Armitage is the Leaker, not the Story: Black Ops and War Lies (tags)
The corporate media have focused on the outing of Plame but are ignoring the real story: why was the administration so focused and intent upon destroying Plame and her ambassador husband? The answer leads to a dark crime of lies and black ops aimed at promoting a pointless war in Iraq at all costs.
Abu-Jamal's Appeal Moves into its Final Stage (tags)
Pennsylvania’s move famous death penalty inmate and his chief counsel have filed an appeal that raises three challenges to his conviction, and that defend the federal district court ruling that lifted his death penalty in 2001.
Justice Delayed is White House Murder, and a War Crime (tags)
The Supreme Court decision tossing out Bush's denial of Geneva Convention protections to captives at Guantanamo came too late for one of my clients.
This is no time for political strategizing. Every member of Congress is sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution, and it is being gravely threatened by this president.
A Nice Mess Our President Has Made for US (tags)
This is not a smart guy, or even a dummy fronting for a bunch of smart guys. This is an idiot who is listening to a bunch of idiots.
If They Broke the Law, String 'Em Up (tags)
Bush, during his two terms as Texas governor, oversaw the executions of 152 people. If he’s a war criminal, and guilty of causing the deaths of captives at Guantanamo and elsewhere, it would be poetic justice for him to follow them on the long walk.
Krauthammer Has It Wrong: The Constitution is for Peace and War (tags)
He and the President are trying to justify dictatorship on the cheap by claiming that “everybody does it” during wartime, and then things go back to normal…except there is no war now, and the fake “war’ on terror will never end.
Generalissimo Bush: Clear and Present Danger to the Republic (tags)
A small-minded man in Italy once used fear of The Other, and an imperialist campaign of aggressive war in the Middle East, to become a Generalissimo and destroy a Republic. Now it’s happening here.
Impeachment Comes to Main Street USA (tags)
The boos from the crowd in Willimantic, CT were reserved for Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, who may find himself a man without a party come August 8 for his ardent support for President Bush and the War in Iraq.
High Court has Ruled: Bush is a War Criminal (tags)
The media has missed this point, and the Justices kind of glided over the significance of what they were saying. So now the question is: What are we the people going to do about it?
Lib Dems Need to Stop Whining about Vote Theft and Start Winning (tags)
Democrats in other far more repressive lands fight tooth and nail to battle against election fraud. If Republicans are stealing elections here, it’s because we are letting them get away with it.
Taking Impeachment on the Road (tags)
Impeachment can play a vital role in building resistance to dictatorship, both in the electoral politics and on the street. It’s not an either/or proposition.
"Cut and Run": A Winning Slogan if Democrats are Serious about Wanting to Win (tags)
The problem of course is that the Democrats don’t seem to want to win, or are afraid of what might happen if they did win: that they’d actually have to run the place.
2500 Wasted Lives or "Just a Number"? (tags)
The Democratic voters of Connecticut have the right idea: If Democrats won’t oppose the war or won’t stand on principle, throw the bastards out.
Unexpected Guest Drops in on Iraqi Prime Minister (tags)
Guess who’s coming to dinner? The President of the United States. But for the U.S. media, this peculiar party crashing by President Bush was a Big Moment, not an embarrassment.
Why Kill Zarqawi Instead of Capture Him? (tags)
Could it be the U.S. didn’t want him to talk about what he knew about the U.S. in Iraq and about the U.S. role in creating him.
Who's Following the Money? (tags)
So where did all those missing billions wind up? Odds are, that money’s back here in the USA, and more than likely in the GOP.
Joyce Lindorff's Impeachmint Punch (tags)
Be sure to ask for it in your local bar! Let’s get this drink on the map all over the country.
Why They Hate Us: Reason #1003 and Counting... (tags)
How is nighttime bombing of a village (when all the kids are sure to be home and tucked in bed) supposed to be “bringing democracy” to anybody? And what are these villagers supposed to do when armed Taliban fighters demand refuge in their houses? Turn them out and tell them to go away?
Gen. Hayden: A Yes-Man for All Seasons (tags)
The general, like all officers in the military, took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, not to mindlessly follow the orders of the president. He should be getting court-martialed, not appointed CIA director.
Impeachment: A Winning Argument (tags)
Even if they win, the Democrats in Congress can’t do anything while the president claims the right to ignore acts duly passed by the House and Senate. To pass a Democratic agenda, this president would have to be removed.
What’s real? Death and mayhem in Iraq. What’s not real? American democracy, the Constitution, the Congress and the president for starters.
New Book Lays Out Impeachment Crimes and Impeachment Roadmap (tags)
Here are excerpts from our new book, `The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office,' just released by St. Martin's Press.
Bush and CIA Director-Designate Hayden Rewrite the 4th Amendment (tags)
The Founding Fathers said government snoops need “probable cause” to spy on us, but Bush and Hayden don’t care.
What 4th Amendment? We're in Bushworld Now (tags)
The phone companies say they protect your privacy, but when the Bush’s NSA comes calling, they just can’t say no. Say hello to Admiral Poindexter’s nightmare future.
Pelosi is in for a Surprise this November (tags)
Democratic leaders in Congress may be afraid of impeachment, but if Democratic voters oust Republicans in the fall, it will because they want a street fight, not because they want their party to begin compromising with Bush.
Shameless Commerce: US Policy Towards China and Taiwan (tags)
Bush’s passion for “exporting democracy” doesn’t apply where U.S. corporations think there’s money to be made in a repressive dictatorship.
Bush&Co: Making America Safer One Released War Crime Victim at a Time (tags)
There has been no word about apologies from the U.S. to these captives, but you’d think it would be a smart idea to hand each victim a fat wad of cash before sending them on their way.
Bush is losing support even in his base. Impeachment is closing in. The danger is that he and Rove will react with another war, or another 9/11.
Where are all the Frogs? (tags)
It could be that we should be more worried about vanishing amphibians than about George W’s “nookular” wet dreams about Iran.
Hypocrite-in-Chief Can't Lecture China on Rights (tags)
Bush himself has a pretty sorry record when it comes to violating civil liberties and basic human rights with a list that includes kidnapping, torture, indefinite detention without charge and even going after whistleblowers for “leaking state secrets.”
The president and his crazed gang of warmongers have put America gravely at risk by threatening first use of nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear power.
Impeachment Clock Advances...Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock (tags)
Whether or not Bush jeopardized national security and violated several laws concerning the exposing of undercover agents depends on what the meaning of "lied" is.
American Workers Should Take a Lesson from the "Sissy" French (tags)
While young French workers express outrage at a proposed law making them endure three years of probation on a new job, U.S. workers wonder what the term "job security" means.
Bashing Chavez at The Times: How Dare He Do Good With Oil Revenues! (tags)
The nation’s leading newspaper calls Chavez a threat to the U.S. for using Venezuela’s new oil wealth to aid development and help the poor in Latin America.
