran who served his country with courage and honor. John Kerry is talking about his plan to address the most pressing issues facing our nation—jobs, the economy, health care, the war on terror, the war in Iraq. George Bush and Dick Cheney have chosen take their campaign to the gutter. We call on President Bush and Vice President Cheney to stop the irresponsible personal attacks and tell us where they want to take the country. Tell us how they plan to win the peace in Iraq. Tell us how they plan to get us back on track with the war on terror. Tell us where they plan to lead the country. The American people and our troops deserve better.”
Signed by:
Admiral William J. Crowe (United States Navy, Retired)
Admiral Stansfield Turner (United States Navy, Retired)
General Wesley K. Clark (United States Army, Retired)
General Merrill “Tony” A. McPeak (United States Air Force, Retired)
General Joseph Hoar (United States Marine Corps, Retired)
General Johnnie E. Wilson (United States Army, Retired)
Vice Admiral Lee F. Gunn (United States Navy, Retired)
Lieutenant General Claudia J. Kennedy (United States Army, Retired)
Lieutenant General Donald Kerrick (United States Army, Retired)
Lieutenant General Edward D. Baca
One of the funniest taped responses of Bush. It's about Tribal Sovereignty. I almost peed in my pants laughing.
http://www.majorityreportradio.com/weblog/archives/000581.php (click on "having a nervous breakdown")
Reporter: What do you think Tribal Sovereignty means in the 21st century and how do we resolve conflicts between tribes and federal government.
Bush: Tribal Sovereignty means that it's sovereign. You're a...you're a...you've been given sovereignty and you're due as a sovereign entity.
Reporter: Ok
Bush: And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribe is one between sovereign-neneties.
And this is who you call POTUS? I guess this what happens when he doesn't have his writers to help him out.
Mark-O- hit it on the head, The guy is a mindless boob (and in the right context, I like boobs, especially when they come in pairs.) Here's a pair of Bushisms just from this week:
1.) "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.."
2.) "In a changing world, we want more people to have control over your own life."
He's maddnening. It stopped being cute years ago. It's as if Dan Quayle's retarded brother dressed up and played president.
"What a waste it is to
lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful." Aarrgghhh.......
I have no problems admitting that I'm voting for the lessor of two evils. After all, what's the alternative...the GREATER of two evils? Might as well just vote for Cthulu, then.
Hell, my mom claims she hasn't voted for anybody since Truman.
Bush has bungled his job so badly---weak on al Qaeda, a disaster for the economy, trying to add homophobic Jim Crow to the Constitution, and starting a for-profit war to benefit his campaign contributors---that almost anybody would be an improvement.
Posted by: Don Myers at August 15, 2004 01:37 PM(Via www.usuallyunusual.com)
[Bush the UNITY conference on Aug.6/04]
“Now, in terms of the balance between running down intelligence and bringing people to justice obviously is—we need to be very sensitive on that.” (Bush Delivers Remarks at the Unity, Journalists of Color Conference, 8/6/04)
Dick Cheney on Aug.12/04):
“Senator Kerry has also said that if he were in charge he would fight a ‘more sensitive’ war on terror. America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive.” (Cheney in Dayton OH today)"]
Does Cheney have his own agenda? My question to the people who are voting for Bush. Are you voting for Bush as the Prez with Cheney as the VP or Cheney as the Prez and Bush as the VP?
Posted by: marko at August 15, 2004 02:32 PMDespite my fiscal and social misgivings with Bush, I'm voting for him for only one reason.
John Kerry is going to get American civilians killed in America.
Posted by: Jimmie at August 15, 2004 02:49 PMJimmie: "John Kery is going to get American civilians killed in America."
The US government has been doing that all this time.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/may2002/ins-m25.shtml
Thousands of Americans die each year because they can't afford private health insurance. That's more American people killed by our own government than Al-Qaeda.
Posted by: marko at August 15, 2004 03:12 PM"?Senator Kerry has also said that if he were in charge he would fight a ?more sensitive? war on terror. America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive.? (Cheney in Dayton OH today)"]
Absolutely true.
Marko asked:
"Does Cheney have his own agenda? My question to the people who are voting for Bush. Are you voting for Bush as the Prez with Cheney as the VP or Cheney as the Prez and Bush as the VP?"
I'll vote for Cheney. Cheney is _much_ better.
Steven Malcolm: "I'll vote for Cheney. Cheney is_much_better."
No surprise there. We all know Cheney is the one pushing the buttons in the White House. He is the puppeteer, Bush is his puppet. :)
Posted by: marko at August 15, 2004 04:03 PMAccording to this article
http://entertainment.msn.com/celebs/article.aspx?news=166510
Barbie is running for president.
Is that Barbie or Ann Coulter? I can't distinguish between the two.
Mark Adams, you'll get the boobs you've wanted for a Prez after all. Mattel has been listening to you. ;)
Excellent!!
Posted by: Mark Adams at August 15, 2004 09:12 PMBecause he takes the war seriously, and Kerry doesn't. "I would have done it differently". Really? How? "Wellllllll".
Please.
Honestly folks, if Bush had laid off of Iraq, where do you think the polls would be right now? If we were still "Hans Blixing" our way through this, it wouldn't even be close. Kerry would have at least a double digit lead.
That's enough for me. And an awful lot of the middle, who look at Bush as the lessor of two, as someone remarked earlier.
They don't necessarily like the guy, but they know who is putting the rough men on the wall.
Posted by: Dave in Texas at August 15, 2004 09:29 PMI'm voting for Kerry because I believe he would be less likely to take us to war, more likely to build coalitions, AND he served in Vietnam. Also, Kerry doesn't support a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Kerry also supports allowing gays to serve openly in the military.
Also, Kerry didn't lie about tax cuts. Bush claimed that the vast majority of his tax cuts went to the lower brackets. I can't find anywhere that Bush retracted his lie. I support Kerry/Edwards proposals to roll back tax cuts for the wealthiest.
Posted by: Joel Thomas at August 16, 2004 01:22 AMSimple, Lieberman isn't running. Given every opportunity to pick the best man for the job - Joe Lieberman - the Democrats instead decided to indulge in demagoguery and pander to the hard core leftists and the American haters in the party. Not only will I be voting for Bush this time around but I doubt I'll even consider the Democrats again until they excise their loonies like the Republicans did with the Buchananites.
Posted by: Maynard at August 16, 2004 02:43 AM"... because he's NOT John Kerry! Sounds like a dumb reason, huh?"
Maybe not -- so far, "I'm not President Bush" is the only intelligible reason Kerry has advanced on his own behalf.
Posted by: Geoff Brown at August 16, 2004 10:07 AMI’m voting for John Kerry because I love my country and my children. They will both pay far too dearly for another four years of Bush administration policy and decision-making.
Posted by: shep at August 16, 2004 11:47 AMGeoff Brown, that might be very well true, that that is all Kerry has given us as reasons. However, there are reasons to vote for him at the current moment, reasons Kerry could or would never give. One is not limited to voting for Kerry or for Bush by the reasons that the two candidates have given us, any more than one is limited to either opposing or supporting Gulf War: Episode II to the reasons respectively given by the war protestors and adminstration apologists.
The GOP has not excised all of the loonies. Unfortunately, some are trying to bring in more loonies to replace the ones that left, as well as trying to maintain influence in the party for the loonies who have left.
When Wieker was defeated by Lieberman, a number of conservatives were very happy, including those at the National Review. Such people are not Republicans, they should not pretend to be, and they should not be labeled as such. They are really conservative Democrats and should admit it.
If more older style Democrats who are not supporting their party would all go back, they would have a good chance of breaking off the loonies they complain of. This would also allow the GOP to be free of its remaining loonies, as well as free of the influence of other external loonies, and go back to being the Party of Lincoln, upholding classical, historic Republican principles. It would be good for both parties.
Posted by: Edmond the Libertarian at August 16, 2004 11:56 AMGeoff Brown wrote:
""... because he's NOT John Kerry! Sounds like a dumb reason, huh?"
Maybe not -- so far, "I'm not President Bush" is the only intelligible reason Kerry has advanced on his own behalf."
Oh, no! Senator (oops! not supposed to mention that!) Kerry given us a number of reasons to vote for him:
1) Did you know that he was born in the West Wing?
2) Did you know that his initials are JFK?
3) Did you know that he was in Viet Nam?
4) He will try to do even more than Bush has to spend more money and to bring the schools and police and doctors under federal government control.
The reasons he did not give, the , yes, I repeat, ONLY good reasons for even thinking about voting for Kerry rather than Bush are those given by Edmond the Libertarian.
Dean Esmay embodies what the Democratic party used to stand for, and Rosemary Esmay (The Queen of All Evil) and Edmond the Libertarian embody what the Republican party used to stand for. It is time for these heroes to take back their respective parties.
Steven the selfish:
"yes, I repeat, ONLY good reasons for even thinking about voting for Kerry rather than Bush are those given by Edmond the Libertarian."
Well, here's a few more for those who are still able to understand them:
Did you know he’s spent his whole life in public service?
Did you know he can say “nuclear”?
Did you know he didn’t squander his Ivy league education drunk and jacked up on cocaine?
Did you know that when called he showed up and put his life in grave and imminent danger for his country?
Did you know that he has personally put criminals in jail as a state prosecutor?
Did you know he’s written (personally, not his favorite lobbyist/contributor) actual legislation.
Did you know he’s voted against cutbacks in the F-18 fighter and Seawolf nuclear submarine programs and in favor of missile defense, increased military pay and defense and State Department appropriations by Republicans Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, John Warner and Floyd Spence totaling more than $1.2 trillion?
Did you know he believes in government transparency and accountability?
Did you he chooses policy based upon science and fact rather than policy based upon religion and belief?
Did you know he thinks it’s morally wrong that tens of millions of Americans have none or insufficient access to medical care?
Did you know that he thinks that $half-trillion annual deficits for the foreseeable future because we drastically lowered taxes on the richest of us are unconscionably mortgaging our children’s future.
Did you know he knows how to work WITH people, even those with whom he disagrees?
Did you know that he knows enough about war and the world to not get us into tragically expensive wars because of unfounded fear or pie-in-the-sky ideology?
There are more reasons to choose John Kerry over George Bush that Rosemary’s ISPs has megabytes of drive space.
Did you know the Viet Nam Human Rights Act passed the Congress by 410-1 only to have it blocked in committee in the Senate where Kerry prevented it from being released to voting by the full senate ?
Kerry was sent to Viet Nam where he spent six months in charge of the electrical department on a ship that sailed up and down the coast of VN far from any military action. Only later did he get into a swift boat but it wasn't scheduled military action duties until Admiral Zumwalt changed his mind.
He also applied for return to USA after he found out the rule that three injuries qualified for early department. Those scratch wounds sure came in handy.
Then Kerry went stateside and applied for six months early out of his military obligation to run for Congress. After permission was granted, he joined the Hanoi Jane parade and generally pissed and shit on the military veterans still on active duty and at the same time faked throwing his medals away.
Did you know that he favors partial birth abortion
the procedure where the child comes down the birth canal far enough for an abortion doctor to punctured its cranium so they can suction out the contents thereby rendering procedure a success ?
And he still will not release his military records.
Some voters believe he is a duplicitious schmuck
and UNFIT FOR COMMAND.
Catch 22:
“Did you know that he favors partial birth abortion”
By that logic, as a Bush supporter, you “favor” the slaughter of innocent women and children in Iraq as well as illegal, backroom, coat hanger abortions that kill desperate young women who don’t have access to the safe and legal kind.
Catch 22:
“Some voters believe he is a duplicitious schmuck and UNFIT FOR COMMAND”
Some voters should have to prove their rationality before being allowed anywhere near a voting booth.
Shep,
Go for it babe! I have plenty of space - I pay extra for it!!! ;-)
Posted by: Rosemary the Queen of All Evil at August 16, 2004 07:26 PMshep, you'd never be allowed to vote.
Posted by: John Irving at August 16, 2004 07:47 PMOK Rosemary,
The first one's a cheap steal and I'm hittin' the tip jar to help out. Let me know how much more space I have to work with:
Attitude: Not-so-Curious George (Bush)
President Bush claimed in an interview a while back that he does not read newspapers. His wife, Laura, later told a reporter that the president was fudging and that, in fact, he did actually peruse the press.
In matters involving the Bush family, it is generally wise to take Laura's word. And we were inclined to do so - until the president's latest pronouncement about the benefits that have supposedly come America's way as a result of occupying Iraq.
The man, who more than a year ago declared that the heavy lifting in Iraq was done, only to discover that the fight had barely started, is now back with another over-the-top pronouncement. "Today," Bush said last week, "because America has acted and because America has led, the forces of terror and tyranny have suffered defeat after defeat, and America and the world are safer."
By any measure, the president is wrong. Capital Times Monday July 19, 2004
Attitude: The 'don't blame me' president
THE IDEA that an administration would conveniently direct the finger of blame at one of its agencies with respect to matters so important as war and peace is manifestly immoral.
When Harry Truman was faced with miscalculations regarding the Korean conflict, his attitude was: "The buck stops here." And when John Kennedy was faced with the Bay of Pigs fiasco, he took full and unqualified blame. These men lived with the aftermath of their mistakes and blamed them on no one else.
George Bush must assume responsibility for the intelligence failures and all other mistakes made on his watch. And he must do so without qualification. That is what honorable men do. If they cannot or will not, they are not worthy of the offices they hold. Boston Globe Thursday July 15, 2004
Attitude: To Err Is Human, to Flip-Flop Divine
NEW YORK -- President Bush is working hard to convince the American people that John F. Kerry has a fatal flaw: He changes his mind. Or, in the current political lexicon, he "flip-flops." But isn't a willingness to change course -- even to admit error -- an asset in a leader?
Throughout U.S. history, important decisions, some of monumental proportions, came about because presidents changed their minds. In his first political statement, in March 1832, the 23-year-old Abraham Lincoln said, "Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I thought. So soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them." LA Times Tuesday July 06, 2004
Attitude: Arrogance, big-time
TO TAKE the measure of a man's character, so the saying goes, apply a little pressure. Anyone can behave well when life is easy. The true test comes when the going gets tough.
So, while the X-rated insult Vice President Dick Cheney hurled Tuesday at Vermont Democrat Patrick J. Leahy might be forgiven by the senator as the product of a "bad day," it fits so well into a broader pattern of arrogance as to be indicative of the inner life of the man who plays an enormous role in running this country. Baltimore Sun Sunday June 27, 2004
Attitude: Bush jokes about search for WMD, but it's no laughing matter
President George Bush sparked a political firestorm yesterday after making what many judged a tasteless and ill-judged joke about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Mr Bush made the joke at a black-tie event for radio and television journalists in Washington on Wednesday night. He narrated a slide show, described as the White House election year album, making hay of the administration's reputation for secrecy and strained relations with European allies. But it was the joke about the war in Iraq that drew attacks. Guardian Friday March 26, 2004
Attitude: Bush's ugly cynicism
George W. Bush will deliver his State of the Union address this evening and, no doubt, he will talk about how he wants to unite America and Americans. But the president's comments should be viewed in the context of his recent actions. Last Thursday, while on a fund-raising trip to Atlanta, Bush inserted himself into the celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the birth of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In doing so, the president upset the schedule of planned local events, but he got what he wanted: an opportunity to be photographed placing a wreath on the grave of the slain civil rights leader. Capital Times Tuesday January 20, 2004
Attitude: Mourning in America
It is wrong, both morally and for the good of his political future, for the president to keep skipping funerals for fund-raisers. NY Times Wednesday November 19, 2003
Attitude: American hypocrisy on democracy
With bombs going off in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and skirmishes raging in Afghanistan, George W. Bush is championing democracy for Muslims as an antidote to terrorism. But, as usual, he tells only half the truth. Toronto Star Thursday November 13, 2003
Attitude: A Willful Ignorance
According to The New York Times, President Bush was genuinely surprised to learn from moderate Islamic leaders that they had become deeply distrustful of American intentions. The report on the "perception gap" suggests that the leader of the war on terror has no idea how badly that war -- which must, ultimately, be a war for hearts and minds -- is going. Mr. Bush's ignorance may reflect his lack of curiosity: "The best way to get the news," he says, "is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff." Two words: emperor, clothes. NY Times Tuesday October 28, 2003
Attitude: One Reason Not to Like Bush
This is not a policy disagreement. Or rather, it is not only a policy disagreement. If the president is not a complete moron -- and he probably is not -- he is a hardened cynic, staging moral anguish he does not feel, pandering to people he cannot possibly agree with and sacrificing the future of many American citizens for short-term political advantage. Is that a good enough reason to dislike him personally? Washington Post Friday October 24, 2003
Attitude: Bush fails to recognize middle ground, resorts to either-or thinking
Either you're with us or against us.--George W. Bush America--Love It or Leave It.--bumper sticker common in the 1960's. The two statements above are examples of Aristotelian or two-valued logic, also known as either-or logic: i.e., left/right, war/peace, evil/good. Either you're with US or against US. Love US or leave US. The flaw in this system should be obvious: it recognizes no middle term, no grey area. What of those citizens who are neither for nor against? Andrew Williams Sunday October 05, 2003
Attitude: Bush equates pacifism with "doing nothing"
Pacifism does not have to translate into just doing nothing. Either-or-thinking, such as Either we attack or we do nothing, is just lazy, selfish and dangerously limited. Emma Goldman once said, It takes less mental effort to condemn than to think. The world and human beings are a lot more complicated than the 0 or 1 parameters we feel so comfortable imposing. psst! Sunday October 05, 2003
Attitude: Hubris leads Bush to use out of date intelligence to justify war
It is an act of extreme hubris for this administration to repeatedly justify its invasion of Iraq by citing Iraq's attacks on Iran decades ago and its use of banned weapons in that war. Those old charges won't suffice for a world demanding hard and more recent evidence supporting the need for a preemptive attack. Daily Times Sunday October 05, 2003
Attitude: Bush characterizes German anti-war behavior as undemocratic
The Americans have been furious with the Germans since last autumn's general election campaign when Gerhard Schroeder adopted a rather critical attitude towards Bush's policy on Iraq. Schroeder was well behind in the polls until he emphasised that Germany would not cooperate with the Americans in attacking Iraq. This struck a chord in the German people, because the campaign turned around and Schroeder's coalition won re-election. Yet this is depicted in Washington as undemocratic, which says more about the Bush administration than anyone else. Irish Examiner Saturday October 04, 2003
Attitude: Bush's "stupid and arrogant" behavior raise questions about ability to wage war
Through a combination of sheer stupidity and contemptible arrogance, the Bush administration has been making a mess of the public relations battle, which raises the most serious questions about its competence to wage a war. Irish Examiner Saturday October 04, 2003
Attitude: Bush insists on getting his way, even if democracy suffers
Now we should be asking if George W Bush understands democracy, not just because of his attitude towards the Germans, but also after what happened during the election count in Florida when he showed little concern for due process. He wanted his way regardless of the democratic implications. Irish Examiner Saturday October 04, 2003
Attitude: Oval office lacks humility, practices hubris and deceit
Perhaps the administration's parlay of hubris and deceit can be made right. These are still early days. George W. Bush said before his election that as the world's sole superpower, the United States should be willing to show some humility in international affairs. It was a good point, and this is a good time for it. And the Oval Office would be a good place to start. The Charlotte Observer Friday August 01, 2003
Attitude: Hubris leads Bush to "nation building"
The faction that focuses on foreign policy has four core principles: Preserve U.S. sovereignty and freedom of action by marginalizing the United Nations. Reserve military interventions for reasons of U.S. national security, not altruism. Avoid peacekeeping operations that compromise the military's war-fighting proficiencies. Beware of the political hubris inherent in the intensely unconservative project of nation-building. Seattle Post Intelligencer Sunday July 27, 2003
Attitude: Bush uses "faith-based" intelligence to support preconceived notions
Greg Thielmann, who worked until last fall as a proliferation expert in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, explains, This administration has had a faith-based intelligence Attitude: 'We know the answers, give us the intelligence to support those answers. Counter Punch Saturday July 26, 2003
Attitude: Arrogrance leads to fantastic predictions for Arab world
The Bush administration will now attempt to refashion Iraq as a U.S. ally in the Arab world, democratic and globalized, friendly to Israel, dotted with U.S. bases, open to foreign ideas, institutions, and missionary efforts. But the neocons' Achilles heel is arrogance. Counter Punch Saturday July 26, 2003
Attitude: Bush shifts blame for bad intelligence
So does GB2 step up to the plate and take responsibility for his deceptions, hubris, and Oedipal obsessions? No, he pins it on the CIA. It was George Tenet?s fault, who is obligated to publicly apologize. Liberal Slant Friday July 25, 2003
Attitude: Administration has "bullyboy" attitude
But it's a larger issue, and here's where the Bush people are so vulnerable. Given that their bullyboy, in-your-face attitude had worked so well, in their hubris they really thought they could do and say anything and get away with it forever. So they told all sorts of whoppers about why Iraq supposedly was an 'imminent' danger to the U.S., and grossly manipulated non-existent facts to generate pro-war hysteria in time to meet the go-date for the bombing and invasion - which, of course, had been set a half-year before. All of that was so blatant and obvious, it was no wonder millions of protesters took to the streets, and the European leaders and the U.N. would have nothing to do with the Bush Administration and even shouted at them in public. Democratic Underground Friday July 25, 2003
Attitude: Bush lacks vision, focuses on "evil"
George W. Bush, who has a problem with the vision thing that causes his father's confusion over the matter to pale in comparison, is the man of these people. They didn't mind his inability to name the leaders of foreign countries when he was put into office, and now they don't mind the way he whips up frenzies through an incessant talk of evil. Liberal Slant Thursday July 17, 2003
Attitude: Bush exhibits "unfathomable hypocrisy"
This is an eerie moment in American political history. George W. Bush was defeated in the popular vote by his more liberal opponent but rules from the most extreme wing of his party. He campaigned as a fiscal conservative but has pushed tax cuts that will create a deficit larger than any in US history. As a candidate, he articulated the need for a humble foreign policy but now conducts it with a degree of hubris that makes Lyndon Johnson look like the Dalai Lama. His hypocrisy, in other words, is so great as to be almost unfathomable, and yet he has somehow managed to convince the media to admire him for his moral clarity. The Nation Thursday April 17, 2003
Attitude: Bush exhibits "perils of hubris"
As Richard Helms, the CIA director for much of the Vietnam War, said in 1981, "We were dealing with a complicated cultural and ethnic problem which we never came to understand. In other words, it was our ignorance or innocence, if you will, which led us to misassess, not comprehend, and make a lot of wrong decisions, which one way or another helped to affect the outcome." This time out, the nation is more fortunate: the perils of hubris have become evident within days of the first attack. The Nation Monday March 31, 2003
Attitude: Bush and Cheney try to stop 9/11 investigation
You do remember that both Bush and Cheney quietly asked the then-leaders of the House and Senate, Gephardt and Daschle, not to investigate the pre-9/11 period for reasons of national security. Perhaps one of the things they'd like to keep hidden was the fact that they were warned by the outgoing Clinton Administration specifically about the enormous dangers posed by Osama bin Laden/Al Qaida, but, in their arrogance, the incoming Bush Administration decided not to pay any attention to those warnings; instead, they said they were going to set up their own commission to look into terrorism, with Dick Cheney as head. Cheney -- too busy putting together an energy policy with Kenneth Lay's Enron and the other energy companies -- did nothing and the promised report on terrorism never materialized. The Crisis Papers Thursday February 06, 2003
Attitude: Bush ignored NASA warnings about shuttle dangers
Given this arrogant, we-know-it-all attitude, there was no reason, then, for Bush and his subordinates to listen to the technical experts who warned early last year (1), and even as recently as last August (2) about the disaster-in-the-making for the Space Shuttle and its crews unless certain procedures and processes were fixed. These NASA experts were ignored by Bush and his advisors, and removed from their positions. The Crisis Papers Thursday February 06, 2003
Attitude: Bush squanders 9/11 sympathy with arrogant behavior
After the 9/11 attacks, the United States enjoyed an enormous wellspring of sympathy from people around the world. Bush has squandered this support by projecting an unfortunately all-too -typically arrogant attitude toward the world. Seattle Post Intelligencer Saturday December 07, 2002
Attitude: Bush and Rumsfeld arrogantly refuse to provide WMD evidence
This has not stopped our national misleaders from insisting that they are our ticket to security. But for that assertion there has been as little evidence offered as there has been for the claims that Saddam Hussein is a threat to Americans or that he had anything to do with al-Qaeda. "We don't need no stinkin' evidence" is the attitude that oozes from President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The Future of Freedom Foundation Wednesday December 04, 2002
Attitude: Bush's promise of "humble" foreign policy becomes preemptive war
Dangerous days lie ahead, thanks to Mr. Bush and his new strategic doctrine of global preventive war. Things were supposed to be different. Does anyone remember that day ages ago when then-candidate Bush promised a "humble" foreign policy? I guess to Orwell's "War is Peace" and "Freedom is Slavery" we may now add Bush's "Arrogance is Humility." The Future of Freedom Foundation Wednesday December 04, 2002
Attitude: Bush's "bullying drumbeat"
Angered by what she views as the Bush administration's bullying drumbeat, Thomas referred early and often to her own hatred of war, quoting from poets and politicians to bear down on President Bush and his colleagues. Helen Thomas, speech Wednesday November 06, 2002
Attitude: Bush threatens and bullies Europe over ICC
After months of threats and bullying, the Bush administration has apparently backed down in its confrontation with Western Europe over the newly formed International Criminal Court (ICC). World Socialist Web Site Saturday July 13, 2002
Attitude: US's bullying attitude abroad may have "distrous consequences"
Now, having said that, we must point out that the institutions in this country -- the Constitution, the courts, the legislative bodies, civil liberties, the Bill of Rights, the press, etc. -- are in as much danger as they've ever been in. And the U.S.'s bullying attitude abroad may well lead to disastrous consequences for America down the line. Counter Punch Saturday June 01, 2002
Attitude: Arrogance of power leads to assaults on critical thinking and dissent
They are clear that Washington's arrogance of power and reckless global war is leading to assaults on critical thinking and democratic dissent. American Friends Service Committee Sunday April 14, 2002
Attitude: Bush seeks global domination through nuclear arsenals
Stephen Hadley, one of Condolezzia Rice's senior deputies reports that, not unlike the elder Bush's New World Order, this Bush Administration seeks a whole new world, U.S. global domination based ultimately on its nuclear and high-tech arsenals. American Friends Service Committee Sunday April 14, 2002
Attitude: Bush fails to see that all our lives are interrelated
President Bush did an excellent job in rallying the country against the perpetrators of the September 11 atrocities but we must not forget that all our lives are interrelated, that we are all citizens of this planet, that we need a new way of thinking different from 'linear thinking,' and that humanity comes first. Mario deSantis Tuesday September 25, 2001
Democracy: Suppress the Vote?
The big story out of Florida over the weekend was the tragic devastation caused by Hurricane Charley. But there's another story from Florida that deserves our attention.
State police officers have gone into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando and interrogated them as part of an odd "investigation" that has frightened many voters, intimidated elderly volunteers and thrown a chill over efforts to get out the black vote in November. New York Times Monday August 16, 2004
Democracy: Will The Gang That Fixed Florida Fix the Vote in Caracas this Sunday?
Hugo Chavez drives George Bush crazy. Maybe it's jealousy: Unlike Mr. Bush, Chavez, in Venezuela, won his Presidency by a majority of the vote.
Or maybe it's the oil: Venezuela sits atop a reserve rivaling Iraq's. And Hugo thinks the US and British oil companies that pump the crude ought to pay more than a 16% royalty to his nation for the stuff. Hey, sixteen percent isn't even acceptable as a tip at a New York diner.
Whatever it is, OUR President has decided that THEIR president has to go. This is none too easy given that Chavez is backed by Venezuela's poor. And the US oil industry, joined with local oligarchs, has made sure a vast majority of Venezuelans remain poor.
Therefore, Chavez is expected to win this coming Sunday's recall vote. That is, if the elections are free and fair.
They won't be. Some months ago, a little birdie faxed to me what appeared to be confidential pages from a contract between John Ashcroft's Justice Department and a company called ChoicePoint, Inc., of Atlanta. The deal is part of the War on Terror. Greg Palast Tuesday August 10, 2004
Democracy: Time's up inÝblame game
Politics in Washington works in strange ways. A case in point is theÝSenate Intelligence Committee's decision to divide its investigation of the US invasion of Iraq into two parts. The first part dealt with the reasons for intelligence failure, or false intelligence, governing that decision. That congressional report, issued on Friday, damned the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in asserting that the invasion was carried out on false intelligence.
However, conclusive statements on the second part - regarding the culpability of the administration of President George W Bush, whether it went to war for the wrong reasons, by creating disinformation about the weapons of mass destruction-related capabilities of Saddam Hussein and his intentions toward the United States - will come out after the November presidential elections. Yet that is the most important part of the investigation. Asia Times Thursday July 15, 2004
Democracy: Don't even think about it
OFFICIALS OF the Bush administration are said to be pondering what power they have -- or should seek -- to postpone national elections in November in the event of terrorist strikes aimed at disrupting the democratic process.
The Bush people should drop the idea, lest the hint that terrorism could curb the rights of Americans be an added incentive to our enemies. SF Chronicle Monday July 12, 2004
Democracy: U.S. control of Iraq betrays founding fathers
Whatever the founding fathers had in mind as the definition of democracy when they approved the Declaration of Independence 228 years ago today, it cannot possibly have been the condition that has developed under American control in Iraq today.
There, under the mantle of democracy-making, a bloody, tawdry, secretive, tragic and sometimes farcical condition exists. The events of the past week demonstrated as much. Baltimore Sun Sunday July 04, 2004
Democracy: US lawmakers request UN observers for November 2 presidential election
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Several members of the House of Representatives have requested the United Nations to send observers to monitor the November 2 US presidential election to avoid a contentious vote like in 2000, when the outcome was decided by Florida.
Recalling the long, drawn out process in the southern state, nine lawmakers, including four blacks and one Hispanic, sent a letter Thursday to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan asking that the international body "ensure free and fair elections in America," Yahoo News Friday July 02, 2004
Democracy: Bush's Vatican strategy
BUMPER stickers saying ``Bishops for Bush'' may soon be coming. It seems that the president who admits few faults and confesses no shame but invokes God in policy decisions to a grating degree for many Americans pandered to the pope in his recent trip to the Vatican. The National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper, published an article that said Bush asked Vatican officials to help him in the American culture wars. Boston Globe Tuesday June 15, 2004
Democracy: Bush is melding the war in Iraq with the war to win tax relief on stock dividends.
It is a shameless exploitation of a military victory with the goal of intimidating Republican holdouts on Capitol Hill. Just as Bush crushed Democrats in last year's congressional elections with appeals to patriotism, he is now turning the big guns on his own party. MSNBC Sunday April 18, 2004
Democracy: Bush promises Palestinians democracy, as long as they don't elect Arafat
Bush II promised Palestinians democracy - provided, of course, they didn't re-elect Yasser Arafat. Big Eye Saturday October 04, 2003
Democracy: Preemptive, undeclared war is generating resistance among some rank-in-file soldiers
military personnel who are not pacifists or conscientious objectors. Joined by military families and 12 members of the U.S. Congress, a group of U.S. service men and women recently challenged Presidential abuse of power. Common Dreams Monday April 07, 2003
Democracy: Bush angry at Turkey for exercising democratic will
U.S. reaction to the weekend news that Turkey's parliament had rejected a proposal to accept the basing of U.S. troops for an Iraq war only confirmed what has long been obvious: The Bush administration believes democracy is wonderful -- so long as it doesn't get in the way of war. Common Dreams Monday March 03, 2003
Democracy: Huge protests are "irrelevant" to Bush
When asked about his reaction to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who rallied on Feb. 15 to oppose a war, Bush brushed them off as irrelevant. To pay attention to the largest worldwide political event in recent history, he said, would be like governing by focus group. Common Dreams Monday March 03, 2003
Democracy: In trade, commerce trumps democracy
The U.S. government employs a double standard by trading with one-party communist regimes in China and Vietnam, affirming that commerce may open the way for political freedoms, while shunning Cuba, said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a leader of a new 40-member congressional bloc seeking an easing of tensions with Cuba. Blackpool and Fylde Cuba Solidarity Campaign Sunday March 02, 2003
Democracy: For Bush, democracy is really imperial hegemony
In Bush-speak, democracy has been perverted to mean U.S. imperial hegemony: nations run by puppet rulers who make all the right noises, like Afghanistan's U.S.-installed figurehead, Hamid Karzai, while following Washington's orders to the letter. Common Dreams Sunday March 02, 2003
Democracy: Bush has little interest in democracy, jokingly says he prefers a dictatorship
Bush pushes for democracy abroad as part of his war on terror, but diminishes it at home. Critics believe he has no real interest in democracy, only getting rid of terrorists: George W. Bush says he wants to attack Iraq to install democracy. But as he explained on 2002-12-18: "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." Common Dreams Sunday February 23, 2003
Democracy: Bush places unrealistic demands on Palestinians
With a straight face, Bush asked the Palestinians to remove their existing leaders, create a functional democracy with separation of powers, write a constitution, and implement a market economy. No state in world history, and certainly not one under foreign occupation, has ever done this in three years. After a half-century of independence, none of the Arab states satisfy the Bush criteria. According to the cynics, Bush knows that the Palestinians can never meet these criteria, and thus a Palestinian state will never be created. Taking us to war based on lies is a clear abrogation of democracy. Counter Punch Friday July 05, 2002
Democracy: Bush concentrates executive power by establishing military tribunals
Bush issued of an Executive Order on November 13th, establishing a system of military tribunals to try accused terrorists. The degree to which the Order concentrates power in the hands of the Executive is breathtaking. Center for Constitutional Rights Wednesday July 03, 2002
Democracy: Bush's democracy based on money --Fidel Castro
For Mr. W, democracy only exists where money solves everything and where those who can afford a $25,000-a-plate dinner an insult to the billions of people living in the poor, hungry and underdeveloped world are the ones called to solve the problems of society and the world --. Fidel Castro China Daily Thursday June 06, 2002
Democracy: The White House has assumed vast new powers for internal repression
establishing by executive order an Office of Homeland Security that is not subject to either congressional oversight or any vote on the personnel appointed to run it. WSWS Friday March 08, 2002
Democracy: FCC appointee result of nepotism, not qualifications
Bush's appointee to head the FCC is the son of Colin Powell. A more experienced, less-partisan person would have better protected the public airwaves, which are essential to a functioning democracy. The Guardian Monday October 29, 2001
Democracy: FCC Chair promotes corporate-friendly agenda
After nine months in office, Powell does appear hellbent on pursuing a corporate-friendly agenda that can only result in a further torrent of mergers in the media industries. The Guardian Monday October 29, 2001
Economy: Bush's Own Goal
A new Bush campaign ad pushes the theme of an "ownership society," and concludes with President Bush declaring, "I understand if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of America."
Call me naive, but I thought all Americans have a vital stake in the nation's future, regardless of how much property they own. (Should we go back to the days when states, arguing that only men of sufficient substance could be trusted, imposed property qualifications for voting?) Even if Mr. Bush is talking only about the economic future, don't workers have as much stake as property owners in the economy's success?
But there's a political imperative behind the "ownership society" theme: the need to provide pseudopopulist cover to policies that are, in reality, highly elitist. New York Times Friday August 13, 2004
Economy: Painting the Economy Into a Corner
President Bush reacted decisively to this month's shockingly bad employment report - by quickly changing the topic to terror. The Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, also focused elsewhere, namely on rising oil prices. Mr. Greenspan used inflationary energy costs as the rationale for raising interest rates a quarter point, despite the drastic slump in hiring and a recent slowdown in productivity growth.
What neither man seems ready to acknowledge outright is that policy makers have run out of tools for stewarding an economy that - nearly three years into a recovery - has yet to flourish and may even be downshifting to neutral. The president's fiscal policies, mainly high-end tax cuts, have resulted in a record federal budget deficit without spurring hiring or income growth. If Mr. Bush continues on the tax-cut path, continuing high deficits will further threaten job creation and living standards. New York Times Thursday August 12, 2004
Economy: Bush Says National Sales Tax Worth Considering
NICEVILLE, Fla. (Reuters) - President Bush said on Tuesday that abolishing the U.S. income tax system and replacing it with a national sales tax was an idea worth considering.
"It's an interesting idea," Bush told an "Ask President Bush" campaign forum here. "You know, I'm not exactly sure how big the national sales tax is going to have to be, but it's the kind of interesting idea that we ought to explore seriously." Yahoo News Tuesday August 10, 2004
Economy: Economic realities
WASHINGTON -- THE LATEST news about the sagging American economy confirms two important trends:
The alleged recovery from the recession more than three years ago is sputtering, and the big shots in the financial and political world have neither seen the slowdown coming nor been able to explain it to worried Americans.
Instead, they have been caught with their Pollyanna pants down. The spike in the economy's total output that occurred a year ago has been decelerating ever since, and the spike in private sector job creation that occurred in March has also been decelerating ever since. It was equally alarming on Friday that the government lowered its estimates of job creation in May and June even as it was reporting that barely 40,000 new jobs had been created in July. Boston Globe Sunday August 08, 2004
Economy: Few new jobs/Symptom of failed policy
As a general rule of political economy, the prudent citizen draws a bright line between developments in the marketplace and events in Washington, D.C. The vast American economy can respond to forces quite beyond the control of politicians, and the behavior of politicians can respond to -- well, who knows?
But the dismal employment report released Friday by the Labor Department makes it impossible to sustain that distinction -- not with an election just three months away. The disappointing numbers should be deeply chastening for the campaign of President Bush and deeply troubling for voters who have suffered the most incompetent economic stewardship in memory. Star-Tribune Saturday August 07, 2004
Economy: U.S. Adding More Oil to Emergency Reserve
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Friday it was adding more oil to the U.S. emergency petroleum reserve, despite record high crude prices and strong oil demand.
The U.S. Interior Department said it awarded contracts to ChevronTexaco Corp. and Royal Dutch/Shell Group's Shell Oil to deliver more than 100,000 barrels of crude a day to the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Reuters Friday August 06, 2004
Economy: A Record Deficit
THE BUSH administration announced last week its revised figure for this year's budget deficit: $445 billion. This, or so the spin goes, is good news, because the original forecast was even higher -- $521 billion. But outside budget experts had warned that the forecast was inflated, which tarnishes any celebration of the new number. Not that the administration was deterred. "This improved budget outlook is the direct result of the strong economic growth the president's tax relief has fueled," crowed Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten.
Mr. Bolten's argument makes little sense: Economic growth has been no faster than the administration anticipated when it predicted the higher deficit. In any event, $445 billion marks the highest deficit ever (though the administration seems to be setting the stage for a new round of better-than-expected numbers just before Election Day). Only in the administration's upside-down economic world could a deficit $70 billion higher than last year's be hailed as progress. Washington Post Thursday August 05, 2004
Economy: Deficit rule No. 1: If you're in a hole, stop digging
WASHINGTON ‚ Bad economic news presses from all sides. The recovery is faltering. The stock market is in a funk. Consumers are being squeezed between stagnant incomes, rising costs of buying credit, and maxed-out credit cards.
Deficits of all kinds are growing. The federal budget deficit is projected at $5 trillion (that's trillion, as in 5,000,000,000,000) over the next 10 years. The federal government's unfunded liabilities, mainly for retirement and healthcare, are $72 trillion. This will show up later in budget deficits as the baby-boomer generation ages. The trade deficit - the difference between what the US exports and what it imports - was $46 billion in May, the latest month for which figures are available. That's a rate of $552 billion a year, the measure of the obligations to foreigners incurred by the US.
Doing something about the budget deficit and its cousin, the unfunded liabilities, is simply being put off in the hope that they will go away until somebody else is in charge. CS Monitor Thursday August 05, 2004
Economy: The Administration's Efforts to Make Harmful Deficits Appear Benign
Today, the Office of Management and Budget released new projections stating that the budget deficit will grow to $445 billion in fiscal year 2004.Ý This is $70 billion larger than the 2003 deficit, which stood at $375 billion.Ý Despite the recovery, the deficit has continued to rise significantly.
The $445 billion projected deficit also is more than $700 billion worse than what the Administration projected for fiscal year 2004 in its first budget, submitted in February 2001.Ý At that time, the Administration forecast a $262 billion surplus for 2004.
In the face of this dramatic fiscal deterioration, the Administration is now attempting to downplay the deficits and is citing the new figures as evidence it is making progress on the fiscal front. ÝIn spinning the new deficit numbers, the Administration and others have made several dubious claims. CBPP Sunday August 01, 2004
Economy: I.R.S. Says Americans' Income Shrank for 2 Consecutive Years
The overall income Americans reported to the government shrank for two consecutive years after the Internet stock market bubble burst in 2000, the first time that has effectively happened since the modern tax system was introduced during World War II, newly disclosed information from the Internal Revenue Service shows.
The total adjusted gross income on tax returns fell 5.1 percent, to just over $6 trillion in 2002, the most recent year for which data is available, from $6.35 trillion in 2000. Because of population growth, average incomes declined even more, by 5.7 percent. New York Times Thursday July 29, 2004
Economy: Red ink more severe in first three quarters, figures show
The government's deficit ballooned to $326.6 billion in the first nine months of the 2004 budget year, according to a snapshot of U.S. balance sheets released Tuesday.
That's more than 20 percent larger than the $269.7 billion shortfall for the corresponding period last year. For the current budget year which began Oct. 1, this spending has totaled $1.73 trillion, 6.4 percent more than the same period a year ago. Revenues came to $1.40 trillion, 3.5 percent more than the previous year. SF Chronicle Thursday July 15, 2004
Economy: Help wanted
THE CHANCES are minuscule that Congress will reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act before the fall presidential election, leaving job training in political limbo.
Partisan jousting in the House and penny-pinching by President Bush undermine the hopes of 8.2 million unemployed Americans who need education and training to compete in the job market. NULLBoston Globe Monday July 12, 2004
Economy: Bye-Bye, Bush Boom
When does optimism -- the Bush campaign's favorite word these days -- become an inability to face facts? On Friday, President Bush insisted that a seriously disappointing jobs report, which fell far short of the pre-announcement hype, was good news: "We're witnessing steady growth, steady growth. And that's important. We don't need boom-or-bust-type growth."
But Mr. Bush has already presided over a bust. For the first time since 1932, employment is lower in the summer of a presidential election year than it was on the previous Inauguration Day. Americans badly need a boom to make up the lost ground. And we're not getting it. NY Times Tuesday July 06, 2004
Economy: More jobs, less pay
A LEADING consumer confidence index hit a two-year high last week, and polls show that President Bush's approval ratings have been hurt by Iraq but helped by a growing belief that the economy is improving. Certainly, there are more signs of that now than in the first three years of Mr. Bush's administration. The economy has been adding an average of more than 300,000 jobs a month since March, the unemployment rate has fallen over the last year from 6.3 percent to 5.6 percent, and consumer spending set a record in May.
All for the good -- but not everything is so good. Beneath the surface lurks disquieting fragility: Baltimore Sun Sunday July 04, 2004
Economy: Bush's Tax Cuts Hurt Schools, Spur Local Tax Hikes
June 23 (Bloomberg) -- Al Strazzullo, a retired regional manager for the U.S. General Accounting Office, got the good news first. President George W. Bush's $330 billion cut in personal income taxes put an extra $177 in his 2003 government pension.
