Citing a 'Shamed America,' Gore Calls for Rumsfeld, Rice, Tenet and 3 Others to Resign
Groundbreaking Speech by Al Gore (transcript as prepared)

George W. Bush promised us a foreign policy with humility. Instead, he has brought us humiliation in the eyes of the world.
He promised to "restore honor and integrity to the White House." Instead, he has brought deep dishonor to our country and built a durable reputation as the most dishonest President since Richard Nixon.
Honor? He decided not to honor the Geneva Convention. Just as he would not honor the United Nations, international treaties, the opinions of our allies, the role of Congress and the courts, or what Jefferson described as "a decent respect for the opinion of mankind." He did not honor the advice, experience and judgment of our military leaders in designing his invasion of Iraq. And now he will not honor our fallen dead by attending any funerals or even by permitting photos of their flag-draped coffins. READ

Playing Dirty

...As voters turn their attention toward the coming presidential election, an abiding question from the previous one frustrates Democrats: How is it, they wonder, that Al Gore told small fibs and was branded a liar while George W. Bush told big ones and was elected President? Gore's many exaggerations may have been foolish—that he had somehow invented the Internet, that he grew up on a Tennessee farm, and so on. But surely, this line of thinking goes, they paled alongside Bush's audacious claim that he could cut taxes by $1.3 trillion, effortlessly privatize Social Security, and still balance the budget.
A large part of the answer can be found in a BBC documentary titled Digging the Dirt, which was filmed during the 2000 campaign and never aired in the United States. The film centers on a team of Republican opposition researchers —a species that has existed in politics for eons but had recently undergone an evolutionary leap. From deep within the Republican National Committee headquarters the BBC tracked the efforts of this team, whose job it was to discredit and destroy Al Gore. READ

Cold Turkey By Kurt Vonnegut

Many years ago, I was so innocent I still considered it possible that we could become the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of. We dreamed of such an America during the Great Depression, when there were no jobs. And then we fought and often died for that dream during the Second World War, when there was no peace.
But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America’s becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas. READ

Project Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2002-2003

#1: The Neoconservative Plan for Global Dominance
#2: Homeland Security Threatens Civil Liberty
#3: US Illegally Removes Pages from Iraq U.N. Report
#4: Rumsfeld's Plan to Provoke Terrorists
#5: The Effort to Make Unions Disappear
READ

Findings from a new national poll show support for impeachment, growing opposition to war on terrorism.

Reporting from an ongoing survey of public knowledge and opinion, Berkeley based NGO Retro Poll released startling results suggesting that 39% of Americans favor impeachment of President Bush. The poll, taken between April 19 and May 5 asked whether people believe that misleading Congress and the Public on weapons of mass destruction to take the country to war is grounds to impeach the President (39% said yes, 40% said no). On whether the U.S. should have invaded Iraq the poll results are consistent with findings of Gallup and other major polls (48% said yes). READ

Kerry Surges Ahead in 12 Crucial Swing States as Bush Poll Ratings Plummet

George Bush has had a warning shot from the crucial battleground states likely to decide the outcome of the presidential election where his rival John Kerry is surging ahead.
Less than six months from election day, polls suggest that Mr Kerry is leading the President in 12 of the 16 so-called swing states. In some states the lead is slight, but in places such as New Hampshire, which Mr Bush won in 2000, Mr Kerry has a lead of almost 10 per cent.
Though polls offer only a snapshot in time, pollster John Zogby, who made the latest survey, said if the present leads in these 16 states hold true - and Democrats and Republicans hold on to the states each party won easily in 2000 - Mr Kerry will win with a margin of 102 electoral college votes. In 2000, Mr Bush beat Al Gore by 271 to 267. READ

Poll: Bush Ratings Continue Slide

The war in Iraq continues to tarnish the approval ratings of President Bush. Evaluations of the way Mr. Bush is handling the war in Iraq, how he is handling foreign policy, and how he is handling his job overall are now at their lowest levels ever in his presidency.
Mr. Bush's overall job approval rating has continued to decline. Forty-one percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 52 percent disapprove — the lowest overall job rating of his presidency. Two weeks ago, 44 percent approved. A year ago, two-thirds did.
Sixty-one percent of Americans now disapprove of the way Mr. Bush is handling the situation in Iraq, while just 34 percent approve.
As concern about the situation in Iraq grows, 65 percent now say the country is on the wrong track — matching the highest number ever recorded in CBS News Polls, which began asking this question in the mid-1980's. Only 30 percent currently say things in this country are headed in the right direction. One year ago, in April 2003, 56 percent of Americans said the country was headed in the right direction. READ

Bad Signs For Bush In History, Numbers: Approval Rating Is Lowest of His Term

Six months before the November election, President Bush has slipped into a politically fragile position that has put his reelection at risk, with the public clearly disaffected by his handling of the two biggest issues facing the country: Iraq and the economy.
...Bush's approval rating in the Gallup poll fell to 46 percent this week -- the lowest in his presidency by that organization's measures. Fifty-one percent said they disapprove -- the first time in his presidency that a bare majority registered disapproval of the way Bush is doing his job. A Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday pegged Bush's approval at 44 percent, with 48 percent disapproving. READ

Newsweek Poll: Bad Days for Bush

As his administration grapples with the fallout from the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, President George W. Bush’s approval ratings have dropped to 42 percent, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll, a low for his presidency. Fifty-seven percent say they disapprove of Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq. And 62 percent say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States, a number that has been steadily increasing since April, 2003, when it was 41 percent. READ

Bush's Poll Numbers Hitting the Danger Zone

...Growing majorities believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a traditional early indicator of the electorate's mood and a clear warning sign for an incumbent trying to persuade the public to rehire him four more years.
" He is in dangerous territory now," pollster John Zogby said of Bush, although Democratic challenger John Kerry so far has failed to take much advantage of Bush's slump six months before the November election. READ

Bush Knew About Leak of CIA Operative's Name

Witnesses told a federal grand jury President George W. Bush knew about, and took no action to stop, the release of a covert CIA operative's name to a journalist in an attempt to discredit her husband, a critic of administration policy in Iraq.
Their damning testimony has prompted Bush to contact an outside lawyer for legal advice because evidence increasingly points to his involvement in the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to syndicated columnist Robert Novak. READ

Bush says he may hire lawyer for leak case

President Bush said yesterday he has consulted with a private attorney and is willing to cooperate with the grand jury investigation into who leaked the name of a covert CIA operative last year.
The attorney is Jim Sharp, a Washington trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor.
...A federal grand jury in recent months has questioned numerous White House and administration officials to learn who passed along the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame, wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson, to the news media.
Disclosure of an undercover officer's identity can be a federal crime. READ

The Serious Implications Of President Bush's Hiring A Personal Outside Counsel For The Valerie Plame Investigation By JOHN W. DEAN

Recently, the White House acknowledged that President Bush is talking with, and considering hiring, a non-government attorney, James E. Sharp. Sharp is being consulted, and may be retained, regarding the current grand jury investigation of the leak revealing the identity of Valerie Plame as a CIA covert operative.
... Suffice it to say that whatever the meaning of Bush's decision to talk with private counsel about the Valerie Plame leak, the matter has taken a more ominous turn with Bush's action. It has only become more portentous because now Dick Cheney has also hired a lawyer for himself, suggesting both men may have known more than they let on. Clearly, the investigation is heading toward a culmination of some sort. And it should be interesting. READ

Cheney faces grilling over leak as Bush election hopes slump
Scandal of naming undercover CIA agent engulfs Vice-President and puts pressure on White House