Republican Hatchet Man Defends Presidential Crimes (tags)
The Founders of the nation must be rolling in their graves over Sen. Hatch’s claim that the president’s powers should be beyong criticism during the “war” on terror.
Omigod! Senate Dems May Have to Take a Stand! (tags)
Sen. Feingold, with the help of Sen. Arlen Specter, is about to put the Democrats in the House in an uncomfortable spot. Enjoy the show.
Bush is stealing power from Congress and the Courts using two bogus arguments.
Where's the Sense of Panic or Urgency? (tags)
The nation goes nuts if it hears about a mad cow somewhere or if a bird comes down with flu, but global warming, a biblical flood on the way within a generation? Who cares?
A Message from the Chairman (tags)
Maybe not Howard himself, but fearful Democratic Party leaders are putting the screws to those in Congress who want to call Bush a criminal or to call for impeachment.
Moussaoui Case Shows Why Guantanamo Tribunals are a Bad Idea (tags)
With no judge to keep the administration honest, the prisoners held at Guantanamo, many of them completely innocent, will be railroaded, perhaps to their deaths.
It's Spring and Talk of Impeachment is in the Air (tags)
Extra! Extra! Senator files censure motion against President Bush and the media actually report it the next day!
Groundswell for Impeachment (tags)
A majority of Americans—a majority!—say they think President Bush should be impeached on at least two grounds, lying about Iraq’s alleged WMD threat and alleged links to Al Qaeda to justify an invasion, and NSA spying on Americans without getting a court warrant, but the media and Democratic Party leaders don’t want to admit it.
Zogby: The Troops Want Out, The Sooner the Better (tags)
Forget the president and his self-serving blather about not “cutting and running.” If you want to help our soldiers, why not do what THEY want, and work to bring them home? That’s the message for the grunts in Iraq.
Bush's Bunker Crop of Bad News (tags)
With his supporters are slipping away as Iraq goes from horrible to worse, Bush seems to be looking for that White House bunker Nixon built.
Democrats in Congress Show Why They are so Useless (tags)
The supposed party of opposition is all worked up and ready to do battle over the silliest of things, while the whole country goes to hell.
Sloshed: Journalist Says Secret Service Report Claims Cheney was Drunk (tags)
And anyhow, what kind of a guy would shoot a friend, and then pack him off to the hospital and not go hang around the waiting room to see how he’s doing, instead of going home and having dinner and a drink?
Ambulance chasing and the Vice President (tags)
Who knew that Cheney has had an ICU in tow all this time at taxpayer expense?
Democrats, Like Cheney, Are Shooting Their Own (tags)
Cheney can’t tell a quail from a Republican, which may be understandable from an intellectual point of view, but the Democratic Party’s killing off of progressive Congressional candidates is something more treacherous: suicide.
Attacking Iran will Put the US at Risk as Never Before (tags)
It may sound tough to call for attacking Iran’s nuke facilities, but in doing so, the U.S. would open itself up to attack from Iran, and they don’t have to fight back by sending bombers over here. They can use other delivery systems.
George Bush and Tomoyuki Yamashita (tags)
With great power comes great responsibility, and when you’re “commander-in-chief” that means responsibility for the crimes of your troops. 60 years ago this month, American troops executed a Japanese general using precisely that argument.
Bush Pot Calls Hamas Kettle Black (tags)
What’s wrong with this picture? Here’s our president, who began an unprovoked war of aggression that has killed as many as 250,000 civilians, telling Hamas to renounce violence.
Little wonder that President Bush is defending his illegal and unconstitutional domestic spying program. He has no alternative but to try to convince the public not to consider him a criminal and a threat to the Republic.
He's already essentially said the old Nixon line, "I am not a crook."
And like Nixon, he is one.
It is becoming increasingly evident not just to liberals but to honest conservatives that unless this president who thinks he's a king is called to account on this and other violations of the Constitution, those "inalienable" rights we've always claimed as a birthright will have been alienated. That means gone the modern vernacular.
Today, the Washington Times, the Fox News of the print world, weighed in with a story in its magazine that claimed the White House is gearing up for an impeachment battle, predicting that even in the current Republican House, there will be an effort to impeach Bush over the NSA spying. The same article said the White House is worried about losing in the Judiciary Committee on that count, but thinks it can manage to get a tie vote.
I find that speculation a bit unlikely at this point, but who knows? The blatant unconstitutionality of this particular presidential transgression, and the fact that he was caught red-handed and had to admit to it, makes it what George Tenet would call a "slam dunk" case.
In a way, though, it would be unfortunate, because other presidential crimes are much worse--his use of 500 "signing documents" to ignore acts of Congress (no wonder the guy never vetoes bills!), his lying to get the country into a war of agression that is bleeding the nation and its youth, his multiple war crimes and his "crime against peace," his gross negligence in not responding to the Katrina disaster or the looming global warming threat...
The list goes on and on. It would be a tragedy if this Constitutional outlaw ended up being brought up just on a charge of illegal spying by a Republican Judiciary Committee, and then battled that one charge to an almost certain win in the full House, and that was the end of it.
Better, I think, to let the charges keep growing through the 2006 campaign year, and then hit him with all of them at once.
Still, it's nice to see the president starting to squirm.
For other stories by Lindorff, please go (at no charge) to This Can't Be Happening! .
Is NSA Spying a Case of China Business Blowback? (tags)
Capitalism isn’t bringing freedom to China, but it does seem to be bringing totalitarian control systems back from China to the U.S. courtesy of American business.
A (Very Short) Honor Roll of House Members Who Are Standing Up for the Constitution (tags)
While the representatives who have joined Rep. Conyers in calling for censure and for impeachment investigations of Bush and Cheney, the most remarkable thing about this little list is who is not on it.
What We Don't Know Can Hurt Us (tags)
There is an bill in Congress to investigate Bush for impeachable crimes. Did you know that? If not, maybe you should be asking your local media outlets why you don’t know about it.
Help! Al Qaeda Must Be Everywhere! (tags)
President Bush eliminated the need for warrants for NSA bugging jobs, but when the warrants are as easy to get as they are in the FISA courts, the only reason he’d do that is to keep the taps completely secret. And why would he want to do that?
This is About Much More Than Just NSA Domestic Spying (tags)
This administration is attempting to establish totalitarian control, and has proved that it is not to be trusted with the Constitution. Impeachable offenses are being committed.
"Just a goddamned Piece of Paper!" (tags)
Bush is talking more and more like a would be dictator or a petulant spoiled brat, dissing the Constitution and calling himself commander-in-chief
What Democracy, Exactly, Are We Exporting? Let's Hope It's Not Ours (tags)
Long ago, the US stopped making things, and that was it for exporting stuff like TVs, cars, etc. Then America starting outsourcing services, so instead of exporting things like accounting or customer service, we import them. Now Bush says we’re exporting democracy, but if we don’t practice it at home, how can we hope to do that either?
Iraq: A Rush for the Exits (tags)
With the pressure building for the US to start retreating from Iraq, and our coalition “allies” abandoning ship, what’s a soldier in Iraq to think? Déjà vu. It’s 1970 Vietnam.
