KARL ROVE, Bush's long-time political guru
and White House advisor:
"As people
do better, they start voting like Republicans...
...unless they have too much
education and vote Democratic,
which proves there can be too much of a good
thing." |
|
August 23, 2001 Posted: 9:07 PM EDT (0107 GMT)
From Major Garrett
CNN White House Correspondent
CRAWFORD,
Texas (CNN) -- The Bush White House is counting on corporate America
to save its surplus.
But the corporations might not show up for duty. And if they don't, the
president's budget could be in very hot political water.
The White House is expecting American corporations to voluntarily pay
$5 billion in taxes two weeks ahead of time, something corporate tax
analysts doubt will occur. That extra $5 billion in revenue the White
House expects corporations to pay ahead of time is very important indeed.
Without it, the Bush budget surplus would be $5 billion smaller, and
that would mean Bush has tapped into the Social Security surplus,
something he has repeatedly vowed not to do. The White House released
revised surplus numbers Wednesday, showing a federal surplus of $158
billion, a mere $1 billion more than the Social Security surplus.
But that $158 billion surplus only exists if American corporations pay
$5 billion in taxes two weeks early.
"There is zero chance any member of the Fortune 100 would ever pay
corporate taxes ahead of time," said Clint Stretch, director of tax
policy for the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche.
"Corporations do not have the slightest interest in paying corporate
taxes early. They're not going to volunteer money to the government."
| "When George W. Bush announced from Sweden
on June 14 that he planned to pull the US Navy out of the Puerto
Rican island of Vieques by 2003, it struck some as odd when he
referred to the people of Vieques, all US citizens, as "our
friends and neighbors" who "don't want us there."
It was as though he was saying Puerto Rico is a foreign
country." --Falcon |
|
|
By
Carla Binion
(Read the shocking
story) | |
| And,
of course, Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor of Charles Manson and
author of several bestselling true-crime books, in The Betrayal
of America: ". . . the Court committed the unpardonable sin
of being a knowing surrogate for the Republican Party instead of
being an impartial arbiter of the law.... [The Court searched]
mightily for a way, any way at all, to aid their choice for
president, Bush, in the suppression of the truth, finally settling,
in their judicial coup d'État, on the untenable argument that there
was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection
clause..." |
GAO
May File Suit Over Energy Papers
Politics: The White House's refusal to turn over Cheney task force
documents may cause a constitutional conflict.
WASHINGTON--Congressional investigators, refusing to back down in a
three-month standoff with Vice President Dick Cheney, threatened Friday to
sue the White House if it continues to withhold documents detailing how a
Cheney-led task force developed its national energy policy.
But the White House indicated no new willingness to turn over the disputed
documents to Congress, setting up the possibility of a constitutional
clash between the executive and legislative branches.
September 7, 2001
NEWS ANALYSIS
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
 ASHINGTON,
Sept. 6 — In science, the term "embryonic stem cell line" has
a specific meaning: a self- perpetuating colony of cells, grown over a
period of months, that exhibit biological characteristics showing they can
become any tissue or organ. In announcing his plan for federal financing
of stem cell research, President Bush used a looser definition.
Now that language may come back to haunt him.
Opponents of Mr. Bush's policy today seized on the
administration's acknowledgment on Wednesday that only about two dozen of
the 64 cell lines that Mr. Bush says are available for federal research
are fully developed. The rest are still growing and may not prove useful
to scientists who hope to use stem cells to develop replacement body
parts.
"The president's credibility on the whole issue of
allowing stem cell research is open to question," said Representative
Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California. "He predicated his decision
on information that turns out not to be accurate. I think that is a real
problem for him."
|
The California [power] crunch really is the result of not
enough power-generating plants and then not enough power to power
the power of generating plants.
--
George W. Bush, Interview, The New York
Times, January 14, 2001, quoted from Jacob Weinberg,
" |
Scarce
Funds Imperil Bush Health Goals
Programs: Secretary Thompson pulls back from aid for uninsured children,
blaming sour economy. Medicare plan is also endangered.
By ROBERT A. ROSENBLATT, TIMES STAFF WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson
signaled Thursday that the Bush administration is backing away from its
commitment to extend health insurance coverage to some of the nation's 39
million uninsured.