The growing sense of crisis within the Bush administration over the aftermath of the Iraq conflict deepened yesterday after it emerged that Vice-President Dick Cheney has been questioned as part of the intelligence scandals engulfing American politics.
He has been interviewed as part of a probe into the leaking last year of the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame, wife of ex-diplomat Joe Wilson, a vocal critic of the administration in the build-up to the Iraq war, especially claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
...However, intelligence sources have pinpointed the leak as coming from Cheney's office. His chief of staff, Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, has been named in several press reports as a possible suspect. It is also believed that the investigation has pulled phone records from Air Force One as part of their probe. Observers think that Plame's identity was deliberately leaked to conservative newspaper columnist Bob Novak as a way of punishing her husband. 'It came out of Cheney's office. These are a very serious group of people,' said Mel Goodman, a former top CIA officer. READ

Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' wins Cannes award

U.S. filmmaker Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," a scathing indictment of White House actions after the September 11 attacks, won the top prize Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival.
" Fahrenheit 9/11" was the first documentary to win Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or since Jacques Cousteau's "The Silent World" in 1956.
" What have you done? I'm completely overwhelmed by this. Merci," Moore said after getting a standing ovation from the Cannes crowd.
" Fahrenheit 9/11" took the prestigious Palme d'Or amid sharply divided Cannes moviegoers, who found a solid crop of good movies among the 19 entries in the festival's main competition but no great ones that rose to frontrunner status. READ

Franken factors in younger listeners
Air America radio network does well among group that advertisers covet

Despite ongoing financial woes, Air America Radio appears to have garnered a significant audience during its first month on the air, particularly among the younger listeners sought by advertisers.
An analysis of recently released figures from Arbitron, the radio ratings service, showed that in New York Air America beat Rush Limbaugh's station among 25-to-54-year-olds during the period that Limbaugh and Al Franken, the host of the flagship show "The O'Franken Factor," go head-to-head. READ

Radio Dial Is Turning Left

Air America Radio, the liberal assault on conservative talk radio that launches Wednesday, will employ an unusual resource in its quest -- inexperience.
Air America's flagship personality is Al Franken, a famous comedian, a best-selling author, but a newcomer to the radio booth. He'll have two famous colleagues, Janeane Garofalo and Chuck D, but neither has radio experience (though Garofalo did once play a radio host in the romantic comedy, "Truth About Cats & Dogs").
...The network does have some radio veterans, including a big-time jock from southern Florida, Randi Rhodes. But Air America is counting on something other than industry know-how to develop its audience.
“ We are liberals,” Franken told CBSNews.com. He believes there is a liberal market out there that lacks a radio voice. And he believes he knows how to put on a good show. “I’m trying to invent something new here, a show that is substantive, entertaining and funny,” Franken added. READ

Transcript of Remarks by President Bush at the Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner

"...Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere. (Laughter and applause.)
As you can tell from the look on Andy Card's face, we've become a little concerned about the Vice President lately. (Laughter.) Whenever you ask him a question, he replies, "Let's see what my little friend says." (Laughter.) But we get along well. Here I am saying, "Dick, if the Hunan Palace doesn't get lunch here in four minutes, we're going out." (Laughter.)
Nope, no weapons over there. (Laughter and applause.) Maybe under here. (Laughter.) Oops, this photo wasn't supposed to be in here. This is the Skull and Bones secret signal. (Laughter.)
I'm not paranoid. (Laughter.) But it was at this point in my presidency that I had a strange feeling somebody was following me. (Laughter.)
One thing about being President is you get lots of advice. Yes, Mother. (Laughter.) Yes, Mother. (Laughter.) Mother, would you just listen to us for once. (Laughter.)..." READ

George Bush, Entertainer In Chief: At Radio-TV Dinner, President Competes With Trump's Show

The Donald, alas, was not in the mood to fire anyone last night at the Hilton Washington, site of the 60th annual Radio & Television Correspondents' Association dinner. Donald Trump, a guest of conservative talker Bill O'Reilly and Fox, brought his famous hair and his infamous finger (the one he points with when he bellows "You're fired!" at the end of each episode of his popular reality show "The Apprentice"), but he wasn't aiming it at anyone. READ

MIA WMDs--For Bush, It's a Joke

...Bush says he is preparing for a tough election fight; then on the large video screens a picture flashes showing him wearing a boxing robe while sitting at his desk. Bush notes he spends "a lot of time on the phone listening to our European allies." Then we see a photo of him on the phone with a finger in his ear. There were funny bits about Skull and Bones, his mother, and Dick Cheney. But at one point, Bush showed a photo of himself looking for something out a window in the Oval Office, and he said, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere."
The audience laughed. I grimaced. But that wasn't the end of it. After a few more slides, there was a shot of Bush looking under furniture in the Oval Office. "Nope," he said. "No weapons over there." More laughter. Then another picture of Bush searching in his office: "Maybe under here." Laughter again.... Yet there was Bush--apparently having a laugh at his own expense, but actually doing so on the graves of thousands. This was a callous and arrogant display. For Bush, the misinformation--or disinformation--he peddled before the war was no more than material for yucks. As the audience laughed along, he smiled. The false statements (or lies) that had launched a war had become merely another punchline in the nation's capital. READ

Press Conference Exposes Administration's Political Agenda on Terrorism

Attorney General John Ashcroft's national press conference yesterday did little to increase public confidence in the Bush administration's handling of terrorism. Why go through the trouble of holding a national press conference to warn Americans of impending terrorist attacks and not raise the national alert status to reflect the seriousness of the warnings? Given the president's sagging job approval numbers and troubles in Iraq, it is difficult not to see politics playing a bigger role than security in yesterday's announcement. READ

Analysts Say U.S. Threat Warning Is Back-Covering

A vague new U.S. warning that al Qaeda may be planning a massive attack smacks of political back-covering and campaigning, not just a call for heightened vigilance, analysts and former government officials say.
Stung by accusations that the Bush administration ignored key intelligence in the run-up to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, officials may now be issuing warnings to prove to Americans they are on the ball this time, say terrorism analysts on both sides of the political fence.
...One former national security official in the Bush administration told Reuters: "This is more butt-covering than anything else." READ

US tried to plant WMDs, failed: whistleblower

According to a stunning report posted by a retired Navy Lt Commander and 28-year veteran of the Defense Department (DoD), the Bush administration’s assurance about finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was based on a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plan to “plant” WMDs inside the country. Nelda Rogers, the Pentagon whistleblower, claims the plan failed when the secret mission was mistakenly taken out by “friendly fire”, the Environmentalists Against War report.
Nelda Rogers is a 28-year veteran debriefer for the DoD. She has become so concerned for her safety that she decided to tell the story about this latest CIA-military fiasco in Iraq. According to Al Martin Raw.com, “Ms Rogers is number two in the chain of command within this DoD special intelligence office. This is a ten-person debriefing unit within the central debriefing office for the Department of Defense.” READ

Staged Capture of Bin Laden Coming Soon

It has become apparent that the global theatrical stage is being prepared for the presence of the CIA troublemaker Osama bin Laden.
With the benefit of hindsight we can look back to the pre-cursor of the arrest of Saddam Hussein and draw some interesting parallels
Before Saddam was rolled out, public officials were bragging that the arrest was about to take place. Congressman LaHood told his local newspaper, the Pantagraph, that 'he knew something they didn't' about the imminent capture of Saddam.
Around 16 months ago nationally syndicated radio talk show host Alex Jones was told by a source close to the Bush family that bin Laden was already dead and that the body had been handed over after an agreement with the bin Laden family. The source said bin Laden was on ice and his death would be announced only right before the 2004 election.
Madeleine Albright recently told Fox News that Bush already has bin Laden and is waiting to roll him at a politically expedient time. Understand that when she said this she was stern faced, she wasn't joking. READ

Occupation has boosted al-Qaida, says thinktank

The occupation of Iraq has provided a "potent global recruitment pretext" for al-Qaida and probably increased worldwide terrorism, a leading thinktank said yesterday.
Despite some losses, al-Qaida has more than 18,000 potential terrorists at large and its ranks are growing, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said, adding that al-Qaida now had a presence in more than 60 countries.
..."Christian nations' forcible occupation of Iraq, a historically important land of Islam, has more than offset any calming effect of the US military withdrawal from Saudi Ara bia," the IISS said. It added: "With Osama bin Laden's public encouragement, up to 1,000 foreign jihadists have infiltrated Iraq."
The earlier invasion of Afghanistan forced al-Qaida to change its tactics, said the IISS. "While al-Qaida lost a recruiting magnet and a training, command and operations base, it was compelled to disperse and become even more decentralised, 'virtual', and invisible". READ

White House Launches Barney.gov

There's a new top dog on the Internet. Barney, the rambunctious 3-year old Scottish terrier who hangs out in the Oval Office, now has his own .gov Web site.
Barney.gov features a Barney photo of the day, a Barney bio and videos. READ

Why do Conservatives have more Nightmares?

