|
Impeach Bush--Index 13
|
| October 1, 2005 Senate to Debate Torture Charges WASHINGTON - The Senate this week will engage in a politically volatile debate over the U.S. military's treatment of terrorism suspects as fresh allegations of prisoner abuse surface and support builds for legislation to establish standards for handling detainees. October 5, 2005 Congress Seeks to Slash Food Aid for Poor WASHINGTON - Under orders to whittle agriculture spending by $3 billion, Republicans in Congress propose to slash food programs for the poor by $574 million and subsidies and conservation programs by $1 billion each, The Associated Press has learned. October 3, 2005 An Impeachable Offense Immigration Service Faces 2,500 Misconduct Charges Two sources familiar with the briefing said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) employees face 2,500 misconduct charges, including bribery and exchanging immigration benefits for sex. There are also charges that some employees are being influenced by foreign governments. October 1, 2005 Senate Bill would Allow Pentagon to Spy on US Citizens The provision is one of several sections of the legislation that would roll back privacy-related protections as part of an effort to improve the ability of U.S. intelligence agencies to detect and prevent domestic terrorist plots. Another provision would make it easier for U.S. spy agencies to gain access to sensitive government records on citizens that are generally prohibited from being disseminated under privacy laws. October 3, 2005 Document links Thatcher to US corruption probe "We have been asked by the US to keep this request 'sealed', which we take to mean as confidential as possible. This has been relayed to the Crown Office and Metropolitan Police. October 4, 2005 Miers Briefed Bush on Bin Laden PDB, But Papers Handle Photo From That Day Quite Differently Does that date sound familiar? Indeed, that was the date, a little over a month before 9/11, that President Bush was briefed on the now-famous "PDB' that declared that Osama Bin Laden was "determined' to attack the U.S. homeland, perhaps with hijacked planes. But does that mean that Miers had anything to do with that briefing? October 4, 2005 Six Democratic War Vets Seek House Seats Given their experience in Iraq, the six Democrats in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia say they are eminently qualified to pose the tough questions. Their reservations mirror public opinion, with an increasing number of Americans expressing concern about the mission and favoring a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops. October 03, 2005 Lady Thatcher Pulled into DeLay/Abramoff Scandal THE Metropolitan Police has been asked to question the former Prime Minister, Baroness Thatcher, as part of a US corruption investigation, according to a leaked official document. It forms part of an inquiry by the US Justice Department into allegations that congressmen received free foreign holidays in return for seeking to influence legislation. October 03, 2005 Iraq and Katrian show US military can't fight two wars Relief efforts to combat Hurricane Katrina suffered near catastrophic failures due to endemic corruption, divisions within the military and troop shortages caused by the Iraq war, an official American inquiry into the disaster has revealed. October 03, 2005 Schieffer's all-GOP panel attacked Earle and Democrats Schieffer's failure to provide balance or critical questioning allowed the Republican guests to make unchallenged claims about the motivations of the prosecutor in the conspiracy charges against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), attack congressional Democrats, and provide partisan analysis in areas unrelated to recent GOP ethics problems, such as President Bush's tax cuts. October 03, 2005 William J. Bennett Resigns K-12 Given the controversy surrounding the remarks I made on my radio show, I am stepping down from my positions at K12, so that neither the mission of the company, nor its children, are affected, distracted, or harmed in any way." October 04, 2005 A second grand jury indicts DeLaye The new indictment accuses DeLay, a Texas Republican, of illegally circumventing the state's law against corporate campaign contributions, and was issued by a newly empanelled Travis County grand jury on the first day of its term. October 03, 2005 Bush names his legal 'pit bull' as next Supreme Court nominee Legal experts have said that if Mr Bush chose someone without a judicial record, the White House should be prepared for the nominee to be peppered with questions, as there would be less for senators and the public to go on when looking at such a nominee's judicial philosophy. {Note: Commentary includes the Judith Miller/John Roberts problem) September 29, 2005 Al-Qaeda's Long Term Goals Speaking during Senate testimony, Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command, said al Qaeda's objectives are clear. "They believe in a jihad, a jihad to overthrow the legitimate regimes in the region," he said. "In order to do that, they first must drive America from the region." Oct. 10, 2005 issue Tom DeLay's House of Shame The 21st-century Radical Republican agenda is to enact the wish list of the tobacco and gun lobbies, repeal health and safety regulations and spend billions on shameless pork-barrel projects to keep the GOP at the trough. October 01, 