September 26, 2004
THE POLITICAL WAR by George
Packer - The New Yorker
California Says Carmakers Must
Cut Emissions - t r u t h o u t
U.S. Embassy Rips Mining Execs'
Detention
The Bush Tent Show: President
Smoke and Mirrors
Nixon EPA Chief Rips Bush on Environment
- t r u t h o u t
China's glacier research warns
of deserts and floods due to warming
The Hollow World of George Bush
Mr. Bush and His 10 Ever-Changing
Different Positions on Iraq - Michael Moore
Mary Jacoby | The Dunce - t
r u t h o u t
George Bush, Master of Sanctimony
Antarctic Glaciers Melting Faster
- Study
Letter to Governor Schwarzenegger
- KUDOS ON AB 3047 SIGNING
Working together works!
U.S. Can Eliminate Oil Use in
a Few Decades
Kerry's Fighting Back: Powerful
Speech on Iraq - MoveOn
McCain Whacks Bush on Iraq; Arundhati
Roy's Justice - AlterNet
Islandwire: News from Earth Island
Institute - September 20, 2004
Brower Memorial May Land at Berkeley
Marina
Speaking of Phony Documents...
Attention Deficit America
Put Away Your Hankies...a message
from Michael Moore
U.S. Blocking Arctic Report
- t r u t h o u t
Cal student to receive award:
Brower Youth recipients to be honored for activism
Force of nature: Local filmmaker
tells the tale of David Brower
The Lynching of Dan Rather
- Greg Palast
Election Matters - The Nation
How many ways was war in Iraq
wrong? Let local veteran tell you
The Baltimore Sun | Global Warming
Will Spawn More Ivans - t r u t h o u t
Republicans blast Bush for environmental
policies
Environment serving as a measure
of character in presidential race
Rise in Consumers 'Threatens Environment'
- t r u t h o u t
The Resort to Force - Noam
Chomsky
Journalism Under Fire -
Bill Moyers
Blog Of Blogs: Global Fear Finds
A Voice - TomPaine
e-news from Survival International
- 17 September 2004
International Election Monitors
Arrive in the U.S.
Kelpie Wilson | Bush Bites the
Biscuit - t r u t h o u t
Autumn 2004 Restore Hetch Hetchy
newsletter now is on-line!
Kerry Needs the Courage to Walk
Away from Iraq - Howard Zinn
Far Graver Than Vietnam - Sidney
Blumenthal
At War Against Dam, Tribe Turns
to Old Ways - t r u t h o u t
Taking On the Myth - PAUL KRUGMAN
OpenTheGovernment.org Updates
for September 15, 2004
Vice President of the Apocalypse
Blair to U.S.: Ratify Kyoto
- t r u t h o u t
Bush, Kerry and Vietnam
The Fact of Global Warming
Sewer Socialism
Extreme Oil Examines Our Crude
Addiction
Brower Film "Monumental"
- SF debut starts Friday
Bush Environment Record an Issue
in Nevada - t r u t h o u t
Forget Bush - Molly Ivins
Pushing Back Against Evil
How Bush speaks in religious code
Bush family history shows a dark
past unseen by most
Smog Harms Children's Lungs for
Life, Study Finds - t r u t h o u t
Sierra Club Announces 2004 National
Awards
The Nerve of Bush - Molly Ivins
Heroes and Villians: Reframing
the 2004 Race - Arianna Huffington
Warming Trend Will Decimate Arctic
Peoples, Report Warns
Scientist: Millions Will Die in
Extreme Climate Change - t r u t h o u t
SEPTEMBER 11: WHAT YOU "OUGHT
NOT TO KNOW" - Greg Palast
There's still time: Stand up for
the Roadless Rule! - Earthjustice
Apocalypse Bush!
Senator Graham: Bush Covered Up
Saudi Involvement in 9/11 - t r u t h o u t
DON'T LOOK AT THE FLASH - Greg
Palast
Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline
of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
Loss and Loathing on the Cheney
Trail
California Causes a Row over Refineries
- t r u t h o u t
Kelpie Wilson | Torture in the
Redwoods - t r u t h o u t
`American dream' goes up in coal
dust
Sierra Club Report Details Bush
Administration's Erosion of Coastal Protections
Penelope Purdy | Future of Renewable
Energy is Now - t r u t h o u t
Wal-Mart upsets cosmic balance
of ruins
U.S. Says It Won't Remove Dams
- t r u t h o u t
Brower Youth Awards Ceremony -
Bring Your Friends!
Why Democrats Shouldn't Be Scared
- Michael Moore
New Website Aims to Inspire Political
Action and Promote Issue-oriented Films
Friday Sept. 17th Monumental opens
in SF/Oct 1st in San Rafael
Final Alpine Satellite Development
Plan Released - National Petroleum Reserve,Alaska
Bush Mob Orders Up a Hit -
The Nation
GOP Policy Ruins Natural Land
- t r u t h o u t
MONUMENTAL: David Brower Documentary
Roadless forests are under attack
- your comments needed today
The Uncompassionate Conservative
- Molly Ivins
BUSH IN NYC: WATCH OUT, THE 'REFORMER
WITH RESULTS' IS BACK - Arianna Huffington
The GOP Doesn't Reflect America
- Michael Moore
World Bank consults on big Laos
dam project
Battle Renews on Use of National
Forests - t r u t h o u t
Hetch Hetchy reclaimed: Editorial
Monumental: David Brower's Fight
for Wild America
Drought boosts campaign to drain
one of the West's biggest reservoirs
The More We Grow, the Less Able
We are to Feed Ourselves - t r u t h o u t
"Brutality And Purposeless
Sadism" - Department of Defense Report
Monumental screens across North
America including 8 swing states
Johnny Cash was NOT a Republican
U.K. to Take Tough Line against
U.S. over Kyoto - t r u t h o u t
What We've Really Lost in this
Indefensible War - Jimmy Breslin
Iraqi Olympic Soccer Players Kick
the Stuffing Out of Bush's Fantasy - Robert Scheer
Defending Liberty - Robert
C. Byrd
The beginning of history
Howard Geller | A Solution to
Global Warming - t r u t h o u t
Student saves wilderness as park
Battle royal over monarch habitat
Arundhati Roy: Life Comes Between
a Firebrand and Her Fiction
Depleted Uranium: Dirty Bombs,
Dirty Missiles, Dirty Bullets - t r u t h o u t
The Politics Of Bullying
Visualize This!
If at First You Don't Succeed,
Go Negative
'Death after death, blood after
blood'
America's Disease is Greed
Laying Odds on Armageddon
Steve Weissman | How Far Will
Bush Go? Part II - t r u t h o u t
Colombia's oil pipeline is paid
for in blood and dollars
4x4s replace the desert camel
and whip up a worldwide dust storm
Report warns of flooding, heat
waves, melting glaciers across Europe
Global warming could bring extreme
changes to California, says study
Some Dare Call It Treason. Wake
up, America!
Brain Dead, Made of Money, No
Future at All - William Rivers Pitt
Minutes of Silence That Should
Live in Infamy
IDF Teaches US Soldiers Guerilla
Response
Israel's pipe dream: getting oil
from Iraq
Nuclear Power Still a Deadly
Proposition - Helen Caldicott
Why are American Troops in Najaf?
Islandwire: News from Earth Island
Institute - August 16 , 2004
EAW Quick Links -- August 16,
2004
How Business Responds to Global
Warming - t r u t h o u t
Fade to blue - A tale of fish,
pirates, greed and the end of a global frontier
Elusive Dead Zone Tracked in the
Pacific - t r u t h o u t
Bush's Military Past - The
Nation
Environmental Buck Private
- (Commander Deplete)
TRACKING TERROR!
Act Now: We Need An Environmental
Debate
World Bank Undermines Efforts
on Global Warming - t r u t h o u t
BROWER
POWER - A spotlight on young enviro activists
2004 Brower Youth Awards Honor
Outstanding Student Environmental Leaders
The 2003 Brower Youth Award Winners
Speak Up
The Next Agenda
Julia Butterfly's Calendar - CIRCLE
of LIFE
Butterfly Gardener: Events Calendar
& Action Alerts
=====================================================+
The New Yorker: The Talk of the
Town - September 26, 2004
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?040927ta_talk_packer
COMMENT
THE POLITICAL WAR
by George Packer
Issue of 2004-09-27
Earlier this year, the United States Agency for International
Development, or U.S.A.I.D., hired a team of independent experts
to go to Iraq and evaluate the agency's programs there. The experts
came back with a mixed review that included plenty of reason
for worry: the reconstruction of Iraq was taking place in an
ad-hoc fashion, without a consistent strategy, without the meaningful
participation or advice of Iraqis, within paralyzing security
constraints, and amid unrealistic claims of success. But something
happened to the report on the way to publication. U.S.A.I.D.
kept sending parts of it back for revision, draft after draft,
weeding out criticism, until the agency finally approved a version
for internal use which one member of the team called "a
whitewash" of his findings. Another expert said, "It's
so political, everything going on out there. They just didn't
want to hear any bad news." Pointing out that some of the
numbers posted on the agency's Web site were overly optimistic,
he concluded, "They like to make their sausage their way."
This would be a minor footnote in the history of the Iraq
war, if only the entire story didn't read the same. President
Bush has been making the sausage his way from the beginning,
and his way is to politicize. He forced a congressional vote
on the war just before the 2002 midterm elections. He trumpeted
selective and misleading intelligence. He displayed intense devotion
to classifying government documents, except when there was political
advantage in declassifying them. He fired or sidelined government
officials and military officers who told the American public
what the Administration didn't want it to hear. He released forecasts
of the war's cost that quickly became obsolete, and then he ignored
the need for massive expenditures until a crucial half year in
Iraq had been lost. His communications office in Baghdad issued
frequently incredible accounts of the progress of the war and
the reconstruction. He staffed the occupation with large numbers
of political loyalists who turned out to be incompetent. According
to Marine officers and American officials in Iraq, he ordered
and then called off critical military operations in Falluja against
the wishes of his commanders, with no apparent strategic plan.
He made sure that blame for the abuses at Abu Ghraib settled
almost entirely on the shoulders of low-ranking troops. And then,
in the middle of the election campaign, he changed the subject.
No one can now doubt the effectiveness of the President's
political operation. Here's one measure: between May and September,
the number of Iraq stories that made page 1 of the Times
and the Washington Post dropped by more than a third.
During the same period, the percentage of Americans who support
the President's handling of the war increased. It's the mark
of a truly brilliant reëlection campaign that these trends
at home are occurring against a background of ever-increasing
violence and despair in Iraq. The latest reports from mainstream
think tanks, such as the Center for Strategic and International
Studies, show every indicator of progress moving in the wrong
direction. In July, the National Intelligence Council issued
a classified and quite gloomy analysis of Iraq which had no effect
on the President's rhetoric or on his policy. After a year and
a half of improvising and muddling through, there seems to be
no clear way forward and no good way out. But because the President-as
his chief of staff, Andrew Card, recently said-regards Americans
as ten-year-old children, don't expect to hear an honest discussion
about any of this from the White House. (The President's party,
however, is trying to force congress to vote, just before the
election, on a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning-no
doubt to bring the country a little closer to victory in Iraq.)
The problem with making sausage the President's way-other
than the fact that it deceives the public, precludes a serious
debate, bitterly divides the body politic when war requires unity,
exposes American soldiers to greater risk, substitutes half measures
for thoroughgoing efforts, and insures that no one will be held
accountable for mistakes that will never be corrected-is that
it doesn't work. What determines success in this war is what
happens in Iraq and how Iraqis perceive it. If U.S.A.I.D. releases
a report that prettifies the truth, officials here might breathe
easier for a while, but it won't speed up the reconstruction
of Iraq. Covering up failures only widens the gap in perception
between Washington and Baghdad-which, in turn, makes Washington
less capable of grasping the reality of Iraq and responding to
it. Eventually, the failures announce themselves anyway-in a
series of suicide bombings, a slow attrition of Iraqi confidence,
a sudden insurrection. War, unlike budget forecasts and campaign
coverage, is quite merciless with falsehood.
In refusing to look at Iraq honestly, President Bush has made
defeat there more likely. This failing is only the most important
repetition of a recurring theme in the war against radical Islam:
the distance between Bush's soaring, often inspiring language
and the insufficiency of his actions. When he speaks, as he did
at the Republican Convention, about the power of freedom to change
the world, he is sounding deep notes in the American political
psyche. His opponent comes nowhere close to making such music.
But if Iraq looks nothing like the President's vision-if Iraq
is visibly deteriorating, and no one in authority will admit
it-the speeches can produce only illusion or cynicism. In what
may be an extended case of overcompensation, so much of the President's
conduct in the war has become an assertion of personal will.
Bush's wartime hero, Winston Churchill, offered his countrymen
nothing but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. Bush offers optimistic
forecasts, permanent tax cuts, and his own stirring resolve.