The slowing economy is making it likely that the money won't be available
for that effort and for a major expansion of Medicare, Thompson said.
Earlier this year, the administration agreed with a congressional budget
resolution to set aside $28 billion to help the uninsured by expanding a
program for children in low-income families. The program is a personal
favorite of Thompson, and he used a similar one as governor of Wisconsin
to manage dramatic increases in coverage. But in an interview with The
Times, he warned that budget pressures may make any expansion impossible
this year for the Children's Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP.
"The reality is the economy is starting to contract, and when it does
you don't have as much money," Thompson said. The "$28 billion
would be a nice fix toward helping the uninsured, but . . . I don't know
if it's going to be there."
He also warned that it may be virtually impossible for Congress to make
good on another part of the budget resolution, a plan to spend $300
billion over 10 years to reform Medicare and add a new prescription drug
benefit.
The chances of achieving this seem dubious, according to Thompson, who
used the word "if" repeatedly. Approval would be possible only
"if Congress can find that amount of money, which I think is going to
be very difficult."
.
. . And Hardball Politics
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, September 7, 2001; Page A29
Testy, testy, testy.
President Bush was not happy this week when White House reporters
pressed him on whether he'd veto bills that would use the Social Security
surplus to pay for other parts of the federal budget. He was testy because
he didn't want to say whether he'd keep his promise on the matter.
"I can definitely say that every Social Security recipient is
going to get their check and that's what the American people need to
understand," Bush said, answering a question that wasn't asked.
"There's always that scare tactic, trying to tell the American people
that the budget process is going to lead them to not get their Social
Security check. That's just ridiculous."
Ridiculous? Well, who once suggested that guaranteeing older Americans
their checks meant there would be no dipping into the Social Security
trust fund? "We made it secure for older workers," Bush told
CNN's John King last April, "because we've set aside all the Social
Security surplus for only one thing, and that's Social Security." If
that was true then, why isn't it true now?
|
|
By Elisa D. Harris
COLLEGE PARK, MD. - Six years of
negotiations to add enforcement provisions to the 1972 treaty outlawing
biological weapons have halted. The reason: The Bush administration vetoed
going ahead with a protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention that
would have given states the right to obtain information about and inspect
sites where biological weapons were suspected of being developed,
produced, or used.
To escape blame, Secretary of State Colin Powell argued that the
decision was not new: The Clinton administration "probably would have
come to the same conclusion." But this and other statements seriously
misrepresent the Clinton administration position and the value of the
agreement itself.
The Bush team argues that because the equipment and materials used to
make bioweapons are also used for legitimate civilian purposes, the
convention's ban can't be verified. Therefore, no additional measures
could detect violations with high confidence.
The Clinton administration agreed that verification in this narrow
sense was not possible. We also believed, however, that we had an
obligation to try to strengthen the prohibition against developing and
producing biological weapons, given that most of the dozen or so countries
pursuing bioweapons capabilities - including states like North Korea,
Iran, and Iraq - are parties to the convention. Rather than verification,
our goal was deterrence: to make it more costly and risky for cheaters to
keep cheating.
|
Chicanery?
Read about another company using
money instead of
ethics. |
Misplaced
Priorities
Friday,
August 24, 2001; Page A26
ATTORNEY GENERAL John Ashcroft responded to the Justice
Department's latest figures on drug prosecutions by claiming that they
prove that "federal law enforcement is targeted effectively at
convicting major drug traffickers and punishing them with longer lockups
in prison." The data the department released show almost the
opposite: that the nation's tough drug sentencing regime is, to a great
extent, being used to lock up comparatively low-level offenders who could
easily be prosecuted in state courts. The data, far from affirming that
the federal drug effort is a success, raise real questions about the
federal government's prosecutorial priorities in the war on drugs.
The growth in federal drug prosecutions over the past two
decades has been prodigious. Between 1984 and 1999, the number of suspects
referred to federal prosecutors in drug matters tripled, to more than
38,000 -- of whom 84 percent were prosecuted. Drug cases during that time
went from 18 percent of the total federal criminal caseload to 32 percent.