Where Have All the Bush/Cheney Bumper Stickers Gone? (tags)
You still see Kerry stickers, so what’s the deal? Did the GOP use cheaper glue, or is there some other reason that the once ubiquitous black-and-white decals have suddenly disappeared from the nation’s SUVs?
When Your Ostensible Ally Says Blowing Up Your Troops Isn't Terrorism, It's Time to Go (tags)
Maybe I’m missing something, but if killing our guys is patriotic resistance in the view of the people we’re supposedly “liberating,” then what are we doing sending our guys over there for? Target practice? Does this make sense to anybody besides Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice?
Fallujah: The War Crimes Keep Piling Up (tags)
Are white phosphorus bombs chemical weapons? With the Bush administration, it depends on who’s using them, it turns out. When it’s us, the answer is no. When it’s Saddam, the answer is yes. For the victims, though, it scarcely matters.
Admit It: The US Has Been Defeated in Iraq (tags)
Congressman Murtha is right to call for a withdrawal from Iraq, as no amount of further combat will change the truth. This war is lost. Now it’s time to assign blame for the disaster and to punish the culprits.
Shake & Bake: Who Would Jesus Burn? (tags)
The US has now matched Saddam, crime for crime, using chemical weapons against the Iraqi people. Coming next: Bush in the box?
Not Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose--It's the Whole Ball of Wax (tags)
Americans have been, and remain, all to willing to trade away a heritage of freedom for a false promise of security being peddled by charlatans in Congress and the White House.
What Country Was He Tallking About? (tags)
Anti-democratic? Fear-mongering? Socially divisive? Unable to accept blame for his errors? Are we talking about Hugo Chavez or George Bush?
FLASH! A Majority Now Favors Impeaching Bush (tags)
Between June and October, Zogby has found that support for impeachment of the president has risen from 42 percent of the public to 53 percent. When will the Democrats act?
A Shock and Awe Attack on American Workers (tags)
Congress has put workers the end of the list of those whose interests get protected in corporate bankruptcies. That is not just a crime, it’s a major battle in the corporate assault on working people.
Now Look Who's Calling for Presumption of Innocence and the Right to a Fair Trial (tags)
This president who has claimed the right to lock American citizens up without charge and to hold them indefinitely without the right to see a lawyer or to go to contest their captivity in court is suddenly touting all those rights, now that his own people are in the dock.
Revolke Judith Miller's Pulitzer (tags)
Even the Times is saying she has lied and deceived in her reporting on Iraq and al Qaeda. Once that happens, it’s time to look back at her earlier work, including the 2001 articles that won her a Pulitzer.
Judy Miller, the Armstrong Williams of WMD (tags)
Miller did things a journalist should never do. She shilled for a White House disinformation campaign that was promoting an invasion of Iraq, accepted control from the Pentagon, and deceptively misidentified her sources. Yet she hasn’t been fired by her official employer, the NY Times. Was Times senior management in on the game?
"Run Amok" Judith Miller Goes Down in Plames...er, Flames (tags)
The Times own reporters, in a story on her case, exposes her as a liar and a shill for the Bush war machine. Even her colleagues are dissing her.
The Real Problem with a Pandemic in the US (tags)
The collapse of public health care through decades of deliberate neglect in the U.S. makes the country as vulnerable to a flu pandemic as any bottom tier third world country, and it may be too late to do anything about that.
Impeachment Then and Now: Clinton, Bush and the Polls (tags)
Impeaching Bush may seem far-fetched but among the public, it’s a lot more popular an idea than the impeachment of Clinton was only days before the House impeached him.
Bird Flu: Evolution or Unintelligent Design? (tags)
While a Dover, PA court battles over whether Darwin and God, our Creationist president is strangely worried these days about the evolution of a virus.
Free Market Idiocy and Easy Money in the Big Easy (tags)
The federal government is paying $200 billion to bring in outside companies to rebuild New Orleans, while hundreds of thousands of the city’s evacuees languish in shelters across the country, jobless and penniless. What’s wrong with this picture?
Slaughtering Journalists by the Book (tags)
American troops are killing journalists in Iraq with regularity with no repercussions because under the Pentagon’s “rules of engagement,” slaughtering anyone a soldier thinks might be suspicious is the right—indeed the heroic--thing to do.
Judith Miller's Strange Voluntary 85-Day Lock-Up (tags)
She went into jail a hero of sorts but it turns out she knew she didn’t have to go. She’d been free all along to reveal her source and her conversations with him. So why did Judith Miller want to be behind bars so bad?
The leading lights of the Democratic Party are hiding in the shadows on virtually every important issue, avoiding taking progressive stands on anything of consequence. Handed every conceivable opening by a corrupt and incompetent ruling party, they are refusing to offer an alternative. Roosevelt must be rolling in his grave.
Repealing Posse Comitatus Would Mean Iraq in the US. Do We Really Want This? (tags)
After watching what the Commander in Chief does with the military in Iraq and Afghanistan, do we really want to have the army going in every time there is some kind of natural disaster in America.
Size Didn't Matter; It was the Message, and it was Big (tags)
The Sept. 24 march on the White House brought a power of message and a unity of purpose to the antiwar movement that it has been missing until now. Bush, Cheney and Rove can try to hide and deny it, but the country is listening.
Liberators or Occupiers? Look Who Calls the Shots (tags)
The governments of Iraq and Afghanistan are complaining about the U.S. military’s brutality and its indiscriminate attacks, but the Pentagon and the White House are just blowing them off. Hey, forget “sovereignty.” We’re in charge here.
Oil Price-Fixing (Gasp)? Of Course There's Oil Price-Fixing! (tags)
Tidy concepts like competition and free markets don’t apply in this industry, where the executives of each company know everything about the “competition” without even asking, and where the government is happy to let them suck the profits out of the public’s pockets like crude from a gusher.
Sinking News Ships: But it's not the Rats Who Will be Leaving (tags)
Three big metro dailies are cutting back on staffing, in another cycle of less reporting, less news, fewer readers and lower profits. At this point, it almost doesn’t matter though—they’ve gotten so bad already.
Bush's Blue Light Special (tags)
Things are not as they appear when the president speaks—not the backdrop, and not the promises he makes. In this land of Oz, where’s Toto when we need him?
Katrina's Latest Victim: Frances Newton RIP (tags)
A media awash in Katrina stories had no time for a poor black woman being killed by the state in Texas after being railroaded onto death row for a crime she probably never committed.
Dog Bites Man! Roberts Vows "Open Mind"! (tags)
The media have treated Judge Roberts’ Senate hearing platitudes about restraint and having an open mind as if they were divine wisdom—as if, indeed, they meant something.
Compassion, But Only When Cameras Are On (tags)
Congress is temporarily softening the bankruptcy bill and postponing Medicaid cuts, afraid to look mean to Katrina survivors, but when the waters have subsided, they’ll go back to screwing the poor as usual.