In March, Strazzullo, 76, got the bad news. The gain was wiped out by a $538 increase in property taxes on his three- bedroom, brick-veneer house in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The bill went to $3,283 from $2,745. Bloomberg Wednesday June 23, 2004
Economy: Factory Bush Touted Closes; 1,300 Ohioans Jobless
Last April, President Bush visited a Timken Company manufacturing plant in Ohio to press for passage of new tax cuts that he said would spur the economy. During the speech Bush said that "the future of this company is bright and therefore, the future of employment is bright for the families that work here". Less than a year after the tax cuts for the wealthy passed, that same factory is shutting down -- putting about 1,300 people out of work and inflicting a "devastating" blow to the Canton community. With the White House pushing even more tax cuts for the wealthy and supporting outsourcing of American jobs, Ohio has lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs since President Bush took office. Misleader Tuesday May 18, 2004
Economy: PASSING DOWN THE DEFICIT: FEDERAL POLICIES CONTRIBUTE TO STATE FISCAL CRISIS
The state fiscal crisis has been deep and prolonged. States have struggled to close deficits that have totaled approximately $190 billion over the past three years. And, as states debate and enact budgets for fiscal year 2005 (which, in most states, begins on 2004-07-1), they are facing deficits of roughly another $40 billion for that year. Federal policies, which have reduced state revenues and imposed additional costs on states, have played a significant role in enlarging these deficits and are impeding states' fiscal recovery. These federal policies have contributed significantly to the need for states and localities to make expenditure cuts and enact tax increases to bring their budgets into balance. CBPP Wednesday May 12, 2004
Economy: New Report Questions Effectiveness, Design of Bush Tax Cuts
A new study of three years of Administration tax cuts, issued by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, finds adverse fiscal, distributional, and long-term economic effects from the tax cuts. CBPP Saturday April 24, 2004
Economy: The GOP is portraying moderate-tax-cut Senate Republicans as Francophiles
April 18 - More than 60 percent of Americans say large tax cuts now are not needed, yet President Bush is making support for tax cuts a test of party loyalty and patriotism. MSNBC Sunday April 18, 2004
Economy: Bush's job-training proposal empty
"A dagger pointed at the jugular of the unskilled." That's how economist and free trade advocate Jagdish Bhagwati recently described the effect of technological change and churning jobs in the world economy on America's workers. Or, as President Bush put it just last Monday to an audience in North Carolina: "We're not training enough people to fill the jobs of the 21st century." In his speech, the president announced he would seek to revamp federal job training programs to double the number of people trained every year. Trouble is, job training isn't cheap. The president's proposal doesn't offer a single dime of new funding -- it just reshuffles the already inadequate funding. Seattle PI Thursday April 08, 2004
Economy: Bush's Goal of Affordable, High-Speed Internet Access for All Americans Contradicts Administration Policies
(Washington, D.C.) -- President Bush's much-publicized goal of providing affordable high-speed Internet access to all Americans by ensuring "plenty of choice" in broadband service contradicts Administration policies that actually have strengthened cable and phone monopolies which have led to higher prices and less choice in broadband, Consumers Union and Consumer Federation of America said today in a letter to the president. Consumers Union Tuesday March 30, 2004
Economy: Snow: Outsourcing Can Help the Economy
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Treasury Secretary John Snow says outsourcing of American jobs, a hot issue in the presidential campaign, can help make the economy stronger. "It's part of trade," Snow said. "It's one aspect of trade, and there can't be any doubt about the fact that trade makes the economy stronger.""You can outsource a lot of activities and get them done just as well at a lower cost," Snow said after being asked about the issue during a stop here Monday. NY Times Tuesday March 30, 2004
Economy: Bush Economic Team Draws Fire Over Jobs
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats are pouncing on a series of stumbles by President Bush's economic team, claiming it's evidence the administration doesn't have a credible strategy to deal with a flood of U.S. manufacturing job losses. The latest misstep occurred Thursday when the administration's first choice as point man on manufacturing issues withdrew from consideration after Democrats attacked his decision to set up a manufacturing plant in China. NY Times Friday March 12, 2004
Economy: Critics Tackle $10B Request for Missiles
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic senators Thursday criticized the administration's budget request for the missile defense program, questioning anew whether the system will ever work. Supporters urged continued funding for the program still in development. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., called the request for $10.2 billion "truly staggering" -- the largest single-year funding request for any weapon system in history -- and questioned the program as "rudimentary and uncertain." NY Times Thursday March 11, 2004
Economy: White House Forecasts Often Miss The Mark
President Bush last week caused a stir when he declined to endorse a projection, made by his own Council of Economic Advisers, that the economy would add 2.6 million jobs this year. But that forecast, derided as wildly optimistic, was one of the more modest predictions the administration has made about the economy over the past three years. Two years ago, the administration forecast that there would be 3.4 million more jobs in 2003 than there were in 2000. And it predicted a budget deficit for fiscal 2004 of $14 billion. The economy ended up losing 1.7 million jobs over that period, and the budget deficit for this year is on course to be $521 billion. These are not isolated cases. Over three years, the administration has repeatedly and significantly overstated the government's fiscal health and the number of jobs the economy would create, but economists and politicians disagree about why. Washington Post Tuesday February 24, 2004
Economy: Bush Threatens to Veto $318B Highway Bill
WASHINGTON (AP) -- States would get an additional $100 billion over the next six years to build roads, repair bridges and improve public transit under a Senate-passed bill that the White House says is extravagant in an age of record deficits. The Senate voted 76-21 Thursday to approve the $318 billion surface transportation bill, a winning margin that would be enough to override a presidential veto threatened by the administration. AP Friday February 13, 2004
Economy: Homeland Security Spending Under Fire
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration's proposed $6 billion increase on homeland defense spending is a shell game undermined by cuts to other law enforcement programs, four Democratic senators charged Wednesday. The four said that it's disingenuous to tout increases in homeland security spending while at the same time trying to cut programs like the Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS program, which provides grants to state and local authorities for hiring more police officers. AP Wednesday February 11, 2004
Economy: Bush report: Sending jobs overseas helps U.S.
WASHINGTON -- The movement of American factory jobs and white-collar work to other countries is part of a positive transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation, the Bush administration said yesterday. The embrace of foreign "outsourcing," an accelerating trend that has contributed to U.S. job losses in recent years and has become an issue in the 2004 elections, is contained in the president's annual report to Congress on the U.S. economy. Seattle Times Tuesday February 10, 2004
Economy: Mr. Bush's Revisionism
Just as he did on Iraq and national security, President Bush laid the economic foundation for his re-election campaign during a television interview broadcast Sunday. In a preview of how his campaign will respond to complaints about the huge deficit and overall job losses, Mr. Bush defended his tax cuts as ways to stimulate the economy, blamed Congress for not getting spending under control and made vague promises about avoiding catastrophic red ink in the long run by reforming Medicare and Social Security. None of what we heard made much sense. NY Times Tuesday February 10, 2004
Economy: Senators Deride Domestic Security Cuts
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's new budget would not devote enough money to domestic security, senators said Monday, noting big cuts in funds for firefighters, police and others who would respond to a terrorist attack. "A stunning 30 percent cut ... for first responders is the latest alarming evidence of shortchanging the homeland side of the war against terrorism," Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., told Homeland Security Security Secretary Tom Ridge. "We have a long way to go yet before we fulfill the promises that we made to the American people in those dark days following the 9-11 attacks to adequately secure the homeland," Lieberman said at a budget hearing before the Senate Committee on Government Affairs. AP Monday February 09, 2004
Economy: Misspending Military Dollars
"The strong defense everybody wants will not come from throwing ever larger sums into the wrong weapons."If the Bush administration were at all serious about fiscal responsibility, it would have sent Congress a Defense Department budget that reflected the real costs of military operations, cut out cold-war-era programs and focused on the things the military needs in the 21st century. Regrettably, none of that happened. The budget plan is inaccurate, anachronistic and laden with pork, and Congress is only likely to make things worse. Mr. Bush is proposing to increase basic Pentagon spending by more than $20 billion over last year's budget, and that does not even count operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which could add a further $50 billion when the bill is presented to Congress after Election Day. Add that money and the nuclear weapons programs run by the Energy Department to the Pentagon's $402 billion request, and the total will approach half a trillion dollars. NY Times Thursday February 05, 2004
Economy: Bush cuts rich in, leaves rest out
"the poor are to exist on faith and charity, for such programs as low-income housing, heating assistance, jobs and unemployment insurance are all starved"Budgets, as the president said in his Saturday radio address, are a matter of priorities, of making hard choices. The president's madcap tax-and-borrow policies have run up a staggering $500 billion deficit -- without creating the jobs needed to keep the economy going. Profits are up, but so is poverty. The Bush administration is building schools in Iraq, but not in the United States. How do we get out of this box?The president's budget reveals his priorities, what he truly cares about. It is not a reassuring picture. The president's first priority remains tax cuts, largely for the wealthy. Millionaires are pocketing $30,000 a year in tax breaks from this president. The president wants, first and foremost, to make his tax cuts permanent -- no matter what that means for the deficit, for investments in our future, for already obscene extremes of inequality in what once was a middle-class nation. Chicago Sun Times Tuesday February 03, 2004
Economy: State of the Union at Home
When the president delivers his State of the Union address, we like to listen respectfully and respond politely. It is always easy to find things worth applauding. Last night, for instance, President Bush mentioned job retraining, immigration law reform and programs to help newly released prisoners re-enter society. The impulse is always to split the difference -- to decry the ideas we disagree with and then note the ones we like. This time, such evenhandedness seems impossible. The president's domestic policy comes down to one disastrous fact: his insistence on huge tax cuts for the wealthy has robbed the country of the money it needs to address its problems and has threatened its long-term economic security. Everything else is beside the point. NY Times Wednesday January 21, 2004
Economy: Weak labor market results in second consecutive year of job loss
According to today's report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nation's payrolls expanded by only 1,000 jobs last month, a marked deceleration from recent gains over the past five months.Unemployment fell from 5.9% in November to 5.7% in December, but this drop was wholly due to a contraction in the labor force, which declined by 309,000. That left the labor force participation rate at 66%, the lowest it has been since December 1991. Economic Policy Institute Friday January 09, 2004
Economy: I.M.F. Report Says U.S. Deficits Threaten World Economy
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 -- With its rising budget deficit and ballooning trade imbalance, the United States is running up a foreign debt of such record-breaking proportions that it threatens the financial stability of the global economy, according to a report made public today bythe International Monetary Fund. In nearly 60 pages of carefully worded analysis, the report sounded a loud alarm about the shaky fiscal foundation of the United States, questioning the wisdom of the Bush administration's tax cuts and warning that large budget deficits posed "significant risks" not just for the United States but for the rest of the world. NY Times Wednesday January 07, 2004
Economy: Soaring trade deficit threatens to destabilize U.S. financial markets
A trade deficit must be financed by net borrowing from other countries. The United States was effectively spending 5% more than it was producing last year, but cannot continue to borrow at such a high rate indefinitely. Worse yet, the trade deficit is growing each year as a share of GDP. Some government officials have suggested that such high levels of foreign borrowing do not pose a problem. Treasury Secretary John Snow recently said that "our current account deficit in large part reflects the attractive investment environment and high growth of productivity in the United States" (Senate Banking Committee on 2003-10-30). This statement ignores a serious problem resulting from the rising U.S. trade deficit: a growing dependence on lending by foreign governments bent on maintaining large trade surpluses with the United States. Economic Policy Institute Wednesday January 07, 2004
Economy: Out of Their Anti-Tax Minds
It's hard to overstate Norquist's importance in contemporary Washington. He is head of Americans for Tax Reform, is an intimate of Karl Rove, the president's chief political aide, and has easy access to the White House. He presides over a weekly meeting of important Republican activists and lobbyists where the agenda -- at least Norquist's -- is to ensure that taxes are reduced to a bare minimum, the government is starved and everyone, the rich and the poor, is taxed the same, which is to say almost not at all. The Bush administration has mindlessly applied this doctrine. It has three times reduced taxes -- mostly on the rich -- careening the federal budget from a surplus to a deficit without end. The rich, who can afford their schools or health care, will not suffer. But the poor and the middle class will hurt plenty -- and state and local taxes, often the most regressive, will go up. Washington Post Tuesday January 06, 2004
Economy: Bush Readies Budget As Spending Balloons
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Conservatives wait warily as President Bush makes final decisions about his election-year budget, three years into an administration on whose watch spending has mushroomed by 23.7 percent, the fastest pace in a decade. While Bush has emphasized repeatedly the need to rein in spending, overall federal expenditures have grown to an estimated $2.31 trillion for the budget year that started Oct. 1. That is up from $1.86 trillion in President Clinton's final year, a rate of growth not seen for any three-year period since 1989 to 1991. AP Monday January 05, 2004
Economy: The $500 billion bender
In just the last few months, Congress, at Bush's request, has doled out $87 billion to rebuild and secure Iraq and Afghanistan; approved a $401 billion defense appropriation bill, the largest ever; completed a $1 trillion tax cut on top of the $1.35 trillion reduction the president won in 2001; and approved a Medicare prescription drug benefit that will cost at least $400 billion over the next decade. If the energy bill is revived next year, add to the list at least another $26 billion in tax cuts for energy companies. All of this, it's worth remembering, comes when the federal government has already logged its largest deficit ever -- some $374 billion last year, $84 billion more than the previous record held by Bush's father, George H.W. Bush. SF Chronicle Saturday December 06, 2003
Economy: Looting the Future
One thing you have to say about George W. Bush: he's got a great sense of humor. At a recent fund-raiser, according to The Associated Press, he described eliminating weapons of mass destruction from Iraq and ensuring the solvency of Medicare as some of his administration's accomplishments. Then came the punch line: "I came to this office to solve problems and not pass them on to future presidents and future generations." He must have had them rolling in the aisles. Paul Krugman NY Times Friday December 05, 2003
Economy: Editorial: Big spenders/Bush & Co. remortgage nation
Someone recently called President Bush "the mother of all big spenders." It wasn't Howard Dean or any of the other Democratic presidential candidates. It wasn't a Democratic member of Congress. It was fiscal analysts for the conservative-libertarian Cato Institute. Why the harsh rhetoric for George W. Bush from what should be a sympathetic corner? Because Bush has simultaneously shrunk the revenue flowing to the federal government through a string of tax cuts while increasing federal spending like there was no tomorrow, literally. Star Tribune Sunday November 30, 2003
Economy: Energy Tax Breaks Go to Industries
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two-thirds of the $23 billion in tax breaks in the Republican-drafted energy bill would go to the oil, gas and coal industries. Democrats criticized the legislation as "a hodgepodge of subsidies for the politically well-connected." AP Monday November 17, 2003
Economy: Debt crazy/Reality check on Bush's budget
When the White House reported Monday that the federal deficit for 2003 came in below expectations -- a mere $374 billion -- President Bush's aides were quick to celebrate. "We can put the deficit on a reasonable downward path if we continue progrowth economic policies and exercise responsible spending restraint," budget director Joshua Bolten told the Wall Street Journal. This outlandish spin is an insult to the nation's taxpayers and suggests that the White House is reading its own budget documents as badly as it read the prewar intelligence on Iraq. A new report by two respected budget watchdogs -- the probusiness Committee for Economic Development and the hawkish Concord Coalition -- shows that the federal budget outlook is now the worst in the nation's history and that the Bush administration is doing absolutely nothing to fix it. Star Tribune Thursday October 23, 2003
Economy: Bush claims that he inherited the recession, but it didn't begin until later
Bush opened his final radio address of the year this way: In 2002, our economy was still recovering from the attacks of September the 11th, 2001, and it was pulling out of a recession that began before I took office. Bush concluded 2002 with the same dishonesty that defined his economic policy throughout the year--a mendacity that ranged from denying the tax cut had anything to do with the re-emergence of the deficit to arguing that the terrorism insurance bill would create 300,000 construction jobs. In fact, there is no evidence that the economy was in recession when President Bush took the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2001. Bush Watch Sunday October 12, 2003
Economy: Bush ignores humanitarian needs, spends it on Iraq
By focusing global attention on an economic crisis that does not really exist, America has diverted public attention from serious crises that do. Consider the battles against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. About eight million people will die of these preventable and treatable diseases in 2004. In 2001, the world created a global fund to fight them. Yet for fiscal year 2004, the Bush administration is committing just $200 million to that fund. For every one of these dollars, the administration is committing $350 to Iraq. These are grotesquely distorted priorities. Miami Herald Wednesday October 01, 2003
Economy: The rich get richer by 10% over the past year
America's richest people have seen a 10 per cent increase in their net worth over the past year, the latest list of individual fortunes in Forbes magazine reveals. The improving fortunes of those on the list also reflected the largesse being shown to the richest Americans by the Bush administration. . . .They are the main beneficiaries of tax cuts that will pump $100bn into the economy - most of it into the pockets of the top 1 per cent - this year alone. They have also benefited from measures such as the repeal of estate taxes and the lifting of various government regulations on industry and large businesses. The Independent Friday September 19, 2003
Economy: CBO projects huge budget shortfalls through 2011
The CBO also predicted the annual budget shortfalls would total $2.3 trillion through 2011, a stunning reversal from the 10-year, $5.6 trillion surplus the CBO forecast in 2001. But Walker, who heads the General Accounting Office, said even those daunting figures do not convey the scope of the problem because conventional government accounting leaves out the impact of promised benefits for veterans' health, Social Security, Medicare and other programs. "These additional amounts total tens of trillions of dollars," he said. "They are likely to exceed $100,000 in additional burden for every man, woman and child in America today, and these amounts are growing every day," he said. Seattle Post Intelligencer Thursday September 18, 2003
Economy: Bush says disappearing surplus "incredibly positive news"
What does "reducing the size and scope of government" mean? Tax-cut proponents are usually vague about the details. But the Heritage Foundation, ideological headquarters for the movement, has made it pretty clear. Edwin Feulner, the foundation's president, uses "New Deal" and "Great Society" as terms of abuse, implying that he and his organization want to do away with the institutions Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson created. That means Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid -- most of what gives citizens of the United States a safety net against economic misfortune. The starve-the-beast doctrine is now firmly within the conservative mainstream. George W. Bush himself seemed to endorse the doctrine as the budget surplus evaporated: in August 2001 he called the disappearing surplus "incredibly positive news" because it would put Congress in a "fiscal straitjacket." New York Times Sunday September 14, 2003
Economy: Unfunded federal mandates a burden on states
[U]nfunded federal mandates are driving up the costs of running the cities and making it impossible to balance state budgets. SOHO Daily News Wednesday September 03, 2003
Economy: Bush trade practices favor China over US
Bush's trade practices are driving Americans out of jobs and manufacturers out of business, while giving huge advantages to China and other countries. NY Times Monday August 18, 2003
Economy: Bush claims $1.7 trillion tax cuts will help economy; deficit caused by other factors
Bush has said that war, recession and the costs of securing the nation after theSept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 have contributed to the federal budget deficit. The $1.7 trillion in tax cuts he signed into law have reduced the impact of the recession his administration inherited, he said. Bloomberg Wednesday August 06, 2003
Economy: Bush's 2004 budget fails to include costs of Iraq war
This makes it hard to believe the administration's $475 billion deficit estimate for 2004--or the steady improvement it is forecasting through 2007. The fiscal 2004 estimate again excludes any additional costs for the U.S. military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though there is no doubt that they will be incurred. And as usual, it is based on a decidedly optimistic economic scenario. Gov Exec Wednesday August 06, 2003
Economy: Bush tinkers with deficit esti
Posted by: shep at August 16, 2004 09:28 PMWake me up when it's over.
Posted by: Big Dan at August 16, 2004 09:36 PMOops. Seems there's a posting limit, Rosemary. So I'll give credit here:
http://www.thousandreasons.org/listB.html
(hat tip: Maria)
and continue:
110. Economy: Bush tinkers with deficit estimates
There were some reports after the midsession review was released that the administration had intentionally overestimated the 2003 deficit by considerable amounts in the midsession review so that it would be able to provide what it considered to be good news when the fiscal year was actually over. Gov Exec Wednesday August 06, 2003
111. Economy: Bush's 2003 budget fails to allow for Iraq war, even though it is imminent
When its budget was released earlier this year, the White House refused to project any additional spending for the war with Iraq--even though it was considered highly likely to happen. Like all presidential budgets, this one used an optimistic economic forecast. Gov Exec Wednesday August 06, 2003
112. Economy: Trade deficit continues to widen
In their recent road trip, top Bush economic officials heard that China's absorption of American jobs is killing local economies. America's trade deficit with the rest of the world continues to widen. Common Dreams Wednesday August 06, 2003
113. Economy: Deficit projections consistently understated
Most media coverage overlooked the increasingly obvious truth that the 2004 deficit could be $100 billion or more above what the White House projected, and that its long-term estimates could be equally out of whack. Gov Exec Wednesday August 06, 2003
114. Economy: Budget deficit makes it difficult to handle baby-boom retirement
The swelling budget deficit, projected by the White House to reach a record $455 billion this fiscal year, "will make it even more difficult to cope with the aging of the baby-boom generation, and will eventually crowd out investment and erode U.S. productivity growth," the IMF said. Bloomberg Tuesday August 05, 2003
115. Economy: Bush's job record worst since Herbert Hoover
The nation has lost jobs in 25 of the 31 months that President Bush has been in office, making for the worst jobs record at this point in a presidency of any administration since Herbert Hoover. Including last month's loss of 44,000 positions (when economists had predicted a 10,000-job increase), our economy has shed more than 2.5 million jobs and 3.2 million private-sector jobs since the president took office. AFL-CIO Tuesday August 05, 2003
116. Economy: Foreclosures set record highs during Bush recession
Foreclosures are at a record high. Information Clearing House 5 Saturday June 21, 2003
117. Economy: 2003 spending shows highest federal borrowing rate since WWII
The latest budget projections from the Congressional Budget Office indicate that one out of every three dollars the federal government spends this year outside of the self-funded Social Security system will be paid for by borrowing. This will be the highest share of deficit-financed spending since World War II. Citizens for Tax Justice Wednesday June 11, 2003
118. Economy: Bush ends "double taxation"
Bush ends "double taxation" of dividends as unfair even though most things are taxed multiple times Under our system, the same dollar is taxed multiple times as it moves through the economy, from an employer to an employee to a gas station and then on to the next employee, ad infinitum. Singling out dividends for exemption from this process is unfair to those who have little or no dividend income. United for a Fair Economy Friday June 06, 2003
119. Economy: Bush "Jobs and Growth Act" have little stimulus value, are a giveaway to the rich
On May 28th, President Bush signed into law the so-called "Jobs and Growth Act," a tax cut package. This tax cut targets its benefits toward the wealthiest Americans. For that reason alone, this tax cut is not an economic stimulus -- the only thing this tax cut "stimulates" is more economic inequality in the U.S. United for a Fair Economy Friday June 06, 2003
120. Economy: Job shrinkage greatest of any post-WWII recession
Private-sector payrolls are down 260,000 this year and are down by 3.1 million, or 2.8%, since the recession began in March of 2001, the largest percentage decline in any post-WWII recession. Economic Policy Institute Friday June 06, 2003
121. Economy: During first two years of Bush administration, unemployment up, jobs disappearing
Unemployment has averaged 5.8% over the past year, and most recently hit 6.1%, two points above the 2000 rate of 4%. Since then, over 3 million more persons have been added to the ranks of the unemployed. Economic Policy Institute Friday June 06, 2003
122. Economy: Jobless recovery hurting working families
Despite the fact that the economy has been expanding for over a year, our labor market remains mired in a jobless recovery, and these conditions are now hurting the living standards of working families. The President and the Congress claim to have done so with the passage of the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Actof 2003 , but as our testimony argues, this plan is unlikely to provide the boost the economy needs. Economic Policy Institute Friday June 06, 2003
123. Economy: Median earnings down for the last four quarters
Persistently high unemployment has caught up with wage growth; for the first time since the 1990s, real median earnings fell for the last four quarters in a row. Economic Policy Institute Friday June 06, 2003
124. Economy: Tax cuts of this nature will not create jobs
Second, the tax cuts are directed in ways that are very ineffective at creating jobs. Nearly all economists agree that excluding taxes on dividends and capital gains will have very little effect on job growth in the near-term. Tax breaks for business expenses will also not create jobs. Businesses have the funds to invest in new equipment and credit is readily available at very low interest rates. Yet, there is very little investment now. The reason is that we have substantial overcapacity. What business needs is more customers people to sell to. As demand grows, so will jobs and investment. Economic Policy Institute Friday June 06, 2003
125. Economy: Tax cuts will lead to deficits
The recently passed package of tax cuts follows a misguided approach to creating jobs in the near future. First, it contains permanent, or semi-permanent, tax cuts when the need is for temporary one-time tax relief. The consequence is that the plan is far more expensive than is needed and will lead to chronic deficits, which ultimately will end up destroying jobs ten years from now. Economic Policy Institute Friday June 06, 2003
126. Economy: Tax cuts favor the wealthy
Third, as is well known, the personal income tax cuts are largely directed at high-income families--according to estimates by Brookings/Urban Institute Tax Center, 62% of the cuts go to households in the top 5% of the income scale. Since these families have higher saving rates -- spend a lower share of their income -- the income tax cuts will be less effective at generating spending than tax relief aimed at low-income and middle-income families. Economic Policy Institute Friday June 06, 2003
127. Economy: Tax cuts sold as a "jobs" plan, but millions of jobs have failed to materialize
The administration argued that its tax cut would lead to the creation of 1.4 million new jobs by the end of 2004. But it is not widely recognized that according to their own projections, these new jobs are expected in addition to the 4.1 million jobs the economy would generate on its own without the tax cuts. Economic Policy Institute Friday June 06, 2003
128. Economy: Bush falsely claims that economists say tax cuts will help economic growth
President Bush proclaimed that a report by leading economists concluded that the economy would grow by 3.3 percent in 2003 if his tax cut proposals were adopted. No such report exists. Gordan Livingston Tuesday June 03, 2003
129. Economy: Tax cuts driven by Republican ideology that will force program cuts
Republican ideology is now focused on creating artificial fiscal crises that will "force" program cuts, without ever stepping up to the plate and owning up to the program cuts they want to make. Why? Because it's electoral suicide. Calpundit Tuesday May 27, 2003
130. Economy: Republicans switch sides, now claim deficits don't matter
In recent months, Republicans who for years decried federal imbalances have minimized their significance, arguing that they were manageable in an economy whose size exceeds $10 trillion. CBS News Monday May 12, 2003
131. Economy: Manufacturing loss of "catastrophic proportions"
The release today and Friday of rising unemployment numbers for April revealed that the 33-month erosion of U.S. manufacturing employment has reached catastrophic proportions and is now undermining the entire American economy, the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) said here today. United Steelworkers of America Monday May 05, 2003
132. Economy: Republican Congress making bad system worse with retirement benefits
The U.S. Congress adjourned last year after failing to address the faults in a pension system that has been laid bare by catastrophic 401(k) losses for thousands of workers, the tumbling stock market, and high-profile corporate abuse of retirement plans. Congress is now setting itself up to make the system even worse. Economic Policy Institute Wednesday April 09, 2003
133. Economy: Bush's "strong dollar" rhetoric hurting small business
The president's continued cheerleading for the "strong dollar" is pricing small domestic producers out of international markets while creating windfalls for companies that can move overseas to produce goods for sale in the United States. Economic Policy Institute Tuesday March 04, 2003
134. Economy: Tax code gives billions to companies that send factories overseas
The current tax code gives billions of taxpayer dollars in subsidies to companies that export factories, outsource production, and then hide in offshore tax shelters. Economic Policy Institute Tuesday March 04, 2003
135. Economy: Bush excludes workers' rights from free-trade negotiations
And [Bush's] relentless effort to exclude worker and environmental rights from negotiations on the proposed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas and the current "Doha Round" at the World Trade Organization is creating competitive advantages for companies that shirk social protections. Economic Policy Institute Tuesday March 04, 2003
136. Economy: Federal government not delivering promised 9-11 funds to states
Despite $7 billion in federal spending promised over two fiscal years, the federal government has yet to spend a penny reimbursing hard-pressed state and local governments for costs they've absorbed since Sept. 11, 2001. Seattle Post Intelligencer Monday February 10, 2003
137. Economy: States to lose $41 billion from Bush tax cuts
Thus, if these [tax cut] provisions were enacted, states would stand to lose $23 billion between 2004 and 2008. As the proposed savings accounts grow in cost over time, so would the state revenue loss. The state revenue loss would rise to more than $41 billion over the subsequent five years from 2009 to 2013. Center on Budget and Policy Prioities Tuesday February 04, 2003
138. Economy: Bush tax cuts play a significant role in turning surplus to defecit
[The 2001] Bush tax cut combined with a weakening economy and the Sept. 11 attacks to eliminate the surplus and create a $157.8 billion deficit. Slate Tuesday February 04, 2003
139. Economy: Bush proposes allowing 50% pension cuts
Reflecting a deep and growing concern about Americans' retirement security, more than 200 bipartisan members of the House and Senate wrote to President Bush Thursday calling on him to withdraw proposed regulations that, if allowed to go into effect, would permit companies to cut long-time employees' pensions by as much as 50 percent. Committee on Education and the Workforce Thursday January 30, 2003
140. Economy: School week shortened to offset budget cuts
As The Washington Post reported, more than 100 school districts in seven states have shortened the school week to four days in order to offset budget cuts. Tom Paine Wednesday January 29, 2003
141. Economy: Successful programs being cut in K-12 education because of budget cuts
Innovative K-12 programs enacted during stronger economic times have been hacked, and even basic programs for school-aged kids are being downsized. Tom Paine Wednesday January 29, 2003
142. Economy: State budget shortfalls lead to college tuition increases
Huge state budget shortfalls have already begun to eat away at funding for education, health care and higher education. University tuition has increased by more than 10 percent in over one-fifth of states. Tom Paine Wednesday January 29, 2003
143. Economy: Bush tax cuts include deduction for SUVs
One of Bush's proposed tax cuts would raise from $25,000 to $75,000 the amount small business owners -- including doctors, lawyers and financial advisers -- can write off when buying an SUV for business purposes. Tom Dispatch Friday January 24, 2003
144. Economy: Tax cuts go to the rich, who distort democracy through lavish political gifts
Find the Urban-Brookings charts published in the Jan. 7 New York Times showing who gets how much of this tax cut. You can barely see the lines that measure the relief until you get above the 99th percentile. . . . The problem is that the rich are screwing up our democracy. Less than 0.1 percent of the U.S. population gave 83 percent of all itemized campaign contributions for the 2002 elections, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Common Dreams Wednesday January 15, 2003
145. Economy: Bush late in extending unemployment benefits
"For the 750,000 or more unemployed workers whose benefits will be terminated onDecember 28, the President's support is welcome although it comes painfully late," said Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "Had the President weighed in while Congress was in session, these 750,000 jobless workers almost certainly would not have to go several weeks during the holiday season with neither a paycheck nor an unemployment check." The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Saturday December 14, 2002
146. Economy: Bush administration allows hidden funds to to remain so
With one hand the administration will release the rich from their tax obligations, with the other it will choke off enforcement, allowing hidden funds to remain so. St. Petersburg Times Sunday December 01, 2002
147. Economy: US loses $70 billion annually to offshore companies
We should also thank the Republicans in the House for protecting the interests of all those turncoat companies that have relocated to Bermuda or Barbados with little more than a post office box, to avoid U.S. taxes. The maneuver costs our treasury $70-billion annually. St. Petersburg Times Sunday December 01, 2002
148. Economy: Once fully effective 52% of Bush tax cuts will go to wealthiest 1%
According to Citizens for Tax Justice, when the Bush tax cuts are fully effective, 52 percent of the cuts will go to this country's richest 1 percent. And even if by some miracle of responsible governance they are not made permanent after 10 years, the total amount of tax cuts already going to the richest 1 percent will total $477-billion -- each taxpayer in that rarified category receiving an average of $342,000 worth of cuts. St. Petersburg Times Sunday December 01, 2002
149. Economy: S&P 500 shows biggest 18 month drop of any presidency since Herbert Hoover
George W. Bush is shattering records for the worst first 18 months in office for a U.S. president as measured by the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500. In his first year-and-a-half in the White House, Bush presided over a 36.9 percent decline, almost twice the percentage drop of Herbert Hoover, the president who led the nation into the Depression. Consortium News Tuesday July 23, 2002
150. Economy: Bush chooses "star wars" funding over education
I strongly support America's war against terrorism. But as a teacher, I believe we also have to "do the math." When we're all being asked to sacrifice, when we've gone beyond trimming the fat to slicing the bone by laying off almost 200 teachers in just one school district alone, should the Pentagon really budget $8.3 billion, for example, on an elaborate and unproven Star Wars system that can neither stop a suicide terrorist nor educate one sixth-grader? Common Dreams Friday February 15, 2002
151. Economy: Bush offers tax cuts as a solution to every problem
"They have one unchanging, unyielding solution they offer for every problem: tax cuts that go disproportionately to the most affluent." This, too, mirrors majority opinion; 54 percent last summer said the tax cut would mainly benefit the wealthy. Tom Daschle ABC News Friday January 04, 2002
152. Economy: Ending the inheritance tax leads to command based on inheritance rather than merit
According to William H. Gates, Sr., father of the richest man in the world, if we eliminate the inheritance tax, we "pass down the ability to command the resources of the nation based on heredity rather than merit." It appears that the Bush administration agrees. Tom Paine Monday April 09, 2001
153. Education: Rhetoric for kids, money for war
IT WAS EASY to get the mistaken impression that the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court to outlaw segregated schools was a really big deal on Capitol Hill, even to Republicans. The presumptive Democratic candidate for president, John Kerry, flew to Topeka, Kan., the site of the case, to say: "We honor the legacy of Brown by reaffirming the value of inclusion, of equality, and diversity in our schools and in our life all across this nation, by opening the doors of opportunity so that more of our young people can stay in school and out of prison." Boston Globe Friday May 21, 2004
154. Education: US education suffers in waste of Iraq war
IN 2002, President Bush said the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawing segregated schools was "the right decision." He said we "can't have two systems, one for African-Americans and one for whites." Last month, Bush's education secretary, Rod Paige, said in a speech at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government: "Such division was wrong in 1954, and it is wrong today. It is immoral. It is unjust." The proclamations made by Bush and Paige are eerie in the dwindling of their meaning -- assuming that there was much meaning to start with. Boston Globe Boston Globe Wednesday May 05, 2004
155. Education: Math Class vs. Sex Class
President Bush proposes some important new expenditures for Education: $100 million for reading programs to help middle and high schoolers who still struggle to sound out Seuss-simple words; $40 million to help professionals in math and science make the transition to teaching; $52 million to bring Advanced Placement classes to more high schools. Yet all these added together would be eclipsed by the $270 million the president would devote to a school program promoting sexual abstinence, despite there being little evidence that such programs reduce teen sex or pregnancies. LA Times Monday March 08, 2004
156. Education: Rod Paige Calls Teachers Union a "terrorist organization"
WASHINGTON - Education Secretary Rod Paige called the nation's largest teachers union a "terrorist organization" during a private White House meeting with governors on Monday. Democratic and Republican governors confirmed Paige's remarks about the National Education Association. "These were the words, 'The NEA is a terrorist organization,'" said Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin. "He was making a joke, probably not a very good one," said Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania. "Of course he immediately divorced the NEA from ordinary teachers, who he said he supports." Yahoo News Monday February 23, 2004
157. Education: Bush Pushes Abstinence - Only Education
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is proposing to double spending on sexual abstinence programs that bar any discussion of birth control or condoms to prevent pregnancy or AIDS despite a lack of evidence that such programs work. A study by researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on declining birth and pregnancy rates among teenagers concludes that prevention programs should emphasize abstinence and contraception. "Both are important," said Dr. John Santelli, the lead author of the study, which has not been Friday February 13, 2004
158. Education: 'No Child Left Behind' should be more than a slogan
This week, President Bush celebrated the second anniversary of the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. I, on the other hand, see little cause for celebration. While the ideals espoused in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) are admirable, the realities of the Bush plan are not. NCLB imposes rigid and expensive mandates on public schools. It judges adequate yearly progress using a one-size-fits-all formula, a measure that gives schools an incentive to lower testing standards in order to meet federal requirements and, sadly, to push out students that may bring down a school's average score. Under these new standards, 26,000 of America's 93,000 schools "failed" to make adequate yearly progress in 2003 and many are not receiving the additional support they need to improve. This federal takeover of public education is the last thing we need. Howard Dean, Seattle Times Thursday January 08, 2004
159. Education: Some School Districts Challenge Bush's Signature Education Law
READING, Pa. -- A small but growing number of school systems around the country are beginning to resist the demands of President Bush's signature education law, saying its efforts to raise student achievement are too costly and too cumbersome. The school district here in Reading recently filed suit contending that Pennsylvania, in enforcing the federal law, had unfairly judged Reading's efforts to educate thousands of recent immigrants and unreasonably required the impoverished city to offer tutoring and other services for which there is no money. NY Times Thursday January 01, 2004
160. Education: Education 'Miracle' Has a Math Problem
HOUSTON -- When the state of Texas bestowed "exemplary" status on Austin High School in August 2002, ecstatic administrators compared the honor to winning the Super Bowl. There was more cheering and pompom-waving a few weeks later when a private foundation honored Houston for having the nation's best urban school district. Just a year later, the high school has been downgraded to "low-performing," the lowest possible rating. And the Houston Independent School District -- showcase of the "Texas educational miracle" that President Bush has touted as a model for the rest of the nation -- is fending off accusations that it inflated its achievements through fuzzy math. Washington Post Saturday November 08, 2003
161. Education: Head Start wisom
TESTING OF students can be an excellent diagnostic tool. But the Bush administration has gone too far by testing very young children enrolled in Head Start, the country's program for low-income preschoolers. Boston Globe Sunday November 02, 2003
162. Education: Bait-and-Switch on Public Education
Congressional Republicans are nervous about a G.O.P. poll that shows them losing ground over education. But how could voters not be disappointed by the Bush administration's mishandling of education policy generally, and especially its decision to withhold more than $6 billion from the landmark No Child Left Behind Act, the supposed centerpiece of the administration's domestic policy? NY Times Tuesday October 21, 2003
163. Education: Fund capacity building (enhanced teaching and learning) in districts
for several years before engaging in punishing labels and reckless choice provisions. Capacity building might mean providing hundreds of hours of training in effective reading strategies, for example. But it does not mean training everybody in a single highly scripted program endorsed by the administration for pseudo-scientific reasons... NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
164. Education: NCLB does not enrich the options available to all children
Forswear tightly scripted, robotic programs and the fast food approaches to school improvement... NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
165. Education: NCLB constitutes an assault on public education
The early focus of NCLB on labeling schools as failures when combined with parental choice provisions represents an assault on public education, allowing virtual elementary schools, faith-based tutoring and other untested charter alternatives to creep into public systems with public tax money. NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
166. Education: NCLB does not fund recruitment and preparation of effective teachers and aides
from all racial and economic groups to close the gap between current staffing levels and what is desirable... NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
167. Education: NCLB does not fund enough construction of new schools
within public systems so parental choice is real... NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
168. Education: NCLB does not emphasize rewards and incentives rather than sanctions...
NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
169. Education: NCLB does not build school improvement on a richly defined foundation of alternatives and strategies...
NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
170. Education: NCLB does not capitalize on the good research conducted to discover what works best
in schools and avoid simplistic panaceas and platitudes imported from the world of business and medicine... NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
171. Education: NCLB does not support informed school choice within public systems...
NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
172. Education: NCLB is an insulting, broad brush assault on teachers and administrators
struggling against difficult challenges. .. NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
173. Education: Significant Omissions of NCLB: Fund social programs that impact school readiness
so that all children actually enter school ready to learn as the first President Bush promised long ago... NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
174. Education: NCLB does not hold all publicly funded schools to standards
for performance and quality, whether actually private, charter or truly public. Be careful about simplistic notions of high stakes testing.... NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
175. Education: NCLB shifts control to the federal government
How ironic that we have an Education Czar in Washington violating decades of state and local control of education just as we profess to introduce democracy to Iraq. The imposition of specific Washington approved phonics programs and reading programs under the guise of pseudo science is an ominous erosion of basic freedoms. Next they will be telling us what science and history to teach! Big Brother/Sister evidently knows best. NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
176. Education: NCLB includes questionable reading instruction
There is insufficient evidence to support the National Reading Panel's [the heart of Bush's education plan] claims that phonemic awareness training significantly improves children's reading, that systematic phonics instruction is superior to less intensive instruction, and that skills-based approaches are superior to whole language. Also, contrary to the conclusions of the National Reading Panel, there is abundant evidence that encouraging children to read more in school is beneficial. The Department of Education's data appears to show that spending money on education hasn't improved student learning, but a closer look indicates the deception. David Rosnick, CEPR Friday August 29, 2003
177. Education: Education Secretary cooked the books in Houston
Houston schools, under Rod Paige, claimed great success while Bush was governor of Texas. It now appears that their accountants could have worked for Enron. Success was not quite what it seemed. NY Times Friday July 11, 2003
178. Education: New Pell Grant formula leaves out 84,000 students
The new formula for Pell grants (2003) means that 84,000 students will be ineligible. Oregon Daily Emerald Wednesday July 09, 2003
179. Education: NCLB does not devote public money to truly public schools
Be careful not to divert funds to reckless experiments or diploma mills. No Child Saturday May 03, 2003
180. Education: Bush to rebuild Iraqi schools, while our own are in disrepair
With many of our own schools in serious disrepair, the Bush administration is talking about rebuilding Iraqi schools now. Open Secrets Monday April 28, 2003
181. Education: Significant unfunded mandates of NCLB
The Unfunded Mandate of NCLB. [A] recent study by the New Hampshire School Administrators Association estimated that even with the funding increases, the federal government will give New Hampshire schools only about $80 for every student, while costing the state $575 a student to implement NCLB. National Association of Elementary School Principals Wednesday March 05, 2003
182. Education: NCLB includes mandated access for military recruiters
A little-known provision of President Bush's education reform act turns every high school into a military recruiting station. Under the act, high schools are required to provide military recruiters with students' names, addresses and telephone numbers. You have to wonder what that could possibly have to do with improving the education of students. Can you kids spell "cannon fodder"? Common Dreams Saturday December 07, 2002
183. Education: Education Secretary demeans teacher education
"Claims that inexperienced college grads can be as successful as formally trained teachers are insulting and demeaning to qualified members of the teaching profession. Instead of helping professionalize teaching, the Secretary's [Paige's] proposals demean it by promoting teaching as volunteer work." Bob Chase, National Education Association Tuesday June 11, 2002
184. Education: Education Secretary set unrealistic goals for teaching degrees in rural areas
Secretary Paige also insists on a strict interpretation of the law requiring teachers to have degrees in the subject they teach, an unrealistic requirement for many rural schools. Education Week Wednesday March 13, 2002
185. Education: NCLB punishes rather than helps failing schools
The heart of Bush's [No Child Left Behind] plan calls for federally mandated annual testing of all schoolchildren in grades three to eight in reading and math. If schools fail to improve, the Bush plan threatens to reduce government aid -- sort of like threatening to withhold antibiotics from children who can't bring down their own fevers. Common Dreams Sunday December 23, 2001
186. Education: NCLB uses questionalbe standards
It is also important to recall what standardized reading tests actually measure: the ability to scan quickly the texts of a set of unconnected paragraphs and, for each passage, to pick the correct answers to questions from a set of four or five alternatives. As useful as this skill may sometimes be, it has little to do with reading as you or I know it, whether we do it for a practical purpose, for pleasure, or for inspiration. The questions surrounding the validity of these tests are no secret. The Office of Civil Rights in 2000 issued guidelines asserting that the use of test scores as the single factor to determine retention, graduation, and college admission is improper, and possibly a Civil Rights violation. Center for Education Research, Analysis, and Innovation Wednesday March 14, 2001
187. Education: NCLB degrades curriculum
Numerous studies confirm that heavy reliance on standardized tests [mandated by NCLB] degrades the curriculum and marginalizes whatever does not contribute directly to short-term gains in test scores, including critical thinking, multicultural studies, citizenship education, the arts, physical education, and bilingual education. And high-stakes testing increases illiteracy by pushing more and more students out of school. Center for Education Research, Analysis, and Innovation Wednesday March 14, 2001
188. Education: Accountability lacking for Bush's Texas charter schools
Accountability was not high on the lists of then-Gov. Bush and Texas legislators when they approved another of Bush's priorities, a form of educational deregulation known as charter schools. Created by a 1995 law, charter schools are mainly funded by the state but are exempt from many state regulations. The idea was to give private groups or individuals the opportunity to be innovative, to compete with more traditional classrooms for the chance to stimulate bright young minds -- or to provide options to failing public schools. In some cases the idea has worked. In others, it has given would-be, strike-it-rich "entrepreneurs" with questionable academic and management credentials the opportunity to rip off youngsters and taxpayers alike. Houston Chronicle Thursday February 01, 2001
189. Education: Vouchers will not ensure that no child is left behind
Vouchers help a few students leave public schools and attend private schools. Left behind are many students in failing schools with even less funding. Federal funds should instead address inequities in resources so that some public schools are not spending twice as much per student as others. Progressive Media Project Monday January 29, 2001
190. Education: Bush's Education Secretary advocated soft-drink contracts for schools
Rod Paige, George W. Bush's nominee to run the Education Department, has been praised as a tough administrator who brought a reformist rigor to the job of superintendent of the Houston schools. But under his tenure, the Houston Independent School District joined one of the cheesier recent trends in public Education: the boom in exclusive contracts with soft-drink manufacturers to peddle high-sugar sodas in schools. Organic Consumer Thursday January 04, 2001
191. Energy: Bush's energy plan endangers National monuments
Bush's energy plan endangers National monuments including Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah, Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in Montana, Carrizo Plain National Monument in California, California Coastal National Monument, Hanford Reach National Monument in Washington, and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado. Sierra Club Tuesday September 02, 2003
192. Energy: Bush energy policy endangers public lands
His policy endangers public lands including Rocky Mountain Front in Montana, Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain in Alaska, Weatherman Draw (Valley of the Chiefs) in Montana, Weatherman Draw listed as an Endangered Sacred Site by Sacred Land Film Project, Wilderness-quality lands in Utah's Book Cliffs, Jack Morrow Hills of Wyoming's Red Desert (a pristine area proposed as a national park since the 1930s), Little Missouri National Grasslands in North Dakota, Otero Mesa in New Mexico , Vermillion Basin in Colorado, Green River Basin in Wyoming, and Valle Vidal/Carson National Forest in New Mexico. Sierra Club Tuesday September 02, 2003
193. Energy: FERC lets energy companies off easy for California ripoff
Last Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, known as FERC, announced settlements with energy companies accused of manipulating markets during the California energy crisis. Why on Friday? Because the settlements were a joke: the companies got away with only token payments. It was yet another demonstration of how electricity deregulation has gone wrong. Paul Krugman, New York Times Tuesday September 02, 2003
194. Energy: Energy plan a compendium of tax breaks and subsidies for industry
What [Bush] and Congress exuberantly describe as their comprehensive energy plan is in fact a dreary compendium of subsidies and tax breaks for the coal, oil and gas industries that do nothing to address the problems of global warming or the country's dependence on foreign oil. New York Times Tuesday September 02, 2003
195. Energy: Secretive energy meetings with industry shaped US energy policy
President Bush convened a meeting in the White House and established the Energy Policy Development Group chaired by Cheney, to come up with a short-term plan for the energy crisis, and produce a report recommending a national energy policy. Over the next two years, the "Cheney Group" held secret meetings with Enron and other "energy" executives, which would become the subject of a lawsuit. The New York Times reported on 2001-05-16, that on the day the National Energy Plan was released, questions were being raised about the group's "mysterious ways," amid accusations that it had met in secret mainly with energy industry moguls who would benefit from its recommendations. Executive Intelligence Review Friday August 29, 2003
196. Energy: Federal regulation of power transmission is being held hostage to the Republican agenda
"This issue has been held hostage to the Republican agenda of trying to drill in the most pristine wilderness, environmentally sensitive areas of the country." -Rep. Ed Markey, member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, referring to the Republicans' refusal to allow the energy bill to go forward without several controversial measures, including the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. CNN LIVE SUNDAY Sunday August 17, 2003
197. Energy: Bush to Back Delay Of Power Grid Plan
The Bush administration intends to side with a Senate Republican attempt to freeze a disputed regulatory proposal meant to strengthen the nation's aging power transmission system, which was blamed in last week's massive blackout, a senior administration official said yesterday. Washington Post Saturday August 16, 2003
198. Energy: Bush wants to drill in Arctic refuge
Republicans are again trying to stick the country with one of their favorite bad ideas: drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. This time, they included drilling within a larger piece of bad policy, the energy bill approved by the House of Representatives on Friday. The energy bill curries favor with energy corporations and indulges the Republican prescription that a free market cures all ills. The House calls for risky steps deregulating electricity markets, gives new incentives to oil and gas drillers and creates $18.7 billion in tax breaks, mostly for oil, gas and nuclear energy. Seattle Post Intelligencer Tuesday April 15, 2003
199. Energy: Energy plan heavily influenced by oil and gas industry
Even though the government heavily censored the documents before supplying them to NRDC, they reveal that Bush administration officials sought extensive advice from utility companies and the oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy industries, and incorporated their recommendations, often word for word, into the energy plan. NRDC Tuesday August 13, 2002
200. Energy: "Science Falls Victim in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Debate
The Washington Post on 7 April 2002 reported that "one week after a U.S. Geological Survey study warned that caribou "may be particularly sensitive to oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the agency has completed a quick follow-up report suggesting that the most likely drilling scenarios under consideration should have no impact on caribou." American Institute of Biological Sciences Friday April 12, 2002
201. Energy: New "freedom car" program abandons central goal
One of the most visible changes to the administration's budget for energy efficiencies the replacement of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) program with a new "Freedom Car" program. Both programs lack any requirement for automakers to put advanced technology vehicles on the road. However, in addition to the change in name, the administration has abandoned the one specific goal of the PNGV: producing production prototypes for 80 mile per gallon passenger sedans. NRDC Tuesday February 05, 2002
202. Energy: Renewable energy funds held hostage to ANWR drilling
Like last year, the Bush budget proposes again to spend the federal share of bonus bids received for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on renewable energy, holding this badly needed funding hostage to reckless energy development. NRDC Tuesday February 05, 2002
203. Energy: DOE budget cut for energy efficiency programs
However, the budget for the Department of Energy shows a sharp and somewhat surprising return to the defense and nuclear orientation that has characterized it for much of its existence. The administration proposes boosting the department's budget $582 million, from $21.3 billion to $21.9 billion. However, the jump can be explained almost completely by increases in the nuclear weapons programs (+$433 million) and the nuclear waste disposal program at Yucca Mountain (+$150 million). Many energy efficiency programs would be cut. NRDC Tuesday February 05, 2002
204. Energy: BLM budget includes money to make the agency "more responsive" to industry needs
The 2003 BLM budget includes $10.2 million to expand energy and related activities to make the agency "more responsive" to energy development. Chief among these activities would be promoting oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. NRDC Tuesday February 05, 2002
205. Energy: It fails to close the SUV loophole that exempts them from more stringent CAFE standards
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
206. Energy: It rolls back environmental standards
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
207. Energy: It is designed to ensure the dominance of fossil fuels
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
208. Energy: It does not raise funding for DOE energy efficiency programs
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
209. Energy: It fails to set standards for building and appliance efficiency
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
210. Energy: It does not realistically assess the economics of nuclear power generation
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
211. Energy: It eases regulation of oil refineries and power plants
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
212. Energy: It does not propose raising auto fuel efficiency standards (CAFE)
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
213. Energy: It creates new subsidies for coal and nuclear power
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
214. Energy: It does not contain significant programs for renewable energy resources
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
215. Energy: It calls for vastly increased oil and gas exploration
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
216. Energy: It contains no proposals that would spur utility energy efficiency programs nationally
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
217. Energy: Bush energy plan fails to block air-conditioner rollback
It fails to block the rollback of air-conditioner efficiency improvements. The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
218. Energy: Emphasizes clean coal over zero-emission technologies
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
219. Energy: It allows seizing private property for power generation lines
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
220. Energy: Bush energy plan fails to assess potential of alternates
It doesn't assess the potential for energy efficiency and renewable energy. The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
221. Energy: Bush energy plan lacks scientific analysis
Bush's energy plan provides no scientific analysis of why fossil and nuclear fuel supplies must be expanded. The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
222. Energy: Bush energy plan lacks tax incentives for energy efficiency
It doesn't include tax incentives for energy-efficient technologies. The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
223. Environment: Two-Faced Forest Policy
There are several good reasons to protect 40,000 acres of New Mexico's Carson National Forest from gas exploration. For one, the alpine meadow was donated to the national forest 22 years ago ă by an oil company ă for wildlife habitat and recreation. The gift was intended to benefit the public and the environment, not to help out another energy company. The land lies next to a Boy Scout camp where for 65 years youths from across the nation have backpacked, ridden horses and worked on conservation projects.