2005 CIA faces spy shortages as staffers go private The Directorate of Operations, which runs CIA clandestine activities, has dwindled to fewer than 5,000 staff members from a peak of over 7,000 in the 1970s, intelligence sources say. To supplement the clandestine ranks, Goss issued an appeal to former senior intelligence officers over the summer to consider returning to help train new recruits. (Note: Where are the democrats?) October 02, 2005 Al-Qaeda Considering Moving from Iraq The Al-Qaeda network behind some of the deadliest insurgent attacks in Iraq is considering transferring its operations to other countries in the region, Iraq's interior minister said Sunday, AFP reports. October 01, 2005 Letter from Abu Abdelrahman al-Iraqi - Deputy Commander "We inform you, dear Shayakh, that we have made our decision and we are with you and will continue on the path of jihad and sacrifice our lives and possessions until the religion of Allah is supreme or else we are killed. We ask almighty Allah to protect you . . . until you are able to witness the spread of Islam throughout this land. May Allah make you into a thorn in the throats of his enemies, and may he grant you martyrdom at the end [of your struggle] . . . all praise be to almighty Allah." October 01, 2005 Iraq Battalions Ready for Combat Drop from Three to One (out of 100) During congressional testimony on Thursday, Gen. George Casey, top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Gen. John Abizaid, top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said the number of such battalions had dropped since July to one from three, out of the roughly 100 Iraqi battalions. September 26, 2005 The level of violence has been growing steadily The level of violence has been growing steadily. There have been roughly 80 attacks a day in recent weeks. Suicide bombs killed more than 200 people, mostly in Baghdad, during four days of carnage last week, among the deadliest since Saddam's fall. September 30, 2005 Supreme Court and Oregon Assisted Suicide BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Now that John Roberts has been confirmed by the Senate as Chief Justice of the United States, he'll be presiding over the Supreme Court's new term, which begins Monday. One of the first cases the court will hear is a challenge to Oregon's Death with Dignity law permitting people who are terminally ill to take their own lives, under certain rules. October 01, 2005 US Generals: US Troops Fuel Insurgency During a trip to Washington, the generals said the presence of U.S. forces was fueling the insurgency, fostering an undesirable dependency on American troops among the nascent Iraqi armed forces and energizing terrorists across the Middle East. October 01, 2005 Tom DeLay Killed the Contract With America By 2002, if you look at numbers from the Center for Responsive Politics, industries that had long made bipartisan campaign contributions largely abandoned the Democrats, leaving Republicans with an overwhelming edge in corporate donations. By 2004, the lobbyists themselves gave the Republicans $1 million more than they gave Democrats. The number of Republican lobbyists grew. And so did the number of lobbyists, period - from about 9,000 when the Republicans took power to more than 34,000 today. October 01, 2005 Covert Propaganda An Impeachable Offense Buying of News by Bush's Aides Is Ruled Illegal WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 - Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party. September 30, 2005 Brit Hume, others lie: all ignored Texas law to falsely claim DeLay indictment based on weak evidence Commentators and journalists falsely attacked the indictment handed down against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) by claiming that it cites little or no specific evidence to support the charge that he conspired to violate Texas campaign finance laws. Attacks appearing on Fox News took two forms: 1) that the absence of evidence in the indictment is highly unusual; and 2) that it implies a weak case. In fact, Texas law requires only that specific allegations be presented in the indictment, not the specific evidence to back up those allegations. Moreover, contrary to the claim that the indictment's lack of evidence is highly unusual, prosecutors in Texas rarely include such evidence [The Washington Post, 9/29/05]. August 30, 2005 Economic Recovery Failed to Benefit Much of the Population in 2004 Despite the fact that 2004 represented the third full year of economic recovery, the Census data released today show that poverty increased again last year and median income failed to rise. The new data are particularly troubling for workers, showing backward movement for American workers on several fronts/ {Note: Democrats WAKE UP!) September 01 2005 Minimum Wage Falls to 56-Year Low Relative to the Average Wage September 1, 2005 marks an unhappy anniversary for minimum-wage workers. The federal minimum wage has remained at $5.15 an hour since September 1, 1997. So for eight straight years the value of the minimum wage has eroded due to the effects of inflation, and the wage standard has fallen further behind the wages of other workers. The minimum wage now equals only 32 percent of the average wage for private sector, nonsupervisory workers. This is the lowest share since 1949. {Note: Democrats WAKE UP!) September 30, 2005 A CIA-Did-It Defense