As the campaign moves toward its finish, Senator Kerry seems
unable to point any of this out, let alone exploit it. On Iraq,
he has said almost everything possible, which makes it difficult
for him to say anything. It's understandable that the war fills
him with ambivalence. The President's actions have led the country
into a blind alley; there's no new strategy for Kerry to propose,
and the press should stop insisting that he come up with one
when the candidate who started the war feels no such obligation.
But the Senator has allowed the public to think that the President,
against all the evidence of his record, will fight the war in
Iraq and the larger war against radical Islam with more success.
If Kerry loses the election, this will be the reason.
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Saturday, September 25, 2004 4:52 PM
Subject: Holocaust Survivors Sue Bush Family over Nazi
Link
t r u t h o u t | 09.26
California Says Carmakers Must Cut Emissions
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
Holocaust Survivors Sue Bush Family over Nazi Link
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604A.shtml
U.S. Officials Differ on Iraqi Elections
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604B.shtml
U.S. Soldiers, Iraqi Civilians Die as Violence Continues
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604C.shtml
Iraq: U.S. Forces Admit One Mistake After Another
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604D.shtml
Naomi Klein | Baghdad Year Zero
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604E.shtml
Pakistan's Musharraf: Iraq War Complicates Middle East
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604F.shtml
Nicholas D. Kristof | Twisting Dr. Nuke's Arm
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604G.shtml
Le Monde | Reporters Under Threat
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604I.shtml
Former CIA Agent Says Bush to Blame for 9/11
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604J.shtml
Josh Marshall | FBI Fails on Forged Niger-Uranium Documents
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604K.shtml
Bush Reneges on Children's Health
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604L.shtml
CBS Cancels '60 Minutes' Story on Rationale for War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604W.shtml
Kerry: Iraq a 'Diversion'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604X.shtml
U.S. Destroyers Deploying off North Korea
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604Y.shtml
Michael Moore | Bush on Iraq: A Flip and Now Just a Flop
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604Z.shtml
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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AOL News - 09/25
U.S. Embassy Rips Mining Execs' Detention
By MICHAEL CASEY
.c The Associated Press
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - The U.S. Embassy criticized Indonesian
authorities Friday for detaining executives of a U.S.-based mining
company on allegations of dumping hazardous waste into a bay,
and suggested the action could harm the country's efforts to
attract investment.
Police were questioning Richard Ness, director of Denver-based
Newmont Mining Corp.'s local subsidiary, Newmont Minahasa Raya.
Five other Newmont employees, including the American site
manager, were being held at the National Police Headquarters
in Jakarta, company spokesman Kasan Mulyono said.
No charges have been filed. Under Indonesian law, they can
be detained for up to 20 days.
``We respect the independence of Indonesia's judicial system,
but feel very strongly that the detention of P.T. Newmont employees
is inappropriate,'' the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.
``Throughout the investigation, P.T. Newmont has fully cooperated
and made their staff available to the Indonesian authorities,''
it said. ``P.T. Newmont has guaranteed their continued cooperation.
There is no need to physically detain officials of the company.
The detention of Newmont employees under these circumstances
can only harm the investment climate in Indonesia.''
Indonesia has struggled to attract foreign investment in recent
years, with many businesses going elsewhere because of the country's
excessive red tape, security woes and a corrupt legal system
that has produced a string of controversial rulings against foreign
companies.
In the first half of 2004, foreign investment in Indonesia
dropped by 35 percent.
Residents on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi say a Newmont
gold mine is polluting a bay with mercury- and arsenic-laced
waste. Local and international media have carried pictures of
villagers with skin diseases and large lumps they claim were
caused by the waste.
Newmont has denied the allegations but says it will cooperate
with the investigation.
The company stopped mining at the Sulawesi site two years
ago after extracting all the gold it could and stopped processing
ore there Aug. 31. It plans to have the entire facility reclaimed
within three years.
Newmont, the world's largest gold producer, also faces a $550
million lawsuit filed in Indonesia in August by a legal-aid group
on behalf of several villagers.
The company says the heavy metal levels in Buyat Bay are no
higher than in most maritime environments and conform to international
standards. It says smallholders who illegally reprocess ore from
the mine by using mercury to separate gold from sand are dumping
quicksilver into the bay.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.
=====================================================+
counterpunch.org - September 24,
2004
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney09242004.html
The Bush Tent Show
President Smoke and Mirrors
By MIKE WHITNEY
The Bush presidency has been the most elaborate public relations
swindle in the history of the country. From his inauguration
to the present day, Bush's every move has been carefully choreographed
to maximize the ambitions of his handlers. His appearances have
meticulously exorcised any fractious elements that might suggest
that he is not unanimously revered by the American people.
As Noam Chomsky notes: "For George Bush the younger,
PR specialists and speechwriters have constructed the image of
a simple man with a direct line to heaven, who relies on his
gut instincts as he strides forward to rid the world of evildoers
while contemplating his visions and "dreams, a caricature
of ancient epics and children's tales, with an admixture of cowboy
fiction."
George Bush is entirely the invention of Madison Ave and the
feverish imagination of Karl Rove. If it was possible to get
close enough, you could probably pass your hand through the pasty
gray spectral figure that is the central image of this political
light show. There is simply nothing there.
The iconic image of Bush is devoid of any real substance;
rather it is a repository of familiar American symbols and comforting
"sound bytes. This has elevated the President to an archetypal
figure whose wisdom issues from his deeply felt commitment to
God and flag.
This manipulation of symbols first took root during the Reagan
administration. Reagan's handlers learned how critical it is
to create the illusion of leadership while obscuring the brutish
machinations of government. Reagan's cheerful and bumbling character
became a convenient foil for ongoing atrocities in Nicaragua
and shadowy dealings with Iran. He was an upbeat guy who photographed
as well in a Stetson as in a pinstriped suit. His good-humor
and alleged forgetfulness proved to be valuable tools in disguising
the many crimes that were perpetrated in his name.
The Bush character duplicates much of the Reagan mystique,
with one notable difference; the emphasis on religion. The Bush
chimera is one part plain-speaking cowpoke and one part Tent-show
preacher. This adjunct to the Reagan formula has inspired legions
of loyal followers to profess their unflinching devotion to their
new messiah. The unfortunate facts concerning his dubious personal
history ( a unique mix of shady business deals, insider trading,
arrests, alcohol abuse, unaccounted for absences in the National
Guard etc) has done nothing to upset their unshakeable belief
in junior Bush.
The illusion of Bush's popularity has been, perhaps, the thorniest
aspect to stage manage. Bush is the most reviled public figure
of our era. Even when he visited close friend and ally Tony Blair
in England he had to be accompanied by an entourage of 4,000
secret service agents and an army of 18,000 Bobbies. His presence
provokes a similar reaction wherever he goes. (The unprecedented
pre-war protests, that sent millions of people across the world
into the streets, attest to the overwhelming public revulsion
to his policies.)
Never the less, the media has done an admirable job in concealing
the rage of the common man by isolating the "Dear Leader
from his myriad detractors and by filming him in only the most
flattering environs. Public appearances have deteriorated into
private affairs for well heeled contributors, who are, in turn,
asked to take off their Brooks Brothers coats and roll up their
sleeves so they can affect the appearance of Joe six-pack.
Most people know by now that this painfully scripted vaudeville
is nothing but political fakery, but it plays well on America's
TVs and it lends a bit of credibilityto a predictably vacuous
performance.
Bush's televised appearances are equally artificial but, regrettably,
frequent. On the rare occasion when the camera lingers too long
on the presidential visage, peering through the vacuous executive
gaze, a broad expanse of emptiness unfolds stretching across
the ether; the motionless void of Bush's brain. Then, just as
quickly, a shifting of cameras, a jolt back to life, the set
jaw, the firm tone and the confident stride; our man from Crawford
is restored to his task of saving the free world from fanatics
and infidels.
The Bush presidency, with its heavy dependence on symbolism
rather than content; "archetypal wizardry rather than leadership,
has sent the ship of state limping towards the rocky shore. In
just three years the administration has torpedoed long-held alliances,
savaged the treasury, eviscerated our international credibility,
initiated two wars of aggression, curtailed civil liberties and
established an archipelago of torture camps across the globe.
These accomplishments would never have been possible without
the smoke and mirrors handiwork that spawned the Pretender in
Chief.
The White House illusionists have created an effective mask
for disguising their rampant criminal activity. By manufacturing
a folksy, Bible wielding President, Rove and co. have fully embraced
the "cult of the personality" that faithful friend
of autocrats and boon to power hungry politicians.
Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached
at: fergiewhitney@msn.com
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Friday, September 24, 2004 2:55 PM
Subject: Iraq Violence Belies Bush Spin
t r u t h o u t | 09.25
Nixon EPA Chief Rips Bush on Environment
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
Iraq Violence Belies Bush Spin
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092504A.shtml
European Press: Bush in Denial
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092504B.shtml
The Washington Post | Freeing Mr. Hamdi
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092504C.shtml
Nicholas Turse | Swift Boat Swill
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092504D.shtml
Eric Boehlert | Too Much about Memos, Too Little about War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092504F.shtml
Antoine de Gaudemar | Surrealistic
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092504H.shtml
Valerie Plame and the "60 Minutes Story" that Didn't
Run
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092504I.shtml
I. K. Gyasi | Bush: A Study in Failure
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092504J.shtml
Paul Krugman | Let's Get Real
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092504K.shtml
Tying Kerry to Terror Tests Rhetorical Limits
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092504L.shtml
Cat Stevens to Take Legal Action Against U.S.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092504W.shtml
A Failed Congress Slouches Home
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092504X.shtml
Anguish, Frustration in American Heartland over Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092504Y.shtml
The Hollow World of George W. Bush
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092504Z.shtml
The TO Overview
William Rivers Pitt: 'Tanks, Blast Walls and Barbed Wire'
http://www.truthout.org/overview.htm
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To see this story with its related
links on the Guardian Unlimited site, go to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1311573,00.html
Highest icefields will not last 100 years, study finds
China's glacier research warns of deserts and floods due
to warming
Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Friday September 24 2004
The Guardian
The world's highest ice fields are melting so quickly that they
are on course to disappear within 100 years, driving up sea levels,
increasing floods and turning verdant mountain slopes into deserts,
Chinese scientists warned yesterday.
After the most detailed study ever undertaken of China's glaciers,
which are said to account for 15% of the planet's ice, researchers
from the Academy of Science said that urgent measures were needed
to prepare for the impact of climate change at high altitude.
Their study, the Glacier Inventory, was approved for publication
last week after a quarter of a century of exploration in China
and Tibet. It will heighten alarm at global warming.
Until now, most research on the subject has looked at the
melting of the polar ice-caps. Evidence from the inventory suggests
that the impact is as bad, if not worse, on the world's highest
mountain ranges - many of which are in China.
In the past 24 years, the scientists have measured a 5.5%
shrinkage by volume in China's 46,298 glaciers, a loss equivalent
to more than 3,000 sq km (1,158 sq miles) of ice; there has been
a noticeable acceleration in recent years.
Among the most marked changes has been the 500metre retreat
of the glacier at the source of the Yangtze on the Tibet-Qinghai
plateau.
The huge volumes of water from the glacier's melted ice, estimated
at 587bn cubic metres since the 1950s, are thought to have been
a factor in flooding that has devastated many downstream areas
in recent years.
Shrinkages were observed at almost every ice-field in the
Karakorum range, including the Purugangri glaciers, which are
said to be the world's third largest body of ice after the Arctic
and Antarctica. According to Yao Tandong, who led the 50 scientists
in the project, the decline of the Himalayan glaciers would be
a disaster for the ecosystem of China and neighbouring states.
If the climate continued to change at the current pace, he
predicted that two-thirds of China's glaciers would disappear
by the end of the 2050s, and almost all would have melted by
2100.
"Within 20 to 30 years, we will see the collapse of many
of the smaller glaciers," he said. "Within 60 years,
we can predict a very significant reduction in the volume of
high-altitude ice fields."
In the short term, he said, the water from the ice would fill
reservoirs and lead to more flooding - as was already the case
in Nepal and downstream areas of China.
In the future, he predicted, the end of the glaciers would
deprive the mountain ecology of its main life source and hasten
the desertification that threatens western China, particularly
in Gansu and Xinjiang provinces.
Once the mountain ice was gone, rivers would start to dry
up and ocean levels would rise, threatening coastal cities.
The inventory confirms earlier studies of Everest, which showed
the world's tallest peak more than 1.3 meters shorter than in
1953, when it was first scaled by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing
Norgay.
To ease the impact of the glacial melt, the scientists plan
to advise China's government to build more reservoirs and hydro-electric
dams to improve downstream flood control.
But they said that there were limits to what could be achieved.
"No one can reverse the changes to a glacier," said
Shi Yafeng, head of China's environmental and engineering research
institute for the cold and arid regions.