According to other department data, drug convicts now account for 57
percent of the federal inmate population, in contrast to only 21 percent
of the much larger state population.
This growth is not, as the attorney general suggests,
largely the result of locking up major traffickers. In 1999 only about
one-half of 1 percent of criminal referrals were for the most serious drug
cases -- those involving what are known as continuing criminal enterprises
-- and these led to only 116 actual prison sentences. Two-thirds of drug
defendants could not afford to hire their own lawyers, a good indication
that they were hardly high-level traffickers. In fact, 38 percent of all
convictions involved quantities of drugs small enough that no mandatory
minimum sentence could be applied, while only 3 percent resulted in
mandatory minimum sentences of longer than 10 years in prison. In 1997 the
department reports, 14 percent of federal drug inmates were in prison for
drug use, and 42 percent were serving time for dealing -- either at the
street level or above. It is simply wrong to argue that the focus of the
federal drug effort has been kingpins. Rather, in many jurisdictions,
federal drug investigations and prosecutions seem to run parallel with
efforts of state prosecutors and local police forces.
Another striking feature of the department's data is the
disproportionate role that marijuana seems to be playing in federal drug
prosecution. Marijuana is hardly the most dangerous of drugs. Yet 31
percent of federal drug referrals involved marijuana offenses in 1999,
more than for any other type of drug. And though these referrals
ultimately produced shorter sentences, they were actually more
likely to result in prosecutions than cases involving powder cocaine,
crack cocaine or heroine. Marijuana cases all by themselves now account
for a measurable percentage of the entire federal criminal caseload.
Who's Afraid of a Germ Warfare Treaty?
September 6, 2001
By BARBARA H. ROSENBERG and MILTON LEITENBERG,
Barbara H. Rosenberg, chair of the Federation of American Scientists
Working Group on Biological Weapons, is a research professor of natural
science at the State University of New York at Purchase. Mi.
Declaring that "mankind already carries in its
hands too many of the seeds of its own destruction," President
Nixon unilaterally renounced biological weapons in 1969.
This led to international agreement on the Biological Weapons Convention
of 1972, which codifies the ban on development and possession of germ
weapons. The United States then terminated its biological weapons
program and focused on defenses.
New information has just come to light, however, that raises questions
about recent U.S. compliance with the ban. In July, Donald Mahley, the
chief U.S. negotiator for a new treaty to monitor the ban, admitted to
Congress that more than one U.S. government agency conducts biological
activities that appear ambiguous. Consequently, to protect their
interests, the agencies have objected to certain monitoring measures,
Mahley said. Two weeks later, Mahley stunned the negotiators from 55
countries assembled in Geneva to finalize the treaty by refusing to
continue negotiating.
|
Bush Gave Afghanistan $132 Million To Date This Year
TASHKENT, Aug 08, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- The George W. Bush administration is to provide additional financial assistance to the people of Afghanistan. The sum will amount to 6.5 million dollars, as offcially reported by the information department of the Uzbek Embassy in the United States. The total volume of U.S. financial help to Afghanistan will amount to over 132 million dollars this year. Thus, the USA will become the world's biggest financial source for Afghanistan."
August 24, 2001
THE NATION
EPA
Study Undercuts Arsenic Step
Environment: Clinton administration cost analysis is found credible,
though Bush faulted it in delaying tap-water safety order.
By ELIZABETH SHOGREN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
WASHINGTON -- A
new study by an EPA advisory panel appears to undermine one of the Bush
administration's primary reasons for revoking a tough new standard for
arsenic levels in drinking water.
The panel, in a report released Thursday, concluded that the Clinton
administration did a "credible job" of computing the costs to
water systems when it ordered that arsenic in drinking water be reduced
80%.
EPA Administrator Christie Whitman prevented the standard from taking
effect, citing concerns that the previous administration did not
adequately consider the costs and benefits of the new standard or the
latest scientific evidence on the effect of small amounts of arsenic, a
carcinogen, on human health. "When the federal government imposes
costs on communities, especially small communities, we should be sure the
facts support imposing the federal standard," Whitman said in March
when she rescinded the standard and launched a review.
That decision has cost the administration dearly, raising doubts about the
president's commitment to public health.