for Scooter in the Plame Leak Case? Four or five days later, according to the Libby-friendly source, Libby and Miller spoke again. Now Libby knew more. He told Miller that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and had a role in sending Wilson to Niger. This source tells the Post that Libby did not know her name or that she was an undercover officer at the CIA. That latter point is crucial, for, under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, Fitzgerald can only prosecute Libby if Libby disclosed information about a CIA officer whom he knew was a covert employee. September 30, 2005 FEMA Has Placed ONLY 109 Katrina Families But progress has been much slower in Louisiana. Only 1,397 travel trailers or mobile homes have been installed, and just 109 are occupied. About 1,000 trailers have been given to businesses, like the Folger's coffee operation of Procter & Gamble, for temporary housing for workers. September 29, 2005 An Impeachable Offense 21 CIA, 1 diplomat Arrest Warrants in Italy An Italian court issued the latest arrest warrants Tuesday, bringing to 22 the number of Americans sought by Italian authorities in connection with the abduction. The case has provoked a furor in Italy and strained relations between Washington and Rome, regarded as one of America's closest allies in the war against terror. September 29, 2005 Carnival Cruise Lines Offers free use of ships. FEMA pays them instead "Even if the Carnival contract were a good one - and it almost certainly is not - it is inexplicable why FEMA would fail to implement the Greek government's offer of free cruise ships," the senators said. "Unfortunately, this is merely the latest example of poor decision-making by FEMA." September 30, 2005 GOP troubles trigger hopes A recent Democracy Corps poll, conducted by Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg, found voter "feelings about Democrats are at a 2.5-year low." Only 48 percent of voters said they would vote Democratic in 2006, virtually identical to voters' preferences in 2004, he said. September 2005 Congress will be paralyzed this fall As a consequence, this is a difficult time here and very little is going to get done. Congress will deal with the Katrina fallout and try to get relief to those people and the president's next Supreme Court nominee -- which we expect to be made on Monday -- and then that's it. Everything else is pretty much paralyzed. September 30, 2005 GOP Takes One Step Forward, One Step Back And yet, even as poll numbers sag for the GOP, Republicans continue to entrench their control of federal power — a progression spotlighted by Thursday's lopsided Senate confirmation of Roberts, who as chief justice may tilt the Supreme Court rightward for a quarter century or more. September 29, 2005 Republicans may return DeLay's PAC funds WASHINGTON — At least two Republicans in the House of Representatives say they will return money to Rep. Tom DeLay's political action committee now that the former majority leader has been indicted for allegedly conspiring to violate Texas campaign fundraising laws. September 30, 2005 Political Appointees Surged Under Bush Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The ranks of political appointees in the U.S. government have surged under President George W. Bush after falling during the Clinton administration, sparking concern -- especially since Hurricane Katrina -- that career professionals are being crowded out of key jobs. September 30, 2005 Miller Testifies Before CIA Leak Probe Miller, free after 85 days in jail, spent more than three hours inside the federal courthouse in downtown Washington, most of it behind closed doors with a grand jury. September 30, 2005 Pentagon Analyst to Plead Guilty to Leak ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- A Pentagon analyst charged with providing classified information to an Israeli official and members of a pro-Israeli lobbying group planned to plead guilty to one or more charges, a court said Thursday. September 29, 2005 An Impeachable Offense Troops Wait for Body Armor Reimbursements Soldiers and their parents are still spending hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars for armor they say the military won't provide. One U.S. senator said Wednesday he will try again to force the Pentagon to obey the reimbursement law it opposed from the outset and has so far not implemented. September 30, 2005 Army in Worst Recruiting Slump in Decades WASHINGTON - The Army is closing the books on one of the leanest recruiting years since it became an all-volunteer service three decades ago, missing its enlistment target by the largest margin since 1979 and raising questions about its plans for growth. September 29, 2005 The President's Policies Are Breaking the U.S. Army Just days ago the Chief of the National Guard, General H Steven Blum, told a group of Senate staffers that the National Guard had approximately 75% of the equipment it needed on 9/11. Today, the National Guard has 34% of the equipment it needs. September 29, 2005 A President in Need of a Blunt Friend What George W. Bush needs right now is his own version of Clark Clifford. He needs a friend close enough to tell him that his presidency is failing -- and wise enough to describe what Bush must do to salvage it. September 28, 2005 Why can't the Democrats capitalize? WASHINGTON - With George W. Bush's presidency mired