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
=====================================================+
Published on Thursday, September
23, 2004 by the Guardian/UK
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0923-03.htm
The Hollow World of George Bush
The Power of Positive Thinking is the President's Shield
from Reality
by Sidney Blumenthal
The news is grim, but the president is "optimistic".
The intelligence is sobering, but he tosses aside
"pessimistic predictions". His opponent says he has
"no credibility", but the president replies that it
is his rival
who is "twisting in the wind". The UN secretary general
speaks of the "rule of law", but he talks before a
mute
general assembly of "a new definition of security".
Between the rhetoric and the reality lies the campaign.
In Iraq, US commanders have plans for this week and the next,
but there is "no overarching strategy", I was
told by a reliable source who has just returned after assessing
the facts on the ground for US intelligence
services. The New York Times reports that an offensive is in
the works to capture the insurgent stronghold of
Falluja - after the election. In the meantime, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
and other terrorists linked to al-Qaida
operate from there at will, as they have for more than a year.
The president speaks of new Iraqi security
forces, but not even half the US personnel have been assigned
to the headquarters of the Multinational
Security Transition Command.
George Bush's vision of the liberation of Iraq has melted
before harsh facts. But reality cannot be allowed to
obscure the image. The liberation is "succeeding",
he insists, and only pessimists cannot see it.
In July, the CIA delivered to the president a new national
intelligence estimate that detailed three gloomy
scenarios for Iraq's future, ranging up to civil war. Perhaps
it was his reading of the estimate that prompted
Bush to remark in August that the war on terrorism could not
be won, a judgment he swiftly reversed. And at
the UN, Bush held a press conference where he rebuffed the latest
intelligence.
Bush explained that, for him, intelligence is not to inform
decision-making, but to be used or rejected to
advance an ideological and political agenda. His dismissal is
an affirmation of the politicisation and corruption
of intelligence that rationalised the war.
In his stump speech, which he repeats word for word across
the country, Bush explains that he invaded Iraq
because of "the lesson of September the 11th". WMD
goes unmentioned; the only reason Bush offers is
Saddam Hussein as an agent of terrorism. "He was a sworn
enemy of the United States of America; he had
ties to terrorist networks. Do you remember Abu Nidal? He's the
guy that killed Leon Klinghoffer. Leon
Klinghoffer was murdered because of his religion. Abu Nidal was
in Baghdad, as was his organisation."
The period of Leon Klinghoffer's murder in 1985 on the liner
Achille Lauro (by Abu Abbas, in fact) coincided
with the US courtship of Saddam, marked by the celebrated visits
of then Middle East envoy Donald
Rumsfeld. The US collaborated in intelligence exchanges and materially
supported Saddam in his war with
Iran, authorising the sale of biological agents for Saddam's
laboratories, a diversification of his WMD
capability.
The reason was not born of idealism, but necessity: the threat
of an expansive Iran-controlled Shia
fundamentalism to the entire Gulf.
The policy of courting Saddam continued until he invaded Kuwait.
But realpolitik prevailed when US forces
held back from capturing Baghdad for larger, geostrategic reasons.
The first Bush grasped that in wars to
come, the US would need ad hoc coalitions to share the military
burden and financial cost. Taking Baghdad
would have violated the UN resolution that gave legitimacy to
the first Gulf war, as well as creating a
nightmare of "Lebanonisation", as secretary of state
James Baker called it. Realism prevailed; Saddam's
power was subdued and drastically reduced. It was the greatest
accomplishment of the first President Bush.
When he honoured the UN resolution, the credibility of the
US in the region was enormously enhanced,
enabling serious movement on the Middle East peace process. Now
this President Bush has undone the
foundation of his father's work, which was built upon by President
Clinton.
Bush's campaign depends on the containment of any contrary
perception of reality. He must evade, deny
and suppress it. His true opponent is not his Democratic foe
- called unpatriotic and the candidate of al-Qaida
by the vice-president - but events. Bush's latest vision is his
shield against them. He invokes the power of
positive thinking, as taught by Emile Coue, guru of autosuggestion
in the giddy 1920s, who urged mental
improvement through constant repetition: "Every day in every
way I am getting better and better."
It was during this era of illusion that TS Eliot wrote The
Hollow Men:
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow.
· Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to
President Clinton, is Washington bureau chief of salon.com
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
=====================================================+
From: mailinglist@michaelmoore.com
Date: 23 Sep 2004 11:22:54 -0000
To: browerpower@wildnesswithin.com
Mr. Bush and His 10 Ever-Changing Different Positions
on Iraq:
"A flip and a flop and now just a flop."
9/22/04
Dear Mr. Bush,
I am so confused. Where exactly do you stand on the issue
of Iraq? You, your Dad, Rummy, Condi, Colin, and Wolfie -- you
have all changed your minds so many times, I am out of breath
just trying to keep up with you! Which of these 10 positions
that you, your family and your cabinet have taken over the years
represents your CURRENT thinking:
1983-88: WE LOVE SADDAM. On December 19, 1983, Donald
Rumsfeld was sent by your dad and Mr. Reagan to go and have a
friendly meeting with Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq. Rummy
looked so happy in the picture <>
. Just twelve days after this visit, Saddam gassed thousands
of Iranian troops. Your dad and Rummy seemed pretty happy with
the results because The Donald R. went back to have another chummy
hang-out with Saddams right-hand man <>
, Tariq Aziz, just four months later. All of this resulted in
the U.S. providing credits and loans to Iraq that enabled Saddam
<>
to buy billions of dollars worth of weapons and chemical agents.
The Washington Post reported that your dad and Reagan let it
be known to their Arab allies that the Reagan/Bush administration
wanted Iraq to win <>
its war with Iran and anyone who helped Saddam accomplish this
was a friend of ours.
1990: WE HATE SADDAM. In 1990, when Saddam invaded
Kuwait, your dad and his defense secretary, Dick Cheney, decided
they didn't like Saddam anymore <>
so they attacked Iraq and returned Kuwait to its rightful dictators.
1991: WE WANT SADDAM TO LIVE. After the war, your dad
and Cheney and Colin Powell told the Shiites to rise up against
Saddam and we would support them. So they rose up. But then we
changed our minds. When the Shiites rose up against Saddam, the
Bush inner circle changed its mind and decided NOT to help the
Shiites. Thus, they were massacred by Saddam.
1998: WE WANT SADDAM TO DIE. In 1998, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz
and others, as part of the Project for the New American Century,
wrote an open letter to President Clinton <>
insisting he invade and topple Saddam Hussein.
2000: WE DON'T BELIEVE IN WAR AND NATION BUILDING.
Just three years later, during your debate with Al Gore in the
2000 election, when asked by the moderator Jim Lehrer where you
stood when it came to using force for regime change, you turned
out to be a downright pacifist:
I--I would take the use
of force very seriously. I would be guarded in my approach. I
don't think we can be all things to all people in the world.
I think we've got to be very careful when we commit our troops.
The vice president [Al Gore] and I have a disagreement about
the use of troops. He believes in nation building. I--I would
be very careful about using our troops as nation builders. I
believe the role of the military is to fight and win war and,
therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place. And
so I take my--I take my--my responsibility seriously. --October
3, 2000
2001 (early): WE DON'T BELIEVE SADDAM IS A THREAT.
When you took office in 2001, you sent your Secretary of State,
Colin Powell, and your National Security Advisor, Condoleezza
Rice, in front of the cameras to assure the American people they
need not worry about Saddam Hussein. Here is what they said:
Powell: We should constantly
be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions
to make sure that they have directed that purpose. That purpose
is every bit as important now as it was 10 years ago when we
began it. And frankly, they have worked. He has not developed
any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction.
He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.
--February 24, 2001
Rice: But in terms of Saddam
Hussein being there, let's remember that his country is divided,
in effect. He does not control the northern part of his country.
We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not
been rebuilt. --July 29, 2001
2001 (late): WE BELIEVE SADDAM IS GOING TO KILL US! Just
a few months later, in the hours and days after the 9/11 tragedy,
you had no interest in going after Osama bin Laden. You wanted
only to bomb Iraq and kill Saddam <>
and you then told all of America we were under imminent threat
because weapons of mass destruction were coming our way. You
led the American people to believe that Saddam had something
to do with Osama and 9/11. Without the UN's sanction, you broke
international law and invaded Iraq.
2003: WE DONT BELIEVE SADDAM IS GOING TO KILL US. After
no WMDs were found, you changed your mind about why you said
we needed to invade, coming up with a brand new after-the-fact
reason -- we started this war so we could have regime change,
liberate Iraq and give the Iraqis democracy!
2003: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Yes, everyone saw you say
it -- in costume, no less!
2004: OOPS. MISSION NOT ACCOMPLISHED! Now you call
the Iraq invasion a "catastrophic success <>
." That's what you called it this month. Over a thousand
U.S. soldiers have died, Iraq is in a state of total chaos where
no one is safe, and you have no clue how to get us out of there.
Mr. Bush, please tell us -- when will you change your mind
again?
I know you hate the words "flip" and "flop,"
so I won't use them both on you. In fact, I'll use just one:
Flop. That is what you are. A huge, colossal flop. The war is
a flop, your advisors and the "intelligence" they gave
you is a flop, and now we are all a flop to the rest of the world.
Flop. Flop. Flop.
And you have the audacity to criticize John Kerry with what
you call the "many positions" he has taken on Iraq.
By my count, he has taken only one: He believed you. That was
his position. You told him and the rest of congress that Saddam
had WMDs. So he -- and the vast majority of Americans, even those
who didn't vote for you -- believed you. You see, Americans,
like John Kerry, want to live in a country where they can believe
their president.
That was the one, single position John Kerry took. He didn't
support the war, he supported YOU. And YOU let him and this great
country down. And that is why tens of millions can't wait to
get to the polls on Election Day -- to remove a major, catastrophic
flop from our dear, beloved White House -- to stop all the flipping
you and your men have done, flipping us and the rest of the world
off.
We can't take another minute of it.
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com <http://www.michaelmoore.com>
=====================================================+
t r u t h o u t - Mary Jacoby |
The Dunce - Thursday 16 September 2004
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704I.shtml
Never stops thinking!
The Dunce
His former Harvard Business School professor recalls
George W. Bush not just
as a terrible student but as spoiled, loutish and a pathological
liar.
By Mary Jacoby
Salon.com
For 25 years, Yoshi Tsurumi, one of George W. Bush's professors
at Harvard Business School, was content with his green-card status
as a permanent legal resident of the United States. But Bush's
ascension to the presidency in 2001 prompted the Japanese native
to secure his American citizenship. The reason: to be able to
speak out with the full authority of citizenship about why he
believes Bush lacks the character and intellect to lead the world's
oldest and most powerful democracy.
"I don't remember all the students in detail unless I'm
prompted by something," Tsurumi said in a telephone interview
Wednesday. "But I always remember two types of students.
One is the very excellent student, the type as a professor you
feel honored to be working with. Someone with strong social values,
compassion and intellect - the very rare person you never forget.
And then you remember students like George Bush, those who are
totally the opposite."
The future president was one of 85 first-year MBA students
in Tsurumi's macroeconomic policies and international business
class in the fall of 1973 and spring of 1974. Tsurumi was a visiting
associate professor at Harvard Business School from January 1972
to August 1976; today, he is a professor of international business
at Baruch College in New York.
Trading as usual on his father's connections, Bush entered
Harvard in 1973 for a two-year program. He'd just come off what
George H.W. Bush had once called his eldest son's "nomadic
years" - partying, drifting from job to job, working on
political campaigns in Florida and Alabama and, most famously,
apparently not showing up for duty in the Alabama National Guard.
Harvard Business School's rigorous teaching methods, in which
the professor interacts aggressively with students, and students
are encouraged to challenge each other sharply, offered important
insights into Bush, Tsurumi said. In observing students' in-class
performances, "you develop pretty good ideas about what
are their weaknesses and strengths in terms of thinking, analysis,
their prejudices, their backgrounds and other things that students
reveal," he said.
One of Tsurumi's standout students was Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif.,
now the seventh-ranking member of the House Republican leadership.
"I typed him as a conservative Republican with a conscience,"
Tsurumi said. "He never confused his own ideology with economics,
and he didn't try to hide his ignorance of a subject in mumbo
jumbo. He was what I call a principled conservative." (Though
clearly a partisan one. On Wednesday, Cox called for a congressional
investigation of the validity of documents that CBS News obtained
for a story questioning Bush's attendance at Guard duty in Alabama.)
Bush, by contrast, "was totally the opposite of Chris
Cox," Tsurumi said. "He showed pathological lying habits
and was in denial when challenged on his prejudices and biases.
He would even deny saying something he just said 30 seconds ago.
He was famous for that. Students jumped on him; I challenged
him." When asked to explain a particular comment, said Tsurumi,
Bush would respond, "Oh, I never said that." A White
House spokeswoman did not return a phone call seeking comment.