The panel's findings could increase political discomfort for the Bush
administration as it continues to justify revoking the Clinton
administration standard and prepares to announce its own proposal this
fall on what the standard should be.
Bush
Backs Tax Cut, Blames Congress
President Deflects Attacks From Democrats
Over Shrinking Budget Surplus
By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 22, 2001; Page A02
INDEPENDENCE, Mo., Aug. 21 -- President Bush sought to counteract
criticism of his fiscal policies today, insisting that "excessive
spending" by Congress -- not the deep tax cut he persuaded lawmakers
to approve -- poses the main threat to the shrinking budget surplus.
Days after Democrats launched a campaign to discredit his tax cut as
irresponsible in a slowing economy, Bush shifted the blame, portraying
himself as "the person who's got the opportunity to bring fiscal
sanity to Washington." He put Congress on notice that he would be
"watching carefully" to guard against "a last-minute budget
raid" and that he might veto spending bills this fall if he considers
them inflated.
Bush spoke here a day before the Office of Management and Budget issues
new estimates showing that the federal surplus is dwindling faster than
administration analysts had expected. They will show that the projected
surplus for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 is $158 billion, down from
an earlier estimate by the administration of $281 billion, largely because
of the tax cut and a drop in government revenue.
CAPE TOWN (AP) — The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the issue of
slavery will definitely feature on the agenda of an upcoming United
Nations conference on racism, South Africa's foreign minister said Sunday.
The United States has threatened to boycott the World Conference Against
Racism, which begins Aug. 31 in the South African city of Durban, because
of references to the Middle East conflict and African demands for slavery
reparations in a proposed convention document.
South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said it was
unrealistic to expect delegates not to discuss these issues.
208 and Counting
Friday, September 7, 2001; Page A28
SINCE CONGRESS'S return this week, two more House members have signed
the petition to force a vote on campaign finance reform, and a third has
promised to do so. That means the petitioners now have 208 of the 218
supporters they need -- only 10 to go, and several times that many
prospects, if past votes are any indication.
The additional signers were Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland, 16th
Republican to buck the party leadership on the issue, and Maxine Waters of
California, a Congressional Black Caucus member who had been holding back.
The promise was from Richard Neal of Massachusetts, who as a matter of
principle has never in seven terms signed a so-called discharge petition
to take control of the House floor away from the leadership, but says that
because of the importance of the issue, "I'll be number 218"
this time. Good for him.
If
China Builds More Warheads
By Rose Gottemoeller
Thursday, September 6, 2001; Page A23
President Bush made it clear from the outset of his administration that
he was not much interested in negotiations on arms control matters,
preferring instead unilateral measures designed to induce cooperation in
U.S. partners. In this way, the administration would make fast progress on
arms control while avoiding, as Undersecretary of State John Bolton put it
in recent Senate testimony, "small armies of negotiators inhabiting
the best hotels in Geneva for months and years at a time."
The problem with this approach, of course, is that without the probes
and feints of the negotiating process, one is in danger of giving too much
to induce cooperation in the other parties. There could be no clearer
example of this than the Bush team's signal to China over Labor Day that
it might be willing to see a return to nuclear testing so that China could
field new warheads -- and specifically multiple, independently targetable
warheads (MIRVs).
On the one hand, MIRVs would enable China to be confident that the
limited missile defense system of the United States would not negate its
strategic offensive deterrent. On the other, MIRVs are universally
regarded as a stepping stone for aspirants to strategic superiority.
Encouraging a boost in Chinese warheads in this way is highly
destabilizing and will do nothing for U.S. national security. And although
the Bush administration seems to think it so, the Chinese were not
inevitably headed in the MIRV direction.
|
| "We spent a lot
of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that
suffers from incredible disease."--After meeting with the leaders of
the European Union, Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14,
2001 |
Stem
Cell Research Faces FDA Hurdle
With Mouse Cell Base, Tough Rules Apply
By Justin Gillis and Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 24, 2001; Page A01
Most or all of the human embryonic stem cell colonies
approved for research funding under a new Bush administration policy have
been mixed in the laboratory with mouse cells, which may create
substantial hurdles for scientists trying to turn the colonies into
treatments for Parkinson's disease, spinal-cord injuries and other
ailments.