You may have seen the headline - "Republicans have more Nightmares than Democrats." The study by Kelly Bulkeley, Ph.D. was presented at the conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams, held at the University of California, Santa Cruz in July of 2001.
... Bulkeley wanted to study the dreams of equal numbers of male conservatives, female conservatives, male liberals, and female liberals. Only 14 males identified themselves as conservatives, so 14 students from each of the other groups were randomly chosen for the study. Dreams were "coded using the Hall and Van de Castle content analysis categories for characters, social interactions, emotions, settings, misfortunes, and good fortunes." ... READ

Bad dreams haunt right-wingers

The further your politics lean to the right the more likely you are to have nightmares, according to a dream researcher from Santa Clara University in California.
Kelly Bulkeley found that US Republicans are almost three times more likely to have bad dreams than Democrats.
" That's a lot. No wonder they're twitching all the time," says Rick Hess, spokesman for the Democratic party in Washington DC. "Even during the election Bush was saying some pretty scary things. If I were a Republican right now, I'd be having nightmares too."... READ

Average IQ by state and how they voted in 2000:

(JC News editor's note) While this has been discredited as a hoax or at least unproven, I still suspect it is true. Any researchers out their who want to do the "science"? (Scroll down for chart)
Because this link seems too general, it may change soon. Do a google search for the headline above to see other postings and disputes of this claim. READ

20 Things you have to believe to be a Republican today:

1. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.
2. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U. N. resolutions against Iraq.
...5. A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multinational corporations can make decisions affecting all humankind without regulation. READ

Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides

President George W. Bush’s increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express growing concern over their leader’s state of mind.
In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media, Democrats and others that he classifies as “enemies of the state.”
Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge, increasingly wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public that no longer trusts his policies in Iraq or at home. READ

George Bush Medical Bombshell: Brain Damage Drama

Reports by a White House insider, published on TBRNews.org reveal that George W. Bush is suffering from unspecified medical problems, characterized by "seizures" or "ministrokes," possibly due to so-called cocaine stroke.
A former cocaine addict, Bush has exhibited increasingly bizarre behavior in recent years, indicative of brain damage. READ

George Bush 'Seizures' Off Limits, Says Reporter

Vice President Cheney is the de facto President of the United States. When he arrives at the White House for one of his "briefings" of the President, all employees are cleared from the West Wing and especially from the Presidential office suites.
Cheney arrives in an escorted armored limousine surrounded by his own personal, heavily armed bodyguard and is always shown directly into the President's office. It is reliably reported by [redacted] that Bush has a thick pad of lined, yellow note paper on his desk, placed there by [redacted] just before the Vice President arrives."
After Cheney's departure, the notes taken by the President are transcribed by [redacted] and prepared as talking points for the President..."
At some time in the past, according to both [redacted] and [redacted] the President suffered what one of his aides called "a very minor seizure" and as a result of this, the President has a very difficult time following any unscripted conversations. READ

More Evidence that Bush Is a "Dry Drunk"?

...Earlier several other writers and I likened Bush’s personality characteristics to those of a person who, in AA parlance, is “dry” but whose thinking is not really sober. Grandiosity, rigidity, and intolerance of ambiguity, and a tendency to obsess about things are among the traits associated with the dry drunk. The dry drunk quits drinking, but his or her obsession with the bottle is often replaced with other obsessions. Twelve Step programs help their members modify their all-or-nothing thought patterns which associated with the disease alcoholism. “Easy does it” and “One day at a time” are among the slogans; the serenity prayer, similarly, helps persons with addictive tendencies to curb the tendency to excess.
In Bush’s irrational patterns of thought lie the clues to his single-minded obsession with Iraq. For the explanation for Bush’s vendetta against this one country, we have to look to his biography and to the meaning that Iraq held for his father. READ

Archives 2002
Addiction, Brain Damage and the President "Dry Drunk" Syndrome and George W. Bush

Ordinarily I would not use this term. But when I came across the article "Dry Drunk" - - Is Bush Making a Cry for Help? in American Politics Journal by Alan Bisbort, I was ready to concede, in the case of George W. Bush, the phrase may be quite apt.
Dry drunk is a slang term used by members and supporters of Alcoholics Anonymous and substance abuse counselors to describe the recovering alcoholic who is no longer drinking, one who is dry, but whose thinking is clouded. Such an individual is said to be dry but not truly sober. Such an individual tends to go to extremes.
It was when I started noticing the extreme language that colored President Bush's speeches that I began to wonder. First there were the terms-- "crusade" and "infinite justice" that were later withdrawn. Next came "evil doers," "axis of evil," and "regime change", terms that have almost become clichés in the mass media. Something about the polarized thinking and the obsessive repetition reminded me of many of the recovering alcoholics/addicts I had treated. ... READ

Archives 2002
Dry Drunk: Is Bush making a cry for help?

Alcoholics Anonymous has a name for someone who is a drunk in every way except for the actual imbibing of spirits. They call that person a "dry drunk." This is not a judgmental term, nor should this be a judgmental topic in America, where there are, by even the most conservative estimates, 10 million adult alcoholics, and very few families that have not been touched, in one way or another, by this national scourge. This same scourge has, by his own admission, also touched the life of our Commander in Chief.
Whether George W. Bush is or was an alcoholic is not the point here. I am taking him at his word that he stopped what he termed "heavy drinking" in 1986, at age 40. The point here is that, based on Bush's recent behavior, he could very well be a "dry drunk." Of course, he may just be an immature bully who will gladly sacrifice thousands of lives to get his way even against the advice of the most respected and mature members of his own party. READ

The Jesus Factor

On the day that George W. Bush was sworn into his second term as governor of Texas, friend and adviser Dr. Richard Land recalls Bush making an unexpected pronouncement.
" The day he was inaugurated there were several of us who met with him at the governor's mansion," says Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. "And among the things he said to us was, 'I believe that God wants me to be president.'"
How George W. Bush became a born-again Christian -- and the impact that decision has had on his political career -- is the focus of FRONTLINE's report, "The Jesus Factor." Through interviews with Bush family friends, advisers, political analysts, and observers -- as well as excerpts from the president's speeches, interviews, and debates -- this one-hour documentary chronicles George W. Bush's personal religious journey while also examining the growing political influence of the nation's more than 70 million evangelical Christians. READ

Oh, God: "The Jesus Factor" asks what's behind the president's religious beliefs.