Katrina's Silver Lining (tags)
The costs for the American public, in higher energy costs, higher food bills, economic recession and a burst housing bubble, are the just deserts of decades of self-centered voting habits.
Baghdad on the Big Muddy (tags)
There seems to be an MO for how this White House handles urban crises: let the place descend into chaos and anarchy and only then go in. Could there be method to this madness?
The Real Disaster: Bush and the Democrats (tags)
If Bush hadn't sent everyone off to war and blown the budget on the military, there'd have been stronger dykes in New Orleans and more troops and equipment to help with the rescue effort.
Whether Bush was putting words in an Idaho mother’s mouth, or whether it was her own words, there’s a big difference between supporting the stationing of your kids in a war zone and having your kid killed there.
Bush Policy: Making the World Safe...for Nukes (tags)
By invading countries unilaterally, and by threatening countries without nukes while negotiating with, or even having friendly relations with those that have them, the Bush administration is courting nuclear disaster. -----------------
Still Hiding the Bush Bulge (tags)
Spiking of a story about the Bush bulge is an “internal matter,” a Pasadena paper says. -------------
What's Left? Freedom to Dream? (tags)
A new ruling by the NLRB strips workers of the right to hang out and talk with fellow workers even during coffee breaks or off the job entirely. Welcome to the new feudalism. -------------
Marvelous Marvin, the Man Who Seems to be in All the Right Places (tags)
Why does Bush’s younger brother get a free pass at influence peddling on his White House Connections, even when it involves a company that did the security for the World Trade Center in September, 2001, while anyone remotely linked to the Clinton’s was hounded by both the media and government investigators for the flimsiest of reasons? ----------
No Mourning for "No Regrets" Westy (tags)
Dante would have reserved a special place in Hades for the general who oversaw the escalation of America’s invasion of Vietnam and such war crimes as the Phoenix mass assassination program, the “Pacification” program of mass terror against peasants, and the deliberate destruction of farm and forest with Agent Orange defoliant. ------------
Time to Get Back to Where We Once Belonged (tags)
Forget all the scare tactics about not having enough of a nest egg, about Social Security going bust. We Baby Boomers already know the answer for living well in our old age. We just need to get it together again. --------------
Whose ass is Judith Miller protecting: Her source's or her own? (tags)
Is Judith Miller, now in jail on a contempt charge for refusing to name her sources in the Valerie Plame outing case, a muckraking journalistic hero, or was she a journalistic poseur who was helping the White House slime whistleblower Joe Wilson? --------------
No More Moral Relativism: The US is a Terrorist State (tags)
When Bush and Blair decry acts of terror that murder innocent people, they should look in the mirror, long and hard. ------------
Double Duty, Single Salary (tags)
A genius of time management in Oregon has shown America the future: two jobs for one paycheck. ----
Payback: The Horrors Done in Our Name Have a Price (tags)
When our own country shows utter contempt and disregard for the massive slaughter of civilians by its military, we have to expect the same thing to happen to us. It’s not right, but it’s predictable. -------------
It wasn’t the lie that we are winning the war in Iraq. It wasn’t the lie that we are fighting international terrorism in Iraq. It was the lie that we are bringing liberty to Iraq that was Bush’s whopper.
Virtual Citizens, Virtual Government, Real Troubles (tags)
With Republicans admitting that the White House isn’t governing—just campaigning—we need to face the truth: We have a virtual government, a virtual opposition, virtual citizens and, in the end, a virtual democracy. Our problems, though—war, poverty, AIDS, global warming, etc.—are all too real. ---------
Scoundrel Time: The Flag Amendment (tags)
With the public increasingly opposed to continued war and occupation in Iraq, the worthies in Congress who put American troops there in the first place and who can't figure out how to get them out now are resorting to a tried and true diversionary tactic: The Flag Protection Amendment. What's next? An amendment banning pie throwing? ----------------
Forget those desperate appeals to "save" PBS and NPR. They're already lost. Progressives can do better things with their time and their tax dollars than to give it to these liberal media poseurs. ----------------
As with Terri Schaivo, It’s Time to Pull the Plug on a Brain-Dead US Media (tags)
The sorry display of editors making lame excuses for not informing the American public for over a month of the damning written evidence of Bush lying to get the U.S. into a needless war in Iraq—the Downing Street memos—makes it clear that no one who wants to know what’s going on should waste time reading or watching the corporate media. -------------------------------
Screwing Future Retirees...Again (tags)
Having failed to kill off Social Security with private accounts, conservatives in Congress are now trying to render it useless by raising the retirement age further—this time to 69. That may be okay for a Wall Street lawyer who runs half-marathons and spends two hours in the gym, but for the average American worker bee, employers have by that point pretty much ruined her or his health and body. Some “reform.” ----------------
The Difference Between Bolivia's Incas and Us (tags)
The Incas and Bolivian workers who are protesting and driving from power their sell-out leaders have a clear understanding of how the ruling elite is attacking them. We Americans have been easily tricked by the ruling parties’ sleight-of-hand use of “wedge” politics, into actually supporting our own destruction. -------------------
US Media Shamed by Brit Journalist at Bush/Blair Press Conference (tags)
The US media have ducked reporting on the August 2002 British intelligence memorandum to Tony Blair stating that the US had decided to invade Iraq and would “fix” the intelligence to make the case for war, but a Brit journalist at a typically sedate and orchestrated White House press conference, by asking the question of Bush, finally forced the story onto page one. ---------------
We Need More Anonymous Sources, Not Fewer (tags)
If the corporate media want viewers and readers to hold them in higher regard, they need to start doing real reporting again, and making aggressive use of anonymous sources who can point them to where there is corruption and abuse of power. The alternative is a media that just purveys press handouts. ------------------
Memorial Day Week: One to Remember (tags)
We know we live in bizarre times, but this past week we’ve learned the Army is replacing Humvees with minivans, that Guantanamo prisoners were bought, not captured, and with all this, Bush wants us to “stay the course,” whatever that is. -------------------
The Vile and Self-Defeating Betrayal That is Bipartisanship (tags)
The Democrats finally had a plan to put a wrench in the Republican juggernaut—a shutdown of the Senate. And what did they do? Let a bunch of sell-out DLC-types blow it with a bi-partisan compromise that will just put more right-wing judges on the appellate bench. ----------------
Black Helicopters and the GOP (tags)
For years, people on the extreme right have warned of a takeover of America by the black helicopter army of the UN. Well, there is the danger of a fascist America, but, surprisingly, it is being ushered in by the right, not the left. -------------------
Sen. Feingold, Lone Opponent of Original PATRIOT Act, Blasts Secret Plot to Make it Wors (tags)
Sen. Feingold, alone in opposing the PATRIOT Act in '01, blasts the White House attempt to use the Senate Intelligence Committee to produce an even worse bill in secret, behind the back of the Judiciary Committee.