The U.S. Forest Service has determined that gas exploration could pollute water in the pristine countryside, as well as harm wildlife and recreation. Foresters consulted with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is generally friendly to oil, gas and timber interests. The consensus: Reject the request of natural gas producer El Paso Corp. to drill in the meadow.
Then, as Times staff writer Julie Cart reported Monday, came the White House Task Force on Energy Project Streamlining ă a title that tells the story. LA Times Tuesday August 10, 2004
224. Environment: Friends in the White House Come to Coal's Aid
WASHINGTON - In 1997, as a top executive of a Utah mining company, David Lauriski proposed a measure that could allow some operators to let coal-dust levels rise substantially in mines. The plan went nowhere in the government.
Last year, it found enthusiastic backing from one government official - Mr. Lauriski himself. Now head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, he revived the proposal despite objections by union officials and health experts that it could put miners at greater risk of black-lung disease.
The reintroduction of the coal dust measure came after the federal agency had abandoned a series of Clinton-era safety proposals favored by coal miners while embracing others favored by mine owners. New York Times Monday August 09, 2004
225. Environment: White House Intercedes for Gas Project in National Forest
CARSON NATIONAL FOREST, N.M. ă Overriding the opposition of the U.S. Forest Service and New Mexico state officials, a White House energy task force has interceded on behalf of Houston-based El Paso Corp. in its two-year effort to explore for natural gas in a remote part of a national forest next door to America's largest Boy Scout camp.
Forest Service officials discouraged efforts to drill in the Valle Vidal at least three times since the agency acquired the land in 1982, citing concerns about water pollution, wildlife and recreation if a large-scale energy project were approved.
But last week, the agency took the first step toward approving the giant energy company's proposal to tap into 40,000 acres of alpine meadows in the Carson National Forest. The agency released a report that forecast a high probability of recovering gas from the area and laid out a scenario in which 500 wells could be drilled on the forest's east side. LA Times Monday August 09, 2004
226. Environment: King Coal pillages beautiful land by ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.
In May 2002 I flew over the hills of West Virginia and Kentucky and saw a sight that would sicken most Americans.
The mining industry is dismantling the ancient mountains and pristine streams of Appalachia through a form of strip mining known as mountaintop removal.
Mining companies blow off hundreds of feet from the tops of mountains to reach the thin seams of coal beneath. Colossal machines dump the mountaintops into adjacent valleys, destroying forests and communities and burying free-flowing mountain streams.
According to the EPA, the waste from mountaintop removal mines has permanently interred 1,200 miles of Appalachian streams, polluted the region's groundwater and rivers and rendered 400,000 acres of some of the world's most biologically rich temperate forests into flat, barren wastelands, "devoid of topography and flowing water." Seattle PI Friday August 06, 2004
227. Environment: What happened to Bush's promise about parks?
NEWHALEM -- With a wild, fiercely beautiful 684,000-acre domain, the North Cascades National Park complex is one place on Earth that will never have problems keeping up appearances.
Appearances deceive, however. Here, as in other Northwest parks, managers do not have adequate money for basic operations, overdue repairs and dealing with such emergencies as flash-flood damage. Seattle PI Friday August 06, 2004
228. Environment: Bush backpedals on environment by ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.
During his presidential campaign, George W. Bush threw a bone to environmentalists. Global warming, he said in his second debate with Al Gore, "needs to be taken very seriously."
While Bush opposed the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement to slow down global warming, he proclaimed that under his leadership, the United States would tackle the problem by strictly regulating carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas.
Barely three months into office, Bush walked away from his pledge to regulate CO{-2}. The move revealed the depth of industry clout at the White House. But as Bush and his advisers would learn, backpedaling on the environment doesn't play well. Seattle PI Wednesday August 04, 2004
229. Environment: U.S. Eases Review of Pesticides for Endangered Species
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration made it easier Thursday for the government to approve pesticides used by farmers and homeowners, saying it no longer would require the Environmental Protection Agency to first consult other federal agencies to determine whether a product could harm endangered species.
The change, supported by growers and pesticide manufacturers, affects federal regulations for carrying out the Endangered Species Act, a law that protects about 1,200 threatened animals and plants.
Environmentalists said the streamlined process would strip away protections for those species. LA Times Saturday July 31, 2004
230. Environment: EPA: Exposure Risk at Some Toxic Sites
WASHINGTON - Almost one in 10 of the nation's 1,230 Superfund toxic waste sites lack adequate safety controls to ensure people and drinking water won't be contaminated, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Another 13 percent of the sites lack enough data for officials to assess the safeguards, the EPA says. Yahoo News Tuesday July 27, 2004
231. Environment: Bush's Dark Pages in Conservation History --Stewart L. Udall
SANTA FE, N.M. -- A crucial struggle over land stewardship is taking place south of my home on the Greater Otero Mesa, a 1.2-million-acre stretch of grassland that looks pretty much the way it did when Coronado explored the region almost 500 years ago. As much as half of Otero Mesa still qualifies for protection under the landmark 1964 Wilderness Act, which was enacted when I headed the Interior Department under presidents Kennedy and Johnson. This law prevents industrial development on designated federal land "retaining its primeval character and influence."
But the Bush administration, determined to ransack public lands for the last meager pockets of petroleum, has turned my old department into a servile, single-minded adjunct of the Energy Department. LA Times Sunday July 25, 2004
232. Environment: Lost in Space
SOMEWHERE IN THREE SISTERS WILDERNESS, Oregon
As I scribble these words in my notebook, I'm totally lost.
My two sons and I are backpacking on the Pacific Crest Trail, but the trail disappeared under three feet of snow several miles ago. So we set out cross-country, camping last night on a patch of green surrounded by snow.
At the moment it's dawn at our bivouac, right about timberline, and my sons are still sleeping, blithely confident that we'll find our way again. And, truth be told, so long as one has food, shelter and a compass, it's gloriously liberating to be lost in a snowy wilderness. New York Times Friday July 23, 2004
233. Environment: Republican Ex-EPA Chief Criticizes Bush
CONCORD, N.H. - The head of the Environmental Protection Agency for two Republican presidents criticized President Bush's record on Monday, calling it a "polluter protection" policy.
Russell E. Train, who headed the EPA from September 1973 to January 1977 -- part of the Nixon and Ford administrations -- said Bush's record on the environment was so dismal that he would cast his vote for Democrat John Kerry. AP Monday July 19, 2004
234. Environment: No, Parks Are Not Just Fine
When the chief of the U.S. Park Police complained last December that her force was understaffed and stretched too thin to adequately protect National Park Service facilities, her bosses put her on leave, saying her comments were "an open invitation to lawbreakers." And then, last week, Chief Teresa C. Chambers was summarily fired with no further comment from the National Park Service or its parent, the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton held a press conference last week to declare that the Bush administration was virtually showering money on the nation's parks. LA Times Thursday July 15, 2004
235. Environment: A Wetland Dying of Thirst
ROCKPORT, Me. -- Now that President Bush has handed off Iraq, where should he be focusing his energies? Well, if he wants to get re-elected, the choice is an easy one: on Florida, even with its new chadless ballots. It just so happens that the infamously contested state is mired in an environmental conundrum. Despite the enactment four years ago of the federal Everglades Restoration Plan, America's largest wetland is most certainly not being restored. New York Times Thursday July 15, 2004
236. Environment: Roads to Forest Ruination
There's a difference between modifying an environmental protection and ripping its insides out, but the Bush administration hasn't picked up on the distinction. LA Times Wednesday July 14, 2004
237. Environment: Administration Proposes New Logging Rules
BOISE, Idaho - The Bush administration Monday proposed lifting a national rule that closed remote areas of national forests to logging, instead saying states should decide whether to keep a ban on road-building in those areas.
Environmentalists immediately criticized the change as the biggest timber industry giveaway in history. Yahoo News Monday July 12, 2004
238. Environment: Endangered Species Act's Protections Trimmed Back
The Bush administration has succeeded in reshaping the Endangered Species Act in ways that have sharply limited the impact of the 30-year-old law aimed at protecting the nation's most vulnerable plants and animals, according to environmentalists and some independent analysts.
The Bush initiatives, which have ranged from recalculating the economic costs of protecting critical habitats to limiting the number of species added to the protected list, reflect a policy shift that Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton calls the "New Environmentalism." Washington Post Saturday July 03, 2004
239. Environment: Judge Orders Explanation of Nature Policy
RENO, Nev. (AP) -- A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to explain what prevents it from listing rare species in four Western states as endangered or threatened. The ruling by Judge Ann Aiken in Portland, Ore., was hailed Friday by environmental groups as a victory in efforts to protect the Tahoe yellow cress plant, the southern Idaho ground squirrel and the sand dune lizard. AP Saturday June 26, 2004
240. Environment: Habitat for Species Recovery Seen Wanting
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is approving only about one of every two acres that federal biologists propose setting aside to help vanishing species recover. Between 2001 and 2003, the government cut 42 million acres from plans to create nearly 83 million acres of critical habitat for threatened and endangered species, a National Wildlife Federation study found. The administration also more often cited economic reasons to justify decisions to reduce acreage. In 2001, that rationale was used to trim about 1 percent of the acreage; by 2003, that had risen to 69 percent. AP Wednesday June 23, 2004
241. Environment: Toxic Pollution Rose 5 Percent in 2002
WASHINGTON -- The volume of toxic pollutants released into the environment in the United States rose 5 percent in 2002, the first increase since 1997, the government reported Tuesday. Those two years are the only ones to show an increase since the Environmental Protection Agency began keeping track of the billions of pounds of pollution under a 1986 law. In 1997, the increase was 6 percent.
Even with the most recent rise -- a dramatic turnaround from the 13 percent decline in 2001 -- environmentalists say the EPA is still letting industry underreport the amount of air pollution by 330 million pounds a year. Yahoo News Tuesday June 22, 2004
242. Environment: Bush likes forest industry, but not the trees
The president's fondness for the timber industry is well documented. Even his forest fire prevention bill -- the so-called Healthy Forests Initiative -- is tilted toward timber industry interests. But now the Bush administration is poised to issue its radical rewrite of the National Forest Management Act regulations, which have protected our national forests, including the Olympic and Wenatchee forests in Washington, for decades. Seattle PI Wednesday June 16, 2004
243. Environment: Study Ranks Bush Plan to Cut Air Pollution as Weakest of 3
WASHINGTON, June 9 - A research firm that the Bush administration commissioned to analyze its plan to lower emissions from coal-fired power plants compared the plan with two competing legislative proposals and concluded in a report released Wednesday that the administration's plan was the weakest. NY Times Thursday June 10, 2004
244. Environment: Shortcut on Nuclear Waste
The Senate may consider today whether to allow the Energy Department to reclassify certain nuclear wastes at a weapons plant in South Carolina so they can be disposed of faster and cheaper than if the department complied with current law. Although many senators may be tempted to skim over this issue as a matter of parochial concern to South Carolina, they need to consider this matter carefully lest they set a terrible precedent. The Energy Department has a notoriously poor record in handling environmental issues. It should not be granted such unbridled power to define its waste problems away with the stroke of a pen. NY Times Thursday June 03, 2004
245. Environment: EPA Relied on Industry for Plywood Plant Pollution Rule
WASHINGTON -- Pushing aside new scientific studies of possible health risks, the Environmental Protection Agency approved an air pollution regulation this year that could save the wood products industry hundreds of millions of dollars. In doing so, the agency relied on a risk assessment generated by a chemical industry-funded think tank, and a novel legal approach recommended by a timber industry lawyer. The regulation was ushered through the agency by senior officials with previous ties to the timber and chemical industries. LA Times Friday May 21, 2004
246. Environment: Fish and Wildlife Service accused of using flawed data to downgrade panther protection
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is putting developers' needs ahead of the survival of the Florida panther, according to a federal biologist. Andrew Eller, Jr., a 17-year agency employee, has filed a complaint asserting that the Fish and Wildlife Service is knowingly using flawed science to support the conclusion that the dwindling panther population -- protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1976 -- is not in jeopardy. NRDC Monday May 03, 2004
247. Environment: National Parks Hypocrisy
When Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton and her assistants fanned out to celebrate Earth Day on April 22, the headline on the press release proclaimed in part, "Cherishing our National Parks." Norton visited Yosemite National Park, declaring in effect that the Bush administration was emulating Teddy Roosevelt in caring for the nation's natural treasures. In fact, this administration is the worst in decades in protecting and maintaining the park system. LA Times Saturday May 01, 2004
248. Environment: Wild salmon runs may not be able to survive Bush
Delivering an early lesson on the uniqueness of our region, my folks took yours truly and a buddy up the Glacier Creek Road below Mount Baker one fall day to watch salmon spawn in a tributary stream. They explained a few facts to fascinated 8-year-olds: The salmon took on a higher fat content -- hence, tasted better -- because they had to swim up a silty stream that drains two great glaciers. The struggle to get up rapids and spawn makes them fighters. George W. Bush should get a lesson in Wild Salmon 101. After all, this is the man who told us in an unforgettable 2000 campaign Bushism: "The man and the fish can coexist."In news that leaked out yesterday, the president's men are plotting a brazen flanking move around the Endangered Species Act. Seattle PI Friday April 30, 2004
249. Environment: Interior Dept. limiting "critical habitat" protection
The Bush administration, calling the federal process for ensuring the recovery of imperiled wildlife "broken," has proposed new limits on designating "critical habitat" under the Endangered Species Act. The "guidance" instructs U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field offices not to set aside critical habitat for threatened or endangered wildlife if other conservation steps are already in place. In addition, critical habitat protections can now only be used in limited areas when supported by "sound science" and after weighing the direct and indirect impacts. Bush officials justified the new restrictions by claiming that critical habitat fails to ensure the survival of species -- of 1,304 plants and animals that have been listed for protection under the ESA over the past 30 years, only a dozen have recovered, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. But environmentalists noted that the agency's own reports have shown that species with critical habitat are more than twice as likely to recover than those without such protection. NRDC Wednesday April 28, 2004
250. Environment: Environmentalists Rap Bush on Development
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) -- At the same time President Bush is declaring his commitment to conservation, environmentalists say his administration is approving development proposals that endanger sensitive areas such as southwest Florida's Rookery Bay, where the president traveled last week to defend his record. NY Times Monday April 26, 2004
251. Environment: Environmentalists Rap Bush on Development
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) -- At the same time President Bush is declaring his commitment to conservation, environmentalists say his administration is approving development proposals that endanger sensitive areas such as southwest Florida's Rookery Bay, where the president traveled last week to defend his record. Environmental groups oppose the proposed Winding Cypress development, saying its 2,300 homes and golf course would destroy wetlands because the project is at the headwaters of the bay. The developer is one of the area's most prominent business families, the Colliers. The county that encompasses Naples bears the family name NY Tim Monday April 26, 2004
252. Environment: Fire Plan, or Smokescreen?
Wildfire protection must be a key part of any forest management plan -- as the dozens of San Bernardino and San Diego-area residents who lost their homes to last summer's infernos know only too painfully. But fire protection is no reason to permit unsustainable logging or twist the truth. So why is the U.S. Forest Service using a 1909 photograph of a Montana forest in a federal pamphlet extolling the benefits of logging in the Sierra Nevada? And why does the pamphlet imply the forest pictured is pristine, when the stumps in the background clearly show the area was logged? LA Times Monday April 19, 2004
253. Environment: DOE pulling a fast one at Hanford
For the Bush administration's Department of Energy, power makes for arrogance in the handling of nuclear waste issues. If the administration can push around workers, communities and the states, it most certainly will. Rather than accept a federal court ruling, the administration is trying to force a change in the law by withholding nuclear cleanup funds. If Congress, Washington and other states fail to stand firm, the administration will get away with its Alice in Wonderland plan to have Hanford considered clean because the Energy Department says it is. Seattle PI Monday April 12, 2004
254. Environment: Energy Dept. Threatens No Nuclear Cleanup
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Energy Department is threatening to withhold $350 million that was to pay for disposal of some of the most dangerous radioactive waste from Cold War bomb-making. First, it says, Congress and state officials must accept a cleanup plan already rejected in court. The issue has pitted a half dozen states against the Bush administration -- raising concern that som
Environment: Energy Dept. Threatens No Nuclear Cleanup
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Energy Department is threatening to withhold $350 million that was to pay for disposal of some of the most dangerous radioactive waste from Cold War bomb-making. First, it says, Congress and state officials must accept a cleanup plan already rejected in court. The issue has pitted a half dozen states against the Bush administration -- raising concern that some of the millions of gallons of highly radioactive waste that are supposed to be solidified and buried by the government may, in fact, remain in place. NY Times Wednesday April 07, 2004
Environment: The Mercury Scandal
If you want a single example that captures why so many people no longer believe in the good intentions of the Bush administration, look at the case of mercury pollution. Mercury can damage the nervous system, especially in fetuses and infants -- which is why the Food and Drug Administration warns pregnant women and nursing mothers against consuming types of fish, like albacore tuna, that often contain high mercury levels. About 8 percent of American women have more mercury in their bloodstreams than the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe. NY Times Tuesday April 06, 2004
Environment: EPA Faulted on Clean-Water Violations
The Environmental Protection Agency is failing to act against widespread violations of the Clean Water Act by plants and factories across the country, the U.S. Public Research Interest Group said yesterday based on a study it conducted. More than 60 percent of all major facilities in the United States, or 3,700 out of 6,184, exceeded their Clean Water Act permit limits on discharges into waterways at least once between 2002-01-1, and 2003-06-30, according to the report. Washington Post Wednesday March 31, 2004
Environment: Bush Mining Regulatory Change Is Denounced
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tales of floods and flattened peaks and of homes swept away or devalued in central Appalachia were laid out Tuesday by opponents to the Bush administration's plan to ease a buffer-zone regulation protecting streams from coal mining operations. NY Times Tuesday March 30, 2004
Environment: Report Faults EPA for Water Claims
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency incorrectly claimed to have met its goals of ensuring that at least 91 percent of the nation's drinking water was meeting federal health-based standards from 1999 to 2002, the agency's inspector general says. "The agency reported meeting its annual performance goal for drinking water quality even though it concurrently reported that the data used to draw those conclusions were flawed and incomplete," the EPA IG's office said in a report this week. "EPA's own analysis, supported by our review, indicated the correct number was unknown but less than what was reported." NY Times Friday March 12, 2004
Environment: Drop in Budget Slows Superfund Program
WASHINGTON, March 8 -- Citing budgetary concerns, the Bush administration has proposed new toxic waste sites for the Superfund program at a much slower rate than previous administrations, a practice criticized by state environmental officials who say it masks the true demand for cleanup in the country. On Monday the Environmental Protection Agency proposed 11 sites to be cleaned up under the Superfund program, which lists more than 1,200 sites. NY Times Tuesday March 09, 2004
Environment: How Industry Won the Battle of Pollution Control at E.P.A.
Just six weeks into the Bush administration, Haley Barbour, a former Republican party chairman who was a lobbyist for electric power companies, sent a memorandum to Vice President Dick Cheney laying down a challenge. "The question is whether environmental policy still prevails over energy policy with Bush-Cheney, as it did with Clinton-Gore," Mr. Barbour wrote, and called for measures to show that environmental concerns would no longer "trump good energy policy." NY Times Friday March 05, 2004
Environment: Again, an Assault on Alaska
If at first you don't succeed in despoiling an environmental treasure, try, try again. That's apparently the White House motto for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Senate should stop President Bush again, as it has for two years now. The Bush administration has been no friend to the Alaskan environment in recent months. in December, the Forest Service announced it would strip protections from the Tongass National Forest, allowing loggers to build roads to choice stands of old-growth trees. In January, the president's budget brought back his twice-defeated proposal to sell oil leases in the wildlife refuge, and Interior Secretary Gale Norton approved a plan to open millions of acres of the North Slope to drilling and loosen requirements for environmental safeguards. LA Times Wednesday February 25, 2004
Environment: Nuclear safety standards
WORKERS in a nuclear weapons facility should have the assurance that safety standards are set and enforced by federal inspectors. But they won't have that assurance if the Bush administration goes ahead with a draft regulation that would put safety requirements in the hands of the contractors who operate the federally owned plants and research labs. Under the Bush plan, a contractor could establish his own safety requirements within his plant, subject to approval by the US Department of Energy, which has responsibility for the facilities. Boston Globe Sunday February 08, 2004
Environment: A sacrifice of species
SCIENTISTS have long warned that global warming is causing such changes in habitats that many plant and animal species might not be able to survive the heat. Now, 19 researchers have predicted just how severe the impact will be if current climate trends continue: By 2050, 15 to 37 percent of the 1,103 species they studied will be extinct or beyond the point of no return. The study in a recent issue of Nature should spur President Bush and Congress to end their irresponsible neglect of climate change and its consequences. Boston Globe Monday January 19, 2004
Environment: EPA Chief: Superfund Short on Funds
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cleanup work at 11 of the worst toxic dumps in the country hasn't started because the Superfund program doesn't have enough money, the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general said Thursday. The $3 billion program has a shortfall of nearly $175 million, according to the report. "When funding is not sufficient, construction cannot begin; cleanups are performed in less than an optimal manner; and/or activities are stretched over longer periods of time," the report said. In addition to the 11 sites, there are four places where "emergency removal" of contaminants such as asbestos and lead is on hold for lack of $9.4 million. NY Times Thursday January 08, 2004
Environment: Global warming 'biggest threat'
Climate change is a far greater threat to the world than international terrorism, the government's chief scientific adviser has said. Sir David King said the US had failed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And without immediate action flooding, drought, hunger and debilitating diseases such as malaria would hit millions of people around the world. US President George Bush says more research is needed before he introduces punitive carbon taxes on industry. BBC Thursday January 08, 2004
Environment: Timber giveaway/Logging the best of the Tongass
As the Bush administration tells the tale, its rollback of the roadless rule in Alaska's Tongass National Forest is just a minor adjustment. New roads and logging will be permitted on "only" 300,000 of the Tongass' 17 million acres. Why, that leaves 95 percent of the forest under strict protections. Heck, only 3 percent of the acreage set aside under President Bill Clinton would be reopened. This sort of numbers game will be familiar to those who have followed the debate over oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. There, too, the administration parrots industry arguments that only a tiny portion of a vast wilderness will be affected. But its figures obscure more than they reveal. Star Tribune Monday January 05, 2004
Environment: Bush Plans On Global Warming Alter Little
Two years after President Bush declared he could combat global warming without mandatory controls, the administration has launched a broad array of initiatives and research, yet it has had little success in recruiting companies to voluntarily curb their greenhouse gas emissions, according to official documents, reports and interviews. Many of the companies with the worst pollution records have shunned the voluntary programs because even a voluntary commitment would necessitate costly cleanups or possibly could set the stage for future government regulation, according to industry insiders. Washington Post Thursday January 01, 2004
Environment: Editorial: Mercury rules/Another retreat on public health
The competition is tough, but of all the Bush administration's retreats on controlling air pollution, its proposed new rules on mercury may prove to be the most cynical. History will have to judge. Star Tribune Wednesday December 31, 2003
Environment: Ploy Against Clean Waters
Tens of thousands of angry people have shoved the Bush administration away from its effort to obliterate Clean Water Act provisions for a whole class of streams and wetlands, one that includes almost all the waterways in Southern California. But the action will mean little if the administration doesn't also rescind an "interim" order to the Army Corps of Engineers that makes it hard for the agency to protect these waters. LA Times Tuesday December 30, 2003
Environment: Part of Alaskan Forest Opened to Logging
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration opened 300,000 more acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest on Tuesday to possible logging or other development. The decision allows 3 percent of the forest's 9.3 million acres, which were put off-limits to road-building by the Clinton administration, to have roads built on them and perhaps to be opened to use by the timber industry. Yahoo News Tuesday December 23, 2003
Environment: EPA Plan Seeks to Cut Mercury Pollution
WASHINGTON - Days after a scientific panel urged the government to strongly warn pregnant women and children about mercury levels in certain fish, the Bush administration is proposing to give power plants up to 15 years to install technology to reduce mercury pollution. Yahoo News Tuesday December 16, 2003
Environment: DOE changes rules for nuclear waste storage, weakening protection
After dismissing as "fatally flawed" a General Accounting Office (GAO) report critical of his agency's handling of a proposed permanent nuclear waste storage site in the Nevada desert, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham changed the rules of the game -- i.e., the game being whether the proposed site complies with the law. With its recent issuance of the site suitability guidelines for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, the Department of Energy (DOE) now says the government no longer must prove that Yucca Mountain's underground rock formations would prevent radioactive contamination of the environment. Rather, DOE plans to rely on "engineered waste packages" that they hope will adequately contain the highly radioactive waste to be stored in Yucca Mountain. NRDC Sunday December 14, 2003
Environment: Keep snowmobiles from befouling parks
The Bush administration is flouting the public's will by allowing snowmobiles to race through Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Several studies -- even one by this administration -- have shown these loud, obnoxious, polluting machines are harmful to the park environment. They scare the animals and shatter the quiet. The exhaust fumes are so bad that park rangers wear gas masks. Overwhelmingly, Americans have been thumbs up on proposed rules to ban them. Yet the administration just published new rules that keep the snowmobiles coming, starting next week. Kansas City Star Saturday December 13, 2003
Environment: DOE refuses to comply with Freedom of Information request from NRDC about Energy Group
After waiting nearly eight months for a response, NRDC filed a lawsuit today to force the U.S. Department of Energy to produce records regarding the agency's role in the operations of the National Energy Policy Development Group chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney. DOE's refusal to provide basic information about its involvement with the so-called energy task force violates the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), according to NRDC. NRDC Thursday December 11, 2003
Environment: Dirty Trick on Waterways
Relying on nonsensical thinking and a narrow court ruling with dubious application, the Bush administration wants to gut crucial segments of the Clean Water Act. It isn't just the tree-hugging crowd raising alarms over this action, which, if it prevails, would strip protections from waterways that don't flow at least half the year -- in other words, most of the streams and ponds of Southern California. LA Times Monday December 08, 2003
Environment: Bush Signs Bill to Curb Wildfire Threat
The Healthy Forests Restoration Act is the first major forest management legislation in a quarter-century. It seeks to speed up the harvesting of trees in overgrown woodlands and insect-infested trees on 20 million acres of federal forest land most at risk to wildfires. It does that by scaling back required environmental studies. Also, it limits appeals and directs judges to act quickly on legal challenges to logging plans. Critics said the bill would let companies cut down large, old-growth trees in the name of fire prevention. AP Wednesday December 03, 2003
Environment: Plan Would Let Mercury Emissions Be Traded
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is proposing to abandon the idea of treating mercury as a toxic substance requiring maximum pollution controls, favoring instead a plan that allows power plants to curtail emissions through a trading system. AP Tuesday December 02, 2003
Environment: Crimes Against Nature by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst environmental president. In a ferocious three-year attack, the Bush administration has initiated more than 200 major rollbacks of America's environmental laws, weakening the protection of our country's air, water, public lands and wildlife. Cloaked in meticulously crafted language designed to deceive the public, the administration intends to eliminate the nation's most important environmental laws by the end of the year. Common Dreams Thursday November 20, 2003
Environment: Radioactive Waste Plan Attacked
The Environmental Protection Agency is considering an important rule change that for the first time would allow the nuclear industry to store low-level radioactive material in ordinary landfills and hazardous waste sites. Washington Post Tuesday November 18, 2003
Environment: U.S. Pushes For Broad Methyl Bromide Exemptions
The two-decade effort to eliminate chemicals that harm the ozone layer faces its most serious test in recent years this week as the Bush administration seeks international support for broad exemptions to a 2005 ban on a popular pesticide. Many U.S. farmers say the pesticide, methyl bromide, is vital as they try to compete with farm production in countries where fields are tended by low-paid laborers. Critics of the proposed exemptions, led by the European Union, say that substitute chemicals are already in wide use and that the U.S. request threatens progress toward repairing the ozone layer, which shields the earth from radiation that causes cancers and other problems. PCT Monday November 10, 2003
Environment: Lawyers at E.P.A. Say It Will Drop Pollution Cases
WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 -- A change in enforcement policy will lead the Environmental Protection Agency to drop investigations into 50 power plants for past violations of the Clean Air Act, lawyers at the agency who were briefed on the decision this week said. NY Times Thursday November 06, 2003
Environment: Missouri River Scientists Off Project
WASHINGTON - The long-running dispute over management of the nation's longest river took another twist when the Bush administration yanked government scientists off a project to study the waterway's ecosystem. The team had been on the job for years and was within weeks of producing what could have been its final report. Conservation groups criticized last week's unreported decision to remove the scientists, which they said was to protect business interests at the expense of the Endangered Species Act. Yahoo News Wednesday November 05, 2003
Environment: Promising Vote on Global Warming
The bill also found surprising support among Democrats and Republicans from big industrial and coal-producing states, where opposition to any legislation having to do with curbing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases usually runs high. This support materialized despite furious opposition from reactionaries like Oklahoma's James Inhofe, who stubbornly denies the science of global warming, and from the White House -- which, true to form, warned of an economic Armageddon. NY Times Saturday November 01, 2003
Environment: Federal tree aid denied before fires
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 31 (UPI) -- California Gov. Gray Davis requested federal aid to clear dead trees, but it was denied hours before the current firestorms began. The Bush administration took six months to evaluate Davis' emergency April 16 request for $430 million to clear fire-prone areas, and finally denied it Oct. 24, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Washington Times | SF Chronicle Friday October 31, 2003
Environment: U.S. EPA fails to meet deadline for handing over air documents to Senate
In an escalating political game of cat and mouse, the Bush administration has broken its pledge to provide the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee with internal documents detailing the Environmental Protection Agency's planned rulemaking changes to ease Clean Air Act's "new source review" (NSR) requirements for industry. In response, Committee Chairman James Jeffords (I-VT) has vowed to issue a congressional subpoena for the withheld records when Congress reconvenes after the mid-term elections. NRDC Saturday October 25, 2003
Environment: States Try to Force EPA to Regulate CO2
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Eleven states asked a federal appeals court Thursday to force the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA said in August that it lacked authority from Congress to regulate greenhouse gases. It also denied a petition to impose controls on auto emissions. The states who filed the court petition say the federal Clean Air Act requires the EPA to regulate gases like carbon dioxide. AP Thursday October 23, 2003
Environment: Forest Service in violation of Endangered Species Act
A federal judge ruled that the U.S. Forest Service violated the Endangered Species Act by not protecting Mexican spotted owl habitat on 80 percent of cattle grazing areas in 11 national forests in Arizona and New Mexico. NRDC Monday October 20, 2003
Environment: Farm Dioxins Won't Be Monitored
The Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday that it would not regulate dioxins in sewage sludge used as farm fertilizer, citing new studies indicating that such usage does not pose significant health or environmental risks. The announcement came on the eve of a court-imposed deadline for the government to resolve a long-standing controversy over the handling of dioxin-laced sludge. It drew condemnation from environmentalists, public health advocates and scholars who said the administration is gambling with the public's health. Washington Post Sunday October 19, 2003
Environment: Hawking the EPA / An ad buy that turns politics to propaganda
The Bush administration has tripped over its political feet with a taxpayer-supported advertising campaign by the Environmental Protection Agency touting President Bush's "Clear Skies" initiative. Post Gazette Sunday October 19, 2003
Environment: White House Eases Land Rules for Miners
The Bush administration announced Friday that it would start allowing companies that mine gold, silver and other precious metals as much public land as they need to help them develop their claims. Environmental groups assailed the decision as the latest in a long string of actions by the Bush administration to roll back environmental protections. Common Dreams Saturday October 11, 2003
Environment: EPA sides with pesticide industry against famers' lawsuits
The Bush administration is siding with the pesticide industry to make it harder for farmers to sue manufacturers over product labels. In a change of interpretation, Environmental Protection Agency officials said Monday they believe federal law bars lawsuits against pesticide manufacturers under state laws when a product fails to do what its federally approved label promises. NY Times Monday October 06, 2003
Environment: Forest Service loosens logging restrictions for small-scale projects
The Forest Service proposed three new categories forest managers could use in excluding more timber sales from environmental review and public participation under the National Environmental Policy Act. The new "categorical exclusions" would apply to more than 150 pending logging projects. NRDC Sunday September 14, 2003
Environment: Bush asks judge to suspend mountaintop mining decision As expected, the Bush administration asked a federal judge t
May 8 ruling limiting the disposal of mountaintop mining waste pending an appeal. Federal District Court Judge Charles H. Haden II ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' practice of allowing the dumping of coal mining waste as fill into waterways is inconsistent with the federal Clean Water Act and therefore illegal. He also criticized the Corps and the Environmental Protection Agency for attempting to "rewrite" the law. NRDC Saturday September 13, 2003
Environment: Bush encourages sale of PCB-contaminated sites
The Bush administration is encouraging the sale of PCB-contaminated sites, reversing a 25-year-old policy barring any such sales before the land is cleaned. Eagle Tribune Thursday September 04, 2003
Environment: Bush refuses to take action against global warming
Today the Bush Administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was forced to admit its continued failure to take action to reduce the impacts of global warming. Responding to a lawsuit filed by three environmental organizations, the Bush Administration is expected today to officially announce it will do nothing to protect Americans from global warming pollution caused largely by greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. Common Dreams Thursday August 28, 2003
Environment: Bush "healthy forest" plan creates unhealthy forests
The best way to avoid catastrophic fires is by trimming undergrowth and clearing debris, combined with natural burns of the kind that have sustained healthy forests in past millennia. The worst way to create healthy forests, on the other hand, is to thin trees via increased logging, as proposed by the Bush administration. Washington Post Wednesday August 27, 2003
Environment: Feds Urge Overturn of Calif. Air Law
The federal government is backing a lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court that seeks to overturn a California clean-air agency's attempt to curb pollution from buses, taxis, trash trucks and other fleet vehicles. AP Wednesday August 27, 2003
Environment: EPA tells WTC workers that air is safe to breathe
At the White House's direction, the Environmental Protection Agency wrongly told New Yorkers not to worry about health risks of debris-laden air from the World Trade Center collapse, the agency's watchdog says in a report. The White House "convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones" by having the National Security Council control EPA communications in the wake of theSept. 11 terror attacks. NY Times Wednesday August 27, 2003
Environment: Cheney refuses to release documents about energy task force
Congressional investigators say they can't determine the oil industry's influence on the White House's energy policy because Vice President Dick Cheney refused to provide documents about his energy task force. Salt Lake Tribune Tuesday August 26, 2003
Environment: EPA relies on industry anecdotes to relax industrial air pollution rules
The Environmental Protection Agency relied on anecdotes from industries it regulates for its argument that relaxing air pollution rules for industrial plants will cut emissions and health risks, congressional investigators said Monday. CBS News Tuesday August 26, 2003
Environment: EPA shifts funds from successful "energy star" program
"Energy Star" is the Bush administration's most highly touted energy conservation program, but that has not kept the Environmental Protection Agency from quietly slashing its budget by shifting millions of dollars to other programs. NY Times Wednesday August 20, 2003
Environment: Study Finds Atmospheric Decline in Pesticide Harmful to Ozone
Researchers from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration find signficant drop in atmospheric levels of methyl bromide, pesticide that is being phased out because it damages planet's protective ozone layer; say drop is attributable to mandatory curbs on chemical under 1987 Montreal Protocol, treaty aimed at restoring ozone layer. NY Times Saturday August 16, 2003
Environment: Bush tells bureau to open land
The Bush administration has directed federal land managers to remove obstacles to oil and gas development in parts of five Rocky Mountain states. Policy directives issued to Bureau of Land Management state directors give the officials tools to implement the administration's long-standing goal of opening the Rocky Mountain West to increased exploitation of oil and gas resources. Washington Times Saturday August 09, 2003
Environment: EPA cuts funding for one of its most successful and popular energy efficiency programs
The agency's operating budget slashed by one-third its highly touted Energy Star program, which provides a federal seal of approval for energy efficient consumer products. Energy conservation groups, which work with the government to promote the program, now face a significant reduction in federal grants. That could result in less advertising to spread consumer awareness about the Energy Star program. NRDC Saturday August 09, 2003
Environment: DOT to allow construction at historic sites
Unfortunately, the Bush administration has made changes that will eviscerate the 1966 Department of Transportation Act law, and Congress will vote on them shortly. The proposed revisions would undo the most vital protection: forbidding highway construction at historic sites unless there is no feasible and prudent alternative. NY Times Saturday August 09, 2003
Environment: Republican Pollster urges party to challenge global warming science
Before last year's elections Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster, wrote a remarkable memo about how to neutralize public perceptions that the party was anti-environmental. Here's what it said about global warming: The scientific debate is closing [against us] but is not yet closed. There is still an opportunity to challenge the science. And it advised Republicans to play up the appearance of scientific uncertainty. NY Times Friday August 08, 2003
Environment: Bush delays action on climate with "study"
Citing what it calls the "uncertainty" of the science behind global warming, the Bush administration plans to spend several more years and millions of dollars studying climate change instead of trying to fix it. As part of its 10-year plan to study climate change and determine whether human activity or natural occurrences are causing Earth's atmosphere to heat up, the Climate Change Science Program will compile expertise from 13 federal agencies that collectively spend $4.5 billion on climate-change related programs; it will also redirect $103 million for satellite technologies to gather global climate data. NRDC Thursday July 24, 2003
Environment: DOE attempting legislative end-run around court ruling on nuke waste
Two weeks ago a federal judge ruled that the Energy Department acted illegally when they attempted to abandon millions of gallons of highly radioactive waste in underground storage tanks at three nuclear weapons facilities by reclassifying it as incidental waste. Now, the agency is asking Congress to overturn the court decision. NRDC Thursday July 17, 2003
Environment: Bush administration taps new group to speed up energy development in Rockies
The Bush administration, eager to tap the Rocky Mountains for natural gas, has charged a group of top government officials to develop ways to "streamline" or speed up drilling projects in the region. The new group is part of a pilot project of the White House Task Force on Energy Streamlining, created by Bush's National Energy Plan. At its first meeting in Denver -- which was closed to the public -- the Rocky Mountain Energy Council began discussions with federal and state officials on how to ease the permitting process for industry in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. NRDC Tuesday July 08, 2003
Environment: Bush administration calls for more gas drilling on public lands
According to an Interior Department study released last winter, 88 percent of the natural gas resources found in the five major energy producing basins in the Rocky Mountains is open for oil and gas development. But the recent spike in natural gas prices has Bush administration officials warning of an impending natural gas supply crisis that can only be alleviated by increasing drilling on federal lands. In order to make that happen the administration supports "streamlining" environmental protections for energy companies. NRDC Tuesday June 24, 2003
Environment: Fish and Wildlife Service reduces protected habitat for threatened mouse by half
Urban development has made survival difficult for a mouse now found only in Colorado and Wyoming. The good news is that the Preble's meadow jumping mouse is protected as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act. The bad news is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cut in half the amount of designated critical habitat it had originally proposed for the mouse -- dropping habitat protection from 29,253 acres and 237 stream miles to 10,542 acres and 125 stream miles. NRDC Monday June 23, 2003
Environment: White House whitewashes EPA environment report
"Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment." This factual and straightforward statement appeared in a draft of a new report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, billed as the first-ever comprehensive statistical overview of environmental problems facing the United States. But the White House removed the sentence -- along with other references to global warming causes and risks -- from the final version, leaving just a few vague paragraphs. Also omitted was information on the potential harm to humans and wildlife from pesticides and industrial chemicals. NRDC Monday June 23, 2003
Environment: DOD reneges on plan to test for perchlorate pollution at U.S. bases
A top Pentagon official who last month circulated draft guidelines for perchlorate testing at all active, inactive and closed military sites is now backing off after being pressured by senior military officials. After those officials complained that the plan is too costly and the science on perchlorate risks too uncertain, John Paul Woodley, assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for the environment, halted the study. NRDC Friday June 20, 2003
Environment: Bush administration undermines critical habitat designations
When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated critical habitat for 99 endangered and threatened plants on the island of Oahu, it added -- for the first time -- a disclaimer that undermines all such designations under the Endangered Species Act. The disclaimer, which the Interior Department intends to add to all future designations, asserts that the protections offered by the ESA's critical habitat provisions have no value in species protection. It also cites the agency's budget woes and heavy workload as reasons why the Fish and Wildlife Service is unable to fulfill scientific requirements for critical habitat protection. NRDC Wednesday June 18, 2003
Environment: Bush administration moves to roll back the Roadless Rule
Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey has announced his plans to reverse the Roadless Area Conservation Rule -- issued by President Clinton -- that bars virtually all roadbuilding and logging on 58.5 million acres of remote and pristine national forests. The Bush administration first tried to weaken the rule by not defending it in court, but in December 2002 a federal appeals court cleared the way for the implementation of the rule in response to an appeal filed by NRDC and other environmental groups. NRDC Monday June 09, 2003
Environment: Forest Service plan would triple logging limits in Sierra Nevada
Vast chunks of California's Sierra Nevada range that are currently off-limits to logging -- to protect wildlife habitat -- could fall victim to the axe. The U.S. Forest Service, invoking the clarion call of fire danger, has released a new management plan that calls for tripling the amount of logging allowed in the 11 national forests in the Sierras. The changes significantly weaken wildlife habitat protections afforded by the Clinton-era Sierra Nevada Framework. NRDC Thursday June 05, 2003
Environment: DOE moving ahead with new nukes
A month after Congress approved a controversial study of "low yield" nuclear weapons, the Energy Department cited national security concerns in announcing a plan to spend $2 billion to $4 billion for a new factory to build "mini-nukes" or "bunker busters." The facility is expected to be operational in 2020. Critics warn that developing a new generation of nuclear weapons, especially those that could be more easily used, is contrary to the nation's non-proliferation policy. NRDC Monday June 02, 2003
Environment: GAO report on forest fires a blow to Bush administration policies
For the second time in two years, a review by the General Accounting Office has demonstrated that public comment and appeals process do not hamper forest fire prevention efforts. This new GAO report, which the agency released to Congress, finds that the overwhelming majority of so-called hazardous fuel-reduction or "thinning" projects go forward in a timely manner -- even when questions are raised by citizens, industry, recreation groups, conservationists or other interested parties. NRDC Thursday May 15, 2003
Environment: EPA proposes easing, delaying smog control rules
If tough new smog rules were put into effect as scheduled next year, dozens of polluted urban areas throughout the country would find themselves in violation of federal health standards for clean air. Instead of forcing those areas to reduce smog, the Bush administration plans to weaken pollution control requirements for polluted areas. A new proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency would ease and delay smog cleanup requirements for 35 metropolitan areas, never mind the health of the 47 million Americans living in those places where asthma and other respiratory problems are on the rise. NRDC Wednesday May 14, 2003
Environment: White House transportation plan steamrolls environmental protections
The Bush administration sent Congress a $247-billion, six-year spending plan for transportation that would slash environmental protections, threaten historic sites and discourage energy-friendly mass transit. In particular, the proposed bill -- the "Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003" (SAFE-TEA) -- represents a frontal attack on the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Air Act. NRDC Wednesday May 14, 2003
Environment: Department of Interior official under ethics investigation
A former mining lobbyist now embedded in the Bush administration has a knack for digging up controversy. Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles, who has come under scrutiny for maintaining cozy relationships with his former industry clients, is now under investigation by his agency's Inspector General. Among the questions the IG is trying to answer is whether Griles violated the agency's conflict of interest rules when he took part in regulatory decisions that benefited his former clients in the energy industry. NRDC Tuesday May 13, 2003
Environment: Navy's illegal use of sonar blasts dolphins, whales in Puget Sound
A group of whale watchers in Washington State's Puget Sound witnessed a "stampede" of distressed Marine mammals trying to flee high-intensity sonar blasts from the U.S.S. Shoup , a Navy destroyer, off San Juan Island. Observers reported that as many as 100 porpoises, 20 orcas and a minke whale leapt through the water at high speed in an attempt to get away from the sound, which can damage their sensitive hearing -- impairing their ability to navigate and find food. NRDC Thursday May 08, 2003
Environment: Energy Department illegally approved Mexican power plants, says judge
A federal judge in San Diego ruled that the U.S. Department of Energy acted illegally when it found that two Mexican power plants would not have a significant impact on the air and water quality in the border region between northwestern Mexico and southwestern California. That decision calls into question the U.S. permits granted to the power companies to build cross-border transmission lines, and could prevent the plants from exporting electricity to California this summer as planned. NRDC Monday May 05, 2003
Environment: EPA secretly considering amnesty for livestock farm polluters
Behind closed doors the Environmental Protection Agency has discussed giving industrial livestock farms amnesty from federal air quality and toxic waste cleanup laws. The agency and industry groups have confirmed the private negotiations, but insist that no final agreement has been reached. NRDC Monday May 05, 2003
Environment: Bush administration begins diverting water from Klamath River -- where salmon kill occurred -- to farmers
The controversy in the Klamath River Basin continues, as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation this week started sending farmers water despite the prospect of another dry summer that could once again leave little for the region's protected fish species. At least 34,000 fish died in the lower Klamath River last fall, in what was the largest salmon die-off ever recorded in the West. California wildlife officials, scientists at the American Fisheries Society and at least one biologist with the National Fisheries Marine Service blamed the tragedy on low water levels caused by the administration's water policies. NRDC Thursday April 03, 2003
Environment: Bush administration giving away federal water rights in national park
The American public may own the national parks, but what about the water in the parks? In what amounts to a major policy shift and an unprecedented federal giveaway, the Bush administration has negotiated a secret deal to cede federal control over the waters in Colorado's Gunnison National Park to the state. The water will be sold to Colorado cities facing a drinking water shortage, leaving little for wildlife in the park. NRDC Thursday April 03, 2003
Environment: Bush administration slightly raises SUV gas mileage requirements
The good news is that fuel economy standards are about to go up for the first time since the mid- 1990s. The bad news is that sport utility vehicles (SUVs), light pick-up trucks, and vans will only have to meet slightly more stringent fuel-economy standards under a new rule issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation. NRDC Tuesday April 01, 2003
Environment: Interior Department favors boosting offshore drilling by reducing corporate costs
Interior Secretary Gale Norton believes the way to spur natural gas production is to make it cheaper for the energy industry to drill more and deeper wells in the Gulf of Mexico by allowing them to avoid making royalty payments to the government. Currently, the government manages more than a billion offshore acres and collects about $10 billion in mineral revenues a year. Norton's proposal, which is subject to public comment for 60 days, would affect owners of 2,400 gas-drilling leases along the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. NRDC Wednesday March 26, 2003
Environment: EPA backtracks on pledge to close loophole for California air polluters
Less than a month after the Environmental Protection Agency publicly urged state officials in California to crack down on air pollution from farms, the agency is changing its tune. Instead of repealing a law exempting farms from air pollution monitoring permits, EPA now supports the industry's position that the tougher standards should apply only to "major" farm-based pollution sources. NRDC Tuesday March 25, 2003
Environment: EPA cooks fish data to allow more pollution
One fish, two fish, three fish, no fish: that's how many fish it took to persuade the Bush administration to lift health protection requirements in Georgia. Apparently, state officials -- under pressure from industry --persuaded the Environmental Protection Agency last year to accept faulty data showing that fish in the Savannah River had an average level of methylmercury contamination that precisely met the federal government's maximum allowable level. Essentially, overnight the river was transformed from an "impaired" river to one that no longer violated mercury pollution standards under the federal Clean Water Act. NRDC Friday March 21, 2003
Environment: Bush administration proposes stripping protections for endangered wolves
Just when gray wolves are beginning to recover out West, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed stripping federal protection to make it easier to kill them. The agency's proposal would downgrade the animals' protected status from "endangered" to "threatened," a shift that would let ranchers kill wolves that attack their livestock. NRDC Tuesday March 18, 2003
Environment: EPA allows sludge dumping in Potomac River to continue for seven more years