"The Jesus Factor," a new Frontline documentary that premieres tonight on PBS stations across the country (check local listings for times and stations), helps to answer a question I've been asking since George W. Bush first took office. Not "Why, oh God, why?" (I reserve that one for my more private devotional moments), but, what does our president actually believe? Between his carefully scripted press conferences, his retinue of handlers, and his relatively short career in public service, George W. Bush has remained something of an ideological cipher, even as he executes policies that take our country further and further to the right. This one-hour program limits its scope to the president's personal religious convictions, asking: How much of his vaunted Christian faith springs from genuine conviction, and how much is politically expedient lip service? And more important, how has W.'s belief system affected his administration's policy decisions? READ

So Iraq's a mess and half the country hates you. Just keep praying.
The Divine Calm of George W. Bush

...The pressures for Bush the elder were hardly as great as they are now for Bush the younger, with the occupation of Iraq falling into chaos. Yet the elder seemed wracked by doubts. The younger seems to harbor none. What accounts for the difference?
Consider this story.
Shortly after his 1998 re-election as governor of Texas, Republican heavyweights begin to discuss George Bush Jr. as a presidential prospect. W. is dubious. Then one day he's sitting in church, Highland Methodist in Dallas, with his mother. The pastor, Mark Craig, preaches on Moses' ambivalence about leading the Israelites out of bondage. ("Sorry, God, I'm busy," the minister has Moses responding. "I've got a family. I've got sheep to tend. I've got a life.")
Pastor Craig moves on from the allegorical portion of his sermon. The American people are "starved for leadership," he says, "starved for leaders who have ethical and moral courage." He reminds his congregation, "It's not always easy or convenient for leaders to step forward. Remember, even Moses had doubts."
Barbara Bush, the high-church Episcopalian whose husband rejected advice to insert scriptural references into his speeches because they made him uncomfortable, tells her son, "He was talking to you."
George W. Bush, the born-again Christian, apparently hears his mother's "he" as the providential He. According to Stephen Mansfield's sympathetic account in The Faith of George W. Bush, he then calls his friend, the Charismatic preacher James Robison, host of the TV show Life Today, and tells him, "I've heard the call. I believe God wants me to run for president." READ

Bush White House checked with rapture Christians before latest Israel move
The Jesus Landing Pad

It was an e-mail we weren't meant to see. Not for our eyes were the notes that showed White House staffers taking two-hour meetings with Christian fundamentalists, where they passed off bogus social science on gay marriage as if it were holy writ and issued fiery warnings that "the Presidents [sic] Administration and current Government is engaged in cultural, economical, and social struggle on every level"—this to a group whose representative in Israel believed herself to have been attacked by witchcraft unleashed by proximity to a volume of Harry Potter. Most of all, apparently, we're not supposed to know the National Security Council's top Middle East aide consults with apocalyptic Christians eager to ensure American policy on Israel conforms with their sectarian doomsday scenarios.
...The e-mailed meeting summary reveals NSC Near East and North African Affairs director Elliott Abrams sitting down with the Apostolic Congress and massaging their theological concerns. Claiming to be "the Christian Voice in the Nation's Capital," the members vociferously oppose the idea of a Palestinian state. They fear an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza might enable just that, and they object on the grounds that all of Old Testament Israel belongs to the Jews. Until Israel is intact and David's temple rebuilt, they believe, Christ won't come back to earth. READ

Apostolic Congress Mission Statement

Today, as a direct result of Pastor Upton and his team, Christians are affecting policy in Washington, and bringing about real change in America.
The Apostolic Congress informs Christians in America about issues such as Abortion and family values. The Apostolic Congress is very much a Pro-Life and Pro-Family organization.
We also keep Americas Christian leaders informed about their role with the current Administration through regular White House briefings. The Apostolic Congress also SUPPORTS the Sovereign nation of Israel. We work very close with the Embassy of Israel in Washington DC. In Addition, we also have a close working relationship with many organizations in Washington. Such as The Policy Institute for Religion & State, The Christian Coalition, as well as many other Pro-Life and Pro-Family groups. READ

Armageddon and the AntiChrist: A study in deception

‘ Armageddon’ is actually purported to be a battle. According to Pentecostal interpretations, the Bible states that Armageddon will be a battle where God finally comes in and takes over the world and rules it the way it should have been ruled all along. After this vaguely-defined battle of Armageddon, Pentecostals firmly believe that there will follow 1000 years of peace and plenty which, according to their lore and legend, will be the sole lot of their sect and no other religion. READ

"We'll All Be Dead"

George W. Bush, when asked by Bob Woodward "how is history likely to judge your Iraq war?" replied, "History, we don't know. We'll all be dead." (Woodward Shares War Secrets, CBS News, 60 Minutes, April 18, 2004).
It is possible that Bush's comment "We'll all be dead" might only be subconsciously related to his belief in apocalypse. Perhaps he only meant that by the time "history" is written, we'll all be dead of prevailing disease and old age. If that is the case, the man remains a complete idiot. ... READ

BUSH-CHENEY 2000 TO PAY $90,000 CIVIL PENALTY FOR FAILING TO DISCLOSE RECOUNT ACTIVITY

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has entered into a conciliation agreement with Bush-Cheney 2000, Inc. resulting from the failure to report to the FEC receipts and disbursements associated with its recount activities. Bush – Cheney 2000, Inc. has agreed to pay a $90,000 civil penalty. READ

Bush, Cheney open 2003 disclosure forms

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday released their financial disclosure forms for 2003, offering up two illustrations of what the portfolios of the well-to-do look like.
For the president, that means some real estate along with rock-solid government Treasury notes, and for the vice president, some tax-exempt bond funds.
The disclosure, required by law for federal officials, offers a glimpse into the hobbies as well as the finances of the country's two top elected officials.
...One financial area they've excelled in, though, is taxes, thanks in part to the cuts they have championed as the nation's No. 1 and No. 2 officials. Last month, both reported reductions in their federal income taxes.
The White House has pointed out that they joined 109 million other Americans also benefiting from the tax cuts. In Bush's case, he and his wife paid $41,000 less last year than the previous year. In Cheney's case, the reduction was $88,000. READ

Vice President Cheney visits Wal-Mart's hometown

Vice President Dick Cheney portrayed Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., as an example of the Bush administration's success in a difficult economy during a visit Monday to the retail giant's hometown.
Meanwhile Wal-Mart leaders and Arkansas' Republican governor boasted that the recession never affected this booming region in northwest Arkansas.
While lashing out at Bush's likely Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry, Cheney urged 1,000 cheering Wal-Mart employees to vote in November for "the confident, steady, disciplined leadership of George W. Bush." READ

Cheney Visit to Wal-Mart Shows He'll Never 'Get It,' Says FAST
VP Lauds Tax Cuts in Backyard of Biggest Beneficiaries of Dividend Tax Slash

The Food and Allied Service Trades Department, AFL-CIO (FAST) chided Vice President Richard Cheney for picking Wal-Mart and Bentonville, Arkansas two days ago to hype the Bush/Cheney tax cuts as putting "more money in the hands of people who earned it."
Citing projections that the dividend tax cut alone would put over $1.1 billion ($1,152,121,809) into the pockets of Walton family members during the next six years, Jeffrey Fiedler, President of FAST said, "Vice President Cheney couldn't have picked a better town in America to hype the Bush Administration handout to the idle rich."
During his speech to Wal-Mart employees the Vice President again repeated the refrain that the average American saved $1500 on their taxes this year." What he conveniently forgot to mention was that the Walton family (Sam Walton's widow Helen and their four children) have saved at least $136 million in 2003 on their tax bill, more than a bit above 'average' Americans," Fiedler said. "I guess he'll never get it," Fiedler added. READ

BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW: David Cay Johnston, Author of "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich -- and Cheat Everybody Else,"