Intelligence Committee in Maneuver to Pass Even Worse PATRIOT Act (tags)
With no announcement, the Senate Intelligence Committee has scheduled a closed door session to approve a version of the Patriot Act that would be even worse than the present act being considered by the Judiciary Committee. The hand of the White House seems to be behind the sneaky maneuver.
Isikoff and Rather: Different Strokes for Different Folks (tags)
Although the journalistic errors of Michael Isikoff and Dan Rather were similar—both involving some misinformation from a source—the way the political right and the White House have responded is quite at odds. Could it be Isikoff’s record as the reporter who brought us Monica Lewinsky? ---------------------
Oh for the Day When Journalists Were Journalists (tags)
Even in World War II, when the enemy was fascism and Hitler, a reporter like Ernie Pyle could write of the horrors and waste of war, and describe the carnage in terms that defied the jingoism of the day. Where are reporters like that in today’s media, where we aren’t even allowed to see the dead, much less write about them. ------------------
Bush Has Grasped the Third Rail; It's Time to Turn on the Juice (tags)
Now that Bush has admitted his plan is to cut Social Security for the middle class, it’s time for progressives to take him down. No compromises, no cutbacks, and a call for the rich to pay Social Security taxes on all income, not just the first $90,000. ---------------------
Judicial Activism by Bush Federal Judge in Philly (tags)
A federal judge appointed to the district court in Philadelphia by Bush in 2002, and billed as a strict conservative jurist, has ousted a juror during stalled deliberations in a city corruption case after fellow jurors claimed she had questioned the truthfulness of the FBI and the government. Biased? Has the judge been paying attention to FBI and the government lately? ----------------------------------
Bush's Torture Tort Reform: Don't Sue, Don't Get Sued (tags)
So why did the Bush administration go to court and oppose a judgement ordering Iraq to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to 17 captured Americans tortured by Saddam back in the first Gulf War? He had to! If he’d gone along, hundreds of people tortured by U.S. forces in the current “War on Terror” could turn around and sue the U.S. government. ---------------------------------------
Americaqn Values: Torture's Okay, But No Touching (tags)
There’s a great outcry over the Catholic church’s coverup of priestly perversions, but it’s hard to find too many Americans getting worked up over the much more ghastly coverup of an official policy of torture and murder of prisoners by the US government. -----------------------------------
Are Bush's Social Security Program and John Bolton Nomination Dumb Ideas or Diversions? (tags)
The Bush Social Security “reform” proposal is so ridiculous, and John Bolton is such a jerk, that you have to wonder: could there be a reason Bush is proposing such stupid things? Maybe they are meant to be outrageous, to keep us ineffectively spinning our wheels while the real dirty business gets done.
What's Good for Canada is Good for General Motors (tags)
What’s going on here? Up in Canada, executives in charge of the Canadian subsidiaries of U.S. firms are not just praising Canadia’s socialized medical system; they’re lobbying to have it expanded to include pharmacy and home health care. Back here in the States, though, they’re all lobbying furiously against any hint of government-funded health care.
It's not foreign terrorism that threatens us, it's domestic corporate power and influence (tags)
We’re told to fear the evil-doers overseas, but it’s our own American corporations, greedy to avoid safety regulations and flush with campaign contributions, that really threaten us with disaster after disaster.
blackout in Alabama and Canned Cheers for Bush's Social Security Scheme (tags)
A slick suburban magazine in Montgomery, Alabama, touts the President’s Social Security wrecking scheme, but it seems to be only talking to white folks.
Screw Job: Veterans and First Amendment Both Get Hit (tags)
With the so-called War on Terrorism setting the tone, police agencies, including new ones in the Homeland Security Department, are trampling on the First Amendment freedom to seek redress of grievances, calling their assault “proactive” measures.
Don't Blame OPEC; Higher Gas Prices Are Almost Entirely Bush's Fault (tags)
What is making oil so expensive is not energy policy or even SUV’s, dangerous as those are for the environment. It’s Bush’s massive deficits and his willful destruction of the US dollar that has gas selling at $2.30 a gallon and rising.
Bush's Road Trip: Potemkin Town Meetings and a Potemkin Opposition (tags)
The president is tightly controlling who gets into his Social Security public gatherings. No surprise there. But why aren’t Democrats complaining that tickets are only being offered to Republican members of Congress?
Review: tghe Black Arrow, a Novel of Resistance and Rebellion (tags)
Radical libertarian Vin Suprynowicz has written an exciting novel of rebellion in a fascist America of the not to distant future.
News Media in Anguish Over Shiavo Death (tags)
With Terri gone, they don’t know what to do. What can they report about on the news that will keep viewers glued to the tube until Prime Time?
China's US Human Rights Report Is Ugly, But It's No "Caricature" (tags)
The New York Times was outraged that China, a human rights outlaw, would criticize America’s human rights record, but the Chinese report is in fact right on target, and should shame all Americans who care about the state of our own rights and freedoms.
Even U.S. Corporations Like Canada's National Health Plan (tags)
Even as they lobby in Washington against any move towards socializing the health care system, U.S. companies are shifting production to Canada where they don’t have the cost of paying for employee health care, and once there, they are joining Canadian firms in calling for better funding for health care and more extensive services. What’s going on here?
A Snow Job on Social Security (tags)
Bush’s stump campaign to sell his divide-and-conquer plan for wrecking Social Security has been a failure. So now he’s sent out his Treasury Secretary to try crying “wolf” in hopes of scaring retirees and workers about the security of the system. It’s WMDs all over again.
Saving Schiavo While Burying the Real News (tags)
The corporate media were too busy covering a demonstration by 30 fundamentalists trying to keep Shiavo from meeting her maker to bother cover ing the global and nationwide demonstrations against the U.S. Iraq War.
Congress on Steroids! Watch No-Nonsence Representatives Get Tough on Witnesses! (tags)
In the baseball steroid hearings, we saw aggressive questioning by representatives, but when it involves anything important, like war funding or CIA torture, members of this Congress are nothing but yes-men and neutered pussycats.
Farewell Italia, Viva the Coalition of the Willing (tags)
Bush’s Coalition of the Willing allies are dropping like flies. Of 39 “members,” 14 have already quit and two more have announced plans to pull out, and now Italy, the third largest U.S. ally in the so-called coalition, says it’s leaving too. Can Britain be far behind?
Free John Walker Lindh! (tags)
The young man imprisoned as an “American Taliban” was one of the first victims of American torture in Afghanistan. He was framed, tortured into writing a confession, and gagged for 20 years to keep him from talking. Now that we know his true fate at the hands of his American captors, it’s time to demand his freedom, and to hear his story in his own words.
Fascist Dictatorship is Here Already--On the Job (tags)
The firing of Boeing’s CEO, based upon the secret monitoring of his email correspondent with a co-worker/lover, highlights the police-state environment in which most of us now work. Revolution, anyone?
America, the Magical Kingdom (tags)
The government and the media together are trying to create for Americans the same fantasyland in America and abroad that Walt Disney created in his theme parks—and a lot of Americans are buying it.