Under a new permit issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers will face tough restrictions on dumping sludge in the Potomac River -- but not for another seven years. For years, the Corps has routinely dumped tons of sludge at various points along the river, including one spot over a spawning ground for an endangered fish. NRDC Tuesday March 18, 2003
Environment: Forest Service to double logging in Sierra Nevada forests
In a major shift in forest policy, the Bush administration's new management plan for California's majestic Sierra Nevada range involves rolling back Clinton-era timber and wildlife protections to allow for much more commercial logging. Saying a boost in timber-cutting is needed to reduce fire danger, U.S. Forest Service regional forester Jack Blackwell signed off on a proposal to increase logging by more than twice the current level and allow cutting of mature trees up to 30 inches in diameter. NRDC Tuesday March 18, 2003
Environment: GAO slams Bush administration for stalling on chemical security
On the brink of war and with the nation's threat level again at Code Orange, the Bush administration still has yet to take appropriate action to reduce the risk of terrorist attacks on the nation's 15,000 chemical plants. The General Accounting Office, Congress' nonpartisan investigative agency, released a report warning that chemical facilities remain highly vulnerable despite the post-9/11 focus on homeland security. NRDC Tuesday March 18, 2003
Environment: EPA conflicted over Pentagon proposal to exempt the military from environmental laws
Somebody must have missed a memo at the Environmental Protection Agency. Less than two weeks after EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman told a Senate committee that she knows of no incident in which environmental protections have ever hampered the military's ability to train, her agency's enforcement chief, J.P. Suarez, testified in support of legislation that would exempt the military from federal environmental and public health laws. NRDC Thursday March 13, 2003
Environment: EPA withdraws water-pollution cleanup rule
With a Clinton-era revision of a major Clean Water Act program -- Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) -- set to take effect, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officially instead simply withdrew the rule, clearing the way for the agency to develop a new rule that would put more control in the hands of the states. The TMDL program was meant to clean up "impaired" or polluted waters that are plagued by indirect or nonpoint sources of pollution, such as agricultural runoff. NRDC Thursday March 13, 2003
Environment: EPA exempts oil and gas industry from water pollution rules
In a rather slick deal for oil and gas drillers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency exempted that industry from a new water regulation aimed at reducing polluted runoff. NRDC Monday March 10, 2003
Environment: EPA data on Clear Skies clearly wrong
The EPA claimed that the Clear Skies plan would reduce sulfur dioxide pollution in Washington State by 87 percent, and nitrogen oxide and mercury pollution would remain stable. But the EPA's regional office questioned the data for months. "I am also concerned that Region 10 (Seattle) data is still wrong," read a 2002-07-1, email from a senior EPA regional official to agency headquarters in Washington, D.C. It turns out that sulfur dioxide emissions were already achieved last year when the state's largest power plant installed state-of-the-art pollution control equipment under a preexisting agreement with state and federal air officials. EPA corrected its analysis, but continued its defense of Clear Skies. NRDC Monday March 10, 2003
Environment: Pentagon chiefs ordered to hunt for environmental exemptions
On the heels of the Pentagon's effort to convince Congress to grant the Defense Department sweeping exemptions from the nation's environmental and public health laws, the Pentagon's No. 2 official ordered the chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force to provide examples to justify possible exemptions by President Bush in the name of national security. The secret memo by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz -- leaked by an environmental group -- argues the Bush administration's position that antipollution and wildlife protections threaten military training and readiness. NRDC Friday March 07, 2003
Environment: Defense Department seeking exemptions from environmental laws
The Bush administration is exploiting the impending war with Iraq to open a new front in its ongoing campaign to weaken or roll back the nation's environmental and public health protections. The Pentagon has once again asked Congress to exempt the Department of Defense (DoD) from a wide range of laws, including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund law); Clean Air Act; Endangered Species Act; and Marine Mammal Protection Act. NRDC Thursday March 06, 2003
Environment: Judge orders federal protection for California fish
In a blow to the Bush administration's prodevelopment stance, a federal district judge in California gave the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service one year to designate critical habitat for the Santa Ana sucker. The judge also barred the agency from issuing anymore permits for activity that would potentially harm the endangered fish. NRDC Tuesday March 04, 2003
Environment: National Park Service sends Yellowstone bison to slaughter
The National Park Service sent nearly half of the bison herd at Yellowstone National Park to the slaughterhouse when some 231 animals were about to wander outside the park in search for food. Many of the bison had not yet crossed the boundary of Yellowstone when park rangers herded them into a holding pen. NRDC Tuesday March 04, 2003
Environment: Bush administration intervened in Nevada mining dispute at request of industry
Last fall the Bush administration became the cat's meow for industry when, at the request of the Interior Department, the Justice Department intervened in a legal dispute on the side of a company that wants to develop a controversial clay mine and cat litter processing plant on federal land near downtown Reno, Nevada. NRDC Monday March 03, 2003
Environment: Bush administration rejects wilderness protection in Alaska's Tongass The Bush administration affirmed a recommenda
May by the U.S. Forest Service, deciding not to provide wilderness protection to millions of acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest. The decision by the administration is just the latest in a string of moves in the last six months that make forest policy more friendly to the timber industry and less friendly to wildlife and ecosystems. NRDC Friday February 28, 2003
Environment: Interior officials escalate rhetoric over Arctic Refuge
Two top officials in the Interior Department have stepped up their vocal support for opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy development. At a Feb. 25 Senate hearing on energy production on federal lands, Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles called oil exploration in the refuge his "greatest wish." Griles dismissed environmental concerns and urged the committee to draft legislation to make his wish come true. NRDC Friday February 28, 2003
Environment: Bush air pollution plan weakens current law, threatens public health
The Bush administration's air pollution plan, misleadingly dubbed the "Clear Skies Initiative," was reintroduced in Congress. If enacted, the plan would weaken public health protections of the current Clean Air Act. It would delay and dilute cuts in power plants' sulfur, nitrogen and mercury pollution compared to timely enforcement of current law. By allowing industry to make fewer reductions in toxic pollution over a much longer period of time than current law, critics say the plan would cost thousands of lives, intensify global warming and reward polluting industries that have been flouting the law for years. NRDC Thursday February 27, 2003
Environment: Department of Transportation to expedite more environmentally harmful road projects
The U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary decided to speed up six new major transportation projects that could cause significant environmental damage. That brings the total so far to 13 highway and airport capacity expansion projects that will benefit from a "streamlined" review process. Environmentalists expect reviewing agencies to face pressure from the White House to quickly approve the projects by shortchanging environmental requirements. NRDC Thursday February 27, 2003
Environment: U.S. EPA seeks to weaken endangered-species protections
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule change to shield itself from litigation under the Endangered Species Act's "Section 7" consultation process for pesticides. That section of the law serves as a "look before you leap" mechanism, requiring federal agencies to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) when their actions may have an effect on a federally listed threatened or endangered species. NRDC Thursday February 27, 2003
Environment: Bush administration flunking on salmon recovery
The Bush administration has failed to ensure the survival of endangered salmon in the Pacific Northwest, according to Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition. The national group, which is comprised of regional environmental organizations, issued a report criticizing the administration for not implementing three-quarters of the Federal Salmon Recovery Plan adopted in 2000. NRDC Wednesday February 26, 2003
Environment: Bush administration using guise of security to expand corporate secrecy
The Bush administration has drafted a new, sweeping antiterrorism bill, the "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003,"which has been roundly criticized by civil liberties advocates. The measure also features provisions that worry environmentalists. In particular, two sections would grant secrecy and immunity protection to corporations while doing nothing to require improved security or safety. One provision would drastically limit citizens' access to information about possible risks they face from accidents at chemical facilities in their communities. Another would shield companies from civil liability for safety risks by granting broad immunity if corporations voluntarily provide specific information to the government. At best, this legislation offers Americans a false sense of security. NRDC Tuesday February 25, 2003
Environment: Scientists debunk Bush's global warming plan
Seventeen scientists can't be wrong. At least not when they're experts on a panel convened by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (at the request of the Bush administration), and they issue a scathing report on the White House proposal for addressing climate change. According to the experts, President Bush has taken "a good first step" but the administration's strategic plan needs "major improvement." Specifically, the Bush plan lacks "a guiding vision, executable goals, [and] clear timetables," according to the experts. They also noted that the administration's overall goal -- to determine the seriousness of global warming in order to make sound decisions about how to address it -- could never be achieved at the paltry funding levels proposed in Bush's 2004 budget request. Even more embarrassing for the White House, the experts ridiculed the idea of conducting research on questions about which there is already scientific consensus -- namely, that climate change is happening and it's primarily caused by carbon dioxide pollution generated by human activities. NRDC Tuesday February 25, 2003
Environment: White House ordered to reveal climate change documents
The shroud of secrecy surrounding the Bush administration may soon disperse a bit now that a federal court has ordered the administration to turn over environmental policy documents or provide a legal explanation for withholding them. The decision stems from a lawsuit filed by a conservative Washington, D.C.-based think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, after the Environmental Protection Agency refused to release 124 documents related to climate change policy. NRDC Friday February 21, 2003
Environment: EPA delays report on mercury risk for children
The bad news is that emissions of mercury by coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources pose an increasing danger to children, according to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency. The worse news is that the Bush administration has held up public release of the report for nine months. Completed in May 2002, the administration has promised to release the report soon -- and an EPA official recently insisted that the document is "at the printer." NRDC Thursday February 20, 2003
Environment: National Park Service overturns ban on snowmobiles in national parks
Despite adverse effects on wildlife, air quality, noise levels and human health, the Bush administration decided, once and for all, to reverse the Clinton-era phaseout of snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. NRDC Thursday February 20, 2003
Environment: BLM opening sensitive Wyoming lands to drilling
Under a draft plan released by the Bureau of Land Management, some 200 oil and gas wells would be allowed in Wyoming's Jack Morrow Hills. Located in a corner of the Red Desert region -- encompassing 662,000 acres of wildlands -- the Jack Morrow Hills feature sand dunes, volcanic formations, colorful rocky buttes and an array of endangered wildlife. With 94 percent of Wyoming's public lands already open to leasing, including much of the Red Desert, conservations and others had hoped BLM would safeguard the hills' fragile landscape. NRDC Tuesday February 18, 2003
Environment: White House gets industry support for voluntary pollution cuts
The Bush administration says it's serious about addressing the problem of climate change, and some businesses have pledged to help in that effort. At a press conference held in the Energy Department cafeteria, representatives from 13 different industries -- ranging from automakers to paper mills --signed on to the administration's new voluntary initiative aimed at improving efficiency and curtailing global warming pollution. Specifically, the companies agreed to help the administration reach its goal of cutting "greenhouse gas intensity" (the ratio of emissions of economic input) 18 percent by 2012 -- or about 1.5 percent a year. Environmentalists scoffed at that goal, pointing out that total emissions will still increase under the Bush plan by as much as 19 percent -- or by roughly the same 1.5 percent increase a year -- because of expected economic growth. NRDC Wednesday February 12, 2003
Environment: EPA plans to relax toxic air pollution standards
The Bush administration plans to relax rules requiring chemical plants, pulp mills, auto factories, steel mills and other industries to curb their toxic air pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency has drafted a set of new rules to exempt these businesses from current requirements to reduce toxic fumes from their plants to the maximum extent possible. The new rules also would allow businesses to self-regulate their operations using less rigorous controls. For the first time since the Clean Air Act was amended in 1990, EPA is prepared to shift from stringent control of toxic emissions to allow companies to avoid pollution restrictions. The six industrial categories affected include brick and clay manufacturing; plywood and wood products makers; stationary backup engines; auto-paint shops; industrial boilers and process heaters; and gas-fired turbines. NRDC Tuesday February 11, 2003
Environment: Bush official touts Western coal, weaker mining regulations
The Bush administration remains committed to coal as the country seeks "energy independence," Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles reassured industry executives at the National Western Mining Conference in Denver. The future of coal, said Griles, is dependent on passage of the president's so-called Clear Skies plan, which would reduce three pollutants from coal-fired power plants -- nitrogen oxide (which causes smog), sulfur dioxide (which causes acid rain), and mercury. However, Griles neglected to mention that carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant, would not be regulated at all under the president's air pollution plan. Nor did he explain that, overall, Clear Skies would reduce pollution less l (and take longer to do so) than simply enforcing current Clean Air Act laws. NRDC Monday February 10, 2003
Environment: Spotted owl denied federal protection despite additional logging threat
For the sixth time in as many weeks, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied endangered status to an imperiled wildlife species. In the case of the California spotted owl, the agency claimed there is not enough evidence that the bird's habitat is threatened to merit protective listing under the federal Endangered Species Act -- even though the agency admits that a U.S. Forest Service draft plan to increase logging in Sierra Nevada forests could substantially reduce the owl's habitat. NRDC Monday February 10, 2003
Environment: Bush administration pushing for pesticide exemptions from international environmental treaty
Farmers cheered and environmentalists jeered as the Bush administration announced plans to allow continued use of a pesticide that is supposed to be banned by 2005 under an international treaty to protect the ozone layer. The pesticide, methyl bromide, is a clear, odorless gas used mostly by tomato and strawberry growers in California and Florida to kill worms, insects, rodents and diseases. NRDC Friday February 07, 2003
Environment: GAO halts lawsuit over Cheney energy files
The White House won a major legal victory -- by default -- as the General Accounting Office (GAO) decided to end its court battle to force Vice President Cheney to publicly disclose information about industry involvement in the Bush administration's secretive energy task force. By deciding not to appeal its lawsuit against the administration for withholding documents, the GAO in effect undermined its own authority as an investigative arm of Congress and tipped the balance of power to the executive branch. NRDC Friday February 07, 2003
Environment: Bush administration wins sweetheart water settlement for wealthy California farmers
In a win for the Bush administration, a federal judge approved $107 million in federal funds to pay farmers whose land was damaged by salt following decades of intensive irrigation and poor drainage. Attorneys for the Natural Resources Defense Council had tried to block the settlement offered by the Bush administration because it would funnel millions of dollars to a few wealthy farmers at the expense of the environment and American taxpayers. NRDC Thursday February 06, 2003
Environment: White House fuel cell plan ignores today's oil insecurity
In a speech on "energy independence," President Bush touted his plan to commit $1.7 billion over five years on hydrogen fuel cell technology. The money would pay for research for the so-called FreedomCar project and a hydrogen fuel initiative -- to explore making the technology work in automobiles. However, Bush's promise of hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles in the future fails to address the environmental and national security threats posed by oil dependence today. NRDC Thursday February 06, 2003
Environment: EPA failing to protect Louisiana's environment and public health
The Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general (IG) issued a report blasting the EPA's Dallas regional office for insufficient oversight and enforcement of federal air, water and hazardous waste protections in Louisiana. Specifically, the IG cited federal regulators for not holding state environmental officials accountable for meeting the goals and commitments set by the regional office, and for relying on faulty data provided by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. NRDC Tuesday February 04, 2003
Environment: OMB pushes for industry-skewed cost-benefit analysis
If the White House gets its way, the value of some human lives could be worth less in the regulatory realm. President Bush's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has agencies using a new calculation for weighing the costs and benefits of proposed regulations. Behind the move is John Graham, head of OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, who wants agencies to change the way they review rules by relying on a certain kind of cost-benefit test. Business groups favor the proposal, but critics warn that the new cost-benefit test is slanted and could be used as a political tool by the Bush administration to block agencies from issuing rules that protect public health and the environment. NRDC Tuesday February 04, 2003
Environment: GAO faults EPA oversight on factory farms
Despite the Environmental Protection Agency's new regulations governing factory farm pollution, the agency hasn't done enough to make sure states that carry out the program are doing enough to enforce it, according to a new report by the General Accounting Office (GAO). In order for the EPA's rule governing Concentrated Animal Feedlot Operations (CAFOs) to be effective, the agency must conduct better oversight of states' implementations -- a challenging task given the agency's lack of a clear plan or necessary resources. NRDC Friday January 31, 2003
Environment: Bush administration seeks waiver on ozone-destroying pesticide
The Bush administration is planning to seek scores of exemptions for industries that want to keep using a highly toxic and ozone-depleting week killer -- methyl bromide -- that is to be phased out by 2005 under an international treaty to protect the ozone layer. Methyl bromide is used to sterilize soils used for tomato, strawberry, pepper, cucumber and other vegetable crops. Methyl bromide is the most powerful ozone-depleting chemical still in widespread use. NRDC Thursday January 30, 2003
Environment: BLM putting grazing restrictions out to
Posted by: shep at August 16, 2004 09:39 PM368. Environment: BLM putting grazing restrictions out to pasture
The Bush administration intends to roll back Clinton-era restrictions on cattle grazing on public lands. Speaking at a National Cattlemen's Beef Association meeting in Nashville, Bureau of Land Management director Kathleen Clarke unveiled the administration's proposed changes, which include: requiring the agency to factor "local culture and economy" into grazing studies on the public's land; "streamlining" the appeals process for grazing decisions; and allowing ranchers to hold property rights in fences, stock ponds and other projects constructed on public land. NRDC Thursday January 30, 2003
369. Environment: Bush snowmobile decision defies logic, not to mention scientific findings
The Bush administration's decision to overturn a ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, which was supposed to take effect this year, flies in the face of scientific evidence that the vehicles cause environmental and health damage. NRDC Thursday January 30, 2003
370. Environment: Bush administration wins court victory on mountaintop removal mining
A federal appeals court overturned a lower court ruling that the Bush administration's practice of granting permits to mining operations for mountaintop removal violated the Clean Water Act. Mountaintop removal is an increasingly common practice in West Virginia, Kentucky and other parts of Appalachia, whereby mining companies use dynamite to blow off huge slabs of mountains and then dump the debris -- tons of rock and dirt -- into valleys and streams. Mining companies, which prefer the environmentally destructive practice because it is a cheap way to access coal seams, had enjoyed easy permit approval from the Army Corps of Engineers until local environmental and citizens groups won a ruling that stopped the practice last May. NRDC Wednesday January 29, 2003
371. Environment: Polluting industries getting off easier under Bush administration
Since the Bush administration took office two years ago, all aspects of environmental enforcement have taken a beating. Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency, however, are quick to point out that it has forced companies to spend more on pollution cleanup in the last two years (roughly $8.4 million) than during the final three years of the Clinton administration (nearly $7 million). What they don't brag about is that EPA has eliminated 210 positions, roughly 7 percent of enforcement staff, which has precipitated a sharp decline in on-site inspections -- from 21,417 in fiscal 2000 to 17,688 in fiscal 2002. In addition, criminal penalties against polluting industries have dropped by more than one-third (to $62 million), while civil penalties have sunk by almost half (to $55 million). NRDC Wednesday January 29, 2003
372. Environment: Sierra Nevada forest protections under fire by Bush administration
If the Bush administration gets its way, many old-growth trees previously off-limits to loggers in the 11 national forests in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range could soon be on the chopping block. The administration's draft proposal, leaked to environmentalists, would reduce the amount of protected forest canopy from 50 percent to 40 percent, and allow logging of large trees -- up to 30 inches in diameter -- on 11 million acres of public lands. NRDC Wednesday January 29, 2003
373. Environment: In Bush's State of the Union address, actions speak louder than words
In his annual State of the Union address, President Bush touted his administration's plans to protect our forests, clean up our air and reduce America's dangerous dependence on foreign oil. Republican strategists called it a smart move, as a way to repair the president's dismal image on environmental issues. Prior to the speech, Bush's chief political advisor, Karl Rove, told reporters that his boss was following in the footsteps of Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican president lionized for his tradition of environmentalism. Now, back to reality. Bush offered up in his speech a pro-industry smorgasbord that calls for rolling back clean air and water protections, easing logging restrictions in national forests and increasing oil and gas drilling on public lands. NRDC Tuesday January 28, 2003
374. Environment: Interior Department may privatize National Park Service
As part of the Bush administration's broad attempt to privatize as many as 850,000 federal jobs, 70 percent of National Park Service jobs -- ranging from biologists to maintenance workers -- could be taken over by private workers. NRDC Monday January 27, 2003
375. Environment: California's giant trees threatened by Bush forest plans
The largest trees on the planet, giant sequoias live more than 3,000 years and grow in just 75 groves on the western slopes of California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. Wildlife that frequent the groves and nearby forestlands include some of the rarest and most imperiled creatures in California, among them the elusive Pacific fisher, the California spotted owl, and the California condor. To save these last unprotected giant sequoias and the wildlife that inhabit the surrounding forest ecosystem from logging and other development, former President Clinton created Giant Sequoia National Monument in April 2000. Now, under the guise of wildfire risk reduction, the U.S. Forest Service has issued a draft plan to resume commercial logging in the Giant Sequoia National Monument east of Bakersfield and two other national forests in Northern California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. NRDC Monday January 27, 2003
376. Environment: Ignoring health risks, EPA chooses not to ban dangerous weed killer
In its latest assessment of atrazine, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that drinking water that is 12 times more contaminated with the herbicide than allowed by law does not pose a health problem. Although more than 75 million pounds of atrazine are applied annually, and more than 1 million Americans drink water from systems that have exceeded EPA's drinking water standard, the agency will allow widespread use of atrazine to continue. Several European countries have banned the chemical. NRDC Tuesday January 21, 2003
377. Environment: Pentagon again taking aim at environmental laws
With Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, the Department of Defense is once again seeking legislation exempting the military from key environmental laws. Last year, Congress rejected all but one of the nine proposed exemptions. The Pentagon's prospects look better this time around, especially since the new chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), firmly supports the position that laws protecting air, water, endangered species and public health hamper combat training at military installations around the country. NRDC Sunday January 19, 2003
378. Environment: Federal study contradicts Bush claims of curbs on Western energy development
Contrary to the Bush administration's repeated claims, environmental laws are not hindering oil and gas exploration in Western states. For example, Vice President Cheney's energy task force report, issued in April 2001, said that "40 percent of the natural gas resources on federal lands in the Rocky Mountain region have been placed off-limits." But a new federal study found that that 57 percent of oil and 63 percent of gas in five major geological basins on federal land -- covering 60 million acres from New Mexico to Montana -- are open for leasing. NRDC Friday January 17, 2003
379. Environment: EPA sticking with unsafe perchlorate standard
The Bush administration erred on the side of the defense industry when the Environmental Protection Agency reaffirmed its 1999 guidelines for addressing water pollution caused by perchlorate (perc), the main ingredient in rocket fuel. NRDC Thursday January 16, 2003
380. Environment: Environmental experts nixed from international development agency
In what can best be described as a purge, the U.S. Agency for International Development eliminated all environmental personnel from its policy bureau, weakened the authority of the Agency Environmental Coordinator, and left in limbo several bureau environmental coordinators. NRDC Thursday January 16, 2003
381. Environment: Bush administration says logging good for wildlife
The Interior and Commerce Departments issued "guidance" on evaluating the "net benefit" of projects that reduce hazardous fuels on public lands. The underlying goal is for agencies to expedite forest "thinning," or logging projects, supposedly for the long-term benefit of endangered species. The Bush administration believes that short-term adverse effects of logging should rarely, if ever, preempt such activities because of the supposed long-term benefits provided by reduced fire danger. The truth is that the kind of intense logging proposed by the administration does a questionable job of reducing fire risks and can have a devastating effect of wildlife and their habitat. NRDC Tuesday January 14, 2003
382. Environment: Despite scientific concerns, Interior Department approves power plant near Yellowstone
President Bush has said that environmental decisions should be based on "sound science," but that criteria remains vague and, apparently, only selectively used. How else to explain the administration's decision to approve a 780-megawatt coal-fired power plant on federal land outside of Billings, Montana? In greenlighting the proposal, Craig Manson, assistant secretary of the Interior Department for fish, wildlife and parks, reversed the determination of National Park Service experts that the plant would adversely impact air quality and visibility of Yellowstone Park, which is 112 miles downwind. NRDC Friday January 10, 2003
383. Environment: EPA seeking legislative 'fix' to let air polluters off the hook
Environmental Protection Agency officials met with Republican congressional aides to discuss a legislative "fix" to legally delay enforcement of the Clean Air Act in two Texas cities. NRDC Tuesday January 07, 2003
384. Environment: Bush administration paves way for new roads in parks, wilderness
In a move that could spur development on millions of acres in America's national parks and wilderness areas, the Bureau of Land Management issued a new rule to make it easier for state and local governments to claim ownership of rights-of-ways along roads, trails, paths and rivers on federal lands. NRDC Monday January 06, 2003
385. Environment: Bush administration pushing to lift grizzly bear protection
In a bid to open up more Western lands to development, the Bush administration may seek to remove grizzly bears from the endangered species list later this year. As part of this effort, grizzly experts contend that federal agencies are using incomplete data to show that bear population are recovering -- a charge that Bush officials deny. NRDC Sunday January 05, 2003
386. Environment: Bush administration blamed for Klamath River fish kill
An investigation by the California Department of Fish and Game concluded that the Bush administration's controversial decision to divert water from the Klamath River for irrigation resulted in last fall's massive die-off of salmon. State biologists also noted a "substantial risk" of more kills if the government continues to divert water from the river, which straddles the California-Oregon border. NRDC Sunday January 05, 2003
387. Environment: New EPA air rules for ocean vessels too weak
Eight months after proposing changes to existing voluntary air emissions standards for new engines on sea going vessels, the Environmental Protection Agency issued its final rule. But it will do little to reduce pollution from oil tankers, cruise ships and cargo freighters, critics charge. NRDC Wednesday January 01, 2003
388. Environment: EPA to exempt oil and gas industry from runoff pollution rules
The Environmental Protection Agency wants to exempt the oil and gas industry from new regulations governing runoff pollution from construction sites. The EPA's phase II stormwater requirements, issued during the Clinton administration, force construction sites between one and five acres to obtain a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. The rule is slated to go into effect on March 10, but the EPA proposal would exempt the oil and gas industry from the requirements until 2005. NRDC Monday December 30, 2002
389. Environment: Bush wetlands proposal will lead to loss and degradation
The new Bush plan to ensure the goal of "no net loss" of the nation's wetlands -- set by the first President Bush in 1989 -- emphasizes the ecological quality of the wetlands replaced over quantity. In other words, the administration's approach will focus on how and where developers must create new wetlands to compensate for those destroyed by highways, subdivisions or other construction projects rather instead of achieving acre-for-acre replacement. Bush officials said this approach to wetlands replacement could result in a numerical loss, but an ecological gain. Environmentalists warned that the administration's new strategy would do little to stem the loss of valuable wetlands, particularly since 80 percent of wetlands restoration or mitigation projects are failures. NRDC Thursday December 26, 2002
390. Environment: Lawsuit forces BLM forced to complete environmental review
In response to a lawsuit by four environmental organizations, a federal court late last Friday blocked the Interior Department from allowing oil exploration in thousands of acres of public wildlands on the eastern boundary of Utah's Arches National Park. The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) now will have to complete a proper environmental review before authorizing energy companies access to the area. NRDC Monday December 23, 2002
391. Environment: Bush administration weakens federal program for cleaning up dirty waters
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally withdrew a Clinton administration rule that imposed federal oversight on states' efforts to clean up some 20,000 of the nation's "impaired" or polluted waterways -- a designation that applies to about 300,000 miles of rivers and shorelines and 5 million acres of lakes. NRDC Saturday December 21, 2002
392. Environment: OMB, with new powers, develops environmental "hit list" preferred by industry
Under the Bush administration, the OMB has enjoyed unprecedented new power to undermine existing environmental rules and bottle up new ones indefinitely. Last year the agency reached out to polluters and the think tanks they fund to develop a specific "hit list" of dozens of environmental and public health safeguards, many of which were weakened. Corporations again dominated the nominating process this year, placing many of their suggestions for changing regulations on OMB's "hit list" for 2003. The federal agency with the largest number of rules targeted for review (65) is the Environmental Protection Agency. NRDC Thursday December 19, 2002
393. Environment: White House discounts human life in cost-benefit analysis
The White House Office of Management and Budget has sparked a scientific and ethical debate with its position that, when it comes to evaluating proposed federal regulations, some human lives warrant less protection than others. NRDC Wednesday December 18, 2002
394. Environment: Government doing big business with lawbreaking companies
During the 2000 budget year, the federal government awarded more than $855 million worth of contracts to companies that had violated at least one federal law in the three previous years, according to the General Accounting Office. GAO's investigation revealed that 39 companies winning contracts of $100,000 or more were guilty of violating federal labor, employment, antitrust, or environmental laws. The lawbreakers included a waste-disposal company that illegally dumped nearly 23 million gallons of waste and falsified documents to avoid paying higher dumping fees; a safety equipment manufacturer that illegally stored hazardous waste; and a poultry company that illegally discharged 11 million gallons of polluted storm water into a federal wildlife refuge. NRDC Monday December 16, 2002
395. Environment: EPA factory-farm rule favors polluters
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a final rule on controlling factory farm pollution that will allow agribusinesses to continue to foul the nation's waterways with animal waste. NRDC Sunday December 15, 2002
396. Environment: White House proposes minor increase in automobile fuel economy
Reaching for a fig leaf in the growing debate over America's foreign oil dependence, the Bush administration today announced a paltry measure that would boost SUV and light-truck fuel-economy standards by just 1.5 mpg over the next five years. The mileage requirement for other passenger cars will remain at 27.5 miles per gallon, the standard set more than a decade ago. NRDC Thursday December 12, 2002
397. Environment: GAO suit against Cheney energy task force rejected
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Congress's General Accounting Office (GAO) seeking records related to Vice President Cheney's energy task force. The ruling represents a victory for the Bush administration and a significant setback for congressional oversight of White House activities. NRDC Monday December 09, 2002
398. Environment: Bush administration fosters policy of delay on global warming
Ignoring a decade of peer-reviewed global warming science, the Bush administration has called for at least five more years of study before taking any substantial action to stem the problem -- delay that will make it harder and more expensive to solve the problem. NRDC Wednesday December 04, 2002
399. Environment: Bush administration loses appeal in California offshore drilling case
A federal appeals court dealt a blow to the Bush administration's plan to allow new oil drilling off California's coast. A panel of judges upheld a lower court ruling that the government illegally extended 36 undeveloped oil leases off the central California coast. The panel agreed with the state of California and environmental groups who had sued the federal government because of the environmental risks posed by oil drilling. NRDC Monday December 02, 2002
400. Environment: Forest Service rewriting rules to increase logging, remove wildlife safeguards
The day before Thanksgiving, the Bush administration issued a real turkey of a policy proposal which essentially puts 192 million acres of public lands on the chopping block. The administration proposed a significant change in long-standing federal rules concerning the way the U.S. Forest Service manages the nation's 155 national forests. The proposed rules would give local forest supervisors more leeway to allow logging, mining, grazing, drilling or other commercial activities without having to complete environmental impact statements -- currently required under the National Environmental Policy Act -- as part of their forest plans. NRDC Tuesday November 26, 2002
401. Environment: Bush administration wants to expedite logging at expense of fish in Northwest forests
In its latest push to rewrite the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan to boost Northwest timber harvests, the Bush administration proposed stripping away a requirement that forest officials take into account certain impacts on threatened fish habitat when they consider timber sales. NRDC Monday November 25, 2002
402. Environment: Bush administration opens national park to drilling
The National Park Service gave the go-ahead to open up the world's longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island to energy development. With no public announcement, the government issued a permit to allow BNP Petroleum Corp. to drill tow new natural gas wells on Padre Island National Seashore, a 69-mile-long island located off the southern coast of Texas. The government acquired and set aside the land as a park 40 years ago, but Congress opted not to buy the mineral rights from the two families who had owned the island. Although limited drilling has been going on since the early 1950's, Padre Island becomes the first national park to be drilled during the Bush administration. NRDC Friday November 22, 2002
403. Environment: EPA proposes weakening of Clean Air Act
Emboldened by the recent Congressional election results, the Bush administration announced that it is moving forward with plans to relax air pollution regulations and enact other changes that will make it easier for older power plants, factories and oil refineries to pollute more. The plan involves having the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency weaken a key Clean Air Act provision, called "New Source Review" (NSR), that requires facilities to install modern pollution controls when they upgrade or modify their equipment and significantly increase their emissions. NSR requires more than 17,000 of the country's largest polluting facilities to clean up increased emissions from facility changes. These facilities also include chemical plants, incinerators, iron and steel foundries, paper mills, cement plants, and a broad array of manufacturing facilities. NRDC Friday November 22, 2002
404. Environment: Interior plans to limit environmental reviews for grazing
By year's end, the Bush administration hopes to complete a set of proposals that would reverse federal livestock grazing regulations to benefit ranchers at the expense of the environment, according to a top official in the Interior Department. William Myers, who directs 300 government lawyers as Interior's solicitor general -- and who previously served as a lobbyist for ranchers who use public lands -- told members of the Nevada Cattlemen's Association that the administration is examining ways to limit environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. NRDC Monday November 18, 2002
405. Environment: Bush administration reverses snowmobile ban for national parks
The Bush administration has reversed a ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks that was to take effect next year. Instead, the administration proposed a new policy that, beginning next March, would allow 1,100 snowmobiles in Yellowstone per day, a 35 percent more than the average of 815 snowmobiles that visit the park daily in winter. NRDC Tuesday November 12, 2002
406. Environment: Bush administration supports renewed elephant ivory trade
At an international conference on endangered species in Chile, the U.S. representative shocked other delegates by offering a plan that would allow for a renewed commercial trade in elephant ivory within the next three years. NRDC Monday November 11, 2002
407. Environment: BLM grants quickie approval of another energy project in Utah
For the fifth time under the Bush administration, the Bureau of Land Management has given the green light to an oil and gas company's request to conduct seismic exploration in Utah. With the latest project, BLM avoided public scrutiny by granting fast-track approval over Veteran's Day weekend of WesternGeco's Horse Point 3-D project, which encompasses about 31 square miles -- one-third of which is federal land -- in eastern Utah. NRDC Monday November 11, 2002
408. Environment: Bush officials intervened to silence objections to coal plant near Mammoth Cave National Park
Critics cried foul when the Interior Department reversed its prior finding that air pollution from a proposed coal-fired power plant in western Kentucky would significantly hamper visibility at nearby Mammoth Cave National Park. Documents recently obtained by NRDC confirm that Interior's reversal came after high-level Bush administration officials intervened on the coal company's behalf. NRDC Saturday November 09, 2002
409. Environment: Federal courts overturn habitat protections, per Bush request
Endangered species have experienced several setbacks of late, as federal judges have sided with the Bush administration and developers by throwing out critical habitat designations throughout the West. Last week a judge approved a "settlement" between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the government to lift restrictions for activities within the protected range of the arroyo toad and fairy shrimp in three Southern California counties. NRDC Saturday November 09, 2002
410. Environment: Bush administration looking for legal loopholes on manatee protection
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed changes to regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act that would protect the government from liability when endangered Florida manatees are accidentally killed or injured in collisions with federal watercraft or in other mishaps. The proposal, which would take effect after hearings over the next month, would immunize the government from lawsuits for the next five years in all areas of the state other than the southwestern counties along the Gulf of Mexico. NRDC Wednesday November 06, 2002
411. Environment: EPA no longer making polluters pay
Under the Bush administration, polluters have paid 64 percent less in fines for breaking environmental laws than they did in the final two years of the Clinton administration, according to federal records compiled by a former top environmental enforcement official. Sylvia Lowrance, acting assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency until her resignation in August of this year, said that Bush's EPA not only is forcing fewer polluters to pay fines, but the penalties are much smaller than they were under Clinton. NRDC Tuesday November 05, 2002
412. Environment: Bush officials suppress science on Klamath River policy
An economist with the U.S. Geological Survey accused the administration of withholding government reports that concluded buying out farms in the Klamath Basin and leaving their irrigation water in the river would benefit the fishery and boost recreation that already provides more economic value than agriculture. Bush officials acknowledged the three reports, completed last year, were blocked due to political and scientific controversy surrounding the Klamath Basin. NRDC Friday November 01, 2002
413. Environment: EPA halts funding at several Superfund sites
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will not complete clean ups at seven high-priority toxic waste sites because of funding shortfalls in the Superfund program, according to a report by the EPA's inspector general. The agency so far has spent $48 million at these sites, but will not allocate the remaining $92 million to finish the cleanups even though regional EPA officials warn that the sites continue to pose serious environmental and health risks. NRDC Thursday October 31, 2002
414. Environment: Bush administration doles out political treats on Halloween
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a list of infrastructure construction projects -- one airport and six highways -- around the country that will receive expedited environmental review under President Bush's executive order last month "streamlining" rules under the National Environmental Policy Act review process. The projects are located in California, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Texas and Vermont. The agency approved these projects despite a pledge by senior DOT officials to involve environmental organizations in the decision-making process. Environmentalists are convinced that DOT selected these federally funded construction projects to boost the prospects of Republican candidates facing tough elections. NRDC Thursday October 31, 2002
415. Environment: Interior Department joining fight for Nevada cat litter mine
Interior Department joining fight for Nevada cat litter mine. The Bush administration is taking the side of industry in what amounts to a cat fight over a controversial mine in Nevada. At the request of the Interior Department, the Justice Department is considering filing a "friend-of-the-court" brief in U.S. District Court supporting a proposed mine project on federal land a few miles from downtown Reno. Chicago-based Oil-Dri Corp., the largest manufacturer of cat litter, wants a special permit to dig clay that would be processed at a plant next to the mine on private land. The county commission rejected the project, citing public concerns about the impacts of noise and air pollution, possible groundwater contamination, and increased truck traffic on one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the nation. NRDC Thursday October 31, 2002
416. Environment: EPA approves Louisiana's controversial pollution-trading program
In an effort to bypass federal air pollution laws, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved a plan that allows Louisiana oil and chemical companies to emit increased levels of carcinogenic and other hazardous chemicals in return for reducing emissions of the less dangerous pollutant, nitrogen oxide, according to internal documents released by an environmental group. NRDC Tuesday October 29, 2002
417. Environment: Bush administration limiting scope of federal coal mining study
Bush administration limiting scope of federal coal mining study. In the wake of massive flooding in West Virginia this summer, the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) proposed a detailed investigation of a possible link to coal mining practices. But the Bush administration is backing away from the study in response to complaints from state officials. The OSM had planned to fly federal inspectors over more than 100 valley fills -- streams buried under waste from mountain-top removal mining -- in an effort to examine their stability and progress on reclamation. NRDC Monday October 28, 2002
418. Environment: Whistleblower says Bush administration pressure forced inadequate salmon protection
Last month's massive salmon kill in the Klamath River may have happened because the Bush administration pressured the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to violate the Endangered Species Act (ESA). According to NMFS biologist Michael Kelly, who is now seeking whistleblower protection, his agency's scientific recommendations were twice rejected under political pressure so that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) could set lower water levels than federal biologists believed necessary for the survival of coho salmon in the Klamath River. The implication is that the White House favored dramatically cutting scientifically based fisheries flows so that Klamath Basin farmers could receive more irrigation water. Soon thereafter, 33,000 fall-run chinook and coho salmon and steelhead died from lack of water. NRDC Monday October 28, 2002
419. Environment: Former EPA official blasts Bush commitment to enforcement of clean air rules
The Bush administration's plans to ease enforcement of industrial air pollution regulations have halted the government's litigation crackdown on polluters, according to a former top Environmental Protection Agency employee. Sylvia K. Lowrance, a 24-year employee who resigned her position as acting head of the office of enforcement and compliance in July, said that companies have little incentive to settle cases with the EPA because they think new rules proposed by the White House will let them off the hook. NRDC Wednesday October 16, 2002
420. Environment: Justice Department lax on chemical security
The Justice Department has violated a 1999 law by failing to assess the vulnerability of the nation's chemical facilities to terrorist attacks, according to a report by the General Accounting Office. NRDC Thursday October 10, 2002
421. Environment: Bush administration sides with auto industry against lower emissions
The federal government's long history of support for California's efforts to fight air pollution has come to an end, as the Bush administration filed a friend-of-the-court brief siding with Daimler-Chrysler and General Motors in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the state's zero-emission vehicle rule. NRDC Wednesday October 09, 2002
422. Environment: EPA memo improperly encourages employees to support Bush
The National Treasury Employees Union complained to EPA Administrator Christine Whitman about a memo sent to all EPA employees last month encouraging them to "express support for the President and his program" when off-duty. The union warned that such wording -- contained in a memo outlining the "do's and don't's" of election-year policies for federal employees -- violates civil service protections by giving the false impression that employees are not free to voice their own political beliefs on their own time. NRDC Tuesday October 08, 2002
423. Environment: Bush stacks panel on lead poisoning with industry experts
Democratic members of Congress decried the Bush administration for revamping a government health panel to favor industry. According to the lawmakers, the administration rejected renowned scientists with expertise on the health effects of childhood lead poisoning for service on a Centers for Disease Control federal advisory committee. In their place, the administration appointed scientists with deep ties to the lead industry. NRDC Tuesday October 08, 2002
424. Environment: EPA admits clean water takes back seat to war on terrorism
Don't you know there's a war on? That is why the Environmental Protection Agency is no longer making it a priority to clean up the nation's rivers, streams and lakes, according to the agency's chief enforcer of the Clean Water Act. Testifying before a Senate environmental committee, G. Tracy Mehan III, EPA's assistant administrator for water, said efforts to combat terrorism and help the economy leave little resources to fight water pollution. NRDC Tuesday October 08, 2002
425. Environment: BLM approves oil and gas drilling in Utah
The Bureau of Land Management ignored concerns raised by the Environmental Protection Agency and a record-breaking amount of public input -- more than 25,000 opposing comments --when it approved a Houston company's request to embark on the largest oil and gas exploration project ever in Utah. NRDC Friday October 04, 2002
426. Environment: Judge considers contempt of court for Interior Secretary Norton over manatees
The Bush administration is appealing a federal judge's decision to require the Fish and Wildlife Service to designate a number of sanctuaries and refuges for manatees throughout Florida's waters. The judge maintains that the Interior Department has failed to implement a settlement agreement on manatee protection brokered by environmentalists, industry and the Bush administration. NRDC Thursday October 03, 2002
427. Environment: White House blocking conservation funding for farms
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's ability to fully implement conservation programs is being hampered by the Bush administration. This summer Congress approved funding to help farmers enroll land in voluntary conservation programs -- the Conservation Reserve Program, Wetland Reserve Program, and Farmland Protection Program. But the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) denied USDA's request of roughly $36.5 million for technical assistance, which pays the salaries of agency employees who administer the programs. NRDC Thursday October 03, 2002
428. Environment: Yosemite park official resigns in protest
Another high-level government official is resigning in protest to the Bush administration's environmental policies. The superintendent of Yosemite National Park, David Mihalic, has opted to retire rather than accept a transfer to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where he says Bush officials wanted him to approve two environmentally harmful projects: building a 28-mile road through the largest undeveloped wilderness in the eastern United States and conducting a land swap that would allow a local Indian tribe to develop nearly 200 acres of meadowland located within the park. NRDC Thursday October 03, 2002
429. Environment: Bush administration relinquishing federal water rights
Signaling a major shift in federal policy, the Bush administration appears ready to give Western states more control over scarce water resources traditionally reserved for federal lands, at the expense of natural resources. NRDC Monday September 30, 2002
430. Environment: Bush administration rewriting rules to boost logging in Northwest
As part of legal settlement, the Bush administration has agreed to ease environmental restrictions in order to clear the way for more logging on federal land in the Northwest. Last January, the timber industry filed the lawsuit against the government alleging that the landmark Northwest Forest Plan -- a 1994 compromise plan between environmentalists and loggers that set safeguards for remaining old-growth forests in the region -- contained onerous and unnecessary wildlife protections. NRDC Monday September 30, 2002
431. Environment: New EPA water quality report shows U.S. waters are getting dirtier
In response to a Freedom of Information Act Request filed by NRDC and American Rivers, EPA today released its biannual report of U.S. water quality conditions, and the news is not good. This year's report shows that U.S. waterways are becoming increasingly polluted. From 1998 to 2000, the percentage of polluted rivers rose from 35 percent to 39 percent, the percentage of polluted estuaries jumped from 44 percent to 51 percent, and the percentage of polluted shorelines increased from 12 percent to 14 percent. The percentage of polluted lakes remained unchanged. "This is a very disturbing trend," said Nancy Stoner, director of NRDC's Clean Water Project, "and given the Bush administration's water policies, it is bound to become even worse." NRDC Monday September 30, 2002
432. Environment: The Bush administration is gearing up to remove federal protections for wolves by next year
Craig Manson, an assistant secretary of the Interior Department, told reporters that the time is right for the government "to be relieved of the burdens" of the Endangered Species Act, and said that the administration will vigorously defend its action against expected lawsuits from wildlife advocates. NRDC Wednesday September 25, 2002
433. Environment: Forest Service smoothing the rails for Bush's logging proposals
With President Bush's controversial wildfire prevention proposal stalled in Congress, the U.S. Forest Service is preparing to streamline the administration's plan to "thin" flammable forests by granting some logging projects in national forests immunity from laws and regulations that could slow the projects down. NRDC Thursday September 19, 2002
434. Environment: Bush orders agencies to streamline environmental review of transportation projects
In a major victory for the nation's road lobby, President Bush signed an executive order directing the Department of Transportation and other federal agencies to speed up the approvals process for federally-backed projects, such as highway construction or airport projects. The president's order calls for "streamlining" environmental review and limiting public participation in planning and permitting processes. NRDC Wednesday September 18, 2002
435. Environment: Bush replacing health scientists who don't favor industry views
The Bush administration, unhappy with the findings of the scientific advisory committees that guide federal policy, has begun a broad restructuring at the Department of Health and Services. In the past few weeks, some committees that were coming to conclusions at odds with the president's views have been eliminated and membership in others has been reshuffled. NRDC Tuesday September 17, 2002
436. Environment: U.S. EPA misses deadlines on air toxics standards
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is nearly two years behind in fulfilling its statutory responsibilities to develop standards for some 176 air toxics, according to the Inspector General. Air toxics such as benzene, mercury and asbestos are regulated by the Clean Air Act through a two-phased approach as called for by the law's 1990 amendments. Toxic air pollution remains one of the most significant health and environmental problems in the U.S., causing cancer, neurological, immunological and other serious health problems, according to the IG report. NRDC Tuesday September 17, 2002
437. Environment: EPA omits global warming section from pollution report
Top officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with White House approval, deleted a chapter on global warming from the annual report on air pollution. The new report, "Latest Findings on National Air Quality: 2001 Status and Trends," notes a significant reduction in most emissions, but ignores carbon dioxide (CO2), the pollution mostly responsible for global warming. NRDC Sunday September 15, 2002
438. Environment: BLM's plans for California desert favor commerce over conservation
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management recently released a long-awaited draft management proposal for a 5.5 million acre portion of the California's Sonoran Desert that favors vehicle recreation at the expense of wildlife, according to environmentalists. NRDC Friday September 13, 2002