BuzzFlash: There are some startling statistics in your book. You mention that in 1970 -- and I'll quote this; it's a paragraph -- the top 1/100th of 1 percent of Americans had about 1 percent of the income, and the bottom third had more than 10 percent of the income. Now they are equal, and just 27,000 people have as much income as the bottom 96 million Americans. And the number of people it takes today to account for 1 percent of all income -- well, in 1970, it was more than 20,000 people, and today, it's less than 400. How has this happened?
David Cay Johnston: ...Well, for people at the very top of the income pile, their tax burden has been falling, and they have more and more income to save and invest. Now if you are in the top group -- if you're making $10 million or more -- you can't spend your entire income unless you're a gambling addict or, actually, I don't know how you could spend it unless you're a gambling addict, because, if you're buying oil paintings, those don't lose value unless you're a complete idiot.
...Meanwhile, people in the middle class and the upper middle class are confronted by two things. A growing share of their income is going to taxes, and we have seen falling wages for the bottom, about 40 percent, of Americans; stagnant wages for the next 40 percent of Americans; infinitesimal growth in income for the next 10 percent -- that brings us to the 90 percent percentile -- and this incredible concentration of incomes at the very top. READ

Forbes Interview with David Cay Johnston author of "Perfectly Legal:

Forbes: What's wrong with our current tax system?
DCJ: Most Americans believe what turns out to be a myth--that we heavily tax the highest-income Americans to subsidize the poor. What the government's data show is that the middle class and upper middle class--people making $30,000 to $500,000 per year--are subsidizing the highest-income taxpayers. Tax rates on the middle and upper middle classes are rising, the government's data show, but for the people who make millions per year, effective tax rates are falling dramatically. READ

Link Between Taxation, Unemployment Is Absent

When President Bill Clinton raised taxes in 1993, the unemployment rate dropped, from 6.9 to 6.1 percent, and kept falling each of the next seven years. When President Bush cut taxes in 2001, the unemployment rate rose, from 4.7 to 5.8 percent, then drifted to 6 percent last year when taxes were cut again.
It has become conventional wisdom in Washington that rising tax burdens crush labor markets. Bush castigated his political opponents last week for "that old policy of tax and spend" that would be "the enemy of job creation."
Yet an examination of historical tax levels and unemployment rates reveals no obvious correlation.
" The fact of the matter is, we have much higher rates of employment today than we did in 1954, but our level of taxation is considerably higher," said Gary Burtless, a labor economist at the Brookings Institution. "You simply can't look at total taxation to find employment levels." READ

Wave Jobs Goodbye

How much fun can one administration have? More dead GIs. New record trade deficit. Stock market plunge. Defeated ally in Spain. New Spanish prime minister says the occupation in Iraq is a "continuing disaster" and he's pulling his troops out. Still no jobs. And then the guy who was supposed to be the new jobs czar turns out to have laid off 75 of his own workers while building a $3 million factory in China to employ 165 Chinese people. Whoever has the aspirin concession at the White House must be making a fortune.
The unfortunate matter of the would-be jobs czar came at a particularly awkward moment. More than six months ago, President Bush promised to appoint a "manufacturing czar" at the Commerce Department. As the Center for American Progress points out, since then we've lost another 250,000 manufacturing jobs. Bush was on his way to Ohio last week, where the economy has just been hemorrhaging jobs, to "focus on jobs." He actually claimed, "We're creating jobs -- good, high-paying jobs for the American citizen." READ

Bush Can't Provide Proof To Support His Jobs Claim

As President Bush tours the country touting his economic record, he is trying to shift the blame for the more than 2 million jobs that have been lost since he took office1. Specifically, he has repeatedly claimed, "over a million jobs were lost because of the [9/11] attack"2. But a new report shows that there are no statistics to support this assertion, and that the White House itself cannot provide any evidence that this is the case. READ

Where Your Federal Income Tax Money Really Goes

The War Resisters League creates this leaflet each year after the President releases a proposed budget. The figures here are from a line-by-line analysis of projected figures in the “Analytical Perspectives” book of the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2005. The percentages are federal funds, which do not include trust funds such as Social Security that are raised and spent separately from income taxes. What you pay (or don’t pay) by April 15, 2004, goes only to the federal funds portion of the budget. The government practice of combining trust and federal funds (the so-called “Unified Budget”) began in the 1960s during the Vietnam War. The government presentation makes the human needs portion of the budget seem larger and the military portion smaller.READ

Corporate Power| SENATE PASSES BILL WITH MASSIVE CORPORATE TAX BREAKS

The Senate passed a massive 900-page corporate tax-giveaway this morning "that includes some $170 billion in new tax breaks for U.S. businesses over the next decade," Reuters reports.
The nominal function of the bill was to repeal the manufacturing export subsidies that the World Trade Organization said violated international trade rules. The punitive import tariffs imposed by the EU in March have been rising by one percent each month.
But the public trough was opened up to massive US corporations from a wide range of sectors. For example, US multinationals received a tax holiday "to bring overseas earnings back to the United States at a 5.25 percent tax rate instead of the 35 percent corporate rate." READ

Upper Brackets:The Right's Tax Cut Boosters: Americans for Tax Reform

In the battle over President Bush’s on-going tax cut crusade, Grover Norquist is the general leading the charge. Though Norquist’s official title is president of the right-wing group Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), the Wall Street Journal more accurately called him “the V.I. Lenin of the anti-tax movement.”
In 1998, Karl Rove brought Norquist to Texas to meet privately with George Bush as he prepared to run for president. Norquist told Bush that he would have to support massive tax cuts, privatizing Social Security, school vouchers and tort reform if he wanted Norquist’s endorsement, which he ultimately received. As Norquist explained, “The president and Rove understood the coalition and deliberately placed themselves inside it. That’s why they won and McCain lost.”
... ATR’s taxpayer pledge is not its only form of campaign work; they also pour a lot of money into pushing right-wing policies and candidates. In 1999, it spent $4.2 million on a television ad campaign touting the GOP tax plan. In the weeks before the 1996 elections, ATR flooded 150 congressional districts with mail and phone calls. This impressive display was made possible by a last-minute $4.6 million donation from the Republican National Committee. READ

Tax Day: Average Americans Lose Out with Bush Tax Cuts

...The average tax cuts Americans received in the past three years were more than offset by cost increases elsewhere, especially for such priorities as housing, medical care and higher education. Moreover, the vast majority of taxpayers received less than the average tax cut. And all of this happened at a time when millions of new jobs – the promised benefits of the tax cuts – have failed to materialize. By any measure, the short and long-term costs of the tax cuts outweigh any of its purported benefits. READ

The Corporate Tax Dodge

The news that more than 60 percent of U.S. corporations failed to pay any federal taxes from 1996 through 2000 when corporate profits were soaring and that corporate tax receipts had fallen to just 7.4 percent of overall federal tax revenue in 2003 – the lowest since 1983 and the second-lowest rate since 1934 – is an outrage. But it should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to national tax policy over the past few years. The General Accounting Office (GAO) report also found that an astonishing 94 percent of corporations reported tax liability of less than 5 percent of their total income during the same time period. Corporate tax dodging has gone on for far too long. But the policies of the Bush administration have exacerbated the problem by furthering the culture of tax avoidance by big corporations and creating a pervasive unfairness in our tax code. READ

The Bush Tax Increase

President Bush said on 2/12/04 that "we cut taxes, which basically meant people had more money in their pocket." However, for the majority of Americans, the tax cuts meant very little. By next year, for instance, 88% of all Americans will receive $100 or less from the Administration's latest tax cuts. But even above and beyond this, the tax cuts and the deficits they have created have forced the Administration to raise fees and cut services for most Americans – which is an effective tax increase on average Americans. In many ways, the Administration's fiscal/budget policies are actually taking more money out of people's pockets. READ

New UFE Report: Tax Burden Shifting off Wealthy onto Everyone Else
$197 Billion in Tax Cuts to Top 1% of US Taxpayers as Big as States’ Budget Shortfalls of $200 Billion