Greenspan: Why is Anyone Still Listening to this Partisan Hack? (tags)
He’s a schill for the President, collects full Social Security benefits and a $200,000 salary, stands to collect another $100,000 a year in federal retirement benefits, and he wants to cut your Social Security benefits! Why should anyone listen to a guy with his lousy trackrecord as an economic and stockmarket forecaster anyway?
Forget Compromising on Social Security; First Let's End Employer Theft of Worker Pensions (tags)
Compromise approaches to “saving” Social Security that involve voluntary private accounts on top of the current program are not going to help low-income workers. If Congress and the President really wanted to help protect low-income retirees, they’d end the legal theft of pension “vesting” so workers got pension contributions for every working day of their lives.
The Peace Movement Needs to Be More Militant, But Don't Write Off the Democrats Entirely (tags)
It was a mistake for the peace movement to give Kerry a pass during the campaign, and it needs to correct that error by becoming much more militant now. But that doesn't mean wholesale rejection of the Democratic Party.
If These Chickens Come Home to Roost, We're Sitting Ducks (tags)
Instead of wasting a fortune on the trumped up War on Terror, the government should be bolstering the nation’s health defenses against a much bigger natural threat—bird flu—which could even get a low-tech assist from a terrorist with an egg carrier.
Will Dean Make a Difference? (tags)
With Dean at the head of the Democratic Party, will it wtop being a confrontation-averse, Republican-aping, corporate-cash wheedling…and election-losing opposition, or will it start fighting back? The Social Security battle will be a good place to find out whether Dean can still yell.
All the President's Friends: A Riefenthal Moment in Montgomery County, PA (tags)
Those happy crowds cheering the president’s Social Security wrecking scheme, are being hand picked by Republican Senators, while Republican goons guard the gates to keep out the riffraff.
Gannon or Guckert: No Wonder Nobody Noticed This Guy! He Fit Right In (tags)
The scandal of a Republican operative posing for years as a reporter at the White House, asking puffball questions, isn’t so much that the White House has deceived the public. It’s that the real reporters were so much like him, no one noticed the difference.
Academic Freedom is Almost a Thing of the Past (tags)
Colorado professor and Indian activist Ward Churchill, threatened with sacking for his outspoken views on the 9-11 attacks, at least has the protection of tenure. For most academics, that kind of protection of free speech is long gone. So is their willingness to take controversial stands.
The Corporate Media Need Some Competition: Time for a Labor Paper! (tags)
Unions have been wasting millions every year trying in vain to get the workers’ story into the media. Forget it! It’s time for them to back an independent labor newspaper to challenge the corporate media’s lies.
Killing a Story, Helping to Elect a Corrupt, Lying President (tags)
Finally revealed in Extra! magazine: The inside story of how the New York Times and Washington Post both killed the story of Bush’s cheating use of a secret hearing device in the presidential debates, possibly influencing the outcome of the presidential race.
Weapons of Mass Distortion: The President's New Campaign of Lies About Social Security (tags)
Like a man shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater, like a charlatan trying to create a run on a bank, the president is trying to create a panicky run from Social Security among younger people with this new WMD-like campaign of lies.
Deadly Idiocy: Killing Killers Who Want to be Killed (tags)
The sheer stupidity and bloodymindedness of the death penalty crowd is on view in the decision to seek the death penalty for a guy who caused a train wreck while trying to kill himself. It's a little like giving money to a convicted bank robber, isn't it?
Bush's secret journalistic payroll keeps getting longer (tags)
Word that the Bush administration has been paying journalistic shills to pimp for its programs tells us something about the state of the media, but also about those programs: they don’t stand up to genuine scrutiny and need paid propaganda to sell them to the public.
Surprise, surprise! US puppet regime in Iraq is just like Saddam (tags)
The president, at his inauguration, said America has been called to end tyranny in the world, but from the looks of Iraq, what he is spreading is torture and dictatorship.
NY Times Iraq Death Chart Omits Worst Slaughter: Civilian Victims of US Military (tags)
A Brookings Institution analysis of the deaths caused in Iraq over a 2-week period is misleading. It completely omits the deaths caused by U.S. forces, which would likely have more than doubled the total, and increased the civilian death total even more dramatically.
Past Time for an Accounting of This Massive Fraud (tags)
The termination of the search for WMDs in Iraq, after the expenditure of several hundred million dollars and not a single sign of anything, should have the hounds after Bush and his neo-con advisers, but don’t bet on it. These guys don’t apologize, they just keep messing things up worse.
Tucker Carlson is a Thin Idiot (tags)
The fresh-faced pundit, recently pink-slipped by CNN, is bummed that Iraqis aren’t more grateful for all America’s been doing for them, and suggests their ingratitude will likely be shared by the victims of the recent tsunami, what with so many of them being Islamic and all.
Tubbs Jones-Boxer Rebellion in Congress a Big Progressive Win (tags)
Despite the betrayal by conservative Democrats, Kerry and a slimy Democratic leadership, the successful protest in Congress delaying confirmation of Bush’s electoral win is a major progressive victory, permantly staining Bush’s second term with the stench of illegitimacy.
Colin Powell's Selective Sense of Horror (tags)
The outgoing Secretary of State says he’s shaken and horrified by the tsunami’s destructive power, yet has nothing to say about the far greater destruction and death wreaked in Iraq by the U.S. military that he was so instrumental in sending over there. The difference isn’t the degree of destruction and death, it’s what caused it.
Rep. Conyers to Challenge Stolen Ohio Election on Thursday (tags)
Offering up a report that provides damning and hard-to-refute evidence that Ohio’s election was deliberately stolen for President Bush, Michigan Rep. John Conyers plans to call for Congress to reject the Ohio electors allegedly chosen by Ohio voters.
A New Year's Revolution? (tags)
Corporate managers have always hated that they have to pay time and a half for more than 40 hours’ work. Now US Air has come up with a great new idea: get the workers to “volunteer” their time when there’s extra work to be done.
The U.S could free up with seven times as much money for aid to the tsunami victims as it is currently offering by just canceling the order for one new F-22 Raptor tactical fighter jet.
Natural Disaster, Unnatural Response (tags)
We should all be ashamed that the best our smug, self-satisfied president could offer the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami was $10 million in change and his “heartfelt” sympathy.
Iraq for Fun and Profiteering (tags)
Bush’s war in Iraq has brought us the Brits, the Poles, the Bulgarians, the Hondurans. Now it’s bringing us the Nigerians. Scammers that is.
The President Should Have His Ears Cleaned (tags)
How can a president who communes with God make so many wrong, dangerous and idiotic decisions? Maybe he just isn’t hearing properly.
The Whole Democratic Leadership Should Be Sacked Immediately (tags)
While the pro-corporate leadership of the Democratic Party was busy blowing the US presidential election, they were taking millions from the State Department to join the Republican Party in helping to undermine the government of the Ukraine and—presumably—offering their demonstrab ly inept campaign expertise to Ukraine’s democratic opposition.