in the muck of hurricanes and doubts about the war, you'd think Democrats would be bursting with energy, eagerly expecting to regain power. But, in a roomful of well-connected Democrats the other night, I was struck by how gloomy they were. They can't stand Bush, but didn't have much faith in their own party's prospects. September 29, 2005 Democrats Vote for Conservative Chief Justice - do we have an opposition party? Every democrat on the Judiciary Committee voted against Roberts. Why did the party ignore them? Put simply, if it's ok to have a conservative chief justice, it's ok to have a conservative president and a conservative congress. Democrats go away. You make me sick. (Also compares votes for and against war and Roberts) September 28, 2005 DeLay's Replacement Hired Consultant Who's Also Indicted WASHINGTON - The political committee of Rep. Roy Blunt, who is temporarily replacing Rep. Tom DeLay as House majority leader, has paid roughly $88,000 in fees since 2003 to a consultant under indictment in Texas with DeLay, according to federal records. September 28, 2005 List of Pardons Granted by President Bush WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- President George W. Bush granted pardons to the following 14 individuals. September 29, 2005 Oil Refinery Profits Have More than Tripled in Past Year A Denver Post analysis shows that gross profit margins on gasoline at the nation's refineries have more than tripled from about $7 a barrel in September 2004 to $22.77 on Tuesday. September 29, 2005 Judge Orders Release of Abu Ghraib Photo NEW YORK A federal judge ruled today that graphic pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released over government claims that they could damage America's image. Last year a Republican senator conceded that they contained scenes of "rape and murder" and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said they included acts that were "blatantly sadistic." September 28, 2005 Bill Bennett: "[Y]ou could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down" "But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." September 29, 2005 WSJ Lie: Cost of capital gains tax cut is really $20 billion The Congressional Budget Office estimates that extending the capital gains and dividend tax cuts (currently set to expire in 2008) through 2010 would cost $2 billion in 2008, $13 billion in 2009, and $8 billion in 2010, for a total of $23 billion. In a September 13 Journal article , Mullins presented a chart in which these same cuts were estimated to cost $20 billion if extended through 2010, far more than the $12.5 billion purported in his latest piece. September 29, 2005 Media Allows Brown Lie to go Unchallenged But if Henry had actually fact-checked Brown's testimony, he would have identified as clearly false Brown's claim that Blanco excluded several parishes from her federal emergency assistance request. Henry was not the only journalist to highlight Blanco's criticism of Brown's testimony without noting Brown's false allegation regarding her emergency declaration request. Reports featured on the September 27 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight and the September 28 edition of CNN's Daybreak also ignored Brown's false claim, as did segments on the September 27 editions of Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson and Special Report with Brit Hume. The Associated Press also overlooked this aspect of Brown's testimony, as did numerous newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Dallas Morning News, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. September 28, 2005 Gloria Borger Lie: First knew contents of blind trust But Borger failed to note that statements Frist previously made about his knowledge of his trust's holdings of HCA stock are false. The Associated Press reported September 24 that Frist received at least three updates on HCA holdings being added to or sold from his trusts in 2002, plus one update informing him of an HCA stock transfer into one of his trusts just two weeks before the 2003 interview in which he denied knowing whether he owned any HCA stock. September 28, 2005 Global warming causing record Arctic ice melt The amount of sea ice in 2005 up to September -- the month when it typically reaches its minimum -- is anticipated to be the lowest in a century. September 29, 2005 GOP Counting on a Miracle With U.S. Debt The U.S. this year will borrow from abroad a sum equal to 6% of its output of goods and services, more than in any year in the past 135 for which data are available. September 28, 2005 Overdue Credit Card Bills Hit Record High WASHINGTON - Charge it! That familiar refrain is producing an unwanted response for more Americans: Your bill is overdue! Surging energy prices, low personal savings and the higher cost of borrowing have combined to produce a record level of overdue credit card bills. September 28, 2005 New Investigation: Widespread Prison Abuses Ignored The Human Rights Watch report included testimony from Fishback and two 82nd Airborne Division sergeants who served with him in Iraq and Afghanistan and alleged that members of their unit routinely abused prisoners. The sergeants, who described taking part in the prisoner mistreatment, were not named in the report. September 28, 2005 Indicted DeLay Steps Down From House Post WASHINGTON - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was