A new report, entitled “Shifty Tax Cuts: How They Move the Tax Burden off the Rich and onto Everyone Else,” from United for a Fair Economy (UFE) indicates that between 2002 and 2004, the Bush tax cuts to the top 1% of US income earners redirected billions of dollars in revenue that could have eliminated virtually all of the budget shortfalls in the states.
“ Congress had the option to send aid to the states to prevent $200 billion worth of service cuts and regressive tax increases,” said Chris Hartman, UFE’s research director. “Instead, they gave tax breaks totaling roughly the same amount to multi-millionaires and the rest of the top 1%.”
The report identifies five main areas of shifting tax burden:FEDERAL TO STATE — a 15% shift in tax burden between 2000 and 2003. PROGRESSIVE TO REGRESSIVE — at the federal level, a 17% decline in the share of revenue from progressive taxes and a 135% increase in the share of revenue from regressive taxes since 1962. WEALTH TO WORK — A tax cut on unearned income — such as inheritance or investment — of between 31% and 79%, but a tax hike on work income of 25% since 1980. CORPORATIONS TO INDIVIDUALS — a 67% drop in the share of federal revenues contributed by corporations and a 17% rise in individuals’ share. CURRENT TAXPAYERS TO FUTURE GENERATIONS — record deficits that shift the tax burden to our children and grandchildren. READ

Archives
Chart: Corporate Tax Payments as % of GDP 1942 - 2002

The big corporate tax cut bill just passed by Congress and signed by President Bush will slash corporate income tax payments this year to their lowest level as a share of the economy since the early Reagan administration. This will be the second lowest level in the past 60 years. READ

Archives
Surge in Corporate Tax Welfare Drives Corporate Tax Payments Down to Near Record Low 2002

A startling surge in corporate tax welfare is expected to drive corporate income taxes over the next two years down to only 1.3 percent of the gross domestic product. That will be the lowest level since the early 1980s—and the second lowest level in at least six decades.
Driven in part by the new corporate tax breaks just enacted in the so-called “stimulus” bill, the total cost to ordinary American taxpayers of corporate tax welfare will exceed $170 billion annually in each of the next two years.
In fact, for the first time since the early eighties, corporate tax loopholes will actually cost more than companies pay in income taxes in fiscal 2002 and 2003. READ

Report: Middle-Class 2003: How Congress Voted

In 2003, the 108th Congress considered several pieces of legislation that would significantly impact America’s middle class. ...
...• The Senate, overall, earned a B for its support of the financial stability of the American middle class. However, this average grade masks great disparities. Votes broke down, for the most part, along party lines.
• While almost all—96 percent—of Democratic Senators received an A, fully one quarter of Republican Senators received an F for their failure to support the middle class. READ

Data Dispute Bush's 'Rich' Label for Small Business

In the presidential race's war of words over the economy, President Bush makes it sound as if small-business owners are in the cross hairs of Democrat John Kerry's plan to roll back tax cuts for wealthy Americans.
But data from the Internal Revenue Service and the Census Bureau suggest the vast majority of small businesses provide their owners with incomes far below the $200,000-a-year mark where Kerry says he would begin eliminating tax cuts.
... Their profits fall into a median range of $40,000 and $60,000, according to the National Federation of Independent Business, a leading advocate of the small-business community. That puts them just above U.S. median household income of $42,409. READ

IMF report warns on U.S. deficits
Report suggests stimulative effect of deficits will erode as budget tightens, interest rates rise.

A new report from the International Monetary Fund suggests deficit spending by the United States has supported global recovery over the past several years but warns that its adverse effects on long-term interest rates cannot be delayed for long.
The World Economic Outlook (WEO), released Wednesday in advance of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings later this month, suggests that at some point the beneficial stimulative effect of U.S. deficits will likely be eroded as the budget tightens and interest rates go up.
The IMF says this will have a damaging effect on emerging economies around the world and suggests that the U.S. phase out its highly stimulative fiscal policy gradually over the next few years. READ

National Debt Clock: It's the Debt. Don't Forget It!!

Your U.S. National Debt up to the minute estimate based on data from the US Treasury and US Census Bureau information. VIEW

White House Is Trumpeting Programs It Tried to Cut

Like many of its predecessors, the Bush White House has used the machinery of government to promote the re-election of the president by awarding federal grants to strategically important states. But in a twist this election season, many administration officials are taking credit for spreading largess through programs that President Bush tried to eliminate or to cut sharply. READ

Bush's flip flops

* Bush is against campaign finance reform; then he's for it.
* Bush is against a Homeland Security Department; then he's for it.
* Bush is against a 9/11 commission; then he's for it.
* Bush is against an Iraq WMD investigation; then he's for it... MORE .READ

Center for American Progress: Right Wing Claim vs. Fact Database

The Center for American Progress has launched this new database project to chart conservatives' dishonesty – and compare it with the truth. In this database, each conservative quote will be matched against well-documented facts, so that users can get a more accurate picture of the issues. And we need your help. If we're missing a lie or distortion you know of, please submit an entry. If it checks out, we will gladly add it to the database. READ

Bush campaign gear made in Burma

His campaign store sells a pullover from nation whose products he has banned from being sold in the U.S.March 18, 2004, 9:49 PM EST
The official merchandise Web site for President George W. Bush's re-election campaign has sold clothing made in Burma, whose goods were banned by Bush from the U.S. last year to punish its military dictatorship.
The merchandise sold on www.georgewbushstore.com includes a $49.95 fleece pullover, embroidered with the Bush-Cheney '04 logo and bearing a label stating it was made in Burma, now Myanmar. The jacket was sent to Newsday as part of an order that included a shirt made in Mexico and a hat not bearing a country-of-origin label. READ

Bush Outsourced Fundraising & Voter Operations

According to a new report, the Bush Administration has taken its strong support for outsourcing further than previously thought -- opting to move key political operations offshore. India's Hindustan Times reports that, during a 14 month period from 2002 to 2003 when the Republican Party was playing up patriotism, its fund-raising and vote-seeking campaign was performed in part by two call centers located in India [1].
According to the report, the Republican National Committee shipped the India operation its voter database for 125 local staff to use to "solicit political contributions ranging between $5 and $3,000 from thousands of registered Republican voters." While the contract for running the campaigns was originally awarded to Washington-based Capital Communications Group, "for cost and efficiencies gains, the company outsourced the work to HCL Technologies that in turn sent it offshore." READ

March For Women's Lives: Up to a Million Descend on DC in One of the Largest Protests in U.S. History

Up to one million protesters descended on Washington DC Sunday to show support for reproductive rights and opposition to Bush administration policies on women's health issues in what could be the biggest demonstration in U.S. history. We hear speeches from celebrities and activists addressing the crowd.
A massive throng of protesters crowded the National Mall in Washington DC on Sunday to show support for reproductive rights and opposition to Bush administration policies on women's health issues in what could be the biggest demonstration in U.S. history....READ

Women's March Coverage Hard to Find on Television News

On Sunday, April 25, hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets of Washington, D.C. to demonstrate for women's reproductive rights. Crowd estimates ranged from 500,000 to 1.15 million, but it was clear that the March for Women's Lives was one of the largest demonstrations in the capital's history-- and perhaps the largest ever. One might have expected, then, to see extensive coverage on national television-- but a look at both network and cable news during the days surrounding the march turned up remarkably few reports.
A Nexis search of the week surrounding the women's march found a total of eight stories from the broadcast networks (not counting incidental mentions of the march): ABC, CBS, and NBC all ran two stories the day of the march; CBS also ran two stories the next morning.* CNN, as a 24-hour cable news outlet, gave more extensive coverage to the event, running several reports on Sunday. But even CNN failed to treat the march as the historic occasion that it was, running just a small handful of brief march-related stories on Saturday and Monday. READ

Apology demanded from Karen Hughes

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, said that "by implying that pro-choice Americans have the same values as terrorists, Hughes insulted millions of American men and women, who believe women should make their own choices about their reproductive health."
" We are here to call upon Ms. Hughes to apologize. And we hope that President Bush will disassociate himself from these unfortunate remarks," she added.
Last Sunday, CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Hughes how big the issue of abortion would be in this year's presidential election. (Transcript)
" I think after September 11th the American people are valuing life more and realizing that we need policies to value the dignity and worth of every life. And President Bush has worked to say, let's be reasonable, let's work to value life, let's try to reduce the number of abortions, let's increase adoptions," she said.
" The fundamental difference between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life. It's the founding conviction of our country, that we're endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, the right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness," Hughes said.
" Unfortunately our enemies in the terror network, as we're seeing repeatedly in the headlines these days, don't value any life, not even the innocent and not even their own," she added. READ

Pro-Choice, Pro-Terrorist?