The cell colonies, or "lines," were created for
early-stage research with no thought that they would become the only
embryonic cells eligible for federal money. But that is the status
President Bush conferred on them in his first prime-time address to the
nation on Aug. 9.
The standard technique for creating human embryonic stem
cell lines has been to extract cells from inside a microscopic embryo,
then grow them atop embryonic mouse cells, known as "feeder"
cells. The latter excrete some unknown nutritional or growth factor that
helps the human cells stay healthy. Because they have been in close
contact with mouse cells, the human cells pose a small but real risk of
transferring potentially deadly animal viruses to people.
Because of that, under guidelines the Food and Drug
Administration has been developing for several years, it would be
difficult, though not impossible, to use the cells in human clinical
tests.
US
should not ease its stand against tobacco
By Cesar Chelala, 8/20/2001
THE
RESIGNATION of the top American official working on an international
treaty to reduce cigarette smoking worldwide raises concern about the
future of the US position on this critical health issue.
Thomas E. Novotny, a public health specialist and strong
advocate for tobacco control, led the US delegation to the World Health
Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control during the
Clinton and Bush administrations. His resignation comes at a time when
the United States is engaged in contentious negotiations with more than
150 countries on how to counter rising tobacco use worldwide.
Novotny had reportedly been frustrated over the Bush
administration's softened stand on key issues, such as restrictions on
secondhand smoke and the advertising and marketing of cigarettes. The
convention was created to stimulate international dialogue around
tobacco control issues and health and foster action by member states to
implement strong initiatives to reduce tobacco use.
There is now overwhelming evidence that tobacco use is
directly responsible for more than 25 causes of death, and it is
estimated that 4 million people died of tobacco-related illness in the
year 2000. That figure will probably increase to 10 million deaths per
year in the 2020s, 70 percent of which will occur in developing
countries, which are the ones that can least afford the economic losses.
Looking
Beyond Jobs in Welfare Reform
Conservatives Advise States to Promote
Marriage, Abstinence, Stronger Families
By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 6, 2001; Page A21
The Bush administration officials who oversee welfare
reform yesterday urged states to broaden their focus beyond programs
that help recipients get a job, saying they should try ways to foster
marriage, abstinence and responsible fathers.
In their efforts to wean poor Americans from the welfare
rolls, senior Health and Human Services administrators said, states and
local communities also have been slow to enlist the assistance of
churches and community groups that already work in low-income
neighborhoods.
This conservative face of welfare reform -- part of the
1996 law that restructured the nation's welfare system, but a relatively
subordinate theme during the Clinton administration -- dominated a
two-day conference convened by HHS to critique the nation's progress
under a new system of support for its poorest families.
MEDIA
COVERAGE OF ASHCROFT HEARING RESTRICTED BY REPUBLICANS IN VIOLATION OF
HOUSE RULES...
After Ashcroft finished speaking [at a House hearing in which Democrats
indicated that some of what Ashcroft was requesting was unconstitutional
and excessive (“Past experience has taught us that today’s weapon
against terrorism may be tomorrow’s law against law-abiding
Americans,” Dem Conyers said.)], committee Democrats called civil
liberties and free-speech advocates to testify, including
representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and People for the
American Way, which have echoed some of Conyers’ concerns. But while
Ashcroft’s testimony was open to television cameras, the committee’s
Republican staff ordered camera crews to leave, including those of
C-SPAN, the public interest network available on cable television
systems nationwide, NBC News’ Mike Viqueira reported. Print reporters
and members of the general public were allowed to remain, meaning the
speakers’ comments could be reported, but none of them would be
available for Americans to see or hear for themselves. House rules
state, “Whenever a hearing or meeting conducted by a committee or
subcommittee is open to the public, those proceedings shall be open to
coverage by audio and visual means,” Viqueira reported. --NBC,
9/24/01
***
|
ASHINGTON,
Sept. 6 — In science, the term "embryonic stem cell line" has
a specific meaning: a self- perpetuating colony of cells, grown over a
period of months, that exhibit biological characteristics showing they can
become any tissue or organ. In announcing his plan for federal financing
of stem cell research, President Bush used a looser definition.