In 1973, as the oil and energy crisis raged, Tsurumi led a
discussion on whether government should assist retirees and other
people on fixed incomes with heating costs. Bush, he recalled,
"made this ridiculous statement and when I asked him to
explain, he said, 'The government doesn't have to help poor people
- because they are lazy.' I said, 'Well, could you explain that
assumption?' Not only could he not explain it, he started backtracking
on it, saying, 'No, I didn't say that.'"
If Cox had been in the same class, Tsurumi said, "I could
have asked him to challenge that and he would have demolished
it. Not personally or emotionally, but intellectually."
Bush once sneered at Tsurumi for showing the film "The
Grapes of Wrath," based on John Steinbeck's novel of the
Depression. "We were in a discussion of the New Deal, and
he called Franklin Roosevelt's policies 'socialism.' He denounced
labor unions, the Securities and Exchange Commission, Medicare,
Social Security, you name it. He denounced the civil rights movement
as socialism. To him, socialism and communism were the same thing.
And when challenged to explain his prejudice, he could not defend
his argument, either ideologically, polemically or academically."
Students who challenged and embarrassed Bush in class would
then become the subject of a whispering campaign by him, Tsurumi
said. "In class, he couldn't challenge them. But after class,
he sometimes came up to me in the hallway and started bad-mouthing
those students who had challenged him. He would complain that
someone was drinking too much. It was innuendo and lies. So that's
how I knew, behind his smile and his smirk, that he was a very
insecure, cunning and vengeful guy."
Many of Tsurumi's students came from well-connected or wealthy
families, but good manners prevented them from boasting about
it, the professor said. But Bush seemed unabashed about the connections
that had brought him to Harvard. "The other children of
the rich and famous were at least well bred to the point of realizing
universal values and standards of behavior," Tsurumi said.
But Bush sometimes came late to class and often sat in the back
row of the theater-like classroom, wearing a bomber jacket from
the Texas Air National Guard and spitting chewing tobacco into
a cup.
"At first, I wondered, 'Who is this George Bush?' It's
a very common name and I didn't know his background. And he was
such a bad student that I asked him once how he got in. He said,
'My dad has good friends.'" Bush scored in the lowest 10
percent of the class.
The Vietnam War was still roiling campuses and Harvard was
no exception. Bush expressed strong support for the war but admitted
to Tsurumi that he'd gotten a coveted spot in the Texas Air National
Guard through his father's connections.
"I used to chat up a number of students when we were
walking back to class," Tsurumi said. "Here was Bush,
wearing a Texas Guard bomber jacket, and the draft was the No.
1 topic in those days. And I said, 'George, what did you do with
the draft?' He said, 'Well, I got into the Texas Air National
Guard.' And I said, 'Lucky you. I understand there is a long
waiting list for it. How'd you get in?' When he told me, he didn't
seem ashamed or embarrassed. He thought he was entitled to all
kinds of privileges and special deals. He was not the only one
trying to twist all their connections to avoid Vietnam. But then,
he was fanatically for the war."
Tsurumi told Bush that someone who avoided a draft while supporting
a war in which others were dying was a hypocrite. "He realized
he was caught, showed his famous smirk and huffed off."
Tsurumi's conclusion: Bush is not as dumb as his detractors
allege. "He was just badly brought up, with no discipline,
and no compassion," he said.
In recent days, Tsurumi has told his story to various print
and television outlets and appears in Kitty Kelley's exposé
"The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty." He
said other professors and students at the business school from
that time share his recollections but are afraid to come forward,
fearing ostracism or retribution. And why is Tsurumi speaking
up now? Because with the ongoing bloodshed in Iraq and Osama
bin Laden still on the loose - not to mention a federal deficit
ballooning out of control - the stakes are too high to remain
silent. "Obviously, I don't think he is the best person"
to be running the country, he said. "I wanted to explain
why."
=====================================================+
Published on Wednesday, September
22, 2004 by The Progressive
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0922-09.htm
George Bush, Master of Sanctimony
by Matthew Rothschild
Two years ago, when George Bush addressed the United Nations
on Iraq, he blustered that the U.N. risked
becoming irrelevant if it didn't do what he wanted it to do,
which was to go along for the Iraq ride.
Bush told Bob Woodward in Plan of Attack that "it was
a speech I really enjoyed giving."
While Bush was not quite so haughty this time around, he still
seemed to be enjoying himself as he laid the
sanctimony on thick.
He warned the delegates "not to grow weary in our duties,
or waver in meeting them."
He boasted that "we have the historic chance . . . to
fight radicalism and terror with justice and dignity,"
willfully ignoring the Abu Ghraib scandal that has so besmirched
the U.S. reputation abroad.
On Iraq and Afghanistan today, he said, "Freedom is finding
a way," and that both peoples "are on the path
to democracy and freedom."
It must be a slippery path, though, and a difficult way.
Bush hinted at this by saying, "The work ahead is demanding."
But he used this acknowledgment to upbraid
the delegates: "The proper response to difficulty is not
to retreat, it is to prevail."
Amazingly, he said, "The people of Iraq have regained
sovereignty," even though they are being ruled by a
former CIA asset appointed by the Iraqi Governing Council, which
Bush's viceroy, Paul Bremer, handpicked.
Bush's entire discussion about Iraq reeked
of hubris. Just last week, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan
called the Iraq War "illegal," but Bush said "a
coalition of nations enforced the just demands of the world."
Once again, he simply assumed that the United States has the
right to be the unilateral enforcer of U.N.
Security Council resolutions, even when the Security Council
itself does not agree. To give those resolutions
meaning and "for the sake of peace" (calling George
Orwell), Bush said the war against Saddam Hussein was
necessary.
Bush did not mention the elusive weapons of mass destruction,
incidentally. Instead, he emphasized that the
war against Iraq this time was to "deliver the Iraqi people
from an outlaw
dictator."
On the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Bush, as is his custom,
spent much more time and much stronger language
berating Yasser Arafat, though not by name, than in scolding
the Israeli government.
This imbalance must have been clear to people in the Arab
and Muslim world.
Bush did denounce the crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan,
"crimes my government has concluded are
genocide." But he was short on any follow through that is
necessary to stop that genocide.
The only new initiative he offered during his entire speech
was the establishment of something he called a
Democracy Fund to help set up "independent courts, a free
press, political parties, and trade unions." Trade
unions? Since when has Bush been a supporter of them? Bush added,
"Money from the fund would also
help set up voter precincts and poling places, and support the
work of election monitors."
We may need those election monitors here on November 2.
Throughout the speech, the U.N. delegates sat on their hands.
At the end, there was only the politest
applause.
Resentment against Bush the Bully ran high.
Copyright 2004 The Progressive
=====================================================+
Published on Wednesday, September
22, 2004 by Reuters
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0922-02.htm
Antarctic Glaciers Melting Faster - Study
WASHINGTON - Glaciers once held up by a floating ice shelf off
Antarctica are now sliding
off into the sea -- and they are going fast, scientists said
on Tuesday.
Two separate studies from climate researchers and the space
agency NASA show the
glaciers are flowing into Antarctica's Weddell Sea, freed by
the 2002 breakup of the Larsen
B ice shelf.
Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers
said their satellite
measurements suggest climate warming can lead to rapid sea level
rise.
The teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
California, the National Snow and
Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
in Greenbelt, Maryland, said the findings also prove that ice
shelves hold back glaciers.
Many teams of researchers are keeping a close eye on parts
of Antarctica that are steadily
melting.
Large ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula disintegrated
in 1995 and 2002 as a result of
climate warming. But these floating ice shelves did not affect
sea level as they melted.
Glaciers, however, are another story. They rest on land and
when they slide off into the
water they instantly affect sea level.
It was not clear how the loss of the Larsen B ice shelf would
affect nearby glaciers.
But soon after its collapse, researchers saw nearby glaciers
flowing up to eight times faster
than before.
"If anyone was waiting to find out whether Antarctica
would respond quickly to climate
warming, I think the answer is yes," said Theodore Scambos,
a University of Colorado glacier
expert who worked on one study.
"We've seen 150 miles of coastline change drastically
in just 15 years."
The affected area is at the far northern tip of the Antarctic,
just south of Chile and Argentina.
Temperatures there have risen by up to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit
(2.5 degrees C) in the past
60 years -- faster than almost any region in the world.
In the past 30 years, ice shelves in the region have lost
more than 5,200 square miles of
area.
"The Larsen area can be looked at as a miniature experiment,
showing how warming can
dramatically change the ice sheets, and how fast it can happen,"
Scambos said in a
statement. "At every step in the process, things have occurred
more rapidly than we
expected."
But not all the melting in the Antarctic can be seen as a
"miniature experiment."
The Ross ice shelf, for example, is the main outlet for the
West Antarctic Ice Sheet, with
several large glaciers that could, if they melted completely,
raise sea levels by 16 feet.
"While the consequences of this area are small compared
to other parts of the Antarctic, it is
a harbinger of what will happen when the large ice sheets begin
to warm," Scambos said.
"The much larger ice shelves in other parts of Antarctica
could have much greater effects on
the rate of sea level rise."
Copyright © 2004 Reuters Ltd.
=====================================================+
From: Marsh Pitman <marshpitman@sbcglobal.net>
To: Bob Brower <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Date: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 12:22 PM
Subject: Letter to Governor Schwarzenegger - KUDOS ON
AB 3047 SIGNING
TRANSPORTATION INVOLVES EVERYONE (TIE)
Central Valley/Sierra Office
P.O. Box 3111
Merced, CA 95344
September 22, 2004
Honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Governor, State of California
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: KUDOS ON AB 3047 SIGNING
Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:
Transportation Involves Everyone (TIE), long a proponent for
high-speed rail to unite California environmentally and economically
while improving quality of life, highly commends your action
in signing AB 3047.
The collaborative initiative by you and your staff in working
with the Assembly Transportation Committee and with State Senate
President Pro tem Don Perata in incorporating a reform provision
for the California High-Speed Rail Authority is exemplary.
TIE through its predecessor organization, Yosemite Mobilization
Committee, enthusiastically supported the conclusive findings
of the California High-Speed Rail Commission, many of whose distinguished
members were appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson. The Commission, predecessor
to the Authority, given the task under state law for designating
corridors, acted with wisdom and vast input from elected officials,
civic organizations, environmental groups and the public at large.
Thus, it was deplorable that the Commission,s detailed analyses,
which chose Altamont
Pass as the preferred route from the Central Valley to the
Bay Area, were cast aside by the successor High Speed Rail Authority
to cater to special interests.
TIE applauds you and your staff for providing the $3 million
for extensive environmental impact reports and studies that will
bring about a level playing field in route selection that is
critical
to California,s future.
We look forward very energetically to continuing the discussions
with you, started in Merced last October, when you so quickly
comprehended what was at stake for California,s future by the
sneaky actions of the High Speed Rail Authority. Merced, Stanislaus,
San Joaquin, Alameda and San Francisco counties"as well
as the entire state"need to salute you for your "profile
in courage on this issue.
Sincerely,
KENNETH A. GOSTING,
Executive Director
Transportation Involves Everyone (TIE)
=====================================================+
From: Marsh Pitman <marshpitman@sbcglobal.net>
To: Bob Brower <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Date: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 7:54 AM
Subject: AB 3047 (Altamont)
Working together works!
Governor's office overnight has confirmed AB 3047 was signed
by Mr. Schwarzenegger late yesterday. (AB 3047 was just one of
a stack of legislative bills awaiting consideration by Governor
as deadline approached for signature or veto). AB 3047, an omnibus
bill authored by entire Assembly Transportation Committee, contains
provision from Senate President Pro tem Don Perata that provides
$3 million in state funding for a thorough evaluation of Altamont
Pass in comparison with Pacheco
Pass and Henry Coe State
Park as corridors from the Central Valley to the Bay Area.
=====================================================+
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
SEPTEMBER 20, 2004
CONTACT: Rocky Mountain Institute
SNOWMASS, Colorado
U.S. Can Eliminate Oil Use in a Few Decades
Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) today released Winning the Oil
Endgame:
Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security, a Pentagon-cofunded
blueprint for making the United States oil-free.
The plan outlines how American industry can restore competitiveness
and boost profits by mobilizing modern
technologies and smart business strategies to displace oil more
cheaply than buying it. Winning the Oil Endgame
proves that at an average cost of $12 per barrel (in 2000 dollars),
the United States can save half its oil usage
through efficiency, then substitute competitive biofuels and
saved natural gas for the rest -- all this without taxation
or new federal regulation.
"Unlike previous proposals to force oil savings through
government policy, our proposed transition beyond oil is led
by business for profit," said RMI CEO Amory
Lovins.
"Our recommendations are market-based, innovation-driven
without mandates, and designed to support, not
distort, business logic. They're self-financing and would cause
the federal deficit to go down, not up."
Winning the Oil Endgame shows that by 2015, the United States
can save more oil than it gets from the Persian
Gulf; by 2025, use less oil than in 1970; by 2040, import no
oil; and by 2050, use no oil at all.