When she was the full-time communications director for the White House, Hughes was regarded as the supreme spinner. Reporters actually got dizzy watching her pirouette.
But now the spin is looking more like a tailspin. On a day when nearly a million women and men filled the Mall in Washington for the March for Women's Lives, she drew a comparison between being pro-life and anti-terrorist or, conversely, pro-choice and pro-terrorist.
Wolf Blitzer asked the Bush adviser whether abortion would be an issue in this election. "Well, Wolf, it's always an issue," she answered. "And I frankly think it's changing somewhat. I think after September 11th the American people are valuing life more and realizing that we need policies to value the dignity and worth of every life."... READ

ENRON TRADERS CAUGHT ON TAPE

When a forest fire shut down a major transmission line into California, cutting power supplies and raising prices, Enron energy traders celebrated, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports.
" Burn, baby, burn. That's a beautiful thing," a trader sang about the massive fire.
Four years after California's disastrous experiment with energy deregulation, Enron energy traders can be heard – on audiotapes obtained by CBS News – gloating and praising each other as they helped bring on, and cash-in on, the Western power crisis. READ

Changing All the Rules
How the Bush administration quietly — and radically — transformed the nation's clean-air policy

President Bush doesn't talk about new-source review very often. In fact, he has mentioned it in a speech to the public only once, in remarks he delivered on Sept. 15, 2003, to a cheering crowd of power-plant workers and executives in Monroe, Mich., about 35 miles south of Detroit. It was an ideal audience for his chosen subject. New-source review, or N.S.R., involves an obscure and complex set of environmental rules and regulations that most Americans have never heard of, but to people who work in the power industry, few subjects are more crucial.
The Monroe plant, which is operated by Detroit Edison, is one of the nation's top polluters. Its coal-fired generators emit more mercury, a toxic chemical, than any other power plant in the state. Until recently, power plants like the one in Monroe were governed by N.S.R. regulations, which required the plant's owners to install new pollution-control devices if they made any significant improvements to the plant. Those regulations now exist in name only; they were effectively eliminated by a series of rule changes that the Bush administration made out of the public eye in 2002 and 2003. What the president was celebrating in Monroe was the effective end of new-source review. READ

THE COMING ENERGY CRUNCH: A $2 gallon of gas is just the beginning.

THE ELECTION-YEAR mudslinging over gas prices officially began on March 29, when Dick Cheney accused John Kerry of flip-flopping on his support for increased gas taxes. "After voting three times to increase the gas tax and once proposing to increase it by 50 cents a gallon," Cheney charged, "he now says he doesn't support it."
...IN 1956, a Shell Oil geologist named M. King Hubbert stood up before a meeting of the American Petroleum Institute and, much to the chagrin of his bosses, predicted that oil production in the continental United States would peak and begin to decline starting in the early 1970s.
...Campbell's oil peak prediction is right in line with no fewer than 12 recent studies, using a variety of different assumptions and demand projections. They all foresee accelerating decline in global oil production within the coming decade. Even the most conservative studies, using highly optimistic estimates of future oil discoveries and low estimates of future demand, predict a global oil peak by 2020. No matter how you slice it, global oil supply will soon begin a steep, permanent, irreversible decline. READ

Mergers lead to costly gasoline: Study looks at role of the White House

President George W. Bush allowed an increase in oil-refinery mergers to go unchecked since he took office and may have contributed to the highest gasoline prices in 20 years as the November election approaches, Bloomberg research has found.The Bush administration approved 33 takeovers totaling $19.5 billion, on top of 21 deals worth $7.3 billion that occurred under President Bill Clinton, Bloomberg data show. Reduced supplies already were pushing up gas prices during Clinton's term, according to a Federal Trade Commission study conducted after pump prices rose to more than $2 a gallon in Milwaukee and Chicago in 2000. READ

Record Gas Prices, Record Oil Industry Profits: Consumers Gouged, Oil Industry Enriched, As Gasoline And Natural Gas Prices Increase By $250 Billion Since January 2000

Domestic petroleum companies have stuck U.S. gasoline and natural gas consumers with about $250 billion in price hikes since January 2000, resulting in an increase in after-tax windfall profits of $50 to $80 billion to the industry, a report released today by the Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union concluded. The groups are calling on federal and state authorities to investigate oil company price manipulation as one way to bring prices down to more reasonable levels in the near terms and a strong commitment to increased fuel efficiency in the automobile fleet for the long term.
The report, entitled Fueling Profits: Industry Consolidation, Excess Profits & Federal Neglect, Domestic Causes of Recent Gasoline and Natural Gas Price Shocks, shows While OPEC has taken a bite out of consumer’ pocketbooks, domestic companies have taken about three quarters of the price increases since January 2000. The report attributes about half of the price increases to changes in domestic pricing behavior that was created by a wave of mergers that swept through the industry in the past decade.... READ

Oil Industry Blames Regulations for Higher Gasoline Prices

Oil industry officials told federal lawmakers on Wednesday that environmental regulations were driving up the price of gasoline, which is higher than $2 a gallon in some states.
Their testimony, before the Senate environment and public works committee, came two days after several industry groups applauded new emission standards for diesel fuel and one day after the cost of a barrel of crude oil rose to the highest level in nearly 14 years, more than $40 a barrel. It also followed the latest earnings from some of the nation's largest oil companies, which reported record profits for the first quarter of the year.
The industry officials responded that other recent quarters have not been so fruitful. They argued that three decades of federal regulations on refineries in the name of cleaner air and better health were driving up gasoline prices by depressing supplies and forcing companies to comply with regulations rather than spend the money to expand refineries or build new ones.... READ

Pointing fingers as gasoline prices rise

...A news story in the Detroit Free Press this week, using statistics from the U.S. Highway Administration and the American Petroleum Institute, points to the climb in gasoline consumption in the United States as a result of both more miles driven and Americans' hunger for SUVs and other light trucks. The growth in the number of passenger cars has increased 18 percent between 1978 and 2001, according to the story. In the same time span, the percentage of light truck registrations increased 230 percent.
By the same token, the amount of miles traveled annually has increased from around 1.4 trillion in 1980 to 2.6 trillion in 2000. That's a reflection not only of more vehicles on the road, but also a reflection of urban sprawl that means longer work commutes for more people.
The result? Between 1970 and 2000, gasoline use increased from 5.8 million barrels to 8.9 million barrels a day, according to the Free Press story. And inventories of gasoline are down 6 percent from a year ago. READ

The Vegan Car: Greasel, not diesel...