indicted by a Texas grand jury Wednesday on a charge of conspiring to violate political fundraising laws, forcing him to temporarily step aside from his GOP post. He is the highest-ranking member of Congress to face criminal prosecution. September 27, 2005 SEC Orders Formal Inquiry into Frist Stock Sale The SEC authorized a formal order of investigation of Frist's sale in June of HCA Inc. shares, people with direct knowledge of the inquiry said yesterday. The order allows the agency's enforcement unit to subpoena documents and compel witnesses to testify, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the order hasn't been made public. September 28, 2005 FEMA to Pay Red Cross For Some Hurricane Aid The American Red Cross, which has asked Americans to donate $2 billion to cover its costs of caring for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, will be reimbursed $100 million from the federal government for motel rooms housing storm victims. September 27, 2005 Pentagon Probing Reports of U.S. Soldiers Posting Gruesome Photos from Iraq at Web site WASHINGTON The Army is investigating complaints that soldiers posted photographs of mangled Iraqi corpses on an Internet site in exchange for access to pornographic images on the site, officials said Tuesday. Also see: War Porn (graphic images) US Soldiers use Pictures of Iraqi Dead to Access Porn Site (graphic images) September 28, 2005 DeLay's Pac: funneled "massive amounts of secret corporate wealth" The grand jury has charged that Texans for a Republican Majority and the Texas Association of Business worked together to circumvent the election code and funnel "massive amounts of secret corporate wealth" into campaigns, said Earle, the Travis County prosecutor. September 27, 2005 Greenhouse gases increased 20% since 1990. WASHINGTON - The effect of greenhouse gases on the Earth's atmosphere has increased 20 percent since 1990, a new government index says. The Earth's average temperature increased about 1 degree Fahrenheit during the 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that continuing increases could have serious effects on crops, glaciers, the spread of disease, rising sea levels and other changes. September 27, 2005 Russert lie: Cindy Sheehan "protested outside Sen. Clinton's New York office" On the September 25 broadcast of NBC's Meet the Press, host Tim Russert suggested that Cindy Sheehan's anti-war activism might negatively affect a potential 2008 presidential campaign by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY). In doing so, Russert read an excerpt of a Knight Ridder article that reported that "anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan protested outside Clinton's New York office" -- despite the fact that the protest in question occurred at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, more than seven miles from Clinton's nearest office. September 27, 2005 Greenspan Says Asset Prices May Fall After `Euphoria' Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said asset prices often fall after long periods of stability and ``euphoria,'' echoing warnings he's issued over the past year that investors may be too complacent about risk. September 26, 2005 Witness Says Pa. Board Was Anti-Evolution Callahan testified that board member Alan Bonsell during a retreat in 2003 "expressed he did not believe in evolution and if evolution was part of the biology curriculum, creationism had to be shared 50-50." September 27, 2005 How to Spend (Almost) $1 Billion A Day Most of the major Katrina contracts doled out so far have been for temporary housing, and they have gone, by and large, to companies with strong ties to the Bush Administration, including Bechtel, Fluor and the Shaw Group, which recently built a helicopter pad for Vice President Dick Cheney's home in Washington. September 26, 2005 "We are repeating every mistake we made in Vietnam." The accumulation of blunders has led a Pentagon guerrilla-warfare expert to conclude, "We are repeating every mistake we made in Vietnam." September 26, 2005 Training for Civil War It's not hard to find commanders who fear they are training troops for a civil war. "I don't know if we're going to be able to prevent what's coming," says a front-line U.S. lieutenant colonel. September 26, 2005 Investors turn pessimistic about the future The Personal Dimension is at 48 -- down from 54 in August and also at its lowest level of 2005. The Economic Dimension is at -14 -- down from 7 in August, suggesting that investors as a whole have gone from neutral to pessimistic about the future direction of the U.S. economy. September 27, 2005 Average Home Heating Fuel to Rise $400 to $1,130 Households that use natural gas will pay an average $1,130 to heat their homes this winter, an increase of almost $400, according to federal government estimates. The price of natural gas in futures markets has more than doubled since 2000 and is six times what it was throughout the 1990's. September 27, 2005 An Impeachable Offensee Prosecutor Demoted in Abramoff Scandal WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 - The Justice Department's inspector general and the F.B.I. are looking into the demotion of a veteran federal prosecutor whose reassignment nearly three years ago shut down a criminal investigation of the Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, current and former department