Like the Song Says: It's Deja Vu All Over Again (tags)
Soldiers dissing the Secretary of Defense, mutinies, desertion at record highs. Can officer fragging be far behind? Does any of this sound familiar?
Psst!~ Hey buddy, did you hear how great the Iraq war is going? (tags)
Corporate mind-controllers, having taken over the media, are now going after that last bastion of free communication: the grapevine. Can the Pentagon and White House be far behind?
Escalation in Iraq Follows a Campaign of Lies (tags)
After campaigning as a “peace” candidate who was about to start winding down U.S. military involvement in Iraq, Bush has seriously escalated the conflict. It was a campaign of lies. Now we need a campaign to elect an anti-war Congress in 2006.
Hang on to Your Waqllet! Don't Let Them Touch Social Security! (tags)
The administration and congress are pushing a huge scam, claiming Social Security is in trouble and needs to be destroyed in order to save it. Don’t believe a word of it. After all, when’s the last time you can remember a Republican doing anything nice for a poor person voluntarily?
Blowback: Did US techniques for undermining Ukraine Elections Find Their Way Back to US? (tags)
The Ukrainian revolt against a corrupt election is for real and legit, but it has also been aided by an overt/covert destablization campaign by the U.S.--and the techniquest used may well have been applied here at home too.
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Ukrainians Show the Way (tags)
A NY Times report shows that the election frauds cited by the Bush Administration to call for annulling the Ukraine presidential election are exactly the same as the frauds that Republican officials committed in the U.S. presidential election. Only difference? They were worse here.
Double Standard on Exit Polling and Voter Fraud (tags)
Why is President Bush telling the Ukranian government to hold off on certifying its presidential election results until questions of fraud are resolved? Because exit polls showed the opposition to have won, not the incumbant party’s candidate. Sound familiar?
With multiple crises—war, budget deficits and a collapsing dollar—on the horizon, the holier-than-thou Bush administration in the second term is likely to find itself facing a disaster of biblical proportions.
Time to Crash the Party (tags)
Instead of bemoaning the Bush election victory and calling Canadian Immigration, progressives should be busy organizing and planning to take over the Democratic Party, so this kind of debacle will not happen yet again.
Don't Support the Troops! Not if They are Committing War Crimes (tags)
The televised execution of Iraqi wounded in Fallujah by U.S. Marines is just the tip of an ugly iceberg. The U.S. has adopted a policy of war crimes and genocide in Fallujah and elsewhere that puts it right up there with Milosevic and his thugs.
Statistics Don't Lie, But Don't Tell the Truth in Fallujah Either (tags)
U.S. dead are a consequence of a Bush campaign deception, while the number of “enemy” killed in Fallujah is certain to include many civilian victims.
Fallujah, the Hue of Iraq (tags)
US troops are following Gen. Westmoreland’s playbook, while the Iraqi insurgents seem to be following the playbook of Ho Chi Minh. We know the ending of both books.
Silver Linings Dept: Russ Feingold Shows Dems the Way to 2008 (tags)
While Kerry’s timid Republican-lite, pro-war, pro-free trade campaign was a loser, progressive Sen. Russ Feingold, running against the war, against the Patriot Act, and against NAFTA, trounced his opponent to win a third term in bellweather Wisconsin, showing Democrats what they need to do to win next time.
What Went Wrong? Wrong Candidate, Lying Media, Ignorant Voters (tags)
For progressives to come back from this election disaster, the first step will have to be to break the corporate media’s stranghold on information, which has produced a nation of uninformed and misled voters (or non-voters).
Was Bush Wired All 3 Times? Is He Lying Now? NASA Expert Says You Bet! (tags)
Using the same techniques he applies to the photos from the Cassini Saturn probe, a JPL photo expert at NASA examined pics of Bush’s back from all three debates. The astonishing images of what were under the jacket are all revealed here. So are the President’s lies.
New Wrinkle: NASA Photo Expert Exposes Bush Bulge (tags)
The bulge under Bush’s jacket in the first has now now been analysed by a NASA satellite photo specialist . This is what the president is calling a case of bad tailoring.
More on Bulgegate: What's That Wire? (tags)
With a wire running behind his tie, a bulge on his back, and inexplicably goofy behavior at the debates, Bush has a lot of explaining to do, if only the gutless press would ask the obvious questions.
Bulgegate: The President's Newest Lie About What He Wore to the Debates (tags)
First it was a faked photo, then it was a pucker in the jacket. Now it’s a badly fitting shirt, but doesn’t this usually nattily dressed commander-in-chief change his shirts?
Bush's War on the Rocks (tags)
Whatever the president says, things are going from bad to worse in Iraq and in the “War” on Terror. If the voters are paying attention, it may cost him the election next week.
First the Back-Door Draft, Next the Foot-in-the-Door Draft (tags)
Beware presidents asking for a few good women to tend the troops. If they push the door open a little way, the draft will come right on through.
More Evidence of Bush’s Secret Earpiece, and of Corporate Media Complacency (tags)
Bush can be seen jiggling his earpiece in a joint press conference with Jacques Chirac, and getting his lines fed to him. The rest of the world is learning all about this scandal, but not Americans.
Technical Expert Confirms It: Bush is Wired (tags)
The Bush campaign still is claiming Bush isn’t wearing anything, and that he just has unusually large and oddly shaped wrinkles on the back of his clothes, but an expert says otherwise. He’s been wearing a high-tech earpiece at the debates.
That Bush Earpiece and Wire: The Bush Campaign Explanations Make it Seem Even More Likely (tags)
After first trying to say the photos must have been doctored, the Bush administration is now trying to say that the peculiar bulge in his jacket was just an odd wrinkle.
About That Bush Wire: It's Not the Most Important Thing... (tags)
The evidence mounts that Bush is hearing very earthly voices in his ear, but the more important issue is what those voices are having him say about his plans for the next term.
There's a Draft in the Air All Right (tags)
Bush and the Republican Congress are frantically trying to squelch rumors that the government is getting ready to bring back the Draft, but the reality is, they’ll have to do it before too long.
High-Tech Vote Means a Third-World Election (tags)
Get set for a wild ride when the polling booths close. With no paper record for 25 percent of the votes cast this year, the chances for a corrupted election are overwhelming.
Gag and Bear It: Why We Lefties Have to Vote for Kerry (tags)
It’s time to face some hard realities—Nader is not going to bring us a third party, but too many votes and he could bring us Bush and the Republicans, and these days, that could mean we’re on the road to a real one-party state, not just a state with two parties that seem pretty indistinguishable.
Stormy Seas on the Citizen ship (tags)
In a review in the 9/22 issue of Counterpunch Magazine (www.counterpunch.org), Ron Jacobs says Dave Lindorff's new book "This Can't Be Happening!" reveals "a government driven by greed and bloodlust."
America a Police State? No, Not Yet (tags)
There are certainly serious assaults on First Amendment freedoms underway, but the problem with prematurely characterizing America as a police state is that it plays right into the Bush/Rove/Ashcroft strategy of instilling fear in the public.