A sticker on the blue Dodge read: ask me about veggie power. The truck belonged to Joel Wolf, a rancher, surfer and longtime diesel mechanic, who had agreed to meet me at Summit Restaurant up above the Ojai Valley, so that I could do just what the sticker requested. Recently, Joel formed a company to propagate the usage of discarded vegetable oil as an alternative fuel. And no matter how many times the question is put to him — Okay, so what gives with veggie power? — Joel cant contain his enthusiasm when answering. He loves it. Its liberating. Its the future. It makes freaking sense. Veggie power, as he put it over a chocolate malted outside the Summit, is totally bitchen.
Joel is part of a growing movement that is realizing the latent environmental and economic potential of diesel engines by converting them to run on the oil thrown away daily by thousands of restaurants. Making a relatively small investment, these folks install parallel fuel systems in their cars and trucks, into which they can pour grease collected from the back of Wendys, Wienerschnitzel or any eatery that serves fried food. ... READ

OPEC may boost output 15%

Demands for an increase in OPEC oil output intensified Wednesday, as crude prices rose from already high levels despite the group's efforts to reassure markets against a possible shortfall in supply.
Senior British and European Union officials called on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, supplier of one-third of the world's oil, to boost output further or risk throttling economic growth.... READ

Saudi Arabia to Boost Output, Proposes Higher Quota

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, said it will boost production by about 8 percent and proposed a higher quota for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to help bring down near-record prices. Crude oil fell 2.1 percent in New York.
Saudi Arabia will increase output to 9 million barrels a day next month, oil minister Ali al-Naimi said in a statement given to reporters in Amsterdam. The country pumped 8.35 million a day in April, according to Bloomberg estimates. READ

Negroponte, a Torturer's Friend

Bush's announcement that he intends to appoint John Negroponte to be the U.S. ambassador to Iraq should appall anyone who respects human rights.
Negroponte, currently U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., was U.S. ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s and was intimately involved with Reagan's dirty war against the Sandinistas of Nicaragua. Reagan waged much of that illegal contra war from Honduras, and Negroponte was his point man.
According to a detailed investigation the Baltimore Sun did in 1995, Negroponte covered up some of the most grotesque human rights abuses imaginable. READ

The death-dealing duo: Bush and his White House legal counsel Alberto Gonzales

In January 2002, official White House legal counsel Alberto Gonzales warned George W. Bush that he faced the possibility of execution under the U.S. War Crimes Act for the "new interrogation procedures" and other "flexible measures" he had authorized for the "war on terror," Newsweek reports.
However, because Gonzales regarded himself as the consigliere for the Bush crime family and not a public servant sworn to uphold the Constitution, instead of denouncing Bush's policy of state terrorism -- torture, kidnapping, indefinite detention, hostage-taking, assassination and aggressive war -- Gonzales urged Bush to abandon the international Geneva Conventions and use weasel words to cover up his deliberate violations of U.S. law. READ

Thread of Abuse Runs to the Oval Office
Phony justifications for war led to brutal intelligence-gathering.

Someone's lying — big-time — and neither Congress nor the media have begun to scratch the surface. Clearly we now know enough to stipulate that the several low-ranking alleged sadists charged in the Iraq torture scandal did not control the wing of the prison in which they openly and proudly did the devil's work.
That power was in the hands of high-ranking U.S. military intelligence officers who established abusive conditions that were condemned by the Red Cross in a complaint to U.S. authorities well before the horrid incidents that recently shocked the nation.
The Red Cross complaint — and a follow-up report that was made available to the administration in February and obtained by the Wall Street Journal this week — raises the sobering possibility that these low-level members of the military police in Iraq may be right in claiming that they were just following orders of their superiors.
According to the report, the organization's delegates visited Abu Ghraib in October 2003 and witnessed "the practice of keeping persons deprived of their liberty completely naked in totally empty concrete cells and in total darkness" for days. READ

THE GRAY ZONE by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib.

The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld’s decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of élite combat units, and hurt America’s prospects in the war on terror. READ

CHAIN OF COMMAND by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
How the Department of Defense mishandled the disaster at Abu Ghraib.

In his devastating report on conditions at Abu Ghraib prison, in Iraq, Major General Antonio M. Taguba singled out only three military men for praise. One of them, Master-at-Arms William J. Kimbro, a Navy dog handler, should be commended, Taguba wrote, because he “knew his duties and refused to participate in improper interrogations despite significant pressure from the MI”—military intelligence—“personnel at Abu Ghraib.” Elsewhere in the report it became clear what Kimbro would not do: American soldiers, Taguba said, used “military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.” READ

TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up does the responsibility go?

In the era of Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib, twenty miles west of Baghdad, was one of the world’s most notorious prisons, with torture, weekly executions, and vile living conditions. As many as fifty thousand men and women—no accurate count is possible—were jammed into Abu Ghraib at one time, in twelve-by-twelve-foot cells that were little more than human holding pits. READ

Abuse by Outsourcing

AMONG THE MANY disturbing aspects of the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison is the involvement of private contractors in conducting interrogations. Contractors are playing a widening role in the military, and never more so than in the war in Iraq. Private-sector workers feed and house U.S. troops, maintain sophisticated weapon systems and provide security for the Coalition Provisional Authority. Their growing involvement, and the consequent blurring of military and private roles, was brought home horrifically in March with the murder and mutilation of four security guards employed by Blackwater USA.
But privatized interrogation is troubling on a whole new level. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Lt. Gen. Lance L. Smith said 37 contract interrogators were working for the military in Iraq. The revelation underscores the need for rigorous debate about their proper function in wartime, their position in the chain of command and the laws that govern their activities. READ

Private Contractors and Torture at Abu Ghraib, Iraq

Two private military contractors are being investigated for their role in torture allegations at the Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq: CACI International, Inc. from Arlington, Virginia, and Titan of San Diego, California. CACI supplied at least one interrogator while Titan supplied at least two translators named in a 53-page classified internal Army report written by Major General Antonio Taguba that have dominated news coverage all over the world.
...Further, investigators found, Stephanowicz encouraged Military Police to terrorize inmates, and "clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse."
Israel, apparently misled investigators, denying that he witnessed any misconduct. The report says that Israel should not even have been in the place because, he "[d]id not have a security clearance." (It's not clear whether Israel works for CACI or Titan but CACI officials have denied employing Israel.) READ

Line Increasingly Blurred Between Soldiers and Civilian Contractors

While on missions in Iraq last year, 35-year-old Todd Drobnick was attacked by small-arms fire, grenades and makeshift bombs. Yet he continued to go out day after day, until he died in a vehicle crash on his way from one U.S. military base to another. For his loyalty and dedication, he was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
...Several other contractors have received battlefield commendations in Iraq, too, but the military says it was a mistake. Only active-duty soldiers are eligible for the awards and those received by civilians are being rescinded.
" This is not to say that what the contractors did wasn't valorous or wasn't important, but legally we aren't supposed to give them these awards," said Shari Lawrence, an Army spokeswoman.
The confusion demonstrates that in many situations soldiers and civilian contractors have become virtually indistinguishable -- and interchangeable -- in postwar Iraq. READ

What full disclosure?: Pentagon glosses over Red Cross prison report

Within days of the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Red Cross inspectors were visiting prisons where American and British forces were holding Iraqi prisoners. Within days of their inspections, they were reporting "totally unacceptable" abuse of prisoners similar to that uncovered a year later at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, as one of the inspectors told The Wall Street Journal. Among other abuses, prisoners were being interrogated while hooded or cuffed, a violation of the Geneva Conventions. When the Red Cross complained to American officials, the abuse stopped. Temporarily.
...By summer, these reports included instances of prisoners being urinated on, punched, struck with rifle butts, kicked in the groin. One prisoner described being "force-fed a baseball which was secured in his mouth with a scarf and being deprived of sleep for four consecutive days." That took place in a prison at Baghdad's airport, not at Abu Ghraib. READ

Inhofe Already!

...During Tuesday's session of the Senate Armed Services Hearing on Iraqi Prisoner Treatment, Inhofe voiced his concern over "this outrage everyone seems to have about the treatment of these prisoners... I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment. The idea that these prisoners - you know, they're not there for traffic violations. If they're in cell block 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they're mu