officials report. September 26, 2005 England Convicted in Abu Ghraib Abuse Case England, 22, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent act. She was acquitted on a second conspiracy count. September 27, 2005 Consumer Confidence Plummets in September NEW YORK - Consumer confidence plummeted almost 19 points in September, its biggest drop in 15 years, as Americans worried about the economic fallout of Hurricane Katrina and rising gasoline prices. September 27, 2005 Evolution Lawsuit Opens in Pennsylvania HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 26 - Intelligent design is not science, has no support from any major American scientific organization and does not belong in a public school science classroom, a prominent biologist testified on the opening day of the nation's first legal battle over whether it is permissible to teach the fledgling "design" theory as an alternative to evolution. September 27, 2005 FEMA Plans to Reimburse Faith Groups for Aid After weeks of prodding by Republican lawmakers and the American Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said yesterday that it will use taxpayer money to reimburse churches and other religious organizations that have opened their doors to provide shelter, food and supplies to survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. September 27, 2005 Brown Still On FEMA Payroll CBS News Correspondent Gloria Borger reports that Knocke told her that technically Brown remains at FEMA as a "contractor" and he is "transitioning out of his job." The reason he will remain at FEMA about a month after his resignation, said the spokesman, is that the agency wants to get the "proper download of his experience." September 26, 2005 An Impeachable Offense Undeclared Civil War In Iraq At a news conference with a U.S. ambassador, a prominent Sunni politician shouted that the mostly Shiite police force was behind many of the killings — a charge the police deny. September 23, 2005 Very Graphic Images An Impeachable Offense War Porn If you want to see the true face of war, go to the amateur porn Web site NowThatsFuckedUp.com. For almost a year, American soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan have been taking photographs of dead bodies, many of them horribly mutilated or blown to pieces, and sending them to Web site administrator Chris Wilson. September 22, 2005 Very Graphic Images Iraq Porn Scandal US Soldiers use Pictures of Iraqi Dead to Access Porn Site Originally created as a site for men to share images of their sexual partners, this site has taken the concept of user-created content to a grim new low: US troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan are invited to display graphic battlefield photos apparently taken with their personal digital cameras. And thousands of people are logging on to take a look. September 25, 2005 Group Lists 13 'Most Corrupt' in Congress Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington says in its report that the 13 members, among them Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), might have violated a variety of congressional ethics rules. Not Dated The war is lost; time to blame the liberals The bad news is that all the delusional energy that these ostrich hawks had devoted to holding their heads beneath the sand is now going to be dedicated to a new, equally dysfunctional task – blaming the military, blaming the CIA, but first and foremost – blaming the liberals. September 25, 2005 Bush plea for cash to rebuild Iraq raises $600 An extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised only $600 (£337), The Observer has learnt. Yet since the appeal was launched earlier this month, donations to rebuild New Orleans have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars. September 21, 2005 I.M.F. Cites U.S. Debt in Dangerous Global Imbalances In its sharpest warning yet, the I.M.F. said that the global economy was increasingly at risk for a wrenching correction to the imbalances between the United States, which is consuming far more than it produces, and slow-growing regions like Europe and Japan. September 24, 2005 Frist Received Many Updates From Trustee WASHINGTON - Blind trusts are designed to keep an arm's-length distance between federal officials and their investments, to avoid conflicts of interest. But documents show that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist knew quite a bit about his accounts from nearly two dozen letters from the trust administrators. September 22, 2005 Public Debt Owed to Foreigners has Doubled Since 2000 Since 2000, the percentage of U.S. public debt owed to foreigners has doubled. As of July, foreigners held just over $2 trillion, or 44 percent, of federal public debt outstanding. Japan alone now holds more than $680 billion; China, $242 billion; United Kingdom, $160 billion; and Caribbean Banking Centers, $103 billion (U.S. Department of the Treasury). September 26, 2005 Greenspan : 'we lost control of deficit' " ‘We have lost control', that was his expression,' M Breton said as he outlined the Fed Chairman's private comments. October 3, 2005 issue The corruption of Safavian, Abramoff DeLay and Ney Safavian's arrest is the most dramatic sign yet that the long-running Justice probe is gathering momentum. Safavian's misfortune, one shared by many in Washington, was his relationship with Abramoff, the brash GOP superlobbyist