"Because saving and substituting oil costs less than
buying it, our study finds a net savings of $70 billion a year,"
Lovins said. "That acts like a giant tax cut for the nation.
It simply makes sense and makes money for all."
The RMI study focuses on cars and light trucks (SUVs, pickups,
and vans). These vehicles account for nearly half of
projected 2025 oil use. The report demonstrates that ultralight,
ultrasound materials like carbon-fiber can halve
vehicles' weight, increase safety, and boost efficiency to about
85 mpg for a midsize car or 66 mpg for a midsize
SUV.
"BMW has confirmed that carbon-fiber autobodies weigh
only half as much as steel and have exceptional crash
performance," said Lovins. "The resulting fuel savings
can be like buying gasoline for 56 cents a gallon."
Winning the Oil Endgame also predicts that to fight better
and save money, the Pentagon -- the world's largest oil
buyer-will accelerate the market emergence of superefficient
land, sea, and air platforms. A more efficient and
effective military can protect American citizens instead of foreign
oil, while moving to eliminate oil as a source of
conflict.
"A fuel-efficient military could save tens of billions
of dollars a year," said Lovins, who served on a Pentagon
task
force studying this issue.
"As our nation stops needing oil, think of the possibilities
of being able to treat oil-rich countries the same as
nations that don't own a drop. Imagine too our moral clarity
if other countries no longer assume everything the
United States does is about oil."
The RMI report says that by 2015, more efficient vehicles,
buildings, and factories will turn oil companies into
broad-based energy companies that embrace biofuels as a new product
line. Winning the Oil Game demonstrates
how cellulosic biofuels (wood-based rather than from starchy
or sugary plants like corn) can replace one-fifth of
current oil use, more than triple farm income, and create 750,000
agriculture jobs.
"Europe produces 17 times more biodiesel than we do,"
Lovins said. "The EU has shifted farmers from subsidies
to
durable revenues, and now oil companies compete to sell their
petroleum-free fuel."
Winning the Oil Endgame demonstrates half of U.S. natural
gas can be saved at less than a fifth of its current price.
Two-thirds of that figure comes from saving electricity, especially
at peak times when it's inefficiently produced from
natural gas. This step alone could return natural gas to abundance
within a few years, cutting gas and power bills
by $55 billion per year. Recommended policy innovations include:
Revenue-neutral feebates -- rebates for buyers of efficient
cars, paid for by fees on inefficient ones
Low-income access to affordable mobility -- a new nationwide
initiative to buy efficient cars in bulk and
lease or sell them to low-income drivers at terms they can afford
R&D investment incentives and temporary loan guarantees to
help financially weakened U.S. automakers
retrain and retool faster
Temporary federal loans guarantees to U.S. airlines for buying
very efficient new airplanes, provided that for every
plane thus financed, an inefficient one is scrapped.
"For the first time, our report adds up the new ways
to provide all the services now obtained from oil, but without
using oil -- which will save us $70 billion a year," concluded
Lovins. "Forging the tools to get our nation off oil
forever is the key to revitalizing industry and farming."
About RMI and Winning the Oil Endgame: Rocky Mountain Institute,
located in Old Snowmass, Colorado, is an
independent, entrepreneurial, nonprofit organization engaged
in research and consulting. RMI fosters the efficient
and restorative use of resources to make the world secure, just,
prosperous, and life-sustaining.
For more information, please visit http://www.rmi.org
. This peer-reviewed RMI study is based on its five coauthors'
70 years of combined energy experience, mainly in the private
sector, and on extensive industry input. The Pentagon and diverse
foundations and private donors funded the research. RMI's thoroughly
documented
329-page report is introduced in forewords by former Secretary
of State, Treasury, and Labor George P. Shultz (an ex-Marine
who also chaired the Bechtel Corporation) and by oil geologist
and former Shell Chairman Sir Mark
Moody-Stuart. The report, its executive summary, and its technical
backup can be downloaded free from
http://www.oilendgame.com
=====================================================+
From: Eli Pariser, MoveOn
PAC <moveon-help@list.moveon.org>
To: Brower <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Date: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 4:06 PM
Kerry's Fighting Back: Powerful Speech on Iraq
The war in Iraq is President Bush's signature failure. To
reduce the damage the war has caused him, Bush and his campaign
operatives have spent the last six months attacking and distorting
John Kerry's position on Iraq. But yesterday, in a powerful speech
in New York, Kerry set the record straight.
John Kerry laid out a plan to end Bush's irrational, deceptive
and unilateral policy in Iraq, and pursue a policy of international
cooperation to end the worsening insurgency and rebuild Iraq
-- and bring our troops home. And Kerry made it clear that we
would not be in Iraq today if he were president.
The action today is simple: if you like what you hear from
Kerry in the speech below, pass this email on to your friends,
neighbors, co-workers -- anyone who wants to hear from you on
this issue. It's critical that progressives like us spread the
word that John Kerry is fighting back on Iraq.
We've excerpted a few of the highlights, below. You can read
the whole thing at:
http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2004_0920.html
Here are the main points from Kerry's speech on Iraq yesterday:
The war on Iraq was a mistake -- war was unnecessary because
the inspections were working: "Today, President Bush
tells us that he would do everything all over again, the same
way. How can he possibly be serious? Is he really saying that
if we knew there were no imminent threat, no weapons of mass
destruction, no ties to Al Qaeda, the United States should have
invaded Iraq? My answer is no -- because a commander in chief's
first responsibility is to make a wise and responsible decision
to keep America safe."
Iraq distracted from the war on terror: "The president
claims it is the centerpiece of his war on terror. In fact, Iraq
was a profound diversion from that war and the battle against
our greatest enemy, Osama bin Laden and the terrorists. Invading
Iraq has created a crisis of historic proportions and, if we
do not change course, there is the prospect of a war with no
end in sight."
President Bush misled us about the reasons for the war before
it occurred: "He failed to tell the truth about the
rationale for going to war. And he failed to tell the truth about
the burden this war would impose on our soldiers and our citizens.
By one count, the president offered 23 different rationales for
this war."
President Bush is still misleading people about Iraq, painting
an optimistic picture directly contradicted by his own intelligence
officials: "In June, the president declared, 'The Iraqi
people have their country back.' Just last week, he told us:
'This country is headed toward democracy. Freedom is on the march.'
But the Administration's own official intelligence estimate,
given to the president last July, tells a very different story.
According to press reports, the intelligence estimate totally
contradicts what the president is saying to the American people."
Bush went to war for ideological reasons and consistently
misjudged the situation on the ground: "This president
was in denial. He hitched his wagon to the ideologues who surround
him, filtering out those who disagreed, including leaders of
his own party and the uniformed military. The result is a long
litany of misjudgments with terrible consequences. The administration
told us we'd be greeted as liberators. They were wrong. They
told us not to worry about looting or the sorry state of Iraq's
infrastructure. They were wrong. They told us we had enough troops
to provide security and stability, defeat the insurgents, guard
the borders and secure the arms depots. They were wrong. They
told us we could rely on exiles like Ahmed Chalabi to build political
legitimacy. They were wrong. They told us we would quickly restore
an Iraqi civil service to run the country and a police force
and army to secure it. They were wrong. In Iraq, this administration
has consis! tently over-promised and under-performed. This policy
has been plagued by a lack of planning, an absence of candor,
arrogance and outright incompetence. And the president has held
no one accountable, including himself."
John Kerry has a four-point plan to fix our Iraq policy:
"First, the president has to get the promised international
support so our men and women in uniform don't have to go it alone.
It is late; the president must respond by moving this week to
gain and regain international support. The president should convene
a summit meeting of the world's major powers and Iraq's neighbors,
this week, in New York, where many leaders will attend the U.N.
General Assembly. He should insist that they make good on that
U.N. resolution. He should offer potential troop contributors
specific, but critical roles, in training Iraqi security personnel
and securing Iraq's borders. He should give other countries a
stake in Iraq's future by encouraging them to help develop Iraq's
oil resources and by letting them bid on contracts instead of
locking them out of the reconstruction process."
"Second, the president must get serious about training
Iraqi security forces. The president should urgently expand
the security forces training program inside and outside Iraq.
He should strengthen the vetting of recruits, double classroom
training time, and require follow-on field training. He should
recruit thousands of qualified trainers from our allies, especially
those who have no troops in Iraq. He should press our NATO allies
to open training centers in their countries. And he should stop
misleading the American people with phony, inflated numbers."
"Third, the president must carry out a reconstruction
plan that finally brings tangible benefits to the Iraqi people.
One year ago, the administration asked for and received $18 billion
to help the Iraqis and relieve the conditions that contribute
to the insurgency. Today, less than a $1 billion of those funds
have actually been spent. I said at the time that we had to rethink
our policies and set standards of accountability. Now we're paying
the price. Now, the president should look at the whole reconstruction
package, draw up a list of high visibility, quick impact projects,
and cut through the red tape. He should use more Iraqi contractors
and workers, instead of big corporations like Halliburton. He
should stop paying companies under investigation for fraud or
corruption. And he should fire the civilians in the Pentagon
responsible for mismanaging the reconstruction effort."
"Fourth, the president must take immediate, urgent, essential
steps to guarantee the promised elections can be held next year.
If the president would move in this direction, if he would bring
in more help from other countries to provide resources and forces,
train the Iraqis to provide their own security, develop a reconstruction
plan that brings real benefits to the Iraqi people, and take
the steps necessary to hold credible elections next year -- we
could begin to withdraw U.S. forces starting next summer and
realistically aim to bring all our troops home within the next
four years."
Most people will see a second or two of the speech, if they see
it at all. But by forwarding this email to your friends and family,
you can help make sure people get a full picture of Kerry's position
on Iraq -- in his own words. And you can read the whole speech
at:
http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2004_0920.html
Thanks for everything,
--Eli Pariser
Executive Director, MoveOn PAC
Tuesday, September 21st, 2004
PAID FOR BY MOVEON PAC www.moveonpac.org
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
=====================================================+
From: AlterNet Headlines
<alternetheadlines@topica.email-publisher.com>
Reply-To: <info@alternet.org>
To: <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Date: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 3:00 AM
McCain Whacks Bush on Iraq; Arundhati Roy's Justice
Top Stories from AlterNet for September 21, 2004
http://www.alternet.org/
______________________________
THE BUSH-MCCAIN FACE-OFF
David Corn, The Nation
The McCain-Bush conflict has been one of the most-watched
soap operas in Washington. Now it appears the Arizona
senator may have a rude surprise for the president.
http://www.alternet.org/election04/19937/
FINDING JUSTICE WITH ARUNDHATI ROY
Terrence McNally, AlterNet
Arundhati
Roy discusses her role as writer and activist, the
importance of non-violent dissent, and on finding
justice in the world.
http://www.alternet.org/story/19936/
THE NEW YORK TIMES VS. MICHAEL MOORE
Richard Blow, TomPaine.com
The New York Times refuses Michael Moore permission to
reprint a story, claiming that they don't want to be "part
of a political battle."
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/19939/
HIDING INTELLIGENCE THAT MATTERS
Laura Rozen, AlterNet
Bob Graham's new book connects the dots between the Saudi
government, a White House cover-up, and the 9/11 attacks.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/19938/
RACISM AND THE ELECTION
Ted Glick, ColorLines RaceWire
A new nonpartisan group is dedicated to mobilizing the vote
in communities of color and letting the presidential
candidates know they're being watched.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/19928/
More Rights and Liberties: http://www.alternet.org/rights/
THE ARCTIC: EARTH'S EARLY WARNING SYSTEM
J.R. Pegg, Environment News Service
The Inuit are already suffering dramatic changes to their
Arctic environment, warns a native leader. And as goes the
Arctic, so goes the Earth.
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/19930/
More EnviroHealth: http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/
These stories and more are available on AlterNet.
http://www.alternet.org/
=====================================================+
From: Earth Island Institute
<earthisland@earthisland.org>
Reply-To: <cclarke@earthisland.org>
To: <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Date: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 3:59 PM
Subject: IslandWire: News from Earth Island
Islandwire: News from Earth Island Institute
Conservation, Preservation,
Restoration
September 20, 2004
Vol.7, No.9
Highlights of This Issue
* Lights!
* Camera!
* Action!
* Tip
* Events
* Reminders
Lights!
Six bright young lights on the environmental scene will be honored
on Thursday, September 30, when the Brower Youth Awards are presented
at the Florence
Schwimley Theatre in Berkeley, CA. The ceremony, hosted by
Julia Butterfly Hill and Van Jones, is free to attend. Please
RSVP as soon as possible. The 600-seat theatre is almost filled!
Make your reservation by calling (415) 788-3666 x 260 or online
at http://www.earthisland.org/bya/
Volunteers are also required for the evening. If you'd like
to hear more about this opportunity, please call (415) 788-3666
x 112.
Camera!
The film Monumental:
David Brower's Fight For Wild America is now being shown
across the country.