439. Environment: EPA backs off issuing strong antipollution standards for off-road vehicles.
Bad luck prevailed on Friday the 13th as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finally issued new standards for off-road vehicle emissions and engine regulations. Bowing to White House and industry pressure, the EPA not only failed to issue stronger standards to control pollution from these vehicles but actually weakened the rule it proposed more than a year ago. NRDC Friday September 13, 2002
440. Environment: Army Corps of Engineers dawdling on Missouri River plan
The Army Corps of Engineers is unlikely to meet its 2003 deadline to issue a new "master manual" for managing the Missouri River, leaving endangered wildlife unprotected while dam operations continue unchanged. As a result, environmentalists may file lawsuits to force the agency to change the river's flow regime in order to prevent species from going extinct. NRDC Tuesday September 10, 2002
441. Environment: Norton rules out citizen's panel for Trans-Alaska Pipeline
Interior Secretary Gale Norton rejected the need for establishing a citizens' panel to oversee the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. State and federal regulators are holding hearings on the renewal of the pipeline rights-of-way across public lands, as oil companies seek to extend their use for another 30 years beyond the January 2004 expiration. Environmentalists want a citizens group to oversee pipeline operations, similar to the regional citizens advisory councils created by Congress after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Norton disagreed. NRDC Tuesday September 10, 2002
442. Environment: Bush Pushing Plan for Logging Flexibility
The Bush administration, brushing aside concerns from environmentalists, is pushing forward with plans to give national forest managers more flexibility to approve logging and commercial activities, with less environmental review. AP Monday September 09, 2002
443. Environment: U.S. EPA air-quality enforcement sinks to new lows
Under the Bush administration, the number of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency personnel assigned to enforce air quality laws has fallen to the lowest level on record, according to an analysis of records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by AIR Daily. NRDC Saturday September 07, 2002
444. Environment: Federal officials reject call to add white marlin to endangered list
The National Marine Fisheries Service, which regulates offshore fishing, rejected a request to place the white marlin on the federal endangered species list. NRDC Wednesday September 04, 2002
445. Environment: White House seeks unprecedented exemption from public disclosure rules
In a case involving public access to information about Vice President Cheney's secret energy task force, the Bush administration is seeking broad immunity from disclosure laws. Administration attorneys filed a brief in federal district court hoping to block citizen groups from obtaining information about sensitive energy policy documents. They are arguing, for the first time ever, that virtually anyone employed or detailed to the White House is exempt from public access laws such as the Freedom of Information Act, the Federal Advisory Committee Act and the Administrative Procedures Act. NRDC Monday September 02, 2002
446. Environment: Bush's new wildfire expert no friend of forests
This just in: The man chosen to direct the Bush administration's efforts to reduce wildfire danger on public lands doubts the existence of ecosystems and thinks the extinction of the nation's threatened and endangered species might not be a bad idea. NRDC Friday August 30, 2002
447. Environment: U.S. undermines renewable energy proposal at World Summit
Just two days into the U.N. summit in Johannesburg, the U.S. joined Saudi Arabia and other nations in resisting promises to expand the use of clean, renewable energy technologies around the globe. NRDC Tuesday August 27, 2002
448. Environment: White House Utah drilling plans under fire from local businesses
A coalition of small businesses sent a letter to President Bush opposing his administration's plans to allow oil drilling on public lands in southern Utah. They are worried that drilling and related activities will mar the landscape that is "the bedrock for drawing significant revenue to our local businesses." They pointed out that oil produced in the state generates $1 billion annually, while tourists visiting Utah's popular canyons and other natural treasures spend $4.25 billion. NRDC Monday August 26, 2002
449. Environment: Bush administration abandons California water plan
Interior Secretary Norton quietly dropped her agency's appeal of a court ruling involving a critical component of California's widely supported water plan. The state-federal "CalFed" plan is designed to restore the San Francisco Bay-Delta and improve water supply reliability for California. NRDC Friday August 23, 2002
450. Environment: Bush administration weakens whale protections that hindered oil and gas industry
Concern about the environmental dangers of seismic testing -- which relies on intense blasts of sound to map potential mineral reserves -- prompted government officials in the Gulf of Mexico to develop new regulations to protect Marine mammals. But an industry lobbyist persuaded the Mineral Management Service (MMS) to weaken some of the protections. NRDC Thursday August 22, 2002
451. Environment: Interior Department allows more air pollution at national park
The Interior Department reversed a National Park Service finding that air pollution from a proposed coal-fired power plant in western Kentucky would significantly hamper visibility at nearby Mammoth Cave National Park. In an August 22 letter to the state of Kentucky, Interior Assistant Secretary Craig Manson rejected the conclusions of career Park Service officials after meeting with Peabody Energy Corp., one of the nation's largest coal companies and one of President Bush's major campaign contributors. NRDC Thursday August 22, 2002
452. Environment: Bush calls for increased logging in the name of fire prevention
President Bush has a simple solution for preventing forest fires: Cut down the trees. His new forest management plan essentially would do just that by rewriting environmental rules to allow timber companies to increase commercial logging in national forests. NRDC Thursday August 22, 2002
453. Environment: Bush administration employs stonewall strategy at World Summit
The good news is the White House announced its goals and strategies for the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. The bad news is that the U.S. delegation, led by Secretary of State Colin Powell, will use the summit as a platform to rebut international criticism of Bush's environmental policies and his failure to be a team player in global issues. NRDC Wednesday August 21, 2002
454. Environment: Bush administration backing away from California coastal protection
A proposal to designate one of the last undeveloped stretches of Southern California's coast as a national seashore is in danger of being scuttled by the Bush administration. NRDC Monday August 19, 2002
455. Environment: Bush skipping U.N. Earth Summit
A decade ago the first President Bush attended a world summit on the environment in Rio de Janeiro, where he agreed to tackle problems in forestry, biodiversity and climate change. Unlike his father, President George W. Bush will not attend the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held later this month in Johannesburg, South Africa. Instead, Secretary of State Colin Powell will lead the U.S. delegation. NRDC Thursday August 15, 2002
456. Environment: EPA cedes Idaho cleanup authority to state
In a strange and unprecedented move, the Environmental Protection Agency ceded control of the cleanup plan for Idaho's highly polluted Coeur d'Alene Basin to state, local and tribal officials. NRDC Tuesday August 13, 2002
457. Environment: Bush administration allows energy development in national monument
For the first time ever, energy development activities will be permitted outside already-leased areas at a national monument, courtesy of the Bush administration. The Bureau of Land Management has decided that companies can expand oil and gas exploration beyond the boundaries of their existing leases at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado. NRDC Monday August 12, 2002
458. Environment: White House looks to sink environmental law
Coming soon to an ocean near you: unfettered waste dumping, commercial fishing, oil and gas construction, and military maneuvers. These and other harmful activities could become rampant if the Bush administration succeeds in lifting environmental review provisions as they apply to vast tracts of oceans under U.S. control. NRDC Saturday August 10, 2002
459. Environment: EPA rolls back Clean Water Act's water cleanup program
This year marks the 30-year anniversary of the Clean Water Act, yet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with a rule to cripple the Act's primary program for cleaning up the nation's more than 20,000 polluted rivers, lakes and estuaries. NRDC Wednesday August 07, 2002
460. Environment: EPA fails to meet pesticides review deadline
The Environmental Protection Agency falsely claimed that it has met a legal deadline for reassessing the safety of pesticides as mandated by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. The FQPA requires the EPA to complete safety reviews of two-thirds of all pesticide tolerances (individual uses of pesticides) -- about 6,000 tolerances -- by this date. NRDC Saturday August 03, 2002
461. Environment: Bush uses national security to gain corporate secrecy and immunity
At the behest of industry, the Bush administration is using the guise of homeland security to squelch the public's right to know about corporate practices that threaten its health and safety. Both houses of Congress are working furiously to pass massive homeland security legislation before the one-year anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. But buried deep within the House version of the bill is a provision -- supported by the Bush administration and its congressional allies -- that would shield private companies who voluntarily give the government information related to "critical infrastructure," including chemical plants, dams and computer networks, from public disclosure and civil liability laws. While this may sound innocuous, the effect would be to broaden corporate secrecy and immunity at the expense of the environment and public health and safety. NRDC Friday July 26, 2002
462. Environment: Another EPA official resigns in protest over Bush policies
In yet another sign of apparent discontent over the Bush administration's handling of environmental issues, the Environmental Protection Agency's top enforcement deputy resigned her post. After more than two decades at EPA, most recently as assistant administrator in the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, Sylvia Lowrance decided to retire rather than accept a new job assignment. Media reports indicate that she quit in frustration over the administration's efforts to undermine ongoing litigation against the utility sector for violating federal air pollution standards. NRDC Thursday July 25, 2002
463. Environment: Bush administration plans to give away oil and coal holdings in Utah
Interior Department officials agreed to exchange 135,000 acres of federal land -- containing valuable petroleum and coal holdings -- for 108,000 acres of scenic land owned by the state of Utah. The deal, which BLM land appraisers say would amount to a $100 million giveaway by U.S. taxpayers, is embodied in a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah). The House Resources Committee tabled the bill (H.R. 4968) until after the August recess. NRDC Thursday July 25, 2002
464. Environment: Fish and Wildlife Service reneges on manatee protection plan
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants a federal judge to delay or revoke the settlement that requires the agency to designate manatee protection areas in Florida. The request comes approximately one week after the judge chastised federal officials for violating a court-approved agreement to provide more safe havens from boaters for the endangered sea cows. NRDC Wednesday July 24, 2002
465. Environment: Bush's revised Everglades plan falls short of restoration goals
Seven months after environmentalists harshly criticized the Bush administration's draft plan for restoring the Florida Everglades -- calling it a thinly veiled effort to spur more development -- the Army Corps of Engineers issued new programmatic regulations designed to ease those concerns and further flesh out a conceptual, $8.4 billion restoration blueprint Congress enacted in December 2000. Their publication in the Federal Register starts a 60-day public comment period on the project, but already environmentalists say the administration's revised rules remain fundamentally flawed. NRDC Tuesday July 23, 2002
466. Environment: Bush administration opposes renewable energy requirement
The Bush administration has joined several utilities in opposing a provision of the Senate energy bill that would require power companies to produce 10 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. The Senate bill includes a renewable electricity standard that requires major electric companies to increase sales of electricity from wind, solar and other renewable sources from 2 percent today to about 10 percent two decades from now -- quadrupling the amount of clean energy produced in the United States. NRDC Friday July 19, 2002
467. Environment: Bush cleanup plan could leave behind more nuclear waste
The Bush administration's strategy to speed up cleanup at old nuclear weapons sites may result in waste being left behind. The Energy Department plans to spend $1.1 billion on the accelerated cleanup program next year. But in an effort to meet its goals, the agency is considering relaxed requirements on transporting some of its waste off-site, according to a General Accounting Office report. NRDC Friday July 19, 2002
468. Environment: EPA's scientific review on pesticides questioned
A report by an independent panel of scientists concluded that the Environmental Protection Agency used an inadequate margin of safety in determining that a group of pesticides pose no danger to children's health. The EPA, prompted by a settlement from a lawsuit brought by NRDC in 2000, reviewed the cumulative risks of organophosphorus pesticides in foods most eaten by children. The EPA Scientific Advisory Panel, composed of government and nongovernment scientific experts, criticized as premature EPA's finding last month that 28 of 30 pesticides reviewed were safe for children. NRDC Friday July 19, 2002
469. Environment: White House backs delay in river changes
Despite the government's own findings that higher water levels would benefit wildlife, the White House is quietly backing a 5-year delay in boosting spring levels of the Missouri River. NRDC Sunday July 14, 2002
470. Environment: Bush administration forced to protect endangered whipsnake
A federal judge has thwarted another attempt by the Bush administration to remove critical-habitat protection for species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. In the latest in a series of legal challenges by the construction and timber industries against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over federal habit protections, the judge ruled against California developers by upholding the federal designation of 400,000 acres as critical for the survival of the Alemeda whipsnake. NRDC Wednesday July 10, 2002
471. Environment: EPA may allow the use of Carbofuran, a formerly banned toxic pesticide
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is allowing Louisiana rice growers to spread one of the most toxic pesticides currently known. Carbofuran has been responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of birds, including bald eagles, and the granular form is so dangerous that the manufacturer voluntarily took it off the market in the mid-1990s. It has not been allowed on rice since 1998. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "There are no known conditions under which carbofuran can be used without killing migratory birds." But EPA did not bother to consult the Fish and Wildlife Service, as required by law, when it considered an "emergency use" application from the Louisiana Department of Agriculture to use the chemical again to combat water weevil on 100,000 acres of rice fields. NRDC Monday July 08, 2002
472. Environment: Bush administration revokes habitat protection for California frog
Mark Twain's once celebrated frog has little to cheer about these days, thanks to the Bush administration. Less than a month after a federal judge ruled that federal officials could not revoke protection for more than a half-million acres of habitat critical to the survival of two endangered species in southern California, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rescinded its designations of more than 4 million acres for the protection of the state's red-legged frog. The agency eliminated the habitat protections after a legal challenge by home builders who said it would impede development. NRDC Thursday July 04, 2002
473. Environment: Bush slashing EPA funding for toxic cleanups
The inspector general of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported to Congress that the Bush administration has authorized deep funding cuts for the federal Superfund program, which will slow or halt the cleanup process at 33 toxic waste sites in 18 states. These sites are among the most contaminated grounds in the country and pose some level of health and environmental hazards to the communities in which they are located. NRDC Sunday June 30, 2002
474. Environment: Bush administration blames wildfires on environmentalists
In a new low, the Bush administration is suggesting a link between forest protection efforts and the scourge of wildfires currently raging across the country. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced plans to study whether legal actions and petitions by environmentalists contributed to Forest Service delays in wildfire prevention projects, thereby contributing to the catastrophic wildfire season in the West this year. The agency wants the study to list specific projects rejected due to legal concerns and any extra time and money spent to immunize projects against legal action. NRDC Tuesday June 25, 2002
475. Environment: Snowmobiles to be restricted, not banned in parks
Eighteen months after the National Park Service issued a supposedly final decision to phase out snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, beginning in the winter of 2003-04, the agency changed its tune. But, as feared, the Bush administration has reversed that decision and will allow snowmobiling to continue in the parks with restrictions to reduce the volume of traffic and require quieter, cleaner machines. NRDC Tuesday June 25, 2002
476. Environment: EPA stymied investigation of Yucca Mountain radiation standards
In testimony before the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's independent ombudsman said that he was pressured to stop his investigation of the EPA's involvement in the Yucca Mountain project a year ago. NRDC Tuesday June 25, 2002
477. Environment: EPA backs off mandatory plan to clean up stormwater pollution
At the behest of the White House, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has abandoned its plan to force construction companies to reduce stormwater runoff caused by development, the leading source of coastal water pollution in the United States. NRDC Monday June 24, 2002
478. Environment: Bush administration backtracks on land preservation
Two years after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended that a 3,800-acre pristine peninsula in Virginia called the Crow's Nest be designated as a national wildlife refuge, the Bush administration has determined that it lacks the number of rare and endangered species necessary for federal protection. NRDC Wednesday June 19, 2002
479. Environment: Judge rejects Corps request to lift ban on mining pollution
"Despite the administration's efforts to rewrite pollution rules to benefit the mining industry, Judge Haden stood by his decision," said Daniel Rosenberg, an attorney in NRDC's clean water program. "His ruling is the only thing preventing the Corps from turning our many of our nation's waterways into landfills for coal companies." NRDC Monday June 17, 2002
480. Environment: EPA rolls back clean air protections for power plants
In a major victory for the utility industry, the Bush administration has proposed changes to federal air pollution rules that will weaken the Clean Air Act. More than a year after announcing its "90 day review" of the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will relax federal "new source review" regulations to allow approximately 17,000 of the country's biggest polluting facilities to avoid installing pollution-control equipment when they modernize or expand their plants to produce more electricity. NRDC Thursday June 13, 2002
481. Environment: Missouri River restoration put on hold
In another setback for river protection proponents, the Army Corps of Engineers is postponing indefinitely plans to alter the Missouri River's flows in order to save endangered and threatened species. The Corps made this decision despite a biological opinion by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that says restoring more natural flows is the only way to protect two shorebirds -- the piping plover and least tern -- and a fish, the pallid sturgeon. NRDC Thursday June 13, 2002
482. Environment: Bush and Whitman distance themselves from EPA global warming report
Shortly after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a new report on global warming that represented a stunning policy shift for the Bush administration, President Bush and EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman began backtracking from the agency's findings. The report, sent quietly last week to the United Nations, concluded that greenhouse gas emissions produced by human activities were the primary cause of climate change. NRDC Wednesday June 12, 2002
483. Environment: U.S. signs off on endangered salmon harvest
U.S. delegates to an international treaty on wild Atlantic salmon agreed to allow a foreign commercial harvest of fish from one of the nation's last surviving critically endangered salmon runs. At a meeting of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Association, the delegates adopted -- with U.S. approval -- a plan under which Greenland could harvest up to 55 tons of salmon in waters off the northeastern Atlantic coast where the fish congregate. That take could include up to 600 of the critically endangered fish, which cling to survival in only eight rivers in the state of Maine. Last year 67 percent of wild salmon caught off Greenland's western coast came from North American runs. The U.S. listed the Atlantic salmon as a federally endangered species in 2000. NRDC Wednesday June 12, 2002
484. Environment: BLM officials address conflict-of-interest charges
As the battle over coal-bed methane (CBM) development in Wyoming's Powder River Basin heats up, two top officials within the Bureau of Land Management have come under fire for their close ties to industry. NRDC Monday June 10, 2002
485. Environment: Bush administration pushes oil drilling in Alaska reserve
Defeated in its attempt to allow oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge, the Bush administration has set its sights on an even larger tract of pristine wilderness in Alaska -- the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve. The reserve, a large federally owned area on Alaska's North Slope immediately west of the sprawling Prudhoe Bay oil field, is an ecologically rich wild area that provides essential habitat for polar bears, brown bears, wolves, millions of migratory birds. The
485. Environment: Bush administration pushes oil drilling in Alaska reserve
Defeated in its attempt to allow oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge, the Bush administration has set its sights on an even larger tract of pristine wilderness in Alaska -- the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve. The reserve, a large federally owned area on Alaska's North Slope immediately west of the sprawling Prudhoe Bay oil field, is an ecologically rich wild area that provides essential habitat for polar bears, brown bears, wolves, millions of migratory birds. The area is also home to one of the world's largest caribou herds. The Interior Department on June 3 leased more than 60 tracts covering 579,269 acres of the reserve for $63.8 million; another 10 million acres of the western portion of the reserve are slated for leasing by 2004. NRDC Monday June 10, 2002
486. Environment: EPA signs off on safety of all but two of 30 pesticides
The Environmental Protection Agency released its findings on the safety of pesticides, just hours after a federal appeals court in Washington rebuffed the pesticide industry's third attempt to block release of the information. In a study of the cumulative health risks of 30 organophosphates, the EPA found that two pose an unacceptable threat to human health when combined. NRDC Monday June 10, 2002
487. Environment: Bush administration refuses to crack down on diesel pollution
The Bush administration intends to regulate pollution from diesel-powered off-road equipment for the first time, but only through industry-favored actions rather than a federal crackdown. In an unusual collaboration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the White House Office of Management and Budget will draft a final rule to be released next year that emphasizes voluntary incentives for manufacturers, including a system that would allow manufacturers to trade emission credits. NRDC Friday June 07, 2002
488. Environment: On offshore drilling, Bush administration won't give Californians the same relief it gave Floridians.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton rejected California governor Gray Davis' request that it buy back offshore oil leases, as it did in Florida last month. Norton contended that the circumstances were different: Florida opposes coastal drilling and California does not. Norton also cited two pending lawsuits filed by oil companies over disputed drilling rights that preclude the administration from cutting a deal as was done in Florida. Gov. Davis responded by noting that the vast majority of Californian's have long opposed drilling off the coast. NRDC Friday June 07, 2002
489. Environment: Bureau of Reclamation balks at Klamath water plans
Environmentalists criticized the decision by FWS and NMFS to eventually increase water supplies for fish, insisting that more needs to be done immediately to help endangered sucker fish and threatened coho salmon. NRDC Monday June 03, 2002
490. Environment: Bush administration lets construction companies off the hook for protecting environment
The Bush administration backed off a plan that would have required the construction industry to spend $4.1 billion a year on environmental protection. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had planned to require construction companies to take permanent steps, such as building ponds in office parks, to reduce pollution from dirt and other runoff after storms. The White House Office of Management and Budget rejected the plan as too costly, and instead proposed temporary measures, such as water basins, that may be removed as the bulldozers leave. Environmentalists criticized the administration for, once again, favoring big business at the expense of the environment. NRDC Friday May 24, 2002
491. Environment: Bush-Putin Summit Produces Deeply Flawed Nuclear Arms Treaty
President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin have signed a nuclear arms treaty that will reduce the number of warheads deployed on ballistic missiles and bombers. Under the terms of the agreement, each side will reduce its operationally deployed strategic nuclear warheads to no more than 2,200 by 2012. But while the White House has been busy hailing the agreement as a definitive step away from the threat of nuclear destruction, the fact is that the treaty would impose a binding limit on operational U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear forces for only one day -- 2012-12-31. Before and after that date, the number of nuclear warheads mounted on strategic nuclear missiles and bombers may exceed the treaty's maximum "limit" of 2,200 warheads in operation. NRDC Friday May 24, 2002
492. Environment: Army Corps of Engineers' flip-flops on project reviews further damage its credibility
Less than a week after announcing that it had completed an unprecedented, in-depth review of 171 projects, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers changed course yet again by reopening reviews on more than 50 projects while dropping some projects from its list altogether and adding others. "The Corps appears to be floundering in a sea of mismanagement," said NRDC attorney Daniel Rosenberg. NRDC Thursday May 23, 2002
493. Environment: Bush administration rolls back air conditioner energy efficiency standards
Just days after celebrating the first anniversary of the release of its national energy policy, the Bush administration weakened a major efficiency standard for air conditioners. The Department of Energy (DOE) announced a new that effectively overturns the so-called SEER 13 standard, which required a 30 percent increase in efficiency, in favor of a lower standard of SEER 12. Under the new standard, manufacturers will have to make central home air conditioners 20 percent more efficient beginning in 2006 -- which means one-third of the savings from the higher standard will be lost. NRDC Thursday May 23, 2002
494. Environment: Bush administration lifts ban on mining in Oregon national forest
The Bush administration canceled a two-year ban on new mining claims in roughly 1.2-million acres in and around southwestern Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest. The decision to lift the moratorium, which was set to expire in January 2003, opens the area to prospectors. NRDC Tuesday May 21, 2002
495. Environment: Forest Service advises against protecting wilderness in Alaska's Tongass
The 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska, which contains nearly 30 percent of the world's unlogged coastal temperate rain forest, is under fire by the Bush administration. In response to a federal court order last year that required the U.S. Forest Service to consider designating additional portions of the Tongass as permanent wilderness, the administration decided not to grant protection to more than 9 million acres of the forest's roadless area. NRDC Thursday May 16, 2002
496. Environment: Bush signs disastrous farm bill
Despite President Bush's supposed devotion to free markets and his pledge to wean farmers off of government funding, he signed a farm bill that is expected to cost $190 billion over 10 years -- or $83 billion more than the cost of continuing current programs. The bill boosts conservation spending, but that increase remains low in the context of overall spending -- $9 billion of the bill's $45 billion in new spending. The conservation funding is dwarfed by commodities subsidies and environmentally damaging provisions in the bill. NRDC Tuesday May 14, 2002
497. Environment: EPA proposes water pollution trading scheme
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to give polluters an alternative to reducing their discharges into the nation's waterways: paying someone else to reduce their pollution instead. NRDC Tuesday May 14, 2002
498. Environment: Bush administration agency secretly fights mine reforms
The federal Office of Surface Mining wants to halt proposed reforms that would have ensured that coal companies plan post-mining development before they obtain mountaintop removal permits, according to government records released by the Charleston Gazette. The records show that OSM also is pushing for a federal study to propose lifting restrictions on the size of valley fill waste piles. NRDC Friday May 10, 2002
499. Environment: Bush administration blocks testimony of key energy official Government attorneys filed a motion in federal district
May 15 deposition of the administration energy task force's executive director, Andrew Lundquist. NRDC issued a subpoena to Lundquist on April 30 to depose him and force the Energy Department to finally release records of who consulted with him to formulate the Bush energy policy. NRDC Thursday May 09, 2002
500. Environment: Bush budget cuts billions from natural resources spending
According to a report issued by NRDC and other groups -- This Land is Our Land: Saving America's Natural Heritage -- the Bush administration's budget for Fiscal Year 2003 cuts overall discretionary funding for the environment by about $1 billion and plays shell games with some of the most important public lands and wildlife programs, compromising protection of America's natural resources. NRDC Wednesday May 08, 2002
501. Environment: Salmon protection temporarily rescinded
The White House won a victory over endangered species protection when a federal judge accepted a settlement between developers and the Bush administration that removes critical habitat protection for 19 groups of Pacific salmon while federal officials reconsider the economic impacts of saving the fish from extinction. NRDC Tuesday May 07, 2002
502. Environment: Corps of Engineers' plan threatens to pollute Florida Everglades
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has begun building large storage facilities to hold hundreds of millions of gallons of polluted stormwater on the borders of Everglades National Park. Although construction is already underway, hydrologic modeling and other necessary environmental analyses have yet to be completed. The project, which threatens to flood and pollute the park, is an improper use of the money Congress authorized for restoration of the Everglades. NRDC Friday May 03, 2002
503. Environment: EPA charged with understating impact of Yucca Mountain nuclear dump on Nevada drinking water supplies
Environmental groups and the state of Nevada are charging that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency illegally manipulated standards for protecting groundwater from radioactive contamination around the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear repository site. The groups demonstrated the illegality of the EPA's actions in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today, and asked the court to require the EPA to rewrite the groundwater standards it established specifically for Yucca Mountain. NRDC Friday May 03, 2002
504. Environment: EPA to let mining industry dump waste in waterways
The Bush administration has reversed a 25-year-old Clean Water Act rule that flatly prohibited disposal of mining and other industrial solid wastes into the nation's waters. NRDC Friday May 03, 2002
505. Environment: NRDC issues subpoena to former head of White House energy task force
Yesterday, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) issued a subpoena to the director of Vice President Cheney's energy task force. The group wants to depose Andrew Lundquist and force the Energy Department to finally hand over records of who consulted with him to formulate the Bush energy policy. "As the administration's top official on the task force, Andrew Lundquist ran the show for Vice President Cheney," said NRDC senior attorney Sharon Buccino. "The public is entitled to know what he knows." Common Dreams Tuesday April 30, 2002
506. Environment: White House rejected more stringent EPA air-pollution proposal before issuing so-called Clear Skies plan
President Bush's controversial "Clear Skies" proposal to reduce air pollution -- weak as it is -- is less stringent than an alternative advocated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. According to administration documents obtained by the New York Times, the EPA's proposal would have reduced air pollution further and faster than the proposal the president eventually chose. NRDC Sunday April 28, 2002
507. Environment: EPA watchdog resigns in protest over Bush policies
In an embarrassing development on Earth Day, the government official charged with representing public concerns against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency resigned, citing mistreatment by the Bush administration. NRDC Monday April 22, 2002
508. Environment: Bush administration ousts top global warming scientist
Carrying baggage for ExxonMobil and other fossil-fuel industries, Bush administration representatives to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) succeeded in ousting Dr. Robert Watson from the science panel's chairmanship. With industry and U.S. government backing, officials meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, elected Dr. Rajendra Pachuari of India as IPCC chair for the next five years. NRDC Friday April 19, 2002
509. Environment: Bush administration speeding up drilling in Rockies
Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may be safe from oil drilling for now, but federal agencies are looking at ways to encourage and facilitate new energy exploration in the lower 48 states. In testimony before Congress, Bureau of Land Management Director Kathleen Clarke said that a study on possible oil and gas reserves on federal lands should be completed this year. Although more than 50 new sites around the country are being considered for development, Clarke said the BLM is focusing on five basins in the Rocky Mountain region where industry has expressed the most interest. NRDC Thursday April 18, 2002
510. Environment: Bush clean air plan would boost coal use
Under the Bush administration's "Clear Skies" multi-pollutant reduction plan, the amount of coal burned by electric power companies will increase by 7.3 percent, according to an analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency. The president's initiative, proposed in February, would cause a 79-million-ton increase in coal use between now and 2020. NRDC Wednesday April 17, 2002
511. Environment: Administration's plan allows overfishing in New England
Despite data indicating that 12 of 18 New England fish stocks are severely depleted, the Bush administration will allow overfishing to continue indefinitely. New England fish populations are down 70 percent from historic levels, while fishing has increased 300 percent. But an agreement put forth by the National Marine Fisheries Service threatens the fishery's sustainability by failing to impose limits on when, where and how fisherman can fish, as required by the 1996 Sustainable Fisheries Act. NRDC Tuesday April 16, 2002
512. Environment: Forest Service wants to circumvent environmental laws
A draft report by the U.S. Forest Service reveals that the agency intends to speed up land management projects by streamlining rules protecting the environment and endangered species, as well as limit court challenges to its decisions. NRDC Friday April 12, 2002
513. Environment: Corps approves Everglades mining
The Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency in charge of the government's plan to restore the Florida Everglades, will actually allow miners to destroy 5,409 acres of this national treasure in the next decade -- more than doubling the number of open-pit limestone mines in the protected wetlands. NRDC Thursday April 11, 2002
514. Environment: White House moves one step forward, two steps back, on chemical treaty
"By reneging on the promise to fully address the public health threat posed by the persistence of a wide range of toxic chemicals, the White House is failing to fulfill the U.S. obligation under the treaty," said Gina Solomon, director of NRDC's public health program. NRDC Thursday April 11, 2002
515. Environment: Alaska oil drilling would harm environment, despite Bush claims
Despite the Bush administration's assurances that oil drilling would have little impact on the environment, a new government study confirms that opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development could significantly harm wildlife. NRDC Sunday April 07, 2002
516. Environment: Bush administration scales back habitat protection for endangered butterfly
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reduced nearly 130,000 acres of critical habitat for the endangered Quino checkerspot butterfly. Instead, the agency set aside 172,000 acres in southern California -- 40 percent less protected land than the agency proposed in February 2001. NRDC Friday April 05, 2002
517. Environment: Bush administration promotes coal-bed methane development
Citing rising energy demands and the need to increase energy production, the Bush administration is touting natural gas development on public lands. Assistant Interior Secretary Rebecca Watson spoke at a conference in Colorado about the Bureau of Land Management's plans to increase gas supplies through coal-bed methane development in the Rocky Mountain region. "Conserving energy through efficient technology and developing clean, alternative energy sources are far better solutions than turning our public lands over to industry," said Johanna Wald, director of NRDC's land program. NRDC Thursday April 04, 2002
518. Environment: White House ends environmental research funding
The Bush administration officially eliminated a popular Environmental Protection Agency fellowship program that provides $10 million a year to students pursuing graduate degrees in environmental science, policy and engineering. NRDC Tuesday April 02, 2002
519. Environment: BLM proposal could doom California dunes
The Bureau of Land Management may lift restrictions on off-road vehicle usage on 49,000 acres of currently protected dunes in California. The Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, about 150 miles east of San Diego, is home to rare desert plants and threatened and endangered species. NRDC Friday March 29, 2002
520. Environment: Pentagon seeks exemption from environmental laws
The Defense Department, citing national security, is circulating draft legislation that would exempt the military from compliance with federal laws that protect water quality, air quality, and endangered species and wildlife habitat. NRDC Friday March 29, 2002
521. Environment: Energy Department papers show industry is the real author of administration's energy policy
Despite being heavily censored, the thousands of Department of Energy documents released under court order this week confirm the intimate, secretive relationship between huge, politically connected corporations and the White House energy task force. NRDC Wednesday March 27, 2002
522. Environment: White House misuses clean energy funds to print dirty energy plan
The Bush administration used money from the Energy Department's clean energy budgets to pay the cost of printing its fossil fuel-friendly national energy plan. According to court-ordered documents obtained by NRDC, the Energy Department spent $135,615 from its solar, renewable energy and energy conservation budgets to produce 10,000 copies of the White House energy policy released last May. NRDC Monday March 25, 2002
523. Environment: Endangered species habitat under attack The Bush administration, facing other lawsuits by real estate developers, i
Marine Fisheries Service, two agencies responsible for enforcing the ESA, want the courts to rescind millions of acres of protected habitat for nearly two dozen endangered species throughout the country. NRDC Tuesday March 19, 2002
524. Environment: BLM plans to open more lands to drilling
The Bush administration put oil and gas companies on notice: they can expect speedier drilling approvals, easier access to petroleum deposits, reduced royalty payments, and fewer environmental restrictions. NRDC Monday March 18, 2002
525. Environment: EPA will weaken federal clean air rules
As expected, the Bush administration has decided to weaken existing clean air laws for coal-fired power plants and refineries. The Environmental Protection Agency has formally announced that it will soon make formal rule changes aimed at discouraging new government lawsuits against polluters in favor of incentives for voluntary reductions in toxic emissions. NRDC Monday March 18, 2002