known for his close ties to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Abramoff, recently indicted in Miami on wire-fraud charges (he pleaded not guilty), stands accused in Senate testimony of cheating his Indian-casino clients out of tens of millions of dollars in fees that he allegedly diverted to personal and political causes. Safavian's dealings with Abramoff, and new documents reviewed by NEWSWEEK, may add to the unseemly picture. September 23, 2005 Bush uses Katrina to Hurt the Poor "The idea that — in a community where we could place people in the private housing market to reintegrate them into society — we would put them in [trailer] ghettos with no jobs, no community, no future, strikes me as extraordinarily bad public policy, and violates every conservative principle that I'm aware of," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican. September 2005 Emergency command, control and communications need to be first priority Four years after September 11th, we have not been able to effectively put a command and control structure in place, so when something is going wrong in a nursing home, we can get people help. August 12, 2005 Associate of DeLay in court on fraud charges LOS ANGELES - Lobbyist Jack Abramoff appeared in federal court Friday on charges of committing fraud while trying to buy a casino boat company — a case that has attracted attention because of Abramoff's close ties to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The court appearance came a day after Abramoff was indicted in Florida. He surrendered to the FBI later Thursday in Los Angeles. September 23, 2005 Ethical investigations soiling GOP's image WASHINGTON - Heading into a midterm election year, Republicans find themselves with not one, but two congressional leaders — Bill Frist in the Senate and Tom DeLay in the House — fending off questions of ethical improprieties. September 25, 2005 Who is more pathetic, the media or the democrats? I can't decide who is more pathetic: the mainstream media, or unnamed D.C. strategists/aides/beltway-gliterrati-types and the Democratic Party they've run into the ground? September 25, 2005 Put Brakes On Pork Projects In July, Congress passed a massive highway-transportation bill. How big was it? It was so big -- a $295 billion package -- that Congress managed to cram in $24 billion in pet projects that have little or nothing to do with transportation. There are more than 6,300 such pet projects in the bill, designed to curry favor with the voters back home. September 25, 2005 Pay for Katrina: No more Bush tax cuts At some point, even the seemingly bottomless federal money well runs dry. Looking to pay for Katrina, there are four options: cutting spending, adding to the deficit, suspending the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, or freezing the new Bush tax cuts for the rich. Only one of them makes sense September 25, 2005 After emergency, head back to fiscal sanity All tax cut proposals should be subjected to the pay-as-you-go principle. This would not prevent targeted tax relief for those affected by the hurricanes. September 25, 2005 Antiwar Rallies in Washington and Other Cities WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 - Vast numbers of protesters from around the country poured onto the lawns behind the White House on Saturday to demonstrate their opposition to the war in Iraq, pointedly directing their anger at President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. September 24, 2005 82nd Airborne Say Beating Iraqi Prisoners Was Routine WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 - Three former members of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division say soldiers in their battalion in Iraq routinely beat and abused prisoners in 2003 and 2004 to help gather intelligence on the insurgency and to amuse themselves. September 24, 2005 An Impeachable Offense Leader of the F.D.A. Steps Down After a Short, Turbulent Tenure On Thursday, a commentary in The New England Journal of Medicine titled "A Sad Day for Science at the F.D.A." said that "recent actions of the F.D.A. leadership have made a mockery of the process of evaluating scientific evidence," disillusioned many scientists, "squandered the public trust and tarnished the agency's image." September 24, 2005 An Impeachable Offense Bush Nominees Are Not Qualified WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 - Faced with accusations that the Bush administration is stocking the government with unqualified cronies, the Republican chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is holding up the nomination of a lawyer with little background in immigration or customs to head the law enforcement agency in charge of those issues. September 24, 2005 Iraq is hurtling towards disintegration, Saudis warn The Saudi government yesterday warned that Iraq is hurtling towards disintegration and that an election planned for December is unlikely to make any difference. The government said it was delivering this bleak assessment to both the US and British administrations as a matter of urgency. September 24, 2005 Global warming? You better believe it In the 1970s, no ocean basin saw more than 25 percent of hurricanes become a 4 or 5. Today, that percentage is 34, 35, and 41 percent, respectively, in the South Indian, East Pacific, and West Pacific oceans. The biggest jump was