Here is what the press is saying about this work:
"Monumental is an
inspiring testament to the power of the individual."
-- Greg Crouch,
Mother Jones
"Calling David Brower
an important environmental activist is like calling Hamlet an
important member of the Danish royal court. Brower invented modern
American environmental activism. This film tells you how and
why."
-- John Nielsen,
NPR
"In addition to its
unique documentary resources, the movie should be an invaluable
historical primer for anyone who aspires to influence government
policy, not to mention the government officials obliged to evaluate
that influence."
-- Gary Arnold,
Washington Times
To find a screening near you, visit the Loteria Films Web
site at: http://www.loteriafilms.org/screenings.html
Loteria Films is a non-profit organization with the goal to educate
and inspire environmental activism across the country. To make
a tax-deductible donation, mail your check or money order, with
the word "Monumental" written on it, to
Loteria Films
247 Ellsworth St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
You can also make a donation online at: http://www.filmarts.org/sponsoredpr/projectsdonfr.php#M
scroll down to "Monumental," fill in the dollar amount
of your contribution, and hit the "donate" button.
Action!
The San Diego federal court took action against a California
company caught importing 1,600 cases of Dolores tuna labelled
"Amigo de Delfin" (Friend of the Dolphin). After conducting
an investigation of illegal tuna being sold in US supermarkets,
Earth Island learned that Dolores is canned by a company that
has a fleet of purse seine boats, which chase and net dolphins.
Read the press release at http://www.earthisland.org/news/new_news.cfm?newsID=630.
Tip for a Cleaner, Greener Lifestyle
Here's a great tip from What Can I Do? An Alphabet for Living,
a nifty little book recently published by Chelsea Green Publishing
(http://www.chelseagreen.com/):
By 2005, up to 130 million cell phones may be thrown away in
the United States each year. Instead of opting for the latest
gizmos, use your cell phone for as long as possible before buying
another, and when you do replace it, be sure to give your old
one to a good cause. To donate your old cell phone go to: www.charitablerecycling.com
or www.collectivegood.com.
Events
September 22 is World Car Free Day!
Visit http://www.worldcarfree.net
for more information.
The Building Education Center in Berkeley, CA will offer a
workshop for homeowners on ways to deal with wastewater in locations
without sewer systems. The workshop will be held on Saturday
October 23, 2004 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and again on Wednesday,
December 1, 2004 from 7 to 10 p.m.
Contact the Building Education Center at (510) 525-7610 to
register for this workshop, which will be taught by Bob Feinbaum,
director of Hydro Nova, a project of Earth Island Institute.
For further information about Hydro Nova, contact Bob Feinbaum
at (510) 534-7008 or e-mail bobfeinbaum@earthlink.net.
Reminders
E-mail this newsletter to a friend! We want to spread the
news to as many people as possible. Click the Forward to a Friend
link at the bottom of this newsletter.
Have you registered to vote? Do so now at
http://www.workingforchange.com/vote/index.cfm?ms=WAS001&atid=36451173
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
Many thanks to Stone Ground Solutions for their generous web
design assistance and hosting services. Visit them at
http://www.stoneground.com.
ABOUT ISLANDWIRE:
Editor: Audrey Webb (audreywebb@earthisland.org)
Editorial assistant: Matthew Carlstroem (matthew@earthisland.org)
IslandWire provides updates from Earth Island's Web site, breaking
environmental news and action alerts, and notices on the current
activities of the organization.
ABOUT EARTH ISLAND INSTITUTE:
Earth Island Institute (EII) was founded by environmental visionary,
David Brower [1912-2000], in 1982. It
consists of a diverse network of more than 30 issue-focused environmental
education and advocacy projects.
OUR MISSION:
Life on Earth is imperiled by human degradation
of the biosphere.
Earth
Island Institute develops and supports projects that counteract threats
to the biological and cultural diversity that sustain the environment.
Through education and
activism, these projects
promote the conservation, preservation, and restoration (CPR)
of the Earth.
Earth Island Institute. All rights reserved.
300 Broadway, Suite 28, San Francisco, CA 94133 USA
Phone: (415)788-3666 / Fax: (415)788-7324
=====================================================+
examiner.com - Monday, September
20, 2004
http://www.examiner.com/article/index.cfm/i/092004a_brower
Force of nature
Local filmmaker tells the tale of David Brower
By Sabrina Crawford | Staff Writer
SAN FRANCISCO -- Thirty-three-year-old filmmaker Kelly Duane
is on a mission to turn fellow 20- and 30-something wilderness
lovers into environmental activists.
And with the November presidential election right around the
corner, the timing of the release of her first solo feature,
"Monumental: David Brower's Fight
for Wild America," couldn't be better.
A loving look at the life and political struggles of the rugged,
individualist hero, "Monumental" tells the story of
the man whose leadership transformed the Sierra Club from a mountaineering
club into and environmental activism tour de force.
Seated outside a busy Bernal Heights coffee shop, Duane says
she became interested in making the film three years ago, soon
after Brower's death.
"A lot of people in our generation don't even know who he
is," Duane said of the Sierra Club's first executive director.
"I made it to appeal to people in their 20s and 30s -- people
who love the wilderness and are really close to it -- hikers,
kayakers, surfers -- and who are maybe politically conscious
but aren't activists."
And so Duane set to work, poring over more than 200 16mm and
35mm reels of environmental education shorts and Brower's own
home movies showcasing his mountain climbing and hiking treks
across the country.
Splicing rich, color-saturated archives with soothing music and
video interviews with politicians, historians and fellow conservationists,
"Monumental" guides viewers both visually and emotionally
through Brower's battles to preserve America's final frontiers.
"This film is about politics," Duane said. "But,
it's also about the beauty of the wilderness and how it feels
to just get lost in the wilderness."
Berkeley born and raised, Duane, like the hero of her film, fell
in love with the America's natural landscapes early on.
A trained photographer, she watched it for years quietly from
the sidelines, before her growing love of storytelling, and a
little training from the Film Arts Foundation, transformed her
into doc maker.
At FAF, she and a classmate made "See How They Run,"
chronicling the historic San Francisco mayoral race between Willie
Brown and Tom Ammiano. But once that film was over, Duane said
she knew she wanted to return to nature.
Now, she's traveling across the U.S. with her picture -- stopping
at the Smithsonian, Telluride and surf film fests. And all the
while, she's retelling the story of the man who stopped damming
efforts in the Grand Canyon, who helped set aside Point Reyes
National Seashore and the Redwood National Park.
And with throngs of young progressives bitten by the documentary
bug thanks to recent hits like "Supersize Me" and of
course, the ongoing force that is Michael Moore, the time may
be just right for this portrait of an activist. This story of
how one man can make a difference.
"This isn't really a traditional biography, it's more like
a love letter to Brower and to the Sierra Club at that time,"
Duane says. "People who love the wilderness are so personally
and deeply connected to it, but there's a disconnect when it
comes to the politics and preservation ... I hope it inspire
people to vote and to vote for the environment."
Monumental: David Brower's Fight for Wild America
Screen at the Roxie through Thursday and then at the The Christopher
B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, starting Oct.1.
=====================================================+
Published on Monday, September
20, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0920-08.htm
The Lynching of Dan Rather
On British TV, Dan Feared the Price of "Asking Questions"
by Greg Palast
"It's that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest
of the tough questions," the aging American
journalist told the British television audience.
In June 2002, Dan Rather looked old, defeated, making a confession
he dare not speak on American TV
about the deadly censorship -- and self-censorship -- which had
seized US newsrooms. After September 11,
news on the US tube was bound and gagged. Any reporter who stepped
out of line, he said, would be
professionally lynched as un-American.
"It's an obscene comparison," he said, "but
there was a time in South Africa when people would put flaming
tires around people's necks if they dissented. In some ways,
the fear is that you will be necklaced here. You
will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your
neck." No US reporter who values his neck or
career will "bore in on the tough questions."
Dan said all these things to a British audience. However,
back in the USA, he smothered his conscience and
told his TV audience: "George Bush is the President. He
makes the decisions. He wants me to line up, just
tell me where."
During the war in Vietnam, Dan's predecessor at CBS, Walter
Cronkite, asked some pretty hard questions
about Nixon's handling of the war in Vietnam. Today, our sons
and daughters are dying in Bush wars. But,
unlike Cronkite, Dan could not, would not, question George
Bush, Top Gun Fighter Pilot, Our Maximum
Beloved Leader in the war on terror.
On the British broadcast, without his network minders snooping,
you could see Dan seething and deeply
unhappy with himself for playing the game.
"What is going on," he said, "I'm sorry to
say, is a belief that the public doesn't need to know -- limiting
access, limiting information to cover the backsides of those
who are in charge of the war. It's extremely
dangerous and cannot and should not be accepted, and I'm sorry
to say that up to and including this
moment of this interview, that overwhelmingly it has been accepted
by the American people. And the current
Administration revels in that, they relish and take refuge in
that."
Dan's words had a poignant personal ring for me. He was speaking
on Newsnight, BBC's nightly current
affairs program, which broadcasts my own reports. I do not report
for BBC, despite its stature, by choice. The
truth is, if I want to put a hard, investigative report about
the USA on the nightly news, I have to broadcast it
in exile, from London. For Americans my broadcasts are stopped
at an electronic Berlin wall.
Indeed, Dan is in hot water for a report my own investigative
team put in Britain's Guardian papers and on
BBC TV years ago. Way back in 1999, I wrote that former Texas
Lt. Governor Ben Barnes had put in the fix
for little George Bush to get out of 'Nam and into the Air Guard.
What is hot news this month in the USA is a five-year-old
story to the rest of the world. And you still wouldn't
see it in the USA except that Dan Rather, with a 60 Minutes producer,
finally got fed up and ready to step out
of line. And, as Dan predicted, he stuck out his neck and got
it chopped off.
Is Rather's report accurate? Is George W. Bush a war hero
or a privileged little Shirker-in-Chief? Today I saw a
goofy two page spread in the Washington Post about a typewriter
used to write a memo with no significance
to the draft-dodge story. What I haven't read about in my own
country's media is about two crucial documents
supporting the BBC/CBS story. The first is Barnes' signed and
sworn affidavit to a Texas Court, from 1999, in
which he testifies to the Air Guard fix -- which Texas Governor
George W. Bush, given the opportunity,
declined to challenge.
And there is a second document, from the files of US Justice
Department, again confirming the story of the fix
to keep George's white bottom out of Vietnam. That document,
shown last year in the BBC television
documentary, "Bush Family Fortunes," correctly identifies
Barnes as the bag man even before his 1999
confession.
At BBC, we also obtained a statement from the man who made
the call to the Air Guard general on behalf of
Bush at Barnes' request. Want to see the document? I've posted
it at:
http://www.gregpalast.com/ulf/documents/draftdodgeblanked.jpg
This is not a story about Dan Rather. The white millionaire
celebrity can defend himself without my help. This
is really a story about fear, the fear that stops other reporters
in the US from following the evidence about this
Administration to where it leads. American news guys and news
gals, practicing their smiles, adjusting their
hairspray levels, bleaching their teeth and performing all the
other activities that are at the heart of US TV
journalism, will look to the treatment of Dan Rather and say,
"Not me, babe." No questions will be asked, as
Dan predicted, lest they risk necklacing and their careers as
news actors burnt to death.
"Bush Family Fortunes," the one-hour documentary
taken from Greg Palast's BBC investigative reports,
including the story of George Bush and Texas Air Guard, can be
viewed, in part, at
http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm.
To receive more of Palast's investigative reports, sign up at
http://www.gregpalast.com/contact.cfm
=====================================================+
The Nation - September 19, 2004
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041004&s=greider
Election Matters
by William Greider
The presidential pageant has now risen full in the sky and
is
blocking out the sun. Until November, we dwell in a weird half-light,
stumbling into spooky shadows but shielded from the harsh glare
of
the nation's actual circumstances. Down is up, fiction is truth,
momentous realities are made to disappear from the public mind.
The
2004 spectacle is not the first to mislead grossly and exploit
emotional weaknesses in the national character. But this time
the
consequences will be especially grim.
The United States is "losing" in Iraq, literally
losing territory and
population to the other side. Careful readers of the leading
newspapers may know this, but I doubt most voters do. How could
they,
given the martial self-congratulations of the President and relative
restraint from his opponent? High-minded pundits tell us not
to dwell
on the long-ago past. But the cruel irony of 2004 is that Vietnam
is
the story. The arrogance and deceit--the utter waste of human
life,
ours and theirs--play before us once again. A frank discussion
will
have to wait until after the election.
Several Sundays ago, an ominous article appeared in the opinion
section of the New York Times: "One by One, Iraqi Cities
Become No-Go
Zones." Falluja, Samarra, Ramadi, Karbala, the Sadr City
slums of
Baghdad--these and other population centers are now controlled
by
various insurgencies and essentially ceded by US forces. This
situation would make a joke of the national elections planned
for
January. Yet, if US troops try to recapture the lost cities,
the
bombing and urban fighting would produce massive killing and
destruction, further poisoning politics for the US occupation
and its
puppet government in Saigon--sorry, Baghdad.