Democrats: Pussycats Against Republicans, But Tigers Against Nader (tags)
Astonishingly, the Democrats had a chance to try and keep George Bush's name off the Florida ballot this November. They took a pass and instead have been fighting, and so far succeeding, in keeping Ralph Nader off instead.
Lessons on democdracy from Bush? (tags)
Those with a sensitive gag reflex should probably avoid reading about George Bush’s criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposals to cut back on democracy in his country in the name of fighting terrorism.
Bush’s Trampling of Dissent: Kerry’s Chance to Stand Up for Civil Liberties (tags)
The ACLU has filed suit on behalf of a couple arrested at a Bush rally for wearing T-shirts saying “No Bush”—more evidence that this president has no respect for the Constitution or basic American values.
About that Missing and Misspent $87 Billion: Kerry Was Right to Vote No (tags)
Most of the money was supposedly “for the troops” but reports from the front of shortages of everything from bullets to bullet-proof vests suggest it was shifted elsewhere, while the $18 billion designated for rebuilding Iraq is, for the most part, AWOL. Instead of explaining his vote, Kerry should be blasting the Bush administration for corruption and incompetence in misusing the money.
Corporate America’s Plan for the Future: A Nation of Retirees Left for Dead (tags)
With few people paying attention, corporate America is doing away with retiree health benefits. Couple that with the ongoing attacks on Medicaid, and the picture for the next generation of retired Americans is not pretty. So where’s John Kerry?
Three Years After 9/11: Nothing Has Changed (tags)
People, following 9/11, were saying ad nauseum that "Everything is Different," but three years later, everything, from America's imperialist aspirations to the presidential campaign, looks depressingly familiar.
Maybe Now We're the Silent Majority (tags)
The Bush administration’s campaign to equate criticism of the president with treason or disloyalty, and to harass and intimidate dissenters may be scaring much of the public into silence. If so, he may be in for a big surprise on November 2: Revenge of the silenced.
The Bush Campaign's Dirtiest Election Dirty Trick (tags)
Bush and the Pentagon have effectively hidden the Iraq War from the voters by surrendering central and eastern Iraq to the insurgency, but should he win, Americans should be prepared for massive casualties as the military inevitably will have to fight to regain the control it gave up last spring.
Spinning 1000 Dead as Kerry Ducks (tags)
The Bush White House is in full-spin mode trying to minimize the damage as the U.S. death toll in Iraq passes the 1000-mark. Kerry, meanwhile, misses an opportunity to label Iraq “Bush’s Folly.”
1000: A Number So Sickeningly Predictable (tags)
With 13 Americans killed so far this week, and 997 U.S soldiers dead in Iraq so far, it’s all to predictable that by midweek, the 1000 mark will be reached or passed. This is George Bush’s War. He wants it this way. But when will John Kerry join other Americans in saying Enough instead of “Four More Years”?
Bush’s Acceptance Speech: True Lies and Terror , Terror, Terror (tags)
Bush offered up no surprises in his acceptance speech at the RNC, continued to pretend the invasion of Iraq was part of a War on Terror, and promised us more right-wing judges, more international military adventures, and a new attack on the foundation of Social Security.
Litmus Test: Time for Kerry and Democrats to Take a Stand for Our Votes (tags)
Alan Greenspan, a banker who stands to retire on over $140,000 a year, has called for cutting the Social Security retirement benefits for Baby Boomers. It’s high time for John Kerry and the Democrats to admit that there is no such “crisis” in Social Security. All that’s needed is full Social Security taxation on the rich and the employers who pay their salaries.
Half-Million Marchers Defy N.Y. Mayor Bloomberg to Denounce Bush War and Lies (tags)
Despite threats and intimidation from New York’s Republican Mayor, a record half million protesters marched in New York City against Bush’s war in Iraq and his attacks on civil liberties at home in a disciplined and spirited march past the RNC convention site.
More wasted lives: US faces another stalement in Iraq, this time in Najaf (tags)
After needlessly provoking an armed conflict with al-Sadr’s militia in Najaf, the U.S. is forced to back down again as in Fallujah, leaving more American soldiers pointlessly dead and wounded, and Iraqis angrier than before.
Courts Kill Park Rally Idea, But the Park Rally is On (tags)
Both a New York state court and a federal district court have shot down protest groups’ efforts to win permits for a Central Park demonstration, but in what looks to be a major victory for people power and a slap at Mayor Bloomberg, the Sunday anti-Bush, anti-War rally on the park’s Great Lawn is on, with protesters planning to head there immediately after the march ends.
On Aug. 29, Be There, Wherever ‘There’ Is (tags)
Whatever a state court decides, the anti-Bush, anti-War march in New York City is on, so don’t let Mayor Bloomberg’s efforts deter you from heading to Manhattan this Sunday.
Kerry the War Hero is a Loser; Kerry the War Resister Would be a Winner (tags)
As long as Kerry has to defend his war record, he will be battered by Bush and right-wing Viet Vets. Only if he embraces his years as a war resister and joins the majority of Americans in opposing the current war can he hope to recover and win in November.
What is this American Fetish About Military "Experience" for Presidents? (tags)
Why are American's so obsessed with having Presidents with military backgrounds? The record of such presidents has not been all that admirable.
Big Business Hurts Itself and Workers by Opposing Socialized Medicine (tags)
Ideological blindness makes U.S. corporate interests oppose socialized medicine, even though by having to pay health benefits themselves makes them wildly uncompetitive with similar companies in Europe or Canada.
Don’t Take it to the Streets: Uncle Todd’s Revisionist History (tags)
In a letter to New York protesters, left-bashing former leftists Todd Gitlin and John Passacantando offer a pinched and erroneous history of the ‘60s civil rights and anti-war movements, in calling on RNC demonstrators to act with Gandhi-like passivity in the face of Mayor Bloomberg’s repressive plans.
Be Afraid: Scared of Political Controversy at the Local Library (tags)
Farenheit 451 arrives. Ashcroft is intimidating political protesters with FBI agents; He’s already scared some local librarians about presenting authors of controversial books.
Bush’s Iraq Policy a Shambles, But Can Kerry Challenge It? (tags)
The fighting in Najaf exposes the fraud of the June 30 “sovereignty” handover, and represents a complete failure of Bush’s Iraq strategy, but Kerry can’t bring himself to condemn the whole thing as the colossal disaster that it is.
August 29 Could Be a Very Slow Day, So Bring a Toothbrush (tags)
New York Cops Tax Forever to Write Up a Ticket, and Things Could Get Even Slower if They Decide to Go on Strike August 29
Nader Shows Courage Bush and Kerry Lack (tags)
While Bush and Kerry vie to show who is more uncritically supportive of right-wing Israeli government policy, Nader has the courage to expose how powerfully the pro-Israeli government lobbying effort in the U.S. is distorting public debate on the Israel-Palestine crisis.