in the Southwestern Pacific, from 8 percent to 25 percent. September 24, 2005 An Impeachable Offense Navy contracted US torture Flights Italian judges have issued arrest warrants for 19 purported CIA operatives who allegedly snatched a Muslim cleric from Milan in 2003 and flew him to Cairo, according to FAA records cited by the Chicago Tribune, aboard Richmor's Gulfstream IV. The jet belongs to a part-owner of the Boston Red Sox, who told The Boston Globe that the team's logo was covered when the CIA leased the plane. Another case involves two men taken from Sweden to Egypt in 2001 aboard Premier's Gulfstream V. September 24, 2005 SEC, Justice Investigate Frist's Stock Sale Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is facing questions from the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission about his sale of stock in his family's hospital company one month before its price fell sharply. September 20, 2005 September 24, 2005 Bush trip to Texas-on again, off again. WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush scrubbed a pre-Rita visit to rally home-state emergency crews at the last minute Friday, after two days of questions over whether the trip was a mere photo op to portray Bush as being in charge after his Hurricane Katrina stumbles. September 21, 2005 Purging the Poor I don't have the heart to tell Nyler that I suspect she is on to something; that many of the African-American workers from her neighborhood may never be welcomed back to rebuild their city. An hour earlier I had interviewed New Orleans' top corporate lobbyist, Mark Drennen. As president and CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc., Drennen was in an expansive mood, pumped up by signs from Washington that the corporations he represents--everything from Chevron to Liberty Bank to Coca-Cola--were about to receive a package of tax breaks, subsidies and relaxed regulations so generous it would make the job of a lobbyist virtually obsolete September 23, 2005 Interview with author: Purging the Poor They say, "look, we cannot do this -- we cannot pay for so-called "hurricane relief,' and it has very little or nothing to do with the families that were affected by the hurricane; in fact, it's going to hurt those families.) They say, "the only way we can afford this is if we make some radical cuts to the budget.' They issue another document, the "RSC Budget Options for 2005', which says "here's where we are going to make the cuts'. Once again, you have the radical re-victimization of the very people who the money was intended for. September 23, 2005 Tax cuts would have paid for Katrina Here's a fact getting far too little attention: The cost this year alone of the Bush tax cuts already enacted in 2001 and 2003 comes to $225 billion. In other words, the revenue lost because of tax cuts going through this year without any congressional action would more than pay the costs of Katrina recovery. September 23, 2005 School Expels Girl for Having Gay Parents ONTARIO, Calif. - A 14-year-old student was expelled from a Christian school because her parents are lesbians, the school's superintendent said in a letter. September 23, 2005 The 'myth' of Iraq's foreign fighters The US and Iraqi governments have vastly overstated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq, and most of them don't come from Saudi Arabia, according to a new report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS). According to a piece in The Guardian, this means the US and Iraq "feed the myth" that foreign fighters are the backbone of the insurgency. While the foreign fighters may stoke the incurgency flames, they only comprise only about 4 to 10 percent of the estimated 30,000 insurgents. September 23, 2005 Democrat criticizes Rove's North Dakota trip WASHINGTON -- A senator from New Jersey is criticizing White House adviser Karl Rove for planning to attend a North Dakota fundraiser the same day Hurricane Rita is expected to hit Texas. Democrat Frank Lautenberg sent a letter to President Bush Friday saying "it would be expected that Mr. Rove would be at his post '24/7' during this crisis." September 23, 2005 The Impact of Katrina: Next step for democrats The current dynamic - marked by broad dissatisfaction with the country's direction, a rapid decline in consumer confidence and ratings of the economy, voters across the spectrum pulling back from President Bush, and contempt for the Congress and its failed leadership - is rooted in broad failure on the critical issues of the day, not just one defining event. September 23, 2005 Frist stock investigation grows WASHINGTON - (KRT) - The federal government broadened its inquiry Friday into Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's sale of stock in the giant hospital chain that his family founded. September 23, 2005 Major US science group opposes "intelligent design" doctrine The largest US science society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), urged a Pennsylvania federal court Friday to prohibit an anti-evolution doctrine known as "intelligent design" in biology classrooms. September 23, 2005 Anti War Rally Set for Washington--Bush leaves town. WASHINGTON — Anti-war groups are using a $1 million ad campaign and a demonstration that they say will attract 100,000 people to try to re-energize their movement and pressure the Bush administration to bring troops home from Iraq. |