Three days later, the story hit page one when anonymous Pentagon
officials confirmed the reality. Not to worry, they said: The
United
States is training and expanding the infant Iraqi army so it
can do
the fighting for us. That's the ticket--Vietnamization. I remember
how well General Westmoreland articulated the strategy back in
the
1960s, when war's progress was measured by official "body
counts" and
reports on "new" fighting forces on the way.
But this time Washington decided the United States couldn't
wait for
"Iraqization," a strategy that might sound limp-wristed
to American
voters. The US bombing and assaults quickly resumed. The Bush
White
House is thus picking targets and second-guessing field commanders,
just as Lyndon Johnson did forty years ago in Indochina. Bush
is
haunted by the mordant remark a US combat officer once made in
Vietnam: "We had to destroy the village in order to save
it."
Meanwhile, Bush's war is destroying the US Army, just as LBJ's
war
did. After Vietnam, military leaders and Richard Nixon wisely
abolished the draft and opted for an all-volunteer force. When
this
war ends, the volunteer army will be in ruins and a limited draft
lottery may be required to fill out the ranks. After Iraq, men
and
women will get out of uniform in large numbers, especially as
they
grasp the futility of their sacrifices. Yet Bush's on-the-cheap
warmaking against a weak opponent demonstrates that a larger
force
structure is needed to sustain his policy of pre-emptive war.
Kerry
says he wants 40,000 more troops, just in case. Old generals
doubt
Congress would pay for it, given the deficits.
Iraq is Vietnam standing in the mirror. John Kerry, if he
had it in
him, could lead a national teach-in--re-educate those who have
forgotten or prettified their memories but especially inform
younger
voters who weren't around for the national shame a generation
ago.
Kerry could describe in plain English what's unfolding now in
Iraq
and what must be done to find a way out with honor. In other
words,
be a truth-teller while holding Bush accountable.
Kerry won't go there, probably couldn't without enduring still
greater anger. His war-hero campaign biography inadvertently
engendered slanderous attacks and still-smoldering resentments.
Kerry, like other establishment Dems, originally calculated that
the
party should be as pro-war as Bush, thus freeing him to run on
other
issues. That gross miscalculation leaves him proffering a lame
"solution"--persuading France, Germany and others to
send their
troops into this quagmire. Not bloody likely, as the Brits say.
Bush can't go near the truth for obvious reasons. If elected,
he
faces only bad choices--bomb the bejeezus out of Iraq, as Nixon
bombed Vietnam and Cambodia, or bug out under the cover of artful
lies. The one thing Bush's famous "resolve" cannot
achieve is success
at war. Never mind, he aims to win the election instead.
So this presidential contest resembles a grotesque, media-focused
war
in which two sides skirmish for the attention of ill-informed
voters.
Bush won big back when he got Iraq off the front pages and evening
news with his phony hand-off of sovereignty and his chest-thumping
convention. But then his opponents--the hostile insurgents in
Iraq--struck back brilliantly and managed to put the war story
back
in the lead on the news (might we expect from them an "October
surprise" of deadlier proportions?). In this fight, Kerry
is like a
bystander who might benefit from bad news but can't wish for
it. Most
combat correspondents, with brave exceptions, hesitate to step
back
from daily facts and tell the larger truth. Maybe they are afraid
to
sound partial.
The timing of events in Iraq does not fit propitiously with
the
election calendar. A majority has already concluded that it was
a
mistake to fight this war, but public credulity is not yet destroyed.
A majority still wants to believe the strategy may yet succeed,
that
Iraq won't become another dark stain in our history books. During
Vietnam, the process of giving up on such wishful thinking took
many
years. The breaking point came in 1968, when a majority turned
against the war. LBJ withdrew from running for re-election. Nixon
won
that year with his "secret plan" to win the peace.
The war continued
for another five years. US casualties doubled.
This time, public opinion has moved much faster against the
war, but
perhaps not fast enough. People naturally are reluctant to conclude
that their country did the wrong thing, that young people died
for a
pointless cause. If the war story does stay hot and high on front
pages, a collapse of faith might occur in time for this election,
but
more likely it will come later. Nixon won a landslide re-election
in
1972 with his election-eve announcement that peace was at hand,
the
troops were coming home. In the hands of skilled manipulators,
horrendous defeat can be turned into honorable victory. Temporarily
at least. When the enemy eventually triumphed in Indochina, Nixon
was
already gone, driven out for other crimes.
=====================================================+
Tennessean.com
http://tennessean.com/opinion/nashville-eye/archives/04/09/57128047.shtml?Element_ID=57128047
How many ways was war in Iraq wrong? Let local veteran tell
you
By MICHAEL AUGUST
I am a Vietnam Veteran and I have participated in a number
of political demonstrations in Nashville as a member of the local
chapter of Veterans for Peace. This organization is made up of
people who have served in the armed forces and count themselves
among those who stand up against the militarism and the politics
of fear that have taken over our country.
We believe that war should be an action of absolute last resort
in defense of our country and not the preferred alternative.
It should certainly not be used for selfish economic gains (''No
War For Oil''). We are living in a time when our leadership has
convinced many Americans that going to war is in their best interests.
It is wrong.
We were told that the war in Iraq was a pre-emptive war, but
this is not so. In a pre-emptive war, it is known absolutely
that an enemy is about to strike, and we beat them to the punch.
What we started in Iraq could have been called a preventive
war. In this scenario, the country in question is disagreeable
to us and is suspected to have the capability to harm us, but
there is no indication of intention to do so.
As most people know by now, we Americans were lied to in order
to justify an unnecessary war. There was no link between Osama
bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and no weapons of mass destruction
(mass distraction?). The war, which has caused so much destruction
and death on both sides, was not only unnecessary, it was unjustifiable.
Let us be clear. When the term ''protecting American interests''
is used as an excuse for military interference in another country,
it is not referring to America as a collection of individual
citizens. It is the interests of the multinational corporations
that are being protected, often harming the interests of ordinary
people.
The war on Iraq has cost the American taxpayers over $134
billion so far. America's largest and wealthiest corporations
hire experts to evade taxes, thereby increasing the burden for
the rest of us. These war profiteers are now standing in line
for the largest piece of the Iraqi reconstruction pie that they
can swallow, with the government's blessing. Oil and energy companies
like Halliburton are at the head of the line. They will make
millions of dollars while the rest of us struggle to make ends
meet.
The present Bush administration is largely made up of a group
of neoconservatives (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Pearle, etc.)
whose agenda Sept. 12, 2001 was the invasion of Iraq. The idea
was to establish military bases, gain hegemony over the area
and ensure the flow of cheap oil. Iraqi freedom and the protection
of Americans had nothing to do with it.
We veterans join with other members and associates of the
Nashville Peace and Justice Center in protesting the economic
and military policies which lead to perpetual warfare. Dwight
D. Eisenhower had this to say:
''Every gun that's made,
every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final
sense a theft from all those who hunger and are not fed, from
those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is
not spending money alone; it is spending the sweat of its laborers,
the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This
is not a way of life in any true sense. Under a cloud of threatening
war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.''
Michael August of Nashville is a member of Veterans for
Peace, Nashville Chapter 89. E-mail: mannyaug@earthlink.net.
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Saturday, September 18, 2004 2:46 PM
Subject: Halliburton's Secret Deals Haunt Cheney
t r u t h o u t | 09.19
The Baltimore Sun | Global Warming Will Spawn More Ivans
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
Halliburton's Secret Deals Haunt Cheney
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904A.shtml
Insurgents Detonate Four Separate Bombs Around Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904B.shtml
Iraqi Rebels Target Oil and 'Collaborators'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904C.shtml
Interview: Seymour Hersh's Alternative History of Bush's War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904D.shtml
Navy Inspector General Validates Kerry's Medals
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904E.shtml
Noam Chomsky | The Resort to Force
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904F.shtml
Charles Lambroschini | Iranian Paradox
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904H.shtml
Soldiers' Kin Pay a High Price
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904I.shtml
The Los Angeles Times | Drop the Pretense on Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904J.shtml
Bereaved Mother Arrested for Heckling Laura Bush
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904K.shtml
The New York Times | Voting Machines: They Said It Couldn't
Be Done
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904L.shtml
Congressman Waxman | Secrecy in the Bush Administration
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904W.shtml
U.S. Death Toll in Iraq at Least 52 This Month
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904X.shtml
Secret Papers Show Blair was Warned of Iraq Chaos
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904Y.shtml
Kerry: 'Bush Planning to Call Up Reserves after Election'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904Z.shtml
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
=====================================================+
Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/4981686.html
Republicans blast Bush for environmental policies
By Tom Meersman
Several Republican conservationists criticized the Bush administration
Tuesday for weak enforcement of air pollution laws, rollbacks
in wetland protection, broken promises on global climate change
and a misguided approach to energy.
Russell Train, head of the Environmental Protection Agency during
the Nixon and Ford administrations, called President Bush's environmental
policies an "abomination."
"As a lifelong Republican, I find the Bush administration's
attack on the environment profoundly disturbing," Train
said. "It has tarnished the environmental legacies of Theodore
Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and this president's father, George
H.W. Bush."
Train, who served as chairman of Conservationists for Bush in
the senior Bush's 1988 campaign for president, said that his
party has become radical, not conservative, in terms of environmental
protection. "Sadly, the Bush administration decided to promote
the interests of its polluting campaign contributors from the
energy, mining and timber industries over the interests of common
citizens," he said.
Evan Rice, Minnesota coordinator for REP America, a national
grass-roots organization of Republicans for Environmental Protection,
said that air and water quality are too important to swing on
a pendulum every four years, attached to a political party or
to a liberal or conservative label. Referring to the red states
that vote Republican and blue states that go Democratic, Rice
said that "our 'red' and 'blue' Americas drink from the
same well and breathe the same fall air."
Rice said that the environment was "notably absent"
as a topic at the Republican National Convention and that increasing
numbers of party members are distraught about the "wrong
balance" in decisions that increase pollution and neglect
cleanup.
Rice and Train spoke at a news conference in Bloomington organized
by Environment2004. The political group, not authorized by any
candidate, has produced ads and reports critical of the Bush
administration's environmental policies.
Its leaders released an analysis Tuesday called "Poisoning
the Land of 10,000 Lakes," which outlines how federal actions
are affecting public health and resources in Minnesota.
They also previewed two ads about Superfund sites in Minnesota
and mercury in fish. They said the spots will be broadcast on
cable channels next month.
Peter Hong, communications director in Minnesota for the Bush-Cheney
campaign, said he could not comment on the statements, the new
report or the TV ads without further information.
But a White House report issued in July says the Bush administration
has made progress with several environmental initiatives. It
lists accelerated cleanup of urban polluted sites, or brownfields;
increased conservation of wetlands and wildlife habitat under
the Farm Bill; reductions of mercury and other pollutants from
coal-fired power plants during the next 15 years; increased funding
for climate change research; reductions of soot, sulfur and other
emissions from off-road diesel engines; and tax incentives for
renewable energy and hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles.
Tom Meersman is at meersman@startribune.com.
=====================================================+
grist.org - 16 Sep 2004
http://www.grist.org/news/muck/2004/09/16/griscom-yucca/?source=daily
Character Actors
Environment serving as a measure of character in presidential
race
By Amanda Griscom
At a time when the man commonly derided by greens as the worst
environmental president in U.S. history is up for reelection,
it's perplexing that the most publicly discussed environmental
issue of the campaign right now is Yucca Mountain -- a molehill
in the grand scheme of America's environmental problems.
Yucca Mountain
Of course, dumping nuclear waste in this Nevadan outpost is a
genuine concern -- particularly for, say, Nevadans. But nationally
speaking, even many enviros are ambivalent on the issue; as a
whole, the green community has put forward no clear alternative
plan of action. Enviros have far stronger and more unified objections
to, say, Bush's failure to address global warming, or his sweeping
rollbacks of protections for air quality, drinking water, forests,
and wetlands -- yet rarely are these issues discussed in the
campaign context.
Yucca seems to have hogged more airtime and headline space in
the last four months than in the last four years. In the last
few weeks alone, The Washington Post, The New York
Times, ABC, MSNBC, and various other national news outlets
have run stories fueling the Yucca controversy. The Kerry and
Bush campaigns have issued a number of press releases and statements
bashing each other's positions on the issue; John Kerry
staunchly opposes the dumping, while President Bush supports
it. As of this week, both candidates will have made four visits
each to Nevada -- which Bush took by 4 percentage points in the
2000 election -- to rally voters.
On Monday, Associated Press reporter John Heilprin
went so far as to argue that Yucca is the only green issue with
enough emotional immediacy to convince a critical mass of red
voters to cast a blue ballot: "Nevada, where Bush wants
to entomb a half-century's waste from atomic power plants, is
the only state where an environmental issue can realistically
swing the outcome [of the election], according to environmental
leaders and political analysts."