526. Environment: Gas drilling returns to Padre Island National Seashore.
The National Park Service issued a permit to allow BNP Petroleum Corp. to drill for natural gas within Padre Island National Seashore, a 69-mile stretch of the barrier island off the southern coast of Texas. Already a 156-foot drilling derrick has risen above the dunes and, depending on how successful the initial drilling is, more wells could follow. NRDC Friday March 15, 2002
527. Environment: Bush administration scraps plans for new wildlife refuge
The Bush administration is rolling back a four-year planning effort to establish a wildlife refuge near Columbus, Ohio. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service withdrew its proposal to create Little Darby National Wildlife Refuge. Instead the agency will work with residents to develop a conservation plan to protect endangered species and prevent pollution and suburban sprawl from spoiling Little Darby Creek. Local farmers opposed the plan to buy about 50,000 acres in two counties for a refuge because it would eliminate 20,000 acres of prime cropland. "Four years of studies, congressional hearings, and overwhelming citizen support for the refuge couldn't prevent a last minute rollback by the Bush administration," said Greg Wetstone, NRDC's director of advocacy NRDC Tuesday March 12, 2002
528. Environment: Forest Service proposes oil and gas leasing in Los Padres
While much attention has been focused on the Bush administration's efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, other fragile public lands in the lower 48 states are also being targeted. One such place is California's Los Padres National Forest. Under the administration's pro-industry energy plan, the Forest Service proposes opening up 140,000 roadless acres in the Los Padres to oil and gas leasing. NRDC Monday March 11, 2002
529. Environment: Drill first, ask questions later energy policy threatens wild lands
With very little public debate or scrutiny, the Bush administration has turned over huge amounts of America's public lands -- particularly in the West -- to the energy industry. Data from the Bureau of Land Management shows that the administration has increased the number of leases for oil, gas and coal mining on public lands by 51 percent -- from 2.6 million acres in 2000 to 4 million acres last year. BLM has emerged as the lead agency in opening up pristine public lands to development. NRDC Thursday March 07, 2002
530. Environment: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees silenced on Arctic Refuge
According to news reports, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials in Alaska have instructed employees not to discuss certain issues concerning drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge without consulting the public affairs office. Agency officials insist that the directive is not a gag order, but simply a precautionary measure to ensure that lawmakers, interest groups and members of the public get consistent answers and up-to-date information. Environmentalists, however, view the move as an attempt by the pro-drilling Bush administration to squelch differing opinions within the agency. NRDC Wednesday March 06, 2002
531. Environment: BLM Idaho director forced to resign
The director of the Bureau of Land Management's office in Idaho resigned, rather than accept an involuntary transfer to a new assignment in New York. In January, Interior Deputy Secretary Steven Griles, a former industry lobbyist, officially notified Martha Hahn of her removal. The notice directed her to assume a previously non-existent post as executive director of New York Harbor operations for the National Park Service. Contrary to federal requirements, Hahn was never consulted about the transfer or accommodated on her choice of a new assignment. She therefore tendered her resignation from federal service. NRDC Wednesday March 06, 2002
532. Environment: Whitman remarks undermine government's Clean Air Act lawsuits
EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman dropped a bombshell at a Senate hearing when she suggested it would be unwise for power companies facing air pollution lawsuits to settle with the government before a federal appeals court rules on a pending case involving a major violator, the Tennessee Valley Authority. During her testimony before the Senate Government Affairs Committee, Whitman seemed to suggest that polluters should ignore the Clean Air Act when she said, "If I were a plaintiff's attorney, I wouldn't settle anything until I knew what happened with that case." NRDC Sunday March 03, 2002
533. Environment: Top EPA official resigns in protest of Bush's pro-polluter policies
The Bush administration's internal battle over federal clean air policy took a dramatic turn, as one of the Environmental Protection Agency's senior officials resigned to protest White House efforts to weaken tough emissions standards for power plants. Eric Schaeffer, head of EPA's Office of Regulatory Enforcement, accused the Energy Department and the White House of catering to the power industry and obstructing EPA efforts to enforce New Source Review rules. NRDC Wednesday February 27, 2002
534. Environment: EPA official admits that Bush clean air plan is weak
The Environmental Protection Agency's top air official, Jeffrey Holmstead, acknowledged to state regulators that President Bush's recently announced plan to cut utility emissions won't help the Northeast meet federal ozone standards. NRDC Tuesday February 26, 2002
535. Environment: Bush administration intends to shift Superfund cleanup from polluters to taxpayers
The federal trust fund used to clean up 30 percent of the nation's worst waste sites is facing a cash crunch. But President Bush plans to shift cleanup costs to citizens rather than make polluters foot the bill. NRDC Saturday February 23, 2002
536. Environment: BLM rule could block federal land protection
The Bureau of Land Management proposed a rule that could aid states in claiming ownership of rights-of-way on federal lands. Under the rule, states would be allowed to apply to BLM for a "recordable disclaimer of interest" -- essentially a determination that cedes federal jurisdiction over specified public lands to the states. NRDC Friday February 22, 2002
537. Environment: Corps doesn't give a dam for Snake River salmon
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued its final recommendation on the fate of four dams located on the lower Snake River in Washington and, as expected, the news was not good for endangered salmon. The Corps opposed breaching the dams, even though leaving the dams intact could lead to the extinction of the Snake River's salmon and steelhead runs. NRDC Thursday February 21, 2002
538. Environment: Bush administration seeks to weaken endangered species protection in California
Despite the fact that habitat loss is the main reason why species go extinct, the Bush administration wants to invalidate protection of several hundred acres of land deemed essential for the survival of endangered species. The administration has asked a federal judge to allow the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to lift protections on more than a half a million acres in Southern California while it conducts a two-year reevaluation of economic analysis of up to 10 "critical habitat" designations. NRDC Saturday February 16, 2002
539. Environment: National Forest in Missouri opened to drilling
In another victory for the forces of extraction, the U.S. Forest Service approved lead mining exploration in Missouri's Mark Twain National Forest. The Doe Run Company plans to drill up to 232 holes in the tree-covered hills and winding streams of the Ozarks. NRDC Friday February 15, 2002
540. Environment: Bush announces rollback of power plant pollution rules
President Bush announced new targets for three pollutants from U.S. power plants that would delay by up to 10 years life-saving emission cuts now required under the Clean Air Act. The Bush plan allows three times more toxic mercury emissions than current law would allow, and postpones forthcoming mercury limits by a decade. It would allow 50 percent more sulfur emissions -- which cause acid rain and premature death from respiratory disease -- than current law and push back clean-up standards from 2012 to 2018. It would also allow hundreds of thousands tons of additional smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution, and delay their clean-up for a decade beyond current requirements. NRDC Thursday February 14, 2002
541. Environment: White House global warming plan cooks the books
President Bush announced a global warming plan that would do nothing to address the problem. In fact, the plan uses a brazen accounting trick to mask the fact that -- even if his voluntary emissions targets are actually achieved -- heat-trapping carbon dioxide pollution would keep increasing at almost exactly the same rate it has for the past 10 years. Based on the president's own projections, emissions would increase 14 percent over the next ten years, which is precisely the rate at which they grew during the last ten years. NRDC Thursday February 14, 2002
542. Environment: The Bush administration's secret plan for strengthening U.S. nuclear forces
Behind the administration's rhetorical mask of post Cold War restraint lie expansive plans to revitalize U.S. nuclear forces, and all the elements that support them, within a so-called "New Triad" of capabilities that combine nuclear and conventional offensive strikes with missile defenses and nuclear weapons infrastructure. NRDC Wednesday February 13, 2002
543. Environment: Park Service wants motorized access in Georgia wilderness
Environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the National Park Service after the agency authorized motorized vehicle tours in Georgia's Cumberland Island Wilderness. The Wilderness Act prohibits the use of motorized vehicles in wilderness except in rare cases such as emergencies. The tours also appear to violate the law's limits on commercial use of wilderness areas. NRDC Monday February 11, 2002
544. Environment: Forest Service compromises on Bitterroot salvage logging plan
The U.S. Forest Service agreed to remove 29,000 acres of roadless old growth forest and sensitive fish habitat from a planned "salvage" logging project in the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana. Under the terms of a legal settlement with environmental groups, the agency will be allowed to log less 15,000 acres burned during the summer forest fires of 2000; in exchange, the agency will drop its appeal of a federal court ruling preventing it from any logging in the Bitterroot. NRDC Thursday February 07, 2002
545. Environment: President Bush unveils slash and burn budget for 2003
President Bush's budget for fiscal year 2003 proposes billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to energy companies, threaten the environment and public health, and weaken the nation's energy security. His new budget would slash overall spending for environmental and natural resources departments by $1 billion, or 3.4 percent, in fiscal year 2003 -- from $29.3 billion to $28.3 billion. NRDC Monday February 04, 2002
546. Environment: Bush to boost logging in national forests
If President Bush gets his way, subsidies for logging will increase in national forests next year. The administration's fiscal year 2003 budget proposal for the Forest Service included $404 million to support timber sales, offering 2 billion board feet (depending on sales volume for salvage timber). This year the Forest Service is expected to sell about 1.4 billion board feet. "Job one for the Forest Service should not be underwriting more logging in roadless areas," said Nathaniel Lawrence, director of NRDC's forest programs. "With domestic programs targeted for cuts to fund national security, what are we doing wasting tax dollars to help timber companies clearcut our remaining wildlands?" NRDC Monday February 04, 2002
547. Environment: Bush slashes environmental education spending
The 2003 White House budget labels environmental education "ineffective" and re-allocates this funding to math and science programs. This shift comes at a time when environmental education is enjoying popular support nationwide. A 12-state consortium recently prepared a study called "Closing the Gap," which gave rave reviews to environmental education. And a 2001 Roper/Starch poll confirmed that 95 percent of parents support environmental education. NRDC Monday February 04, 2002
548. Environment: Bush budget cuts student research
President Bush's fiscal year 2003 federal budget proposes eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency's funding for graduate student research in the environmental sciences. The EPA Star grant program, as it's formally called, provides doctoral students with three years of funding to research topics ranging from biodiversity and global warming to effective biological control agents for agricultural pests. NRDC Sunday February 03, 2002
549. Environment: EPA initially criticized Bush-Cheney energy plan
According to news reports, a memo from the Environmental Protection Agency blasted the Bush administration's draft energy plan as "problematic," "overly simplistic" and "not supported by the facts" -- less than a month before President Bush presented the plan to the nation. Commenting on what was then Chapter 8 of the draft plan, the three-page memo -- signed by Tom Gibson, EPA's associate administrator for policy, economics and innovation -- harshly criticized several policies outlined by the task force, which was headed by Vice President Cheney. NRDC Saturday February 02, 2002
550. Environment: Bush administration refusing to release energy task force records
For the first time, President Bush stated support for Vice President Cheney's refusal to release information about industry representatives who met with Cheney's secretive energy task force. After months of discussion between administration officials on the task force and energy lobbyists, the administration released its national energy plan last May. The plan read like a "wish list" for big energy companies, heavily promoting initiatives that would benefit the coal, nuclear, and oil and gas industries. NRDC Monday January 28, 2002
551. Environment: Agency pushes oil exploration near Utah park
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management wants to allow oil exploration on the Dome Plateau, a scenic 36-square-mile area near Arches National Park in southern Utah's Redrock Canyon Country. The project involves crisscrossing the landscape with nearly 50 miles of cable and heavy-duty trucks to conduct seismic testing. NRDC Thursday January 24, 2002
552. Environment: New NRDC report documents sweeping rollback of environmental protections by federal agencies
A handful of Bush administration agencies have been quietly carrying out a coordinated attack on key environmental safeguards, according to a new NRDC report. The nearly 80 agency actions span the spectrum of the nation's most important environmental programs, including those protecting our air, water, forests, wildlife and public lands. The report also finds that the administration intensified its efforts after September 11, when public attention was diverted by the war on terrorism. NRDC Wednesday January 23, 2002
553. Environment: Forest Service appeals salvage logging legal decision
The U.S. Forest Service filed an appeal in federal court to overturn a ruling that halted salvage logging on thousands of acres of burned timber in Montana's Bitterroot National Forest. The agency also asked the federal judge who made the ruling to allow limited logging of about 5,000 acres in order to prevent sediment runoff from being washing into rivers and streams inhabited by bull trout, a federally listed threatened species. NRDC Tuesday January 22, 2002
554. Environment: BLM backs gas drilling in national monument
The Bureau of Land Management gave preliminary approval to a company to drill eight natural gas wells on already leased federal land on the eastern end of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in Montana. President Clinton designated 47,000 acres along the 149-mile stretch of the Missouri River as a national monument. The remote and largely undeveloped Missouri Breaks contains a unique and spectacular landscape marked by sandstone cliffs shaped by wind and water into twisting spires and towers. NRDC Monday January 21, 2002
555. Environment: Coming Soon: More logging in the Pacific Northwest
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife concluded that logging "has not appreciably affected" spotted owls, opening the floodgates for the return of timber sales in Pacific Northwest national forests. NRDC Friday January 18, 2002
556. Environment: Bush administration changes science on polar bear impacts to suit Arctic drilling
"Out with the old 'good' science, in with the new 'bad' science," said Chuck Clusen, NRDC's program director for national parks and Alaska. "The Bush administration seems intent on doing whatever it takes to let the oil industry get its sticky fingers on one of America's greatest national treasures." NRDC Thursday January 17, 2002
557. Environment: Norton withholds government critique of proposal to relax wetlands rules
Interior Secretary Gale Norton suppressed information from within her agency that was highly critical of a plan to weaken protections for wetlands and streams. In October, after the Corps of Engineers proposed relaxing a series of wetlands protection rules, Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service drafted comments denouncing the plan as scientifically and environmentally unjustified. The agency warned that the proposed changes in the Corps' permitting program lacked a "scientific basis," and would increase destruction of "aquatic and terrestrial habitats." NRDC Monday January 14, 2002
558. Environment: Corps relaxes wetlands protections, White House approves
The Bush administration pulled a "bait and switch" on wetlands policy. After insisting on Earth Day 2000 that the administration "will continue to take responsible steps to ensure that we can preserve these vital natural resources [wetlands] for future generations of Americans," the White House signed off on a controversial plan by the Army Corps of Engineers to relax nationwide permit rules that prevent the destruction of thousands of streams, swamps and other wetlands. NRDC Monday January 14, 2002
559. Environment: Bush administration nuclear weapon cuts, less than advertised
As part of its recently completed Nuclear Posture Review, the Pentagon plans to reduce the number of "operationally deployed" U.S. nuclear warheads from 6,000 today to 3,800 after five years and to 1,700-2,200 by 2012. These reductions are similar to those agreed to by Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin at the Helsinki summit of March 1997. NRDC Thursday January 10, 2002
560. Environment: Environmental enforcement suffers under Bush Environmental enforcement has declined steeply during the first year o
October 1). The fall-off in EPA referrals was more significant in several of the agency's principal anti-pollution priority areas: Toxic Substance Control Act (down 80%); Clean Air Act (down 54%); and Clean Water Act (down 53%). NRDC Thursday January 10, 2002
561. Environment: Bush administration plans to get ready to resume nuclear weapons testing
The Bush administration indicated that the United States needs to be ready to resume nuclear weapons testing. The just completed but still classified Nuclear Posture Review calls for speeding up preparations at the government's Nevada test site just in case. President Bush has said since taking office that he would maintain a moratorium on underground nuclear testing imposed by his father in 1992, and upheld by President Clinton. However, George W. Bush maintained his opposition to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, an agreement aimed at instituting a global ban on nuclear tests. NRDC Tuesday January 08, 2002
562. Environment: Bush administration bends rules for favored coal company
Bush administration officials granted a Kentucky coal company a regulatory reprieve to continue mining without a federally required reclamation bond. Bonds are used to make sure that mining companies fix environmental damage caused by coal removal. Addington Enterprises, one of the nation's largest coal companies, lacks adequate insurance to cover the cost of reclaiming disturbed areas -- a violation of federal law. In an unusual move, the Interior Department gave the company a 90-day grace period to find reclamation insurance or risk being ordered to cease all mining in Kentucky and Tennessee. The grace period has expired, so the Bush administration is extending the deadline for three additional months. NRDC Thursday January 03, 2002
563. Environment: Forest Service reduces protections for roadless areas
The Forest Service announced "interim" guidelines that would further reduce protections for roadless areas, including those in the Tongass National Forest. The new directive includes removing a requirement that smaller, undeveloped areas next to large swaths of roadless forest lands be protected. These areas will now be opened up to road-building. The changes also end mandatory environmental impact reviews that enhanced public participation in and agency accountability for decisions to develop smaller wildlands. NRDC Friday December 14, 2001
564. Environment: Bush opposes mining law reforms, in spite of EPA pollution data
The Bush administration maintains its strong opposition to mining law reforms that would improve environmental safeguards against widespread resource degradation. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 40 percent of Western watersheds have been polluted by mining. A half-million abandoned or closed mines dot the landscape nationally, with cleanup costs estimated in the tens of billions of dollars. NRDC Monday December 10, 2001
565. Environment: Bush delays Clinton's snowmobile rules for national parks
Last year, the Clinton administration announced that the NPS would gradually phase out snowmobiles from the parks over three winters. The Bush administration delayed the rule. NRDC Monday December 10, 2001
566. Evnironment: Our Forests May Be on a Road to Ruin By Bill Clinton
A century ago, Theodore Roosevelt warned against despoiling the environment, saying "to waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed." As president, I worked hard to heed that warning.
With the active support of 1.5 million citizens, in January 2001, my administration issued the Roadless Area Conservation Rule to limit logging and development in nearly 60 million acres of national forests where there were no roads already built. The Natural Resources Defense Council called it the most important forest conservation measure of the past century.
But now, the "roadless rule" faces a threat. In recent weeks, the Bush administration has announced its proposal to eliminate it, setting the stage for trees to be cut and roads to be built in forests throughout our land. The administration claims that forests can still be protected even without the rule. However, under its plan, current policy would be stood on its head: Governors would be required to petition the Forest Service to keep certain forests roadless ă ignoring the stark political reality that few governors are likely to stand up to the pressure of timber companies and other special interests to protect national forests in their states. LA Times Wednesday August 04, 2004
Helloooo Steven the selfish:
567. Gay Rights: Putting Bias in the Constitution
With his re-election campaign barely started and his conservative base already demanding tribute, President Bush proposes to radically rewrite the Constitution. The amendment he announced support for yesterday could not only keep gay couples from marrying, as he maintains, but could also threaten the basic legal protections gay Americans have won in recent years. It would inject meanspiritedness and exclusion into the document embodying our highest principles and aspirations. NY Times Wednesday February 25, 2004
568. Gay Rights: Bush proposes Constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage
"I believe marriage is between a man and a woman and I believe we ought to codify that one way or the other and we have lawyers looking at the best way to do that," Bush said at a morning news conference at the White House Rose Garden. CNN Tuesday October 28, 2003
569. Gay Rights: Bush's Secretary of the Interior fought to restrict gay rights in Colorado
Gail Norton, Bush's choice for Secretary of the Interior, was a big supporter of the Amendment 2 in Colorado, which failed because of a Supreme Court ruling. An amendment that would have voided existing gay rights laws and banned passage of future ones in Colorado. National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Thursday July 31, 2003
570. Gay Rights: Bush wants to privatize half of federal work force, allowing anti-gay discrimination
Late last week, President Bush announced his intentions to potentially privatize half of the federal work force. This move, which does not require congressional approval, would nullify, for privatized federal workers, a 1998 Executive Order signed by President Clinton that outlaws anti-gay discrimination in the federal work place. While the plan would give private companies the opportunity to bid for federal jobs, it does not require them to abide by non-discrimination policies regarding sexual orientation. Out In San Diego Friday November 01, 2002
571. Gay Rights: Bush's attorney general cosponsored the Defense of Marriage Act
John Ashcroft was a cosponsor of the Defense of Marriage Act, a law passed in 1996 which bans federal recognition of gay marriages and prohibits spouses in same-sex marriages from receiving federal benefits. ABC News, Wednesday January 17, 2001
572. Gay Rights: As Governor of Texas, Bush derailed a hate-crime bill and opposed gays as foster parents
It is commonly believed that Bush derailed a Texas hate-crime bill in 1999 because it included protections based on sexual orientation. Also that year, Bush supported a measure that banned gay couples from becoming foster parents or from adopting foster children. ABC News, Wednesday January 17, 2001
573. Gay Rights: Bush opposed to hiring an openly gay person in his Administration
Bush claimed to be tolerant of gays, but he's on the record as being adamantly opposed to hiring an openly gay person in his Administration. And Dick Cheney was forced to back off on his support for recognition of gay and lesbian relationships. Bush got positively gleeful over sending the three men who dragged James Byrd on the back of a truck to the death chamber, when only two are going (the other got a life sentence). And contrary to what he said in the debate, he did block hate-crimes legislation. Source: Time, p. 62, "Double Standard" On The Issues Thursday October 19, 2000
574. Global Affairs: Back to the future: new US-Russia arms race
MOSCOW -- When the US earmarked billions of dollars for a new national missile defense and broke ground in Alaska, Washington emphasized that it would be "no threat to Russia." Then, with the inevitability of a cold-war counterpunch, President Vladimir Putin saw fit to reassure Russians that America's shield could be defeated, with a silver bullet successfully tested in February. "No country in the world as yet has such arms," Putin declared of the new weapon, which amounts to a space cruise missile. It will be "capable of hitting targets continents away with hypersonic speed, high precision, and the ability of wide maneuver." Welcome back to the future of US-Russian rivalry. CS Monitor Tuesday June 15, 2004
575. Global Affairs: Bush's gas prices / Foreign policy has an impact on what people pay
Although analysis of what goes into determining the world oil price -- and thus, the price of gas at the pump for Americans -- would give anyone a headache, there are two indisputable truths about the current situation. The first is that trouble in oil-producing countries Saudi Arabia and Venezuela and the Middle East as a region is a large contributor to the climb in prices, continuing to add the so-called "fear premium." The second fact is that Bush administration foreign policy in the Middle East and Venezuela is what has rocked the status quo and rattled the nerves of these producers. Post-Gazette Monday June 07, 2004
576. Global Affairs: George Bush and the abuse of power
The United States has on more than one occasion inappropriately intervened in Australian politics. President George Bush's verbal attack late last week on the Australian Opposition Leader should not have taken place. The argument between Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Mark Latham as to how long Australian forces should stay in Iraq is an argument between the two Australians. It is quite wrong for the US President to take sides in that dispute and seek to assist one party. The Age (AU) Friday June 04, 2004
577. Global Affairs: Bush's Cruel New Rules on Cuba
Divert resources from antiterrorism investigations, mandate burdensome government paperwork and forbid families from helping -- or even seeing -- their relatives. That's the new U.S. policy toward Cuba. As if four decades of a failed embargo were not enough, the White House just made matters breathtakingly worse. To demonstrate its disdain for Fidel Castro to Florida's hard-line exiles, the White House will now punish those most critical to the future stability of post-Castro Cuba: the moderate Cuban-American community. Counterpunch Monday May 31, 2004
578. Global Affairs: Why Not Palestinian Elections?
Last week an Arab government publicly embraced the idea of democratic elections and asked the United States for its help in holding them -- and the Bush administration, which says Middle Eastern democracy is its top priority, ducked. That's because the idea came from the Palestinian Authority, where a free vote would probably demonstrate that another tenet of Bush policy, the "irrelevance" of Yasser Arafat, is a fiction. Washington Post Monday May 24, 2004
579. Global Affairs: Brits support America by calling for ouster of Bush
Tony Blair tells us that we should do everything we can to support America. And I agree. I think we should repudiate those who inflict harm on Americans, we should shun those who bring America itself into disrepute and we should denounce those who threaten the freedom and democracy that are synonymous with being American. That is why Tony's recent announcement that he wishes to stand shoulder to shoulder with George Bush is so puzzling. It's difficult to think of anyone who has inflicted more harm on Americans than their current president. Guardian Saturday May 22, 2004
580. Global Affairs: Tough, Empty Cuba Policy
Talking tough to Fidel Castro usually pays off with votes in Florida, even if it doesn't move Castro or help forge a viable U.S.-Cuba policy. Hence President Bush's latest Cuban initiative, which amounts to little more than election-year pandering. LA Times Friday May 21, 2004
581. Global Affairs: Only replacing Bush can restore honor to Americans
But the sad truth is that regardless of who is innocent or guilty, our country's honor cannot be restored by this president. A picture of a naked Iraqi with his head covered by woman's panties speaks louder than anything this president's representatives can say. Our respect will be regained only after this administration is replaced by one more credible. Salt Lake Tribune Sunday May 16, 2004
582. Global Affairs: U.S. undermines non-nuclear treaty
Many security experts believe the likelihood that nuclear weapons might be used is higher now than it was during the Cold War, primarily because of the proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear materials around the world. What has the United States done to prevent proliferation and what more should it do now? Seattle PI Thursday April 29, 2004
583. Global Affairs: U.S. Alliances Are Shifting
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Across the world, it seems that U.S. diplomacy is breaking down.America's ties with Europe and the United Nations are frayed. The Arab world is furious over U.S. support for Israel on West Bank settlements. Pleas for help in stabilizing Iraq have found few takers. Troops from Spain, Honduras and the Dominican Republic are leaving. And coalition leaders still standing with President Bush face rising political dissent at home. NY Times Saturday April 24, 2004
584. Global Affairs: Bush's dramatic shift in Mideast
WASHINGTON -- If President Bush wants to give land away, there is always his 1,600-acre ranch at Crawford, Texas. But he has no right to endorse the Israeli claim to the captured or settled property on the West Bank that belongs to the Palestinians. Seattle PI Tuesday April 20, 2004
585. Global Affairs: World set back 10 years by Bush's new world order, says Blair aide
George Bush has had a "devastating impact" on global sustainable development and set the world back more than ten years, says Jonathon Porritt, the prime minister's senior adviser on the subject, today. Writing in Guardian Society Mr Porritt, who is the chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, says it is hard to exaggerate the damage done to the planet by Mr Bush's drive for a "new world order". Guardian Wednesday April 14, 2004
586. Global Affairs: Ill advised on Korea
PRESIDENT BUSH, misled by Vice President Cheney and other hard-liners, instructed the US delegation at the recent six-nation Beijing talks on North Korea's nuclear program to say he was losing patience with the diplomatic effort to persuade Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear capability. This was a serious blunder. Boston Globe Sunday March 07, 2004
587. Global Affairs: Bush undermined Haiti democracy
So much for all that talk about democracy. President Bush dispatched Marines to Haiti to secure order -- after his administration forced the elected leader of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide -- into exile. Now the administration will determine who gets to run Haiti. For the Bush administration it was clear: The Haitian voters had put their faith in and cast their votes for the wrong man, so he had to go. Bush then ridiculously announced that the "Haitian constitution is working" -- as if words could turn night into day. Chicago Sun Times Tuesday March 02, 2004
588. Global Affairs: Bush Shifts U.S. Stance On Use of Land Mines
President Bush will bar the U.S. military from using certain types of land mines after 2010 but will allow forces to continue to employ more sophisticated mines that the administration argues pose little threat to civilians, officials said yesterday. Washington Post Friday February 27, 2004
589. Global Affairs: Pakistan, a rogue state unpunished
In American usage, the problematic term "rogue state" usually means a nation which puts a high priority on subverting other nations by violence, including terrorism in all its forms. Since 2001-09-11, the declared mission of the United States President, George Bush, is to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction to terrorists and regimes that sponsor them. His decision to make war on Iraq was based on the threat he said it posed with its weapons of mass destruction. Pakistan's marketing of nuclear weapons technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea surely makes it a rogue state in US eyes. Yet Washington's response to Pakistan's utter disregard for the wider concerns - shared by many countries, including Australia - about nuclear weapons proliferation has been extraordinarily mild. Sydney Morning Herald Thursday February 12, 2004
590. Global Affairs: Annan Warns of Narrow Focus on Terrorism
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned the United States and other rich countries Friday that a too-narrow focus on fighting terrorism could worsen global tensions and threaten human rights. Addressing the World Economic Forum, the U.N. chief said international terrorism threatens peace and stability and "has the potential to exacerbate cultural, religious and ethnic dividing lines."Yet in unusually blunt criticism apparently aimed at the Bush administration, he said that the war against terror also carried the risk of aggravating such tensions, "as well as raising concerns about protection of human rights and civil liberties. AP Friday January 23, 2004
591. Global Affairs: Spain's PM Says Bush Acts Like an Emperor
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is seen in Europe as an emperor, and many Europeans find that difficult to accept, says Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. "The combination of being a Republican, of being an emperor, a Texan and outspoken is really a bad mix," Aznar said in an interview Wednesday in The Washington Post. "To be politically correct in Europe, people cannot digest the mix that is George Bush as I have described him. They are allergic to that," Aznar said. AP Wednesday January 14, 2004
592. Global Affairs: Bush Told U.S.-Imposed Policies Are 'Perverse'
MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Latin American leaders told President Bush (news - web sites) on Tuesday that "perverse" economic policies imposed by Washington had failed their countries, mired in debt and poverty. Bush tried at an Americas-wide summit to win back the support of regional leaders after neglecting them over the last two years to focus on Iraq (news - web sites) and security. He instead heard stinging criticism that rampant free market policies had done nothing to ease poverty and had forced countries like Argentina into deep crisis. Yahoo News Tuesday January 13, 2004
593. Global Affairs: Torture by proxy: How immigration threw a traveler to the wolves
On Sept. 26, 2002, U.S. immigration officials seized a Syrian-born Canadian at Kennedy International Airport, because his name had come up on an international watch list for possible terrorists. What happened next is chilling. Maher Arar was about to change planes on his way home to Canada after visiting his wife's family in Tunisia when he was pulled aside for questioning. He was not a terrorist. He had no terrorist connections, but his name was on the list, so he was detained for questioning. Not ordinary, polite questioning, but abusive, insulting, degrading questioning by the immigration service, the FBI and the New York City Police Department. He asked for a lawyer and was told he could not have one. He asked to call his family, but phone calls were not permitted. Instead, he was clapped into shackles and, for several days, made to "disappear." His family was frantic. SF Chronicle Sunday January 04, 2004
594. Global Affairs: A Wounded United Nations
These are difficult times for the United Nations. The Bush administration's taste for unilateral action and its doctrine of preventive war pose a profound challenge to the U.N.'s founding principle of collective security and threaten the organization's continued relevance. Since the day the administration took office, it has been chipping away at the multinational diplomatic system that America did so much to build in the past two generations. It has walked away from the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, waged war against the International Criminal Court and disparaged international arms control agencies and weapons inspectors. The war in Iraq brought these conflicts to a new height. Washington's rush to invade split the Security Council in ways that have still not healed. Yet the months since the Iraq invasion have shown how much the United States still needs the U.N.'s unparalleled ability to confer international legitimacy and its growing experience in nation-building. NY Times Friday January 02, 2004
595. Global Affairs: Boomerang Diplomacy
YES, OF COURSE, President Bush's latest initiative on Iraq is arrogant and self-defeating. But that's not the most remarkable aspect of his decision to exclude companies from a number of countries that are important U.S. allies from bidding on reconstruction contracts. After all, a spiteful unilateralism has characterized the administration's handling of postwar Iraq all along, and it's an important reason why the United States must now face daunting military and political challenges nearly on its own. What's really strange about the administration's latest slap at Germany, France, Canada and other countries it seems intent on treating as adversaries is that it reverses at a stroke months of patient efforts by that same administration to overcome the divisions its Iraq policy created. Washington Post Friday December 12, 2003
596. Global Affairs: European force / If the new military hurts NATO, it will be trouble
As much as senior Bush officials found it satisfying to scourge and snub European leaders such as French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, the White House needed to understand -- and didn't seem to -- that there would be a price. The Europeans are now responding to the U.S. lack of willingness to work with them on Iraq by walking away from a U.S.-dominated NATO in favor of their own, independent force. Post Gazette Tuesday November 04, 2003
597. Global Affairs: Bush's miracle in Iraq: he made people regret the downfall of Hussein Ayoon wa Azan (If Our Lives Were Worthless
The U.S. has achieved a miracle in Iraq: it made people regret the downfall of Saddam's regime. Dar Al Hayat Wednesday October 29, 2003
598. Global Affairs: Cuban hard line
Pushing and pulling in recent weeks between the Bush administration and Congress on U.S. policy toward Cuba shows the president and the Republicans focused on partisan political advantage rather than on overall U.S. interests. Put more specifically, President Bush's intended policy on Cuba is oriented toward keeping Cuban exiles in Florida happy, rather than toward bringing about democratic change in Cuba itself or promoting U.S. exports to that country. Post-Gazette Wednesday October 29, 2003
599. Global Affairs: Cuba's needless isolation
PRESIDENT BUSH, unwilling to tackle the difficult issues between the United States and Cuba, has imposed new restrictions on Americans' travel to the island. This will do nothing to loosen Fidel Castro's grip, but it will diminish the contacts that might, in time, lead to better Cuban-American relations. Boston Globe Monday October 20, 2003
600. Global Affairs: Disastrous North Korean talks in China
It is a testament to the absurdly low expectations attached to the diplomatic abilities of both North Korea and the United States that pundits have avoided the obvious conclusion concerning the recently concluded six-party talks in Beijing. They were a disaster. Asia Times Saturday September 06, 2003
601. Global Affairs: US opposes UN staff protections over fear of ICC prosecutions
The United States on Monday opposed a resolution aimed at protecting U.N. staff because it fears it could lay the groundwork for prosecutions by the International Criminal Court. Monterey Herald Monday August 25, 2003
602. Global Affairs: Confrontational military exercises near North Korea
Some diplomats are known to worry that [military] exercises like the one in the Coral Sea might be seen as provocative by the government of Kim Jong Il in North Korea, and perhaps by China and Russia, which oppose confrontational tactics toward North Korea. NY Times Monday August 18, 2003
603. Global Affairs: Bush pushes for death penalty in Puerto Rico, angering many
The Bush administration is angering many Puerto Ricans by prosecuting a death penalty case there. The death penalty, which has not been carried out on the island since 1927, was outlawed in 1929, and the ban was reinforced by Puerto Rico's 1952 constitution in a line that reads, "The death penalty shall not exist." Bush's Justice Department is running roughshod over Puerto Rican law. Progressive Media Project Thursday July 24, 2003
604. Global Affairs: African policy helps US more than Africa
The US Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, for example, claims to help African countries get access to North American markets, but its website kicks off with the question: How does the act help US firms? and goes on to list numerous conditions for entry such as elimination of barriers to US trade and investment. War on Want Wednesday July 02, 2003
605. Global Affairs: Bush blocks bigger voice for developing countries at World Bank
Moreover, it emerged last week that George Bush blocked a reform of the desperately undemocratic World Bank that would have given developing countries a bigger voice. Labeling the preemptive assassination strike a troubling blow to peace, Bush later bowed to pressure from pro-Israel lobbying groups and Congress members; White House opinion now firmly backs the Sharon government's crackdown on militant groups, covert lethal operations and all. War on Want Wednesday July 02, 2003
606. Global Affairs: Bush African trip hypocritical
If we buy [Bush's] new argument that ending humanitarian crises through military force is good foreign policy, then how can he justify embarking on his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa next week without including on his itinerary Congo and Liberia? His five-day visit will include Senegal, Botswana, Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa -- but not the absurdly named Democratic Republic of Congo, site of what one African expert has labeled "the worst humanitarian situation on the entire face of the Earth." Common Dreams Wednesday July 02, 2003
607. Global Affairs: Bush threatens Belgium over war crimes law
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld effectively threatened Belgium that it risked losing its status as host to NATO's headquarters if it did not rescind a law that has been used to lodge accusations of war crimes against American officials. Muslim News Thursday June 12, 2003
608. Global Affairs: Bush childishly punishes France and Germany for not supporting war
'George Bush is being childish' " Bush aides have pondered how best to punish France. Ignoring Germany while forgiving Russia is also part of the plan ... Now, even as Germany is eager to make amends, the White House seems intent on downgrading ties with Berlin. This is not in America's best interest ... President Bush should be seeking to mend these alliances ... [He] must take advantage of the Evian gathering not to hold grudges, but to move on." Guardian Monday June 02, 2003
609. Global Affairs: Bush plans to add execution chamber to Guantanamo Bay facility
But preemptive assassination strikes are not the Bush administration's only covert method of eliminating enemies. Plans are underway to turn the controversial detention facility at Guantanamo Bay into a full-fledged death camp, equipped with its own death row and execution chamber. Utne Reader Thursday May 15, 2003
610. Global Affairs: Bush to divide Europe
Certainly, the transatlantic relationship will not be the same after this. If the administration's Iraq gamble succeeds, Washington intends to divide Europe and build a new alliance with Central and Eastern Europe as the base for US power-projection in the Middle East and Central Asia. If the gamble fails, there probably will be a general American fallback toward an embittered version of the anti-internationalist and America-first policies with which George Bush began his term two years ago. Common Dreams Monday March 10, 2003
611. Global Affairs: US punishes countries that refuse to exempt US troops from ICC prosecution
The United States has cut military aid to 35 countries over their refusal to exempt US troops from prosecution by the new International Criminal Court (ICC). Radio Australia Friday February 07, 2003
612. Global Affairs: Bush's bellicose rhetoric puts US at odds with allies
The increasingly bellicose White House rhetoric puts the Bush administration sharply at odds with many of its European allies. Common Dreams Wednesday January 22, 2003
613. Global Affairs: Bush's global warming plan nothing but window dressing
After Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol on the grounds that it was too expensive for the US, he came out with an alternate ' plan ' for his nation. Unfortunately the 'plan' is window dressing for doing nothing. Sierra Club of Canada Friday November 01, 2002
614. Global Affairs: Bush refuses to sign land mine treaty
Nearly five years after the ceremonial signing of an international treaty to ban land mines, these deadly seeds planted malevolently in the earth continue to bear bloody fruit around the world: severed limbs, broken lives, shattered families. And still, the United States refuses to join 129 other nations that have already ratified the treaty. Once again, our government's ungovernable urge to go it alone casts the nation in the role of pariah. Common Dreams Monday October 21, 2002
615. Global Affairs: Justice Department refuses to reveal Patriot Act data
The ACLU and other groups have filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Justice Department in an effort to learn how the government is using new surveillance powers granted to it under the USA/PATRIOT Act. While the Justice Department has disclosed some records, it has withheld basic statistical information that belongs in the public domain. The ACLU has filed suit to force the Justice Dept. to disclose this information. ACLU Wednesday August 21, 2002
616. Global Affairs: The Bush administration's hostility to the ICC has increased dramatically in 2002
The crux of the U.S. concern relates to the prospect that the ICC may exercise its jurisdiction to conduct politically motivated investigations and prosecutions of U.S. military and political officials and personnel. The U.S. opposition to the ICC is in stark contrast to the strong support for the Court by most of America's closest allies. Human Rights Watch Friday March 08, 2002
617. Global Affairs: Bush threatens UN with irrelevance
President Bush said Sunday the United Nations was facing a "moment of truth" over the Iraq issue and the world body had to decide if it would remain relevant. News Max Sunday February 10, 2002
618. Global Affairs: Bush equates Palestinians to 9-11 terrorists
US President George W. Bush on Tuesday sounded to Palestinians as if backtracking on h Tuesday September 11, 2001
619. Global Affairs: US backs out of UN racism conference
The American Civil Liberties Union joined other leading civil and human rights organizations in condemning the Bush Administration's decision to back out of the United Nations' World Conference Against Racism currently being held in Durban, South Africa. ACLU Tuesday September 04, 2001
620. Global Affairs: Bush imposes global gag rule on USAID
On January 22, 2001, on his first business day in office (and the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing a woman's right to an abortion), President George W. Bush re-imposed the Global Gag Rule on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) population program. This policy restricts foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive USAID family planning funds from using their own, non-U.S. funds to provide legal abortion services, lobby their own governments for abortion law reform, or even provide accurate medical counseling or referrals regarding abortion. The 1973 Helms Amendment is a legislative provision that already restricts U.S. funds from being used for these activities. 78,000 women die every year from unsafe abortions. Center for Reproductive Rights Monday January 22, 2001
621. Global Relations: Indispensable Allies on Iran
Iraq provides a textbook lesson for a superpower about the dangers of going it alone in the world, but the Bush administration seems to suffer from attention deficit disorder. Some of its more hawkish officials are now pressing to confront Iran over its nuclear weapons development, regardless of whether America's main allies are convinced that diplomacy and inspections have been exhausted. Nobody in Washington proposes invading Iran, but administration officials hint darkly about starting an effort to destabilize Tehran's clerical dictatorship. Iran's ruling mullahs are justifiably unpopular. But unilateral American bullying is one sure way to rally flagging support for them among nationalistic Iranians. New York Times Saturday August 14, 2004
622. Global Relations: America's blind-eye to N-arms
IN HIS forthcoming memoir on the India-Pakistan nuclear relationship, Strobe Talbott, a former US deputy secretary of state, recounts the surprise and alarm that swept the eighth floor of the State Department on May 11, 1998, when the first reports came in over CNN that India had tested a nuclear weapon.
One presumes the diplomats were reading the Indian press carefully. For example, I have in front of me two articles, dated April 8 and 15, 1998, from the influential Indian daily The Statesman maintainin that since the nationalists of the Bharatiya Janata Party had come to power, India was going nuclear quickly. The information was around for those who had eyes and ears. It was as if Washington didn't want to know.
Similarly, the reports emerging today suggesting that Saudi Arabia may be the latest Middle Eastern country to engage in a research program on nuclear weapons recalls a report of the International Institute for Strategic Studies published as long ago as 1989. This London-based body remarked on the then-recent Saudi purchase of Chinese CSS-2 rockets: "Missiles of such range are difficult to justify unless they carry nuclear weapons."
"They are too elaborate and expensive to make sense for anything else," I was told at the time. "Controllable thrust engines, inertial guidance systems, and heat shielding put up the cost to astronomical levels."
But Washington didn't want to know. It still doesn't. Not one senior administration figure is talking about Saudi Arabian nuclear weapons research despite the new and worrisome intelligence reports. Boston Globe Tuesday August 10, 2004
623. Global Relations: Iraq War Straining US-Turkey Ties
While the image of the United States has sunk to an all-time low in the Arab world, the Iraq war has also had a devastating impact on U.S. ties to another predominantly Muslim power and one of Washington's closest and most strategically situated Cold War allies, Turkey, say experts just returned from the region.
Ties between Turkey and Israel ? countries that have long considered themselves strategic allies against hostile Arab states ? have also become deeply strained as a result of recent events, according to former U.S. ambassador in Ankara, Mark Parris, who also served for several years as the number two in the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv. Anti-War Tuesday July 27, 2004
624. Global Relations: Arabs: It's the Policy, Stupid
If U.S. President George W. Bush thinks his "war on terror" is winning Arab hearts and minds, he should think about conducting it much differently than he has over the past two years...
Beginning with changing his policies.
That is the unavoidable conclusion of the latest two in a series of major surveys of public opinion in five Arab countries ? all U.S. allies in the "war on terror" ? released here Friday by the University of Maryland (UMD), the Arab American Institute (AAI) and Zogby International. Anti-War Sunday July 25, 2004
625. Global Relations: Sailing Toward a Storm in China
Quietly and with minimal coverage in the U.S. press, the Navy announced that from mid-July through August it would hold exercises dubbed Operation Summer Pulse '04 in waters off the China coast near Taiwan.
This will be the first time in U.S. naval history that seven of our 12 carrier strike groups deploy in one place at the same time. It will look like the peacetime equivalent of the Normandy landings and may well end in a disaster. LA Times Thursday July 15, 2004
626. Global Relations: US scholars 'can't defend' Bush policy
London - American President George Bush's "arrogant" foreign policy is damaging his country's standing in the world and threatening the safety of Americans living abroad, a group of high-level United States scholars said on Monday.
About 200 American students - 30 of them winners of the prestigious Rhodes scholarship previously held by former US president Bill Clinton - wrote an open letter warning that Bush's actions have been "divisive and polarising". IOL Monday July 12, 2004
627. Global Relations: Lost Chances in Iran
Whoever wins this November's presidential election, the United States faces an urgent question that the Bush administration has not resolved: What is America's strategy for coping with the rising power of Iran?
Washington and Tehran have had extensive secret contacts since Sept. 11 -- premised on their shared goal of destroying al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Despite many meetings, nothing has come of the contacts -- partly because the Bush administration, not for the first time, was internally divided over the right strategic course. Washington Post Friday July 09, 2004
628. Global Relations: Bush aims weapons of malnutrition at Cuba
WASHINGTON -- The values of faith and family mean a lot to Ana Karim, a Cuban-American from Richmond, Va. and a Mennonite pastor. She has two very ill uncles living in Cuba. For the past decade, she has used a US license granted to Cuban-Americans to travel to Cuba and care for these elderly and infirm relatives.
On her last visit to Havana, she bought a gift of soap for them at a dollar store; a necessity they can no longer afford because of rising prices. She carried a suitcase with her, jammed with medicines for her uncles that are costly and scarce in Cuba.
Ana's uncles, like so many Cubans, depend on visits, financial support, and gifts to keep body and soul together. She's now lamenting the real possibility that she will never see them again. Like thousands of other Cuban-Americans, Ana realizes her ability to visit Cuba will be radically restricted under new sanctions embraced by President Bush. CS Monitor Monday July 05, 2004
629. Global Relations: Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Fortress Bush, determined to continue its aggressive, swaggering, Cheney/Rumsfeld-dominated policies and the "with us or against us" theology (which now impels every initiative in foreign relations, to the despair of State Department professionals), has had a dire effect on America's international credibility, and thus on its capability to exercise long-term influence in world affairs. The vainglorious and exultant 'Them and Us' attitude to anyone espousing contrary views to those of the White House has alienated far too many of America's friends. Counterpunch Sunday July 04, 2004
630. Global Relations: Iraq Occupation Erodes Bush Doctrine
The occupation of Iraq has increasingly undermined, and in some cases discredited, the core tenets of President Bush's foreign policy, according to a wide range of Republican and Democratic analysts and U.S. officials.
When the war began 15 months ago, the president's Iraq policy rested on four broad principles: The United States should act preemptively to prevent strikes on U.S. targets. Washington should be willing to act unilaterally, alone or with a select coalition, when the United Nations or allies balk. Iraq was the next cornerstone in the global war on terrorism. And Baghdad's transformation into a new democracy would spark regionwide change. Washington Post Monday June 28, 2004
631. Global Relations: Election-Year Cuba Policy
It is outrageous that the people of a communist nation have just been told they can see their relatives living outside the country only once every three years. Not only that, the types of items and amounts of money they can receive from overseas will also be curtailed, along with their exposure to visitors on cultural and academic exchanges.
What's most outrageous, however, is that the government ordering this crackdown is the Bush administration, not the communist regime in Havana. America's policy, followed for decades, of trying to force change in Cuba by means of an economic embargo has been an abject failure, but the administration is about to embrace it with renewed gusto. New York Times Sunday June 27, 2004
632. Global Relations: Dithering as Others Die
ALONG THE SUDAN-CHAD BORDER -- The ongoing genocide in Darfur is finally, fortunately, making us uncomfortable. At this rate, with only 250,000 more deaths it will achieve the gravitas of the Laci Peterson case.
Hats off to Colin Powell and Kofi Annan, who are both traveling in the next few days to Darfur. But the world has dithered for months already. Unless those trips signal a new resolve, many of the Darfur children I've been writing about over the last few months will have survived the Janjaweed militia only to die now of hunger or diarrhea. New York Times Saturday June 26, 2004
633. Global Relations: Iraq Prison Abuse Costs U.S. Votes on UN Resolution
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States withdrew on Wednesday its U.N. resolution to shield American soldiers from prosecution abroad after falling short of votes because of anger over the Iraqi prisoners abuse scandal. James Cunningham, the U.S. deputy ambassador, made the announcement after Security Council members turned down his compromise to renew an exemption from the International Criminal Court for one year only. Last year's resolution expires on June 30. Reuters Wednesday June 23, 2004
634. Global Relations: When Irish Ties Are Fraying
DUBLIN -- The Irish hold the rotating presidency of the European Union and President Bush is scheduled to make an overnight visit to Ireland this week to take part in a two-hour summit meeting. On Friday, he'll fly into Shannon, an airport whose use by the American military during the Iraq venture has been highly controversial here. Substantial protests are planned, but the protesters will, of course, be kept far away from the president. He won't even hear their chants. New York Times Wednesday June 23, 2004
635. Global Relations: Bush's Pyongyang policy 'futile'
The architect of the Clinton administration's policy towards North Korea has told the BBC the current US approach to Pyongyang is going nowhere.
Ambassador Robert Gallucci stressed the growing danger that North Korea might sell nuclear materials or even a bomb to a terrorist group.
Ambassador Gallucci also urged a fundamental rethink of US policy. BBC Tuesday June 22, 2004
636. Global Relations: Report Faults U.S. Action on Nuclear Proliferation
Within days of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, President Bush highlighted the menace posed by weapons of mass destruction, declaring: "We will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes and terrorists to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."
That promise led to designations, such as the "axis of evil" for Iraq, Iran and North Korea; to steps, such as the Proliferation Security Initiative, which allows the United States to search ships for weapons material; and to war with Iraq, based on the belief that Saddam Hussein's government was sitting on a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and working toward an atomic bomb.
But according to a critical report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, it has not helped secure vulnerable nuclear facilities, criminalized the transfer of weapons technology or meted out punishments for countries that renege on their commitment to remain nuclear-free. Washington Post Monday June 21, 2004
637. Global Relations: Rebuke of Bush Underscores Foreign Policy Clash
WASHINGTON -- The call for President Bush's defeat in a statement released Wednesday by a group of former diplomats and military officials highlighted the stark divide that has opened among foreign policy experts over the administration's national security strategy.
Although some of the 27 members of Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change are identified most closely with Democratic administrations, almost all served presidents of both parties ? either as ambassadors, executive branch officials or military officers.
In that way, the group's formation symbolizes how Bush's search for new approaches to safeguard America has triggered a backlash among the centrist foreign policy establishment. It also indicates that the debate over Bush's direction could provoke the sharpest realignment of loyalties on foreign affairs since the emergence of neoconservative thinkers roughly 30 years ago. LA Times Friday June 18, 2004
638. Global Relations: Bush insists that Europeans should eat GM food
In case you thought that the Bush administration's rift with its European allies ended with the Iraqi military campaign, think again. The White House has now set its sights on something far more personal - the question of what kind of food Europeans should put on their table. President Bush has charged that the EU's ban on genetically modified food is discouraging developing countries from growing GM crops for export and resulting in increased hunger and poverty in the world's poorest nations. His remarks, made just days before the G8 meeting in Evian, have further chilled US-European relations. Organic Consumers Association Monday June 02, 2003
639. Government: Holy Terror
President Bush and the Republicans in the Senate have failed ă for the moment ă to bring the Constitution into conformity with Judeo-Christian teachings. But even if they had passed a bill calling for a constitutional ban on gay marriage, that would have been only a beginning. Leviticus 20:13 and the New Testament book of Romans reveal that the God of the Bible doesn't merely disapprove of homosexuality; he specifically says homosexuals should be killed: "If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death."
God also instructs us to murder people who work on the Sabbath, along with adulterers and children who curse their parents. While they're at it, members of Congress might want to reconsider the 13th Amendment, because it turns out that God approves of slavery ă unless a master beats his slave so severely that he loses an eye or teeth, in which case Exodus 21 tells us he must be freed.
What should we conclude from all this? That whatever their import to people of faith, ancient religious texts shouldn't form the basis of social policy in the 21st century. LA Times Saturday August 14, 2004
640. Government: Bush Forces a Shift In Regulatory Thrust
Tuberculosis had sneaked up again, reappearing with alarming frequency across the United States. The government began writing rules to protect 5 million people whose jobs put them in special danger. Hospitals and homeless shelters, prisons and drug treatment centers -- all would be required to test their employees for TB, hand out breathing masks and quarantine those with the disease. These steps, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration predicted, could prevent 25,000 infections a year and 135 deaths.
By the time President Bush moved into the White House, the tuberculosis rules, first envisioned in 1993, were nearly complete. But the new administration did nothing on the issue for the next three years.
Then, on the last day of 2003, in an action so obscure it was not mentioned in any major newspaper in the country, the administration canceled the rules. Voluntary measures, federal officials said, were effective enough to make regulation unnecessary. Washington Post Saturday August 14, 2004
641. Government: Volcanic Absurdity
WITH ALL THE heightened concerns about terrorism, you might think the Department of Homeland Security has something better to do with its time and energy than throw victims of natural disasters out of the United States. But that's because, like most Americans, you probably missed a recent notice in the Federal Register informing victims of a massive volcanic eruption on the Carribean island of Montserrat that they had to leave this country by February. Washington Post Saturday August 14, 2004
642. Government: Out of Spotlight, Bush Overhauls U.S. Regulations
WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 - April 21 was an unusually violent day in Iraq; 68 people died in a car bombing in Basra, among them 23 children. As the news went from bad to worse, President Bush took a tough line, vowing to a group of journalists, "We're not going to cut and run while I'm in the Oval Office."
On the same day, deep within the turgid pages of the Federal Register, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a regulation that would forbid the public release of some data relating to unsafe motor vehicles, saying that publicizing the information would cause "substantial competitive harm" to manufacturers. New York Times Friday August 13, 2004
643. Government: U.S. Didn't Warn Las Vegas of Threats
WASHINGTON - A year after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Justice Department obtained video surveillance tapes suggesting terrorists were targeting Las Vegas casinos but authorities never alerted the public as they discussed whether a warning might hurt tourism or increase the casinos' legal liability, internal memos show.
The mayor of Las Vegas said Monday he was never told about the tapes uncovered in Detroit and Spain in 2002, and had been assured by the FBI there were no credible threats against his city. "If I were told, I would certainly tell the public," Mayor Oscar Goodman said. AP Monday August 09, 2004
644. Government: PAKISTAN FOR BUSH: July Surprise?
This afternoon, Pakistan's interior minister, Faisal Saleh Hayyat, announced that Pakistani forces had captured Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian Al Qaeda operative wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The timing of this announcement should be of particular interest to readers of The New Republic. Earlier this month, John B. Judis, Spencer Ackerman, and Massoud Ansari broke the story of how the Bush administration was pressuring Pakistani officials to apprehend high-value targets (HVTs) in time for the November elections--and in particular, to coincide with the Democratic National Convention. Although the capture took place in central Pakistan "a few days back," the announcement came just hours before John Kerry will give his acceptance speech in Boston. The New Republic Thursday July 29, 2004
645. Government: In a Shift, Bush Moves to Block Medical Suits
WASHINGTON, July 24 ? The Bush administration has been going to court to block lawsuits by consumers who say they have been injured by prescription drugs and medical devices.
The administration contends that consumers cannot recover damages for such injuries if the products have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In court papers, the Justice Department acknowledges that this position reflects a "change in governmental policy," and it has persuaded some judges to accept its arguments, most recently scoring a victory in the federal appeals court in Philadelphia.
Sunday July 25, 2004
646. Government: GOP Seeks Catholic Parish Directories
WASHINGTON - The Republican National Committee has asked Bush-backing Roman Catholics to provide copies of their parish directories to help register Catholics to vote in the November election, a use of personal information not necessarily condoned by dioceses around the country. AP Friday July 23, 2004
647. Government: Bush quietly meets with Amish here; they offer their prayers
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - President Bush met privately with a group of Old Order Amish during his visit to Lancaster County last Friday. He discussed their farms and their hats and his religion.
He asked them to vote for him in November.
The Amish told the president that not all members of the church vote but they would pray for him. Lancaster Online Monday July 19, 2004
648. Government: Failure Is Not an Option, It's Mandatory
WASHINGTON
For three days this week the nation was transfixed by the spectacle of the United States Senate, in all its august majesty, doing precisely the opposite of statesmanlike deliberation. Instead, it was debating the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would not only have discriminated against a large group of citizens, but also was doomed to defeat from the get-go. Everyone knew this harebrained notion would never draw the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional amendment, and yet here were all these conservatives lining up to speak for it, wasting day after day with their meandering remarks about culture while more important business went unattended. What explains this folly?
Not simple bigotry, as some pundits declared, or even simple politics. While it is true that the amendment was a classic election-year ploy, it owes its power as much to a peculiar narrative of class hostility as it does to homophobia or ideology. And in this narrative, success comes by losing. New York Times Friday July 16, 2004
649. Government: Onward G.O.P. Soldiers
The Bush-Cheney campaign is buttonholing Christian churches nationwide to serve as virtual party precincts in the Republican drive to turn out voters in November. The campaign has sent congregation volunteers marching orders -- a schedule of 22 "duties," beginning with the submission of local church membership directories to party headquarters, the better to compare them with voter registration lists.
The Bush team maintains that this ham-handed proselytizing is legal and somehow nonpartisan. That is hard to comprehend, given that other "duties" for pro-Bush volunteers include lobbying congregation groups to talk up the Bush-Cheney ticket and producing "voters' guides" on hot issues. Ministers are being pressed to create registration drives and speak out about "all Christians needing to vote." New York Times Wednesday July 14, 2004
650. Government: Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction
WASHINGTON -- In the months and years leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, they marched together in the vanguard of those who advocated war.
As lobbyists, public relations counselors and confidential advisors to senior federal officials, they warned against Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, praised exiled leader Ahmad Chalabi, and argued that toppling Saddam Hussein was a matter of national security and moral duty.
Now, as fighting continues in Iraq, they are collecting tens of thousands of dollars in fees for helping business clients pursue federal contracts and other financial opportunities in Iraq. For instance, a former Senate aide who helped get U.S. funds for anti-Hussein exiles who are now active in Iraqi affairs has a $175,000 deal to advise Romania on winning business in Iraq and other matters. LA Times Wednesday July 14, 2004
651. Government: Could Bush Cancel the Election?
The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security have begun examining ways to postpone November's presidential election in the event of an attack near election day. This according to a report in Newsweek.
Last week the Department of Homeland Security asked the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel to analyze what legal steps would be needed to permit the cancellation and rescheduling of the election. Democracy Now Monday July 12, 2004
652. Government: US in talks over biggest missile defence site in Europe
The US administration is negotiating with Poland and the Czech Republic over its controversial missile defence programme, with a view to positioning the biggest missile defence site outside the US in central Europe.
Polish government officials confirmed to the Guardian that talks have been going on with Washington for eight months and made clear that Poland was keen to take part in the project, which is supposed to shield the US and its allies from long-range ballistic missile attacks. Guardian Monday July 12, 2004
653. Government: Free Pass From Congress By Henry A. Waxman
In the past four years there has been an abrupt reversal in Congress's approach to oversight.
During the Clinton administration, Congress spent millions of tax dollars probing alleged White House wrongdoing. There was no accusation too minor to explore, no demand on the administration too intrusive to make.
Republicans investigated whether the Clinton administration sold burial plots in Arlington National Cemetery for campaign contributions. They examined whether the White House doctored videotapes of coffees attended by President Clinton. They spent two years investigating who hired Craig Livingstone, the former director of the White House security office. And they looked at whether President Clinton designated coal-rich land in Utah as a national monument because political donors with Indonesian coal interests might benefit from reductions in U.S. coal production. Washington Post Tuesday July 06, 2004
654. Government: Bush made all-out attempt to scuttle prison abuse bill
In a recent late-evening session noted mostly for Republican grousing about Democratic senators who had attended a screening of "Fahrenheit 9/11," the Senate considered an amendment to the Pentagon budget bill that would require the president to abide by the Geneva Conventions. It was passed, with the support of five Republicans who resisted frantic arm-twisting from the administration. Now we'll see whether the House can muster the political courage to follow suit. Rutland Herald Sunday July 04, 2004
655. Government: Baptists Angry at Bush Campaign Tactics
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The Southern Baptist Convention, a conservative denomination closely aligned with President Bush, said it was offended by the Bush-Cheney campaign's effort to use church rosters for campaign purposes.
``I'm appalled that the Bush-Cheney campaign would intrude on a local congregation in this way,'' said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. AP Saturday July 03, 2004
656. Government: The dangers of a US civil-military divide
In an interview with Time magazine in December 2001, second-time US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld recollected a conversation he had with President George W Bush during the early days of his administration. "A lot of people in the world had come to conclude that the United States was gun-shy, that we were risk-averse," Rumsfeld told Time. "The president and I concluded that whenever it occurred down the road that the United States was under some sort of threat or attack, the United States would be leaning forward, not back." Asia Times Friday July 02, 2004
657. Government: Churchgoers Get Direction From Bush Campaign
The Bush-Cheney reelection campaign has sent a detailed plan of action to religious volunteers across the country asking them to turn over church directories to the campaign, distribute issue guides in their churches and persuade their pastors to hold voter registration drives.
Campaign officials said the instructions are part of an accelerating effort to mobilize President Bush's base of religious supporters. They said the suggested activities are intended to help churchgoers rally support for Bush without violating tax rules that prohibit churches from engaging in partisan activity. Washington Post Thursday July 01, 2004
658. Government: Abu Ghraib, Stonewalled
While piously declaring its determination to unearth the truth about Abu Ghraib, the Bush administration has spent nearly two months obstructing investigations by the Army and members of Congress. It has dragged out the Army's inquiry, withheld crucial government documents from a Senate committee and stonewalled senators over dozens of Red Cross reports that document the horrible mistreatment of Iraqis at American military prisons. Even last week's document dump from the White House, which included those cynical legal road maps around treaties and laws against torturing prisoners, seemed part of this stonewalling campaign. Nothing in those hundreds of pages explained what orders had been issued to the military and C.I.A. jailers in Iraq, and by whom. New York Times Wednesday June 30, 2004
659. Government: White House Tries to Rein In Scientists
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has ordered that government scientists must be approved by a senior political appointee before they can participate in meetings convened by the World Health Organization, the leading international health and science agency. LA Times Saturday June 26, 2004
660. Government: Cheney's high court
Unfortunately, the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to permit Vice President Dick Cheney to keep secret the records of his energy task force meetings came as no great surprise.
The willingness of the court to allow Justice Antonin Scalia to take part in the deliberations - despite the fact that Scalia has a 30-year friendship with Cheney and recently accompanied him on a duck hunting trip - gave a pretty good indication that this court would rather serve the private interests Cheney seeks to protect than the public interest. Capital Times Saturday June 26, 2004
661. Government: Buyouts and Sellouts
A FEW WEEKS AGO a multibillion-dollar buyout for U.S. tobacco farmers was a critical piece of a delicate legislative package that included giving the Food and Drug Administration reasonable regulatory authority over tobacco products and did not cost the public a dime. House Republicans have managed to transform this worthy public policy into an expensive corporate handout, paid for out of the public till and without any public health benefit. Washington Post Saturday June 26, 2004
662. Government: Stem-cell research: Why Bush is wrong
President Bush's overly cautious policy on stem-cell research shackles scientists and limits hope for many Americans. The United States has always been a leader in pushing the outer limits of scientific research. Science should trump ideology; Bush lets it be the other way around. Seattle Times Friday June 25, 2004
663. Government: A Loss for Open Government
The case involving Dick Cheney's energy task force, which the Supreme Court ruled on yesterday, has been mired in controversy, notably over Justice Antonin Scalia's refusal to recuse himself from hearing it. But the legal issues, though important, are narrow, involving the power of a federal judge to order the executive branch to disclose the information necessary to enforce a federal law. The Supreme Court reached an unfortunate, if tentative, result, unduly shielding Vice President Cheney from answering questions about his task force's activities. New York Times Friday June 25, 2004
664. Government: Welcome to the Machine
When presidents pick someone to fill a job in the government, it's typically a very public affair. The White House circulates press releases and background materials. Congress holds a hearing, where some members will pepper the nominee with questions and others will shower him or her with praise. If the person in question is controversial or up for an important position, they'll rate a profile or two in the papers. But there's one confirmation hearing you won't hear much about. It's convened every Tuesday morning by Rick Santorum, the junior senator from Pennsylvania, in the privacy of a Capitol Hill conference room, for a handpicked group of two dozen or so Republican lobbyists. Occasionally, one or two other senators or a representative from the White House will attend. Democrats are not invited, and neither is the press. Washington Monthly Thursday June 24, 2004
665. Government: The White House Papers
It was certainly good to finally see documents indicating that President Bush did not order the torture of prisoners. The newly released presidential memo of Feb. 7, 2002, talks about treating detainees humanely and refers comfortingly to American values. Unfortunately, beyond that there's not much comfort in these documents, which only confirm that the Bush administration fostered a culture of permissiveness regarding the treatment of prisoners that ultimately led to the Abu Ghraib disaster.
We're still being denied the full picture because the documents on planning for the treatment of prisoners were selected by the White House, which has for months ignored the Senate Armed Services Committee's demand for the whole record. These hundreds of pages, which the administration has kept classified for so long, pose no possible security danger. About the only thing in them worth keeping secret was the degree to which the administration had decided to exempt itself from the Geneva Conventions and then spent months debating whether there was a legalistic way to justify what ordinary people would consider the torture of prisoners. New York Times Thursday June 24, 2004
666. Government: Noonday in the Shade
In April 2003, John Ashcroft's Justice Department disrupted what appears to have been a horrifying terrorist plot. In the small town of Noonday, Tex., F.B.I. agents discovered a weapons cache containing fully automatic machine guns, remote-controlled explosive devices disguised as briefcases, 60 pipe bombs and a chemical weapon -- a cyanide bomb -- big enough to kill everyone in a 30,000-square-foot building.
Strangely, though, the attorney general didn't call a press conference to announce the discovery of the weapons cache, or the arrest of William Krar, its owner. He didn't even issue a press release. This was, to say the least, out of character. Jose Padilla, the accused "dirty bomber," didn't have any bomb-making material or even a plausible way to acquire such material, yet Mr. Ashcroft put him on front pages around the world. Mr. Krar was caught with an actual chemical bomb, yet Mr. Ashcroft acted as if nothing had happened. New York Times Tuesday June 22, 2004
667. Government: Banana Republicans and Weapons of Mass Deception
We speak with PR Watch editors, John Stauber and Sheldon Stauber about their new book, Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing is Turning America into a One-party State. Democracy Now Friday June 18, 2004
668. Government: Travesty of Justice
No question: John Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in history. For this column, let's just focus on Mr. Ashcroft's role in the fight against terror. Before 9/11 he was aggressively uninterested in the terrorist threat. He didn't even mention counterterrorism in a May 2001 memo outlining strategic priorities for the Justice Department. When the 9/11 commission asked him why, he responded by blaming the Clinton administration, with a personal attack on one of the commission members thrown in for good measure. New York Times Tuesday June 15, 2004
669. Government: The White House Hangs Up
The Bush administration is abandoning the landmark 1996 Telecommunications Act, which spawned a new era of competition in telephone service. That is the net effect of its refusal to appeal to the Supreme Court a federal court decision striking down rules that gave local phone companies access to the Baby Bells' networks. Even more disturbing, the administration pressured the Federal Communications Commission, ostensibly an independent agency, to abstain from filing its own appeal in defense of its own rules. New York Times Monday June 14, 2004
670. Government: White House Officials and Cheney Aide Approved Halliburton Contract in Iraq, Pentagon Says
In the fall of 2002, in the preparations for possible war with Iraq, the Pentagon sought and received the assent of senior Bush administration officials, including the vice president's chief of staff, before hiring the Halliburton Company to develop secret plans for restoring Iraq's oil facilities, Pentagon officials have told Congressional investigators. New York Times Monday June 14, 2004
671. Government: The Day the Constitution Died
AUSTIN, Texas --When, in the future, you find yourself wondering, "Whatever happened to the Constitution?" you will want to go back and look at June 8, 2004. That was the day the attorney general of the United States -- a.k.a. "the nation's top law enforcement officer" -- refused to provide the Senate Judiciary Committee with his department's memos concerning torture. Alternet Thursday June 10, 2004
672. Government: Bush Campaigns Heavily on Air Force One
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is using Air Force One for re-election travel more heavily than any predecessor, wringing maximum political mileage from a perk of office paid for by taxpayers. While Democratic rival John Kerry digs into his campaign bank account to charter a plane to roam the country, Bush often travels at no cost to his campaign simply by declaring a trip ``official'' travel rather than ``political. NY Times Monday May 31, 2004
673. Government: Cheney Office 'Coordinated' Halliburton Deal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Pentagon e-mail said Vice President Dick Cheney's office "coordinated" a multibillion-dollar Iraq reconstruction contract awarded to his former employer Halliburton, Time magazine reported on Sunday. The e-mail, sent by an Army Corps of Engineers official on 2003-03-5, said Douglas Feith, a senior Pentagon official, provided arrangements for the RIO contract, or Restore Iraqi Oil, between Halliburton and the U.S. government, Time said. Reuters Sunday May 30, 2004
674. Government: Reveal the Rules
THE BUSH administration is doing its best to keep secret the policies it has developed for handling foreign prisoners and to stifle congressional examination of the issue. Rules for the interrogation of detainees used to be published in widely available Army manuals. But the Bush administration has classified the procedures it has approved for the Guantanamo Bay prison, Afghanistan and Iraq -- even though it claims that all are in compliance with the Geneva Conventions. It has been slow to release the procedures even to the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is leading the way in investigating the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The Pentagon still has not met the committee's request for the legal memos that supposedly justify such techniques as hooding, putting prisoners in stress positions, sleep and dietary deprivation and intimidation by dogs. Washington Post Sunday May 23, 2004
675. Government: Petroleum president
George W. Bush's calculated inaction with regard to soaring gas prices should come as no surprise. The petroleum president has never worried about high gas prices. Heck, the higher the prices, the more money his oil industry supporters have to contribute to his campaign. Capital Times Friday May 21, 2004
676. Government: Ruling Says White House's Medicare Videos Were Illegal WASHINGTON,
May 19 - The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, said on Wednesday that the Bush administration had violated federal law by producing and disseminating television news segments that portray the new Medicare law as a boon to the elderly. The agency said the videos were a form of "covert propaganda" because the government was not identified as the source of the materials, broadcast by at least 40 television stations in 33 markets. The agency also expressed some concern about the content of the videos, but based its ruling on the lack of disclosure. NY Times Thursday May 20, 2004
677. Government: Pioneers Fill War Chest, Then Capitalize
GREENSBORO, Ga. -- Joined by President Bush, Vice President Cheney and a host of celebrities, hundreds of wealthy Republicans gathered at the Ritz-Carlton Lodge here in the first weekend in April, not for a fundraiser but for a celebration of fundraisers. It was billed as an "appreciation weekend," and there was much to appreciate. ... Of the 246 fundraisers identified by The Post as Pioneers in the 2000 campaign, 104 -- or slightly more than 40 percent -- ended up in a job or an appointment. A study by The Washington Post, partly using information compiled by Texans for Public Justice, which is planning to release a separate study of the Pioneers this week, found that 23 Pioneers were named as ambassadors and three were named to the Cabinet: Donald L. Evans at the Commerce Department, Elaine L. Chao at Labor and Tom Ridge at Homeland Security. At least 37 Pioneers were named to postelection transition teams, which hel
a little editing please. I'm not even going to spend a minute on a half hour post dude
Posted by: Dave in Texas at August 16, 2004 09:51 PM678. Government: Just Trust Us
Didn't you know, in your gut, that something like Abu Ghraib would eventually come to light? When the world first learned about the abuse of prisoners, President Bush said that it "does not reflect the nature of the American people." He's right, of course: a great majority of Americans are decent and good. But so are a great majority of people everywhere. If America's record is better than that of most countries -- and it is -- it's because of our system: our tradition of openness, and checks and balances. Yet Mr. Bush, despite all his talk of good and evil, doesn't believe in that system. NY Times Tuesday May 11, 2004
679. Government: Medicare Contractor Firm Donates to GOP
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A few weeks after the Bush administration named Medco to be one of the first Medicare drug card providers, a company executive helped throw a $100,000 fund-raiser for the president that was headlined by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. WASHINGTON (AP) -- A few weeks after the Bush administration named Medco to be one of the first Medicare drug card providers, a company executive helped throw a $100,000 fund-raiser for the president that was headlined by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. NY Times Monday May 10, 2004
680. Government: Cheney: hypocrite on defense
Give Republican Vice President Dick Cheney the nod for political hypocrite of the month and hope that the American people see through his game. On Monday, Cheney attacked Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' all-but-certain nominee for president, for his votes against numerous defense programs over the years. Cheney went so far as to say that Kerry is a political opportunist who is unfit to lead the nation. The thing is, as secretary of defense in the first Bush adminis Thursday April 29, 2004
681. Government: A Vision of Power
There's a deep mystery surrounding Dick Cheney's energy task force, but it's not about what happened back in 2001. Clearly, energy industry executives dictated the content of a report that served their interests. The real mystery is why the Bush administration has engaged in a three-year fight, which reaches the Supreme Court today, to hide the details of a story whose broad outline we already know. One possibility is that there is some kind of incriminating evidence in the task force's records. Another is that the administration fears that full disclosure will highlight its chummy relationship with the energy industry. But there's a third possibility: that the administration is really taking a stand on principle. And that's what scares me. NY Times Tuesday April 27, 2004
682. Government: For God's sake
Evangelical lobbyists used to talk about access to previous Republican administrations. Today, they can say with confidence: "Who needs access when we are already on the inside?" The influence of the Christian right on the Bush White House is self-evident. As well as George Bush, cabinet members Condoleezza Rice, John Ashcroft and Don Evans all consider themselves to be born again. This administration has embarked on a bold agenda to roll back liberalism in the US, and won't let up if it gets a second term. Guardian Friday April 23, 2004
683. Government: Science Group Says U.S. Budget Plan Would Harm Research
WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The nation's largest general science group said Thursday that the Bush administration's proposed budget for the next five years could cut research financing at 21 of the 24 federal agencies that engage in it. NY Times Friday April 23, 2004
684. Government: U.S. Contractor Fired for Military Coffin Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. contractor and her husband have been fired after her photograph of 20 flag-draped coffins of U.S. soldiers going home from Iraq was published in violation of military rules. Wired Thursday April 22, 2004
685. Government: Pentagon Deleted Rumsfeld Comment
The Pentagon deleted from a public transcript a statement Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made to author Bob Woodward suggesting that the administration gave Saudi Arabia a two-month heads-up that President Bush had decided to invade Iraq. At issue was a passage in Woodward's "Plan of Attack," an account published this week of Bush's decision making about the war, quoting Rumsfeld as telling Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, in January 2003 that he could "take that to the bank" that the invasion would happen. Washington Post Wednesday April 21, 2004
686. Government: An I.R.S. Promotion for Bush at Tax Time
As the deadline for filing tax returns approached, news releases from the Internal Revenue Service included a little something extra, a sentence promoting the administration's tax policies that said, "America has a choice: It can continue to grow the economy and create new jobs as the president's policies are doing, or it can raise taxes on American families and small businesses, hurting economic recovery and future job creation." NY Times Tuesday April 20, 2004
687. Government: Bush rejects practical advice, prefers talking to God
"Did Mr. Bush ask his father for any advice?" I [Bob Woodward] asked the president about this. And President Bush said, "Well, no," and then he got defensive about it," says Woodward. "Then he said something that really struck me. He said of his father, "He is the wrong father to appeal to for advice. The wrong father to go to, to appeal to in terms of strength." And then he said, "There's a higher Father that I appeal to." CBS News Thursday April 15, 2004
688. Government: Incurious Bush
In her testimony before the Sept. 11 commission on Thursday, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice gave glimpses of the inner workings of the Bush White House that were extraordinarily revealing for this highly secretive administration. Anyone who listened closely during her three hours on the stand could glean much about the strengths and weaknesses of this White House, a place where few outsiders have gained a clue about how it operates. What emerged was a picture of an organization with great discipline and a strong belief in orderly structures and articulated concepts and policies. But it is also a top-down bureaucracy, with little capacity for hearing variant viewpoints or testing its theories against the practical wisdom of front-line operatives. Washington Post Sunday April 11, 2004
689. Government: Bush on vacation 40% of his presidency
This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency. Washington Post Friday April 09, 2004
690. Government: Critics condemn Bush campaign's use of resources
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Department of the Treasury analyzes John Kerry's tax proposals, and the numbers quickly find their way to the Republican National Committee. The Department of Health and Human Services spends millions on ads promoting President George W. Bush's prescription drug plan. The House Resources Committee posts a diatribe against Kerry's "absurd" energy ideas on its Web site. With friends like these, who needs a re-election campaign? Columbia Daily Tribune Friday April 09, 2004
691. Government: A Clash on Classified Documents
The Bush administration's uneven decision-making on which sensitive documents it declassifies has prompted criticism that the White House is selectively releasing information to justifies its foreign policy decisions and respond to political pressure. Before the war, for example, the administration kept classified the intelligence community's significant dissents to the overall assessment that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. It later released those dissents, however, after the CIA was criticized for failing to accurately assess Iraq's weapons -- a reversal cited by those who argue such decisions are being based on politics, not national security. Washington Post Wednesday March 31, 2004
692. Government: Hostile to the environment
ONE OF President Bush's worst nominations for a lifetime judicial appointment -- and there is plenty of competition in this category -- is about to come up for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. As with a number of Bush's nominees, William G. Myers III has a long record of ideological extremism that raises questions about his suitability for the federal judiciary. SF Chronicle Wednesday March 24, 2004
693. Government: The Worst Form of Exploitation
How perfect the irony, how sordid the scam. The president, who ignored the Al Qaeda threat beforeSept. 11, 2001, who diverted public attention in that horror's aftermath to the nonexistent threat from Iraq and who has stonewalled the investigation of 9/11, now seeks to exploit that tragedy as a reelection gimmick. George W. Bush avoids being photographed with the dead and injured from his folly in Iraq, but hey, those flag-draped coffins of 9/11 victims make great TV ads. What a grisly low in political exploitation. LA Times Tuesday March 09, 2004
694. Government: No way to start a probe
BY SHIELDING the financial records of members of the White House commission investigating U.S. intelligence failures, President Bush further fuels the public skepticism that forced him to order the probe in the first place. The commission is supposed to find out how and why faulty intelligence was gathered and used to mount a pre-emptive military attack on Iraq. SF Chronicle Sunday March 07, 2004
695. Government: Secrecy sullies Bush presidency
Some recent events showed how President Bush's silence amid many pressing questions has only caused suspicion about his administration to grow. An extreme case is the lawsuit Ellen Mariani filed under the 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act against President Bush and other White House officials. Mariani's retired husband, Neil Mariani, died Sept. 11, 2001, on United Airlines Flight 175 when it crashed into the World Trade Center. Kansas City Star Wednesday March 03, 2004
696. Government: Bush Replaces Members of Bioethics Panel
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Friday replaced two members of a panel that advises him on issues such as cloning and stem cell research, drawing criticism that he is stacking the bioethics group with ideologically friendly members. Elizabeth Blackburn, a cell biologist at the University California San Francisco and former president of the American Society for Cell Biology, and William F. May, a medical ethicist and retired professor at Southern Methodist University, were dismissed from the President's Council on Bioethics. NY Times Saturday February 28, 2004
697. Government: Cheney's unprecedented power
DICK CHENEY is the most powerful vice president in US history. Indeed, there is a fair amount of circumstantial evidence that Cheney, not Bush, is the real power at the White House and Bush the figurehead. The true role of the shadowy Cheney is finally becoming an issue in the election, and it deserves to be. A recent piece in The New Yorker by Jane Mayer lays out in devastating detail how Cheney, while CEO of Halliburton, created the blueprint for shifting much of the military's support role from the armed services to private contractors. The leading contractor, of course, is Halliburton. When Cheney became vice president, Halliburton was perfectly positioned to make out like a bandit. Boston Globe Wednesday February 25, 2004
698. Government: U.S. Scientist Tells of Pressure to Lift Bans on Food Imports
A senior scientist at the Department of Agriculture says its scientific experts have been pressured by top officials to approve products for Americans to eat before their safety can be confirmed. NY Times Wednesday February 25, 2004
699. Government: Uses and Abuses of Science
Although the Bush administration is hardly the first to politicize science, no administration in recent memory has so shamelessly distorted scientific findings for policy reasons or suppressed them when they conflict with political goals. This is the nub of an indictment delivered last week by more than 60 prominent scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates. Their statement was accompanied by a report published by the Union of Concerned Scientists, listing cases where the administration has manipulated science on environmental and other issues. NY Times Monday February 23, 2004
700. Government: Bush Puts Conservative on Court, Bypasses Congress
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said on Friday he had installed Alabama Attorney General William Pryor on an Atlanta appeals court, the second time this year he has bypassed Congress on a judicial selection. "I am proud to name this leading American lawyer to the appellate bench," Bush said in a statement. Pryor, an outspoken foe of abortion rights, was blocked by Democrats when Bush first nominated him 10 months ago. But the president used a "recess appointment" -- naming him while Congress was on a five-day break -- to circumvent Senate approval. Reuters Friday February 20, 2004
701. Government: Trip With Cheney Puts Ethics Spotlight on Scalia
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spent part of last week duck hunting together at a private camp in southern Louisiana just three weeks after the court agreed to take up the vice president's appeal in lawsuits over his handling of the administration's energy task force. While Scalia and Cheney are avid hunters and longtime friends, several experts in legal ethics questioned the timing of their trip and said it raised doubts about Scalia's ability to judge the case impartially. Yahoo News Saturday January 17, 2004
702. Government: Patriots and Profits
Last week there were major news stories about possible profiteering by Halliburton and other American contractors in Iraq. These stories have, inevitably and appropriately, been pushed temporarily into the background by the news of Saddam's capture. But the questions remain. In fact, the more you look into this issue, the more you worry that we have entered a new era of excess for the military-industrial complex. NY Times Tuesday December 16, 2003
703. Government: High Payments to Halliburton for Fuel in Iraq
The United States government is paying the Halliburton Company an average of $2.64 a gallon to import gasoline and other fuel to Iraq from Kuwait, more than twice what others are paying to truck in Kuwaiti fuel, government documents show. NY Times Wednesday December 10, 2003
704. Government: Iraq delays hand Cheney firm $1bn
Halliburton, the engineering group formerly run by US vice-president Dick Cheney, has been given $1 billion worth of reconstruction work in Iraq by the US government without having to compete for it, thanks to repeated delays in opening up a key contract to competition. The Houston-based company was controversially awarded a contract to repair Iraq's damaged oil infrastructure without competition in February. Guardian Sunday December 07, 2003
705. Government: Money controls politics in a new way
If anyone had lingering doubts about George W. Bush being a leader, they should be gone by now. He even has the major Democratic presidential contenders following him. In the 2000 campaign, Bush spurned campaign public financing in order to make use of the huge amounts his corporate friends were pitching his way and not be fettered by pesky primary spending limits. No longer does money control politics in the old-fashioned way, but in a new, turn-of-the-century way: boldly, shamelessly, proudly. Bush is now gathering $200 million for his unopposed primary race. Chicago Sun Times Sunday November 23, 2003
706. Government: Scaring Up Votes
WASHINGTON First came the pre-emptive military policy. Now comes the pre-emptive campaign strategy. Before the president even knows his opponent, his first political ad is blanketing Iowa today. "It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known," Mr. Bush says, in a State of the Union clip. Maureen Dowd, NY Times Saturday November 22, 2003
707. Government: America is more divided than ever
AT A 1999 fund-raiser, George W. Bush said: "I think it's important for our party to look at candidates and determine who's a uniter, not a divider. Who has proven that they know how to bring people together based upon common consensus?"In 2000, he said: "I do not believe in pitting one group against another. There is a trend in this country to put people into boxes. . . . I see a United States with one big box: American."Three years later, Americans are sealing themselves away from each other in thicker boxes than ever -- on war, on race, on religion, on just about everything. This cannot be a surprise. Bush began his presidency by having the United States secede from the earth. His antienvironmental and anti-family planning policies and his unprovoked invasion of Iraq prove that Americans under his leadership will do what we want, take what we want, pollute what we want, and invade whom we want. Boston Globe Wednesday November 12, 2003
708. Government: The Fruits of Secrecy
One of President Bush's first acts was to convene a task force to produce a national energy strategy. Led by Vice President Dick Cheney, the group met secretly with hundreds of witnesses. It heard from few environmentalists, but many lobbyists and executives from industries whose fortunes would be affected by any new policies. Despite lawsuits, the White House has refused to divulge the names of those privileged to get Mr. Cheney's ear. The results, however, have been plain as day: policies that broadly favor industry -- including big campaign contributors -- at the expense of the environment and public health. NY Times Saturday November 08, 2003
709. Government: Out of the Mainstream, Again
Of the many unworthy judicial nominees President Bush has put forward, Janice Rogers Brown is among the very worst. As an archconservative justice on the California Supreme Court, she has declared war on the mainstream legal values that most Americans hold dear. And she has let ideology be her guide in deciding cases. At her confirmation hearing this week, Justice Brown only ratified her critics' worst fears. Both Republican and Democratic senators should oppose her confirmation. NY Times Saturday October 25, 2003
710. Government: Bush an "incurious" leader who doesn't read newspapers
It should have been an embarrassing admission for him and a flabbergasting one for us: President Bush told Fox News recently that he only "glanced" at newspaper headlines, rarely reading stories, and that for his real news hits, he relied on briefings from acolytes who, he said flippantly, "probably read the news themselves." He rationalized his indifference by claiming he needed "objective" information. Even allowing for the president's contempt for the press, it was a peculiar comment, and it prompted the New York Times to call him "one of the most incurious men ever to occupy the White House." Los Angeles Times Sunday October 05, 2003
711. Government: Bush twists and distorts facts to fit policy
A minority staff report issued last month by the House Government Reform Committee investigating scientific research found 21 areas in which the administration had "manipulated the scientific process and distorted or suppressed scientific findings," including the president's assurance that there were more than 60 lines for stem-cell research when there were actually only 11; it concluded that "these actions go far beyond the typical shifts in policy that occur with a change in the political party occupying the White House." Los Angeles Times Sunday October 05, 2003
712. Government: Bush favors posting Ten Commandments in public places
Bush has no problem with the Ten Commandments posted on the wall of every public place, and has recommended hanging the standard version, apparently unaware of the differences between the Ten Commandments of different faiths. Spirit Restoration Saturday October 04, 2003
713. Government: DOMINATION OF ONE PARTY: Republicans engage in aggressive gerrymandering
Tom DeLay, who is a leader of anti-environmental forces in the U. S. Congress, is simply making a power grab to try to shift the balance of the Texas congressional delegation from a 17-15 Democratic/Republican split to a 20-12 Republican/Democratic split. DeLay has been quoted in the press as saying ""I'm the majority leader, and we want more seats," DeLay said. Sierra Club Thursday September 18, 2003
714. Government: Bush threatens veto of bill to tighten media ownership rules
Today, the Senate plans to attempt for only the second time in its history to block a regulation from going into effect, using the Congressional Review Act. Despite another White House veto threat, it is expected enact a resolution to repeal new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations that loosen media ownership rules. The Hill Tuesday September 16, 2003
715. Government: Bush equates hate crimes with ordinary crimes
Equating hate crimes to other crimes, Bush said, I've always said all crime is hate crime (Houston Chronicle, 1999-04-5). For example, Bush believes that the crime of painting swastikas on a church merits no stiffer punishment than what could be applied under Texas' current defacement laws. When pushed by NBC's Tim Russert to make a statement that this is serious, Bush said, "I think we can [fight against discrimination] without special treatment of people." NJDC Tuesday September 16, 2003
716. Government: Bush praised racist religious group
Bush praised the Nation of Islam, a group whose leaders have vilified Jews and Catholics, as a faith based upon some universal principles that would be eligible to receive federal funding under his charitable choice program. NJDC Tuesday September 16, 2003
717. Government: Governor Bush argued for prayer at sporting events, saying football was "sacred"
As Governor, Bush filed a joint brief for appeal before the Fifth Circuit with Texas Attorney General John Cornyn defending sectarian, proselytizing prayers before high school football games. Using the argument that in some areas of Texas, high school football is sacred to buttress his case, Bush accused defenders of the separation of church and state of engaging in constitutionally forbidden viewpoint discrimination (The Forward, 1999-04-2). The Supreme Court heard the case in March and rejected Governor Bush's arguments, declaring such prayer unconstitutional. NJDC Tuesday September 16, 2003
718. Government: Bush dramatically expands federal government
The Bush Administration has brought the era of big government back, say a Brookings Institution scholar and a growing number of conservatives dismayed about such growth under the Republicans' watch. National Center for Policy Analysis Friday September 12, 2003
719. Government: Bush Wants States to Use Taxes on Theology.
The Bush administration has stepped into the Supreme Court's next big church and state case, seeking to force some states to spend tax money on college students' religious education. AP Wednesday September 10, 2003
720. Government: Bush protects illegal labor practices in Myanmar
The Bush administration argues that permitting the Myanmar villagers to sue will interfere with American foreign policy, including the war on terrorism. But this is false. The United States has no interest in protecting companies that engage in forced labor or other such abuses. The appeals court should adhere to decades of legal precedents and reject the Bush administration's argument. NY Times Friday August 08, 2003
721. Government: Pentagon officials meet with Iranian arms merchant
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld acknowledged yesterday that Pentagon officials met secretly with a discredited expatriate Iranian arms merchant who figured prominently in the Iran-contra scandal of the mid-1980s, characterizing the contact as an unexceptional effort to gain possibly useful information. Washington Post Friday August 08, 2003
722. Government: CDC awards grants to religious institutions even though their methods are unscientific
Under Bush, the CDC has muddied the line between church and state by awarding grants to religious institutions, even though their methods go against recognized science. AJC Sunday August 03, 2003
723. Government: Bush expresses disdain for separation of church and state
Trying to add a tolerant note to an intolerant policy on anti-gay marriage, [Bush] allowed that he was mindful that we're all sinners showing again his disdain for the separation of church and state. Common Dreams, Sunday August 03, 2003
724. Government: AIDS Programs in Africa and the Global Gag Order
House Republicans included two amendments in this year's $15 billion bill to help stop the spread of AIDS in Africa, which passed on 2003-05-1. The first provision would require one third of the money to be used to promote abstinence (a favorite cause of the religious right). The second would permit religious organizations that receive program funding to reject AIDS prevention strategies they find objectionable (such as instruction in the use of condoms). This action, combined with the "global gag rule," creates a double standard in the degree of control the U.S. government seeks to assert over activities and speech that it does not fund. OMB Watch Tuesday July 01, 2003
725. Government: All publicity by NGOs in Iraq must be cleared by USAID Reconstruction Efforts
In May 2003, the U.S. Agency for International Development awarded $7 million in grants for "critical reconstruction and development needs" in Iraq. USAID said each grantee must agree to clear any an all publicity or media-related matters through USAID and consistently publicize the U.S. government's funding. The head of USAID said that he would "personally tear up their contracts and find new partners [for NGOs that do not comply]. [They] are an arm of the U.S. government." OMB Watch Tuesday July 01, 2003
726. Government: Charities that lobby selected for audits
Selected Audits of Charities that Lobby: Several charities that elected to fall under the IRS "expenditure test" for lobbying purposes received phones calls regarding tax audits. This raised concern among some groups as to whether the IRS was targeting charities that lobby or simply "elected." IRS officials denied that the audits were targeted to those who elected to lobby under the expenditure test, but did acknowledge that lobbying was factor in selecting the groups for audits. The IRS has halted the program pending a review. OMB Watch Tuesday July 01, 2003
727. Government: LIMITING NONPROFIT SPEECH: Administration letter threatens Head Start defenders
Head Start: HHS sent to Head Start programs a letter containing inaccurate, confusing and vague information about federal laws governing their right to lobby. The same letter threatened to issue sanctions for programs that violated the law. The letter was a ham-handed effort to stop advocacy in opposition to the President's plan for Head Start reauthorization. A court chastised HHS and made the agency send a new letter, noting that federal grantees can lobby with their non-federal funds. OMB Watch Tuesday July 01, 2003
728. Government: Nonprofits fear wide ranging attacks from Bush administration
General fears: Many nonprofits with differing perspectives from those of the Bush administration, such as those working on reproductive rights and HIV/AIDS, fear the government is taking actions to silence them. Some talk about targeted audits; others about being put on a blacklist; others claim they have been told not to apply for further grants: that the funds will be going to faith based organizations instead of them. Some believe the government and others are combing through their websites to find objectionable words to shut them down. Building off some written communications from government agencies, some groups feel it does not matter to government that the "objectionable" activities are not paid for with federal funds. OMB Watch Tuesday July 01, 2003
729. Government: Proposal threatens cuts for non profits engaging in "federal relations"
Parent Centers Serving Families of Children with Disabilities: A bill to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act contained a provision that would prohibit nonprofits from receiving grant funds to run parent centers if the organization engaged in any "federal relations." While "federal relations" was not defined, the bill also prohibited lobbying; so it was clear that the intended scope of prohibitions was broad. This ban would have applied to any board members, as well as staff that happened to serve as board members for other organizations, even in their capacity as citizens. After a firestorm of protest the provision was dropped, but it is clear that some in the Bush administration and Congress support this type of proposal. OMB Watch Tuesday July 01, 2003
730. Government: Stop AIDS scrutinized for workshop material content
Stop AIDS: The San Francisco-based group has been the subject of a HHS Inspector General examination and CDC reviews, all resulting in a clean bill of health. CDC recently sent a letter to Stop AIDS noting that materials announcing workshops may be in violation of laws encouraging sexual activity. A panel that was set up by law to insure that grantees were not encouraging sexual activity or other impermissible activities, however, cleared the workshops. Stop AIDS, moreover, notes that no federal funding is involved with the workshops. Yet CDC claims that is irrelevant and intends to increase oversight of other HIV/AIDS grantees. OMB Watch Tuesday July 01, 2003
731. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to choke off social programs
The transformation of our budget surplus to endless deficits is part of this strategy instead of having to argue against specific social programs the right-wingers can now simply say that they're being realistic and dealing honestly with the real lack of funds Steven Miller. Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
732. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to limit taxation on the investing class
Before that, it means finding ways to exempt as much as possible starting with those aspects that primarily hit the investing classes; (i.e. the rich). Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
733. Government: Bush and the radical right ignore large segments of the world
The most important implication of all this is that large segments of the domestic and world population are no longer seen as worth worrying about. On one level, this is just racism and classism. But there's more than that going on. In the past, capitalism was optimistic and assumed that it would keep expanding, which provided the basis for a corporate liberalism; that saw everyone in the world as a potential consumer and/or laborer and therefore having some potential worth. But the new reactionaries see the future as much more of a zero-sum game. Partly, this is an expression of their incredible greed and corruption their incessant efforts to rip off wealth for themselves and their narrow sets of cronies. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
734. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to fundamentally change the role of government
In the Nation a couple weeks ago, this was described as going back to President McKinley. In other words, stripping government of all social welfare functions and all economic regulatory activity. Instead, government would revert to the sole role of protecting property and sovereignty through the use of its police/military power. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
735. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to justify violent behavior
Acting like a bully also helps create the type of world that justifies the behavior. In the Middle East, Hamas and Sharon need each other to legitimize their own violence as the only viable response to the extremism of the other side. Similarly, by acting in ways that assume the world is full of terrorists, that allies are untrustworthy, that security comes from hitting everyone else before they can hit you, the new imperialists help create the very conditions they claim to be responding to, which then makes it necessary to act even more aggressively. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
736. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to create a new world order
Fundamentally change the nature of international relations from a trilateral; world in which multinational elites collaborated on creating an investment-friendly world into a US-dominated new world order; in which narrow nationalist goals are achieved through unilateral and preemptive use of the US's military power and everyone else is forced to accommodate Washington's ability to create facts on the ground. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
737. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to control opposition by creating a climate of fear
Finally, the current climate of insecurity, fear, and even paranoia which the government and media are successfully doing their utmost to deepen and expand plays an important role in making it hard to opposition to find political space. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
738. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to shift taxation from capital to consumption
Fundamentally shifting the burden of taxation from capital (including profits and all forms of unearned; income) to consumption. The eventual goal is to eliminate all capital gains, inheritance, and corporate taxes, as well as the entire income tax. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
739. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to privatize social programs they can't eliminate
Those functions that simply cannot be eliminated will be privatized as much as possible. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
740. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to shift tax burden to the less affluent
Radical and repeated tax cuts help create deficits (re-enforcing the first strategic goal). They also make taxation increasingly regressive, putting ever-larger burdens on working families and the poor. Since this is happening at the same time that services provided by government to those groups are being reduced, it reinforces the traditional anti-tax feeling among the general population making it easier to push for still more tax cuts and reinforcing the general anti-government feeling that has always been part of American culture. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
741. Government: Bush and the radical right wrap themselves in religion
Most important, by wrapping themselves in the mantle of religion, the GOP leadership has made themselves a vehicle for the growing religious fundamentalist upsurge parts of which can accurately be described as a fascist movement. Having god on your side means you are always right, no matter what other people may think or how events may fall out. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
742. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to stifle dissent, especially the labor movement
The end result is an authoritarian state whose main function is repression of all institutionalized (and individual) avenues of resistance, perhaps even of dissent, particularly the labor movement. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
743. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to weaken multnational organizations
This involves the radical transformation or withering away of many existing multinational organizations and arrangements and the permanent escalation of US military spending (which helps support the other two strategic goals). Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
744. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to stack the judiciary
The judiciary will be stacked, the legislature will pass the appropriate laws, and the executive will become more centralized and autocratic. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
745. Government: White House accused of political interference in water controversy
The inspector general at the Interior Department will look into possible political interference by the White House in developing water policy in the Klamath River Basin in the Northwest. Spirit One Monday June 09, 2003
746. Government: Illegal use of federal forces to capture Texas Democrats
Homeland Security forces were used when Democrats fled the state to prevent a vote on redistricting. See above. CBS News Thursday May 15, 2003
747. Government: Bush prefers separation of church and state in Iraq, but not in America
During a recent interview, Tom Brokaw asked President Bush about the prospect of an Islamic government in postwar Iraq, a country with a 60 percent Shiite majority. President Bush replied: What I would like to see is a government where church and state are separated. BJCPA Wednesday April 30, 2003
748. Government: Administration officials have close ties to tobacco companies
Philip Morris has numerous long-standing ties to the Bush administration. Karl Rove, a senior White House adviser, worked as a political consultant for the company from 1991 to 1996. OCA Thursday March 06, 2003
749. Government: Bush sides with tobacco in suit
Mr. Bush has avoided making a definitive statement about the tobacco suit. But referring to the case in August, he said, I think we've had enough suits, adding, The lawyers I talk to don't feel they [the Justice Department] have a case. OCA Thursday March 06, 2003
750. Government: BUSH TIES TO TOBACCO: Tobacco companies contribute heavily to Bush
Beyond the campaign, industry titan Philip Morris Cos. was one of the most generous contributors to Mr. Bush's inaugural, giving $100,000 itself and another $100,000 through its subsidiary, Kraft Foods. Along with a number of inauguration tickets, these donations entitled company executives to two tables at a candlelight supper attended by President Bush and Vice President Cheney the night before their swearing-in. OCA Thursday March 06, 2003
751. Government: Healthcare Reveals Real "Conservative" Agenda - Drown Democracy In A Bathtub
Indeed, in late February a "senior administration official" presented The New York Times with a masterpiece of obfuscation and avoidance of responsibility. Speaking of the administration's plans to push users of Medicare and Medicaid into the hands of for-profit corporations, this "official" said, "We're looking at two programs that have worked, that have provided health coverage to people who need it, and we want to help them work better." Common Dreams Tuesday February 25, 2003
752. Government: Bush keeps presidential documents secret
At the beginning of November 2001, just before documents from the Reagan administration were to be released, Bush signed an Executive Order that effectively denies the public's right of access to presidential documents by giving an incumbent or former president veto power over any public release of materials. OMB Watch Friday October 25, 2002
753. Government: GAO sues executive branch to overcome secrecy
For the first time, the General Accounting Office an arm of Congress is suing the executive branch, because it cannot get the basic facts about who participated in what meetings. OMB Watch Friday October 25, 2002
754. Government: Bush abuses executive privilege
Asserting executive privilege. in December, 2001, in response to a congressional subpoena, President Bush asserted executive privilege to withhold giving information to the House Government Reform Committee regarding documents related to former Attorney General Janet Reno's decision not to appoint a Special Counsel to pursue possible campaign finance misdeeds. OMB Watch Friday October 25, 2002
755. Government: DOD proposal would have criminalized publication of unclassified documents A
March 2002 Department of Defense proposal that has been withdrawn would have created the possibility for criminal sanctions to be brought against individuals publishing unclassified research. OMB Watch Friday October 25, 2002
756. Government: Memo urges government secrecy
In October 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft released a guidance memo to agencies on implementing the Freedom of Information Act. The memo instructed agencies, in essence, to withhold information whenever possible. This is a fundamental reversal of past policy, which stressed disclosure where possible. OMB Watch Friday October 25, 2002
757. Government: Bush closed immigration hearings and files of special interest
Beginning in September 2001, the Bush administration closed all immigration hearings and files of special interest,; which means that family members and the media no longer know when or if a hearing is being held. OMB Watch Friday October 25, 2002
758. Government: Bush administration unresponsibe to FOIA requests Growing delays in responding to FOIA requests. At the end of
September 2002, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, announced that the number of freedom of information requests within the executive branch agencies have either held even or declined, but the backlog has increased. In its review of implementation of the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996, GAO found that agency backlogs of pending requests are substantial and growing government-wide, and that some agencies are not properly making information available through their web sites or are making it difficult to find the information. OMB Watch Wednesday September 25, 2002
759. Government: Providing energy industry exemptions.
in September 2002, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), issued a draft rule that would restrict access to previously public information that is now deemed potentially useful to a person planning an attack on production, generation, transportation, transmission or distribution of energy. This Critical Energy Infrastructure Information; (CEII) would suddenly be made exempt from FOIA and overseen by a critical energy infrastructure coordinator.; In essence, the proposal allows industry to categorize its information as CEII so that it will not be disclosed to the public. FERC argues it can exempt CEII from disclosure under FOIA as confidential business information since terrorism causes financial harm. Congress, at the urging of the Bush administration, is considering Critical Infrastructure Information; (CII) legislation as part of the bill to create a new department of homeland security. Voluntarily submitted CII would be exempt from FOIA, and such information could not be used in civil action suits or anti-trust actions. OMB Watch Monday September 16, 2002
760. Government: Republicans use faith-based grant prospects to woo voters
Republicans are using the prospect of federal grants from the Bush administration's faith-based initiative to boost support for GOP candidates, especially among black voters in states and districts with tight congressional races this fall. Washington Post Sunday September 15, 2002
761. Government: Rumsfeld creates own intelligence agency
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in a very quiet maneuver, has all but gotten Congress to create a new Pentagon position of undersecretary of defense for intelligence. When the position is created, Rumsfeld's Pentagon will get to keep key intelligence assets like the National Security Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office that were likely to have been taken from the military and turned over to the CIA. The move illustrates the growing power of Rumsfeld in Washington: it flies in the face of recommendations for intelligence reform proposed by a commission headed by retired Gen. Brent Scowcroft US News and World Report Thursday August 01, 2002
762. Government: Bush uses fear to manipulate the public
While it may not quite the audacity of Wag the Dog, Bush and his administration have clearly used fear to manipulate the public. The Village Voice Monday March 11, 2002
763. Government: Faith groups may be less accountable
Some critics charge that faith-based groups will be less dependable and less accountable as partners in government-funded programs. Public Justice Report Friday March 01, 2002
764. Government: Bush blocks arms control proposal to satisfy NRA
The US president, George Bush, is about to spark a transatlantic row over a UN conference which opens today aiming to reduce the 500m Kalashnikovs and other small arms contributing to worldwide carnage. Mr Bush has ordered the US delegation to the New York conference to block the main proposals because he fears inflaming the US gun lobby led by the National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful vested interests in the country. The Guardian Monday July 09, 2001
765. Government: Ashcroft weakens justice suit against Big Tobacco
Determined to scuttle a federal lawsuit against Big Tobacco without publicly acknowledging as much, Attorney General John Ashcroft has signaled that the Justice Department would like to settle, out of fear that it might lose at trial. ASH Friday June 22, 2001
766. Government: Charitable Choice violates church-state separation
The Rev. Eliezer Valentin Castanon, of the church's General Board of Church and Society, outlined the denomination's position during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing June 6. Castanon said the church cannot support the charitable choice provisions of the Bush plan because they violate church-state separation, subsidize religious discrimination and threaten the independence of churches. News.Com Thursday June 14, 2001
767. Government: The vitality of our faith communities will be hurt
Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday February 20, 2001
768. Government: There's no proof that religious groups will offer better care than secular providers
Many supporters of Bush's proposal have insisted that faith-based institutions are better, and far more successful, than secular service providers. However, little empirical research supports these claims. Few studies have examined whether religious ministries are more successful than secular groups in providing aid or producing better results, and it is unwise to launch a major federal initiative with so little research in the area. Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday February 20, 2001
769. Government: Religion could be forced on those in need of assistance
Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday February 20, 2001
770. Government: Some religions will be favored over others
While on the campaign trail, Bush promised that he would "not discriminate for or against Methodist or Mormons or Muslims or good people with no faith at all." Then he announced he would not allow funding of the Nation of Islam, because, as he sees it, the group "preaches hate." Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday February 20, 2001
771. Government: Bush's plan opens the door to federal regulation of religion
Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday February 20, 2001
772. Government: Federally funded employment discrimination is unfair
Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday February 20, 2001
773. Government: Bush's faith-based' initiative plan violates the separation of church and state
Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday February 20, 2001
774. Government: Bush's plan pits faith groups against each other
Since the founding of the nation, all religious groups have stood equal in the eyes of the law. With a separation between church and state, government has been neutral on religious issues and no specific faith tradition received favoritism or support. The Bush plan, however, calls for competition between religious groups. For the first time in American history, religious groups will be asked, indeed encouraged, to battle it out for a piece of the government pie. Pitting houses of worship against each other in this fashion is a recipe for divisive conflict. Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday February 20, 2001
775. Government: Both liberals and conservatives are concerned about Bush's plan
Controversies surrounding Bush's scheme are not limited to a "left vs. right" argument. Americans United is part of a broad coalition of education, religious and civil liberties groups opposed to Bush's faith-based plan. The coalition includes organizations such as the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Education Association, the American Counseling Association and the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs. Concerned conservative leaders have also expressed reservations about the plan. For example, representatives of the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, argued that mixing government and charity is dangerous. Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday February 20, 2001
776. Government: Bush apparently believes he was elected national preacher as well as president
Lynn said. The newly elected president presented himself today as a determined foe of church-state separation. The Constitution he swore to uphold simply does not permit the president to merge religion and government. Common Dreams Saturday January 20, 2001
777. Government: White House Counselor, Karen Hughes
Dubya's communications director & spokeswoman during campaign, co-wrote (auto)biography with him, previously Dallas TV reporter, worked on '84 Reagan campaign in Texas, George II's campaign for Governor in '94. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
778. Government: US Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick
Most notable for his ardent support of free trade and globalization, Zoellick, as a State Dept. Undersecretary for Economic and Agricultural Affairs in the George I years, was a prime architect and negotiator for the proposals that became NAFTA and the World Trade Organization. An Assistant Secretary in the Treasury Dept. under Reagan, he became Deputy Chief of Staff late in George I's term, moving on during Clinton time to be, among other things, Senior International Advisor for Goldman Sachs the notorious international investment firm some suggest is responsible for widespread Third World economic misery. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
779. Government: Senior Advisor and Assistant to President, Karl Rove
A close friend of George II since the '60s. Worked on his campaigns for Congress in '78, Governor in '94, and '98. According to a George II biography, his campaign dirty tricks include sending out false invitations to political events, falsifying documents on opponents' stationery, and using false names. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
780. Government: Office of Budget & Management, Mitch Daniels
Corporate VP for Eli Lilly & Co. pharmaceuticals for the last 13 years. The two things he'll be doing in his job is drafting the national budget and dealing with tax issues; he is completely without experience in either arena. Served as political director under Reagan (85-87). Headed right-wing think tank Hudson Institute. A key player in Quayle's VP campaign. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
781. Government: National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice
Spent two years as a mid-level staffer and Soviet expert for the National Security Council during the '80s, her only federal experience. Her only expertise is the old Soviet Union. She is an ardent globalization fan, and is on the board of Chevron Oil, one of Africa's worst human rights abusers. Chevron recently named an oil tanker after her. She favors continuing Iraq sanctions, likes Star Wars, and argues for global domination. She has lots of opinions, but very little knowledge of contemporary foreign affairs. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
782. Government: Dept of Housing & Urban Development, Melquiadees Martinez
George II's thank-you kiss to Florida. His only housing experience is serving as chairman of Orlando Housing Authority for two years (84-86). He's very vocal on right-wing Cuban issues; he has called for a naval blockade of Cuba. A yes-man who has no clue about housing. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
783. Government: Dept of Interior, Gale Norton Norton
lobbied in DC for a lead paint manufacturer, NL Industries, which is named as a defendant in lawsuits involving 75 Superfund and toxic waste sites, plus a dozen suits of children poisoned by lead paint. Was Colorado's Attorney General from 91-99. Supports mining and oil and gas exploration and more timber harvesting on all federal lands. A harsh critic of the Endangered Species Act, her first job in 1979 was at James Watt's Mountain States Legal Foundation. Founder and serves on the Advisory Committee for the Coalition of Republican Environmental Advocates, a pseudo-green front group funded by energy companies and associations representing the mining, logging, chemical, and coal industries. She pushed for Colorado's self-audit law that allows polluting companies to monitor themselves. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
784. Government: Dept of Justice, John Ashcroft (Atty General)
Opposes abortion, hates gays, supports the death penalty, opposes a moratorium on executions, wants tougher sentences for drug crimes, opposes any and all gun control laws. Scuttled the appointment of Ronnie White (the first African-American on the Missouri Supreme Court) to a federal district court bench. In a 1998 interiew he lauded the cause of pro-slavery Confederate secessionists; in 1999, Ashcroft got an honorary degree from Bob Jones University. Lobbyists reportedly consider him an advocate for drug companies and the automotive industry, and for preventing consumers from suing HMOs. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
785. Government: EPA, Christine Todd Whitman
As governor, she cut the New Jersey environmental protection budget by 30%, relaxed enforcement of pollution regulations, promoted voluntary compliance by industry, abolished NJ's environmental prosecutor's office. New Jersey has the highest number of Superfund sites in the nation. She regularly fought with the EPA over numerous issues concerning lax compliance with environmental laws in her state. Whitman has said she doubts that the giant ozone hole over the North Pole or global warming are actually serious problems. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
786. Government: Dept. of State, Colin Powell
In Vietnam, Powell's casual investigation rejected as false initial charges of a civilian massacre at My Lai. As a member of Reagan's national security team, he personally arranged the illegal transfer of at least 2,000 missiles to Iran. In his autobiography, Powell claims that he was the chief administration advocate for the Contras. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for both the invasion of Panama (and decimation of civilian neighborhoods) and the Gulf War. Powell has been dismissive of Gulf War Syndrome, while 184,000 of the 697,000 Gulf War troops have filed disability claims with the government. Powell has no experience with diplomatic matters of state. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
787. Government: Dept. of Labor, Elaine Chao
A Taiwanese immigrant, Linda Chavez's replacement also has little experience with unions or industry; she comes from a stint as President/CEO of United Way, and is a past (91-92) director of the Peace Corps. A Dept. of Transportation official under Reagan. Married to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is famous for his strident opposition to any and all campaign finance reform. Her actual record is indistinguishable from Chavez: she opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which increased worker rights to sue for discrimination in the workplace. She's against affirmative action and has criticized efforts to diversify workplaces. She opposes the new rules on ergonomics in the workplace and she supports allowing workers to withhold the portion of their union dues that would be used for political purposes. She's also likely to oppose any increases in the minimum wage. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
788. Government: Dept of Veterans Affairs, Anthony Principi
Deputy Secretary of V.A. under George I, later ran the agency under him. He's a decorated vet of Vietnam War. He has also served as chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
789. Government: Dept of Transportation, Norman Mineta
Currently Commerce Secretary under Clinton. He was a senior VP at Lockheed Martin Corp. He was a key author of the 1991 Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, which devolved responsibility for transportation down to state and local governments. Most importantly, he's a big supporter of the aviation industry (Boeing & Lockheed Martin love him). AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
790. Government: Dept of Treasury, Paul O'Neill
Was deputy director of Office of Management & Budget under Ford. Chairman of Alcoa Corp., one of the nation's largest toxic polluters; O'Neill's shares are worth more than $50 million. Political policy insider, no Wall Street or economic experience. Supports balanced federal budget, critic of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes. Chair of the board of Rand Corp., serves on other right-wing think tank boards. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
791. Government: Dept of Commerce, Donald (Donnie) Evans
George II's closest friend and confident. As his presidential campaign chairman, he raised $100 million. Only worked for one company in his life: Tom Brown, Inc., an oil and gas company. Nine years as President and 10 yrs as CEO. No Wall Street or economic experience at all. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
792. Government: Dept of Health & Human Services, Tommy Thompson
As governor, imposed Wisconsin's harsh, trendsetting welfare reform. He opposes abortion, signing legislation that forces WI women who want abortions to seek counseling first, then wait three days before surgery. Wants to convert Medicaid to a system of block grants to states. Wants to restructure Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
793. Government: Dept of Energy, Spencer Abraham
In 1999, he was one of a handful of Senators who sponsored a bill to abolish the DOE. He was a top aide to VP Dan Quayle. He's a major advocate for auto industry. In 2000, he joined a bid to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration. Strongly favors utility deregulation. No idea how to manage the DOE's nuclear weapons facilities. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
794. Government: Dept of Education, Rod Paige
Former collegiate head football coach. As Houston School Superintendent, he raised test scores, downsized administration, moved authority out to individual schools. His key issues are literacy, school safety, testing. He takes a fence-sitting role on school vouchers. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
795. Government: Dept of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld
Defense Secretary under Ford ('75-'77), ambassador to NATO in '72, worked for pharmaceutical companies GD Searle and Gilead Science Inc. He testified against the chemical weapons convention, opposed the SALT II arms agreement, and supported the MX and B-1 and B-2 bombers. Past board member of Hoover Institution (right wing think tank), and is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A leading proponent of Star Wars and other costly, hi-tech gadget weaponry, his Rumsfield Commission's inaccurate, alarmist views of North Korea and Iran gave Clinton the necessary cover to support National Missile Defense. Opposed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. He supports surprise! massive increases in an already bloated military budget. Paranoid about attacks against US communications satellites and US computer systems. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
796. Government: Assistant for Economic Affairs, Larry Lindsey
A defender of Reagonomics. Long-time tax-cut advocate who drafted George II's tax cut plan and his plan to reform Social Security by creating individual investment accounts. He'll pull the economic strings. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
797. Government: Chief of Staff, Andrew Card
Headed General Motors lobbying efforts. Formerly director of Office of Intergovernmental Affairs under Reagan. He worked on various campaigns and then as deputy chief of staff and Secretary of Transportation for George I. He then took $600,000 lobbyist job as president of American Automobile Manufactures Association. Ran 2000 Republican national convention and Republican role in running presidential debates. link">AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
798. Government: An analysis of Bush's cabinet and closest advisors shows the heavy influence of corporate America on government. Dep
Assistant Secretary of Agriculture under George I (91-92). Spent seven years in Dept. of Agriculture under Reagan-Bush (86-92). Ran CA state Agriculture Dept. Served on the board of Calgene, which researches genetically engineered foods (92-94). She's pro-GE foods, pro-export, pro-globalization, pro-cutting (she will oversee the Forest Service), and helped to negotiate farm portions of the GATT agreement. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
799. Government: Bush favors teaching Creationism alongside evolution
Regarding the teaching of creationism alongside evolution as science in public schools, Bush said, I have absolutely no problem with children learning different forms of how the world was formed (Reuters, 1999-11-4). Bush spokeswoman Mindy Tucker has also said, He believes both creationism and evolution ought to be taught. He believes it is a question for states and local school boards to decide but believes both ought to be taught. ABC News Thursday November 16, 2000
800. Government: As governor, Bush proclaims Jesus Day, claiming all religions revere Jesus
Governor Bush proclaimed June 10 as Jesus Day. PBS Friday September 01, 2000
801. Government: Bush calls off regulators after company contributes to reelection
Texas Governor George W. Bush's regulators backed off tough controls of a dietary supplement after lobbyists friendly to Bush were hired by a leading manufacturer and contributed to his 1998 gubernatorial re-election campaign. Time Sunday May 14, 2000
Warning: Bush administration policy may be hazardous to your:
802. Health: Sickly tactics / A high price for the prescription drug plan
The news that the Bush administration exonerated itself for lying to Congress about the true cost of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit is shocking. It sets a government standard that is undesirable in a democracy.
The inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department, and the Justice Department, found nothing illegal in the aggression with which the White House conned Congress about the price of the legislation it asked members to pass.
It was even OK, the HHS inspector general said, for the administration's former Medicare chief, Thomas Scully, to threaten the job of Medicaid-Medicare actuary Richard S. Foster, who estimated that the drug benefit, instead of costing the touted $395 billion over 10 years, would actually price out at $551 billion. Post-Gazette Saturday August 14, 2004
803. Health: Now Bush wants to test every American for mental illness--including you! And guess who will create the tests?
Next month, President Bush plans to unveil a broad new mental health plan called the "New Freedom Initiative." Never mind that it couldn't have less to do with freedom; if you're a thinking American, this initiative should scare the hell out of you.
The New Freedom Initiative proposes to screen every American, including you, for mental illness. To this end, the president established a New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, to study the nation's mental health delivery service and make a report. It's interesting to note that many on the staff appointed to the Commission have served on the advisory boards of some of the nation's largest drug companies. Intervention Monday August 09, 2004
804. Health: Blocking Medical Product Suits
It is disheartening that the Bush administration has been intervening in court to block lawsuits filed by people seeking compensation from manufacturers for harm allegedly caused by drugs or medical devices. As described by Robert Pear in last Sunday's Times, the administration has argued in several cases that individual consumers have no right to sue for such injuries if the products have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. If the Bush administration's campaign proves broadly successful, people injured by drugs or medical devices may be left without legal recourse, no matter how just their complaints. New York Times Sunday August 01, 2004
805. Health: Bush's faulty prescription
PRESIDENT BUSH has made no bones about his agenda for a second term -- he'll be more pro-business, which in conservative-speak means cutting back taxes, loosening regulations and fighting lawsuits. But he's not waiting until November, which may turn out to be a bitter pill for consumers. SF Chronicle Thursday July 29, 2004
806. Health: Follow the money to fight AIDS in Africa
By all appearances, the Bush administration is finally providing real money to fight AIDS in Africa. Sure, the $15 billion "PEPFAR" program (President's Emergency Program For AIDS Relief) is under attack for buying expensive brand name drugs rather than cheap and equivalent generic drugs.
Moreover, President Bush is criticized for demanding that PEPFAR AIDS programs focus on abstinence and faithfulness in a context where such a focus might be ineffective. Nevertheless, the administration is credited by most critics as having provided an enormous amount of resources to fight AIDS, said to be more than double the sum of all other donor support worldwide in 2004.
The untold part of this story is where the money flows are going. Most of the PEPFAR money actually ends up in U.S. hands rather than going to Africans or their institutions. Seattle PI Thursday July 29, 2004
807. Health: Medical intervention / The drug-card fiasco shows the need for reform
After a flurry of publicity on the inauguration of new drug cards that were supposed to bring down prices for Americans who lack coverage for medication prescribed by their doctors, the truth is emerging even for supporters such as AARP: The Bush drug plan, in its initial stages at least, is a scam. Post-Gazette Tuesday July 27, 2004
808. Health: US Spurns Annan's $1 Bln Plea for Global AIDS Fund
BANGKOK (Reuters) - The United States rejected on Wednesday U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's plea to inject $1 billion a year into a global AIDS fund.
"It's not going to happen," U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Randall Tobias told a small group of reporters at the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok. Reuters Wednesday July 14, 2004
809. Health: Experts in Sex Field Say Conservatives Interfere With Health and Research
For years, Advocates for Youth, a Washington-based organization devoted to adolescent sexual health, says, it received government grants without much trouble. Then last year it was subjected to three federal reviews.
James Wagoner, the president of Advocates for Youth, said the reviews were prompted by concerns among some members of Congress that his group was using public funds to lobby against programs that promoted sexual abstinence before marriage. Although that was not the case, Mr. Wagoner said, the government officials made their point.
"For 20 years, it was about health and science, and now we have a political ideological approach," he said. "Never have we experienced a climate of intimidation and censorship as we have today." New York Times Monday July 12, 2004
810. Health: Feds' Wayward Path on Pot
It isn't surprising that the Bush administration clashed with California over its 1996 voter initiative that approved medical use of marijuana under remarkably liberal conditions. The Justice Department raided medical pot farms, arrested medical pot distributors and threatened to prosecute doctors for recommending or prescribing marijuana to AIDS and cancer patients and other chronically ill people.
Today, however, the Justice Department's medical marijuana war seems increasingly out of step with the whole country. LA Times Wednesday July 07, 2004
811. Health: Drug Prices Rose After Medicare Law, Group Says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prices for medicines most used by older Americans rose steadily after the Bush administration enacted the new Medicare law late last year, the nation's largest group representing the elderly said on Wednesday.
AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons, said brand-name drug prices have climbed 3.4 percent -- or three times the rate of inflation -- since December. The jump was one of the sharpest quarterly spikes since 2000, the report said.
The findings follow another AARP report this year that showed prices for drugs used most by the elderly grew 6.9 percent in 2003. But the increase since President Bush signed the Medicare bill into law was even sharper, the AARP said on Wednesday. Reuters Wednesday June 30, 2004
812. Health: AIDS won't wait
ENDING the AIDS scourge will take cooperation, innovation and billions of dollars. But how committed is President Bush to these realities since he announced a five-year plan with a $15 billion budget last year?
The record so far shows a religious conservative slowly bending to science and political pressure. But with 40 million afflicted worldwide, the epidemic needs bolder action. SF Chronicle Saturday June 26, 2004
813. Health: Malpractice Myths
The power brokers obsessed with tort reform really have the jargon down. They travel the country with overheated stories about runaway juries and jackpot justice. The way they tell it, sinister lawyers and opportunistic plaintiffs are on the hunt, preying on virtuous corporations, hospitals and doctors in search of that big payout from the lawsuit lottery.
President Bush has been complaining about "junk and frivolous" lawsuits for years. So it's interesting to hear the following from the Center for Justice and Democracy, a consumer advocacy group New York Times Monday June 21, 2004
814. Health: Veggies with that? / Consumers get fried over batter dipping
Only the absence of common sense would explain labeling batter-coated french fries a "fresh vegetable." But government and common sense are not always compatible. The U.S. Department of Agriculture now defines the popular fast food in that manner as part of a plan to benefit fruit and vegetable farmers. Given the way bureaucrats operate, don't be surprised if french fries wind up in the vegetable column in school lunches, too. Post-Gazette Monday June 21, 2004
815. Health: Bush Rejects Calls on Stem-Cell Research
WASHINGTON - The White House rejected calls Monday from Ronald Reagan's family and others to relax President Bush's restrictions on stem-cell research in pursuit of potential cures for illnesses. Yahoo News Tuesday June 15, 2004
816. Health: Bush's health care scam
IF THE MESS in Iraq and the high price of oil were not crowding out other election year issues, health care would top the list. Premium costs keep increasing, out-of-pocket charges keep being shifted onto consumers, and the number of uninsured is at an all-time high. President Bush, speaking Tuesday at a Youngstown, Ohio, community health center, promised to help more uninsured Americans obtain affordable health care. But his key proposals are dubious health policy, waste taxpayer dollars, and are unlikely to increase coverage. They deserve more attention because they epitomize Bush's utterly cynical approach to governing. Boston Globe Thursday May 27, 2004
817. Health: Bush Cuts Children's Health While Rewarding HMOs
During today's trip to Tennessee 1, President Bush will hold a photo-op at a children's hospital and then attend a $2,000-per-person fundraiser at the home of a top health insurance executive 2. The two events provide a perfect display of how the President has misled America on health care policy: at the same time that he has tried to slash funding for children's hospitals, his budget lavishes billions of dollars on health insurance companies who fund his campaign. Misleader Thursday May 27, 2004
818. Health: U.S. Accused of Weakening Organic Standards
WASHINGTON (AP) -- New government guidelines allowing limited use of pesticides and antibiotics in organic farming have provoked a backlash from farmers and consumer groups who say they devalue the federal organic label. NY Times Tuesday May 25, 2004
819. Health: USDA Allowed Canadian Beef In Despite Ban
The Agriculture Department allowed American meatpackers to resume imports of ground and other "processed" beef from Canada last September, just weeks after it publicly reaffirmed its ban on importing those products because mad cow disease had been found in Canadian cattle. In the next six months, a total of 33 million pounds of Canadian processed beef flowed to American consumers under a series of undisclosed permits the USDA issued to the meatpackers, permits that remained in effect until a federal judge intervened in April. Washington Post Thursday May 20, 2004
820. Health: Opposition to Condoms
The Bush administration's enlightenment on AIDS treatment has not, alas, been matched in AIDS prevention programs. Spurred by the religious right, the administration and Congress have fenced off one-third of the nation's international AIDS prevention funds to be used for abstinence programs starting in 2006, even though such programs alone are insufficient. The administration is using pseudoscience to justify its decisions. Randall Tobias, its AIDS coordinator, has said numerous times that condoms are not effective at preventing the spread of AIDS in the general population. He repeated this assertion while testifying in the House of Representatives in March, citing the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Mr. Tobias is wrong. The dean of the London School wrote to him to say that the school had never produced any such report, and that its research shows that condoms do work. NY Times Tuesday May 18, 2004
821. Health: NRA's Eye Is Fixed on Bush
Just under four months from today, Americans will be able to walk out of a gun store with an AK-47 rifle, an Uzi or other weapon of mass murder under their arm. Unless Congress acts -- and Republican leaders show no inclination to do so -- the 10-year-old federal assault gun ban will expire Sept. 13. A word from President Bush would get a renewal before lawmakers, a majority of whom would probably approve it. But the president is silent. LA Times Sunday May 16, 2004
822. Health: More Mad Cow Mischief
The federal Department of Agriculture is making it hard for anyone to feel confident that the nation is adequately protected against mad cow disease. At a time when the department should be bending over backward to reassure consumers, it keeps taking actions that suggest more concern with protecting the financial interests of the beef industry than with protecting public health. NY Times Saturday May 08, 2004
823. Health: USDA Rescinds Policy Allowing Sale of Canadian Beef
The Agriculture Department yesterday abruptly rescinded an unannounced policy shift that allowed the widespread sale of hamburger and other beef products from Canada. The turnaround came 10 days after a federal judge in Montana upbraided the agency for disregarding basic regulatory procedures and possibly jeopardizing public health. Washington Post Thursday May 06, 2004
824. Health: Bush ducking gun ban renewal
This week, the Bush White House had the chance to send a clear message about howSept. 11 had transformed our politics. Instead it ducked, preferring pandering to principle. Vice President Dick Cheney, armed with muscular rhetoric, was dispatched to woo the zealots of the National Rifle Association. Cheney looked them in the eye and ducked completely on the issue of the day: whether the White House will renew the ban on the sale of assault weapons. Bush has gone AWOL once more. Chicago Sun-Times Tuesday April 20, 2004
825. Health: U.S. Won't Let Company Test All Its Cattle for Mad Cow The Department of Agriculture refused yesterday to allow a Kansas
December tested positive for mad cow. The company has complained that the ban is costing it $40,000 a day and forced it to lay off 50 employees. NY Times Saturday April 10, 2004
826. Health: Soldiers: Army Ignores Illness Complaints
NEW YORK - Six soldiers who have fallen ill since their return from Iraq (news - web sites) said Friday that the Army ignored their complaints about uranium poisoning from U.S. weapons fired during combat. They also said they were denied testing for the radioactive substance. "We were all healthy when we left home. Now, I suffer from headaches, fatigue, dizziness, blood in the urine, unexplained rashes," said Sgt. Jerry Ojeda, 28, who was stationed south of Baghdad with other National Guard members of the 442nd Military Police Company. He said symptoms also include shortness of breath, migraines and nausea. Yahoo News Friday April 09, 2004
827. Health: A 'Flip-Flop' on Patients' Right to Sue?
On Oct. 17, 2000, in a presidential debate against Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Gov. George W. Bush of Texas promised a patients' bill of rights like the one in his state, including a right to sue managed-care companies for wrongfully refusing to cover needed treatment. "If I'm the president . . . people will be able to take their HMO insurance company to court," Bush said. "That's what I've done in Texas and that's the kind of leadership style I'll bring to Washington." Today, legislation for a federal patients' bill of rights is moribund in Congress. And the Bush administration's Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to block lawsuits under the very Texas law Bush touted in 2000. Washington Post Tuesday April 06, 2004
828. Health: U.S. Scientist Tells of Pressure to Lift Bans on Food Imports
A senior scientist at the Department of Agriculture says its scientific experts have been pressured by top officials to approve products for Americans to eat before their safety can be confirmed. In particular, the scientist said, approval to resume importing Canadian beef was given last August before a study confirming that it was safe. Canadian beef was banned after mad cow disease was found there in May. The scientist's concerns were echoed by several scientific groups, including the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Government Accountability Project, which say the Agriculture Department has pressured scientists to protect industries or countries favored by the Bush administration. NY Times Wednesday February 25, 2004
829. Health: Sick State Budgets, Sick Kids
While headlines continue to tell us how great the economy is doing, states across the U.S. are pulling the plug on desperately needed health coverage for low-income Americans, including about a half-million children. Even as the Bush administration continues its bizarre quest for ever more tax cuts, the states, which by law have to balance their budgets, are cutting vital social programs so deeply that tragic consequences are inevitable. The cruel reality is that Americans at the top are thriving at the expense of the well-being of those at the bottom and, increasingly, in the middle. NY Times Friday January 09, 2004
830. Health: Drug firms pull out stops on imports
The Bush administration, doing the bidding of the big drug corporations, wants to make it next to impossible for U.S. citizens to buy their drugs in Canada. The Food and Drug Administration insists that Americans can't be sure the drugs from Canada are safe, therefore it won't give its OK to state governments, co-ops and others who would like to save about a third of the cost of prescription drugs by going through Canadian pharmaceutical channels. Capitol Times Sunday January 04, 2004
831. Health: USDA PROPOSALS TO PREVENT SPREAD OF MAD COW DISEASE INADEQUATE TO PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH
Consumers Union, independent nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, criticized the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) new proposals today to prevent the spread of mad cow disease as inadequate to protect public health. "These are positive steps, but they simply don't go far enough," stated Michael Hansen, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate at Consumers Union. "USDA Secretary Ann Veneman today failed to make any promises about increasing the testing of US cattle for mad cow disease." Consumers Union Tuesday December 30, 2003
832. Health: Top Democrats say Bush policy will weaken HIV prevention programs
A new Bush administration policy that imposes a new layer of state or local review on federally funded HIV prevention programs has drawn a stern rebuke from top congressional Democrats. They say it could paralyze AIDS prevention initiatives and weaken local efforts to slow the spread of the deadly AIDS virus, HIV, which infects at least 40,000 people each year and kills 20,000 others. USA Today Sunday September 14, 2003
833. Health: Food and Drug Disaster
With gusto, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Mark McClellan has promoted, in speeches and press releases, one of his priorities: increasing the amount of accurate information conveyed to consumers about FDA-regulated products. "I consider it a public health hazard when people are misled by false claims," he said recently. Unfortunately, this rhetoric obscures a pattern of FDA actions and inaction under his leadership that decrease the amount of accurate information in the marketplace and, in McClellan's words, create "public health hazards." Washington Post Tuesday September 09, 2003
834. Health: Bush's stem cell policy hinders medical progress
An umbrella group that advocates for more scientific research into technologies such as stem cell research and therapeutic cloning marked the second anniversary of President Bush's stem cell research policy in August by issuing a statement declaring that the policy is hindering medical progress. American Medical News Monday September 01, 2003
Whew, "Honesty" is a long one:
835. Honesty: The Republican War Against Vietnam Veterans
First they attacked a U.S. Navy pilot shot down over North Vietnam who was imprisoned and tortured for five long years. Shadowy Republican groups whispered he was mentally unfit to be President of the United States because he had been a POW in Vietnam. They said he had a Black baby and was morally unfit to hold political office. The propaganda was sneaky and relentless, eventually undermining John McCain's credibility and his bid to be the Republican Party's presidential nominee. The winner was George W. Bush.
Then they attacked a man who lost three limbs--two legs and one arm--on the battlefield in South Vietnam. First in Georgia and then nationally--highlighted by Ann Coulter, a volcano of hate toward veterans--they proclaimed that he made no sacrifices for America and should not be respected. The man lost three limbs in Vietnam! And Max Cleland lost his Senate seat to a tough Republican patriot who somehow missed the fighting in Vietnam. Intervention Monday August 16, 2004
836. Honesty: Old Data, New Credibility Issues
The White House's failure to make it clear that the dramatic terrorism alert Sunday was based largely on information that predated the Sept. 11 attacks is a case study in the difficulty of managing such warnings for an administration whose credibility is a central issue in a difficult presidential campaign.
At one level, experts yesterday credited the Department of Homeland Security for narrowly targeting the warning to selected buildings in three cities, rather than raising the threat level across the nation. But they said the effort was seriously undercut by the revelation that much of the surveillance of those buildings took place three to four years ago. Washington Post Wednesday August 04, 2004
837. Honesty: Deficit deception
PRESIDENT BUSH is using White House budget projections to disguise the reality of dismal fiscal news. This year's deficit will be the largest ever, and his tax cuts are responsible for much of the red ink.
In releasing the figures last week, the Office of Management and Budget said the $445 billion deficit expected for this year is $100 billion less than the projection in February. But many budget watchers at the time said the figure was too high. Even at $445 billion, the figure is $70 billion worse than last year's and represents 3.8 percent of the economy, a huge amount during a time of expansion. Boston Globe Tuesday August 03, 2004
838. Honesty: Can't Bush and Blair See Iraq Is About to Explode?
BAGHDAD, 2 August 2004 ă The war is a fraud. I'm not talking about the weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist. Nor the links between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda which didn't exist. Nor all the other lies upon which we went to war. I'm talking about the new lies.
For just as, before the war, our governments warned us of threats that did not exist, now they hide from us the threats that do exist. Much of Iraq has fallen outside the control of America's puppet government in Baghdad but we are not told. Hundreds of attacks are made against US troops every month. But unless an American dies, we are not told. This month's death toll of Iraqis in Baghdad alone has now reached 700 ă the worst month since the invasion ended. But we are not told. Arab News Monday August 02, 2004
839. Honesty: Bush: Safely in Denial
Back in the good ol' days of the Cold War, I returned from a visit to East Germany and was instantly berated by one of its diplomats in Washington. He wanted to know how I could have written that East Berlin was bleak and dismal when everyone knew that West Berlin was really that way. For years, I've wondered what happened to that man. Now I think he's the president of the United States.
When it comes to telling you right to your face that black is white, maybe no one compares with George W. Bush. Washington Post Monday July 12, 2004
840. Honesty: George Bush's Crumbling Credibility
The Bush administration?s eroded credibility on matters relating to terrorism, intelligence, and national security was further diminished this past week by the US Senate Intelligence Committee?s report on the ?US Intelligence Community?s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq.?
The Senate report provided disturbing additional confirmation of the 9/11 Commission?s conclusions last month about the dangers resulting from the distortions and deceptions of ?cherry picked? intelligence. ÝThe New York Times reported that the 9/11 Commission is nearing a final report that will stand unanimously by the staff conclusions dismissing the White House theories of an al Qaeda-Iraq working relationship and any possible Iraqi involvement in 9/11.
It gets worse.Ý Washington Dispatch Monday July 12, 2004
841. Honesty: Kerry Vows To Restore 'Truth' to Presidency
ALBUQUERQUE, July 10 -- President Bush has governed in a dishonest fashion, trampling values on every issue except fighting terrorism and leaving voters "clamoring for restoration of credibility and trust in the White House again," John F. Kerry and John Edwards said in an interview. Washington Post Friday July 09, 2004
842. Honesty: Cheney Had No New Data on Saddam, Al Qaeda-Panel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Sept. 11 commission, which reported no collaborative links between Iraq and al Qaeda, said on Tuesday that Vice President Dick Cheney had no more information than commission investigators to support his later assertions to the contrary.
The 10-member bipartisan panel investigating the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington said it reached its conclusion after reviewing available transcripts of Cheney's public remarks asserting long-standing links between the former Iraqi president and Osama Bin Laden's Islamist militant network. Reuters Tuesday July 06, 2004
843. Honesty: Cheney-speak
ONE DAY after the Sept. 11 Commission said that there was "no collaborative relationship" between Iraq and Al Qaeda, Vice President Cheney reasserted on CNBC, "There clearly was a relationship. It's been testified to. The evidence is overwhelming." CNBC's Gloria Borger asked Cheney, "Do you know some things that the commission does not know?" Cheney said, "Probably . . . There are reams of material here. Your show isn't long enough for me to read all the pieces of it."
The Dick Cheney Show isn't long enough for how many times he has claimed to possess overwhelming reams of material, yet has not read one piece of it on the air. Boston Globe Wednesday June 23, 2004
844. Honesty: The loss of credibility
President Bush's credibility sank last week when the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks concluded there was no collaborative relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida.
Bush needs to take decisive action to repair his administration's credibility, and he should start by dismissing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and replace him with a respected and trusted official such as Colin Powell. FW Journal Gazette Sunday June 20, 2004
845. Honesty: Facts vs. fiction
NOW THAT President Bush and co-president Cheney have backed themselves into a corner with statements about Iraq and terrorism that aren't credible, it's interesting to watch them squirm.
Bush has an entertaining habit of confusing assertion with argument. For example: "The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and Al Qaeda is because there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda."
The logic here is breath-taking. Boston Globe Sunday June 20, 2004
846. Honesty: Bush Team Tries to Brazen It Out
WASHINGTON -- "The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al-Qaeda," U.S. President George W. Bush told reporters Thursday, is "because there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda."
This is what logicians call a tautology, or a "useless repetition," as the dictionary defines it, but it is also an indication of how the Bush administration is defending itself against a growing number of scandals and deceptions in which it finds itself enmeshed. Anti-War Saturday June 19, 2004
847. Honesty: Blind to the Truth
The Bush administration's reaction to the report of the bipartisan US commission investigating September 11, which has found no evidence of a substantive relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida, is a classic case of none being so blind as those who will not see. "We stand by what was said publicly," said the White House spokesman, thus endorsing the stream of loose and contradictory claims made by the president and vice-president as they have thrashed around to justify the Iraq war. A year ago George Bush, in his prematurely triumphal aircraft-carrier speech, asserted that "we've removed an ally [Iraq] of al-Qaida". Common Dreams Friday June 18, 2004
848. Honesty: The meaning of 'is'/Bush takes lesson from Clinton
Watching the Bush White House defend itself on the issue of linkage between Iraq and Al-Qaida brings to mind President Bill Clinton's infamous statement that, "It depends on what the definition of 'is' is." President Bush and those around him are parsing the meaning of words with a precision that would do a lexicographer -- or Clinton, for that matter -- proud.
The fact is that Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and others in the administration misled the American people big-time about the Iraq link to Al-Qaida. Star Tribune Friday June 18, 2004
849. Honesty: Cheney blames media for blurring Saddam, 9/11
WASHINGTON - Blaming what he called "lazy" reporters for blurring the distinction, Vice President Dick Cheney said that while "overwhelming" evidence shows a past relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, the Bush administration never accused Saddam of helping with the Sept. 11 attacks. "We have never been able to prove that there was a connection there on 9/11," he said in the CNBC interview that aired on NBC's "Today" show Friday. MSNBC Friday June 18, 2004
850. Honesty: U.S. Wrongly Reported Drop in World Terrorism in 2003
WASHINGTON, June 10 - The State Department acknowledged Thursday that it was wrong in reporting that terrorism declined worldwide last year, a finding the Bush administration had pointed to as evidence of its success in countering terror. Instead, the number of incidents and the toll in victims increased sharply, the department said. Statements by senior administration officials claiming success were based "on the facts as we had them at the time; the facts that we had were wrong," Richard A. Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said. New York Times Friday June 11, 2004
851. Honesty: American fib factory
THE WHITE House's Iraq fib factory went into overdrive last week, ballyhooing claims that the new "caretaker government" the UN had supposedly just installed in Baghdad was "fully sovereign" and "totally independent." We would like to believe American president George Bush. But this latest claim comes from the same truth-defici