Really? Muckraker tried to hunt down those "environmental
leaders," but couldn't find one who agreed with that contention.
"By no means is Yucca the final, or only, environmental
frontier in this election," said Mark Longabaugh,
senior vice president of political affairs at the League of
Conservation Voters, which is investing up to $7 million
in the election to help draw out environmental voters to defeat
George Bush. "It's misleading to conclude that any
particular issue will be more dominant or decisive than others.
Issues are merely a way of getting voters to understand the larger
themes of this race: George Bush sides with special interests
at the expense of average citizens and the public interest."
Aimee Christensen, executive director of Environment2004,
which is putting up to $5 million toward rallying the green vote
with very targeted messages in swing states, agreed that specific
issues are primarily a device for illustrating a larger message:
"We're addressing local issues, but really what we're trying
to get voters to understand is that George Bush is neither compassionate
nor conservative. Conservation is deeply ingrained in the Republican
ethos, and Bush is betraying his Republican roots."
Republican pollster Frank Luntz (the same Luntz who penned
the 2002 memo leaked to The New York Times in which he
argued that the environment "is probably the single issue
on which Republicans in general -- and President Bush in particular
-- are most vulnerable") also told Muckraker that swing-state
victories will not be decided on Yucca Mountain or any other
issue: "This is not an issue-based election," he said.
"It's going to be decided on presidential image, on personal
attributes. Kerry's weakness is not based on his position on
the issues at all -- it's based on perceptions of his leadership
skills, on concerns that he's weak-minded, indecisive, on three
sides of every issue."
Democratic pollster Celinda Lake added that "one
of the things that Republicans have been better at doing than
the Dems is using issues as character frames. That's clearly
a very, very important component of what we need to get in the
election in the next 50 days." Lake added that voters see
the environment, in particular, as a character-defining issue:
"It's a positive for Kerry because people think that candidates
who are good on the environment also have integrity and courage
-- you have to stand up to special interests and protect the
little guy, you have to be a truth teller. That's why the Dems
need to go on the offensive with this -- to frame [Kerry's] character
in this context."
Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club,
also said that environmental issues are a potent tool for illustrating
values: "It's about issues to the extent that we have to
tell a good story at the door in Wisconsin. If you go there and
say, 'Kerry has a 96 percent LCV rating,' they'll say, 'Big whoop.'
If you say, 'George Bush is the worst environmental president
since William McKinley,' big whoop. But they listen if
you say, 'Did you know that George Bush has delayed cleaning
up that mercury-infested fish in your backyard for 10 years and
got huge campaign contributions from the power companies that
didn't want to clean up?'"
Whether it's mercury contamination in the waterways in Wisconsin
and Florida, pumping water out of the Great Lakes in Michigan,
or road-building in the forests of Arizona and Oregon, environmentalists
"need to make it a window onto the character issue,"
Pope said. The Sierra Club is putting an estimated $5 million
toward its get-out-the-green-vote effort, the bulk of which will
be spent in the month leading up to Nov. 2.
Though Luntz now insists that the environment will play a negligible
role in this election, he pinpointed what could be another Bush
weakness: "Most Americans today consider themselves anti-big
business," Luntz said. "Americans are simply anti-big.
Anti-big government. Anti-big media. Anti-big corporations. We
like small business, small government, independent television.
We're for the underdog, the little guy."
Leave it to Luntz to lay out the strategy for the next six weeks
of the Kerry campaign. Catering to big business could be to Bush
what flip-flopping is to Kerry -- his most serious perceived
character flaw. Virtually every environmental issue, from Arizona's
forests to Yucca's nuclear waste, lends itself to this message
-- which, unlike the flip-flopping charge, is not just spin.
Muck it up: We welcome rumors, whistleblowing,
classified documents, or other useful tips on environmental policies,
Beltway shenanigans, and the people behind them. Please send
'em to muckraker@gristmagazine.com.
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Friday, September 17, 2004 2:56 PM
Subject: U.S. Pounds Fallujah, Many Killed and Injured
t r u t h o u t | 09.18
Rise in Consumers 'Threatens Environment'
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
U.S. Pounds Fallujah, Many Killed and Injured
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804A.shtml
Iraq Study: Desire for WMD, but No Capacity
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804B.shtml
Bob Herbert | This is Bush's Vietnam
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804C.shtml
Ray McGovern | Gossing over the Record
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804D.shtml
Antiwar Ad Draws Ire from Bush Campaign
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804E.shtml
National Intelligence Estimate: No Plan for after War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804F.shtml
Le Monde Interview | "The Bush Administration Governs
by Fear"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804H.shtml
Kerry Blasts Bush on Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804I.shtml
The Economist | Is the Neo-Conservative Moment Over?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804J.shtml
New Charges Raise Questions on Torture at Afghan Prisons
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804K.shtml
Judith Miller Ordered to Testify in Plame Case
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804L.shtml
Two Iraq War Veterans Debate the Occupation
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804W.shtml
William Rivers Pitt | Scamming the Media, Parlock Style
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804X.shtml
Kerry Hammers Bush's "World of Spin" on Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804Y.shtml
Judge Orders Pentagon to Find Bush Service Records
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804Z.shtml
The TO Overview
William Rivers Pitt: 'Women and Children Were Also Among the
Dead'
http://www.truthout.org/overview.htm
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
=====================================================+
Published on Friday, September
17, 2004 by TomDispatch.com
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0917-01.htm
The Resort to Force
by Noam Chomsky
As Colin Powell explained the National Security Strategy (NSS)
of September 2002 to a hostile audience at
the World Economic Forum, Washington has a ``sovereign right
to use force to defend ourselves'' from
nations that possess WMD and cooperate with terrorists, the official
pretexts for invading Iraq. The collapse of
the pretexts is well known, but there has been insufficient attention
to its most important consequence: the
NSS was effectively revised to lower the bars to aggression.
The need to establish ties to terror was quietly
dropped. More significant, Bush and colleagues declared the right
to resort to force even if a country does
not have WMD or even programs to develop them. It is sufficient
that it have the ``intent and ability'' to do so.
Just about every country has the ability, and intent is in the
eye of the beholder. The official doctrine, then, is
that anyone is subject to overwhelming attack. Colin Powell carried
the revision even a step further. The
president was right to attack Iraq because Saddam not only had
``intent and capability'' but had ``actually
used such horrible weapons against his enemies in Iran and against
his own people''-- with continuing
support from Powell and his associates, he failed to add, following
the usual convention. Condoleezza Rice
gave a similar version. With such reasoning as this, who is exempt
from attack? Small wonder that, as one
Reuters report put it, ``if Iraqis ever see Saddam Hussein in
the dock, they want his former American allies
shackled beside him.''
In the desperate flailing to contrive justifications as one
pretext after another collapsed, the obvious reason
for the invasion was conspicuously evaded by the administration
and commentators: to establish the first
secure military bases in a client state right at the heart of
the world's major energy resources, understood
since World War II to be a ``stupendous source of strategic power''
and expected to become even more
important in the future. There should have been little surprise
at revelations that the administration intended
to attack Iraq before 9-11, and downgraded the ``war on terror''
in favor of this objective. In internal
discussion, evasion is unnecessary. Long before they took office,
the private club of reactionary statists had
recognized that ``the need for a substantial American force presence
in the Gulf transcends the issue of the
regime of Saddam Hussein.'' With all the vacillations of policy
since the current incumbents first took office in
1981, one guiding principle remains stable: the Iraqi people
must not rule Iraq.
The 2002 National Security Strategy, and its implementation
in Iraq, are widely regarded as a watershed in
international affairs. ``The new approach is revolutionary,''
Henry Kissinger wrote, approving of the doctrine
but with tactical reservations and a crucial qualification: it
cannot be ``a universal principle available to every
nation.'' The right of aggression is to be reserved for the US
and perhaps its chosen clients. We must reject
the most elementary of moral truisms, the principle of universality
-- a stand usually concealed in professions
of virtuous intent and tortured legalisms.
Arthur Schlesinger agreed that the doctrine and implementation
were ``revolutionary,'' but from a quite
different standpoint. As the first bombs fell on Baghdad, he
recalled FDR's words following the bombing of
Pearl Harbor, ``a date which will live in infamy.'' Now it is
Americans who live in infamy, he wrote, as their
government adopts the policies of imperial Japan. He added that
George Bush had converted a ``global
wave of sympathy'' for the US into a ``global wave of hatred
of American arrogance and militarism.'' A year
later, ``discontent with America and its policies had intensified
rather than diminished.'' Even in Britain support
for the war had declined by a third.
As predicted, the war increased the threat of terror. Middle
East expert Fawaz Gerges found it ``simply
unbelievable how the war has revived the appeal of a global jihadi
Islam that was in real decline after 9-11.''
Recruitment for the Al Qaeda networks increased, while Iraq itself
became a ``terrorist haven'' for the first time.
Suicide attacks for the year 2003 reached the highest level in
modern times; Iraq suffered its first since the
thirteenth century. Substantial specialist opinion concluded
that the war also led to the proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction.
As the anniversary of the invasion approached, New York's
Grand Central Station was patrolled by police with
submachine guns, a reaction to the March 11 Madrid train bombings
that killed 200 people in Europe's worst
terrorist crime. A few days later, the Spanish electorate voted
out the government that had gone to war
despite overwhelming popular opposition. Spaniards were condemned
for appeasing terrorism by voting for
withdrawing troops from Iraq in the absence of UN authorization
-- that is, for taking a stand rather like that of
70 percent of Americans, who called for the UN to take the leading
role in Iraq.
Bush assured Americans that ``The world is safer today because,
in Iraq, our coalition ended a regime that
cultivated ties to terror while it built weapons of mass destruction.''
The president's handlers know that every
word is false, but they also know that lies can become Truth,
if repeated insistently enough.
There is broad agreement among specialists on how to reduce
the threat of terror --keeping here to the
subcategory that is doctrinally acceptable, their terror against
us -- and also on how to incite terrorist atrocities,
which may become truly horrendous. The consensus is well articulated
by Jason Burke in his study of the Al
Qaeda phenomenon, the most detailed and informed investigation
of this loose array of radical Islamists for
whom bin Laden is hardly more than a symbol (a more dangerous
one after he is killed, perhaps, becoming a
martyr who inspires others to join his cause). The role of Washington's
current incumbents, in their Reaganite
phase, in creating the radical Islamist networks is well known.
Less familiar is their tolerance of Pakistan's slide
toward radical Islamist extremism and its development of nuclear
weapons.
As Burke reviews, Clinton's 1998 bombings of Sudan and Afghanistan
created bin Laden as a symbol, forged
close relations between him and the Taliban, and led to a sharp
increase in support, recruitment, and
financing for Al Qaeda, which until then was virtually unknown.
The next major contribution to the growth of Al
Qaeda and the prominence of bin Laden was Bush's bombing of Afghanistan
following September 11,
undertaken without credible pretext as later quietly conceded.
As a result, bin Laden's message ``spread
among tens of millions of people, particularly the young and
angry, around the world,'' Burke writes, reviewing
the increase in global terror and the creation of ``a whole new
cadre of terrorists'' enlisted in what they see as
a ``cosmic struggle between good and evil,'' a vision shared
by bin Laden and Bush. As noted, the invasion
of Iraq had the same effect.
Citing many examples, Burke concludes that ``Every use of
force is another small victory for bin Laden,'' who
``is winning,'' whether he lives or dies. Burke's assessment
is widely shared by many analysts, including former
heads of Israeli military intelligence and the General Security
Services.
There is also a broad consensus on what the proper reaction
to terrorism should be. It is two-pronged:
directed at the terrorists themselves and at the reservoir of
potential support. The appropriate response to
terrorist crimes is police work, which has been successful worldwide.
More important is the broad constituency
the terrorists -- who see themselves as a vanguard -- seek to
mobilize, including many who hate and fear
them but nevertheless see them as fighting for a just cause.
We can help the vanguard mobilize this reservoir
of support by violence, or can address the ``myriad grievances,''
many legitimate, that are ``the root causes of
modern Islamic militancy.'' That can significantly reduce the
threat of terror, and should be undertaken
independently of this goal.
Violence can succeed, as Americans know well from the conquest
of the national territory. But at terrible cost.
It can also provoke violence in response, and often does. Inciting
terror is not the only illustration. Others are
even more hazardous.
In February 2004, Russia carried out its largest military
exercises in two decades, prominently exhibiting
advanced WMD. Russian generals and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov
announced that they were responding
to Washington's plans ``to make nuclear weapons an instrument
of solving military tasks,'' including its
development of new low-yield nuclear weapons, ``an extremely
dangerous tendency that is undermining
global and regional stability,... lowering the threshold for
actual use.'' Strategic analyst Bruce Blair writes that
Russia is well aware that the new ``bunker busters'' are designed
to target the ``high-level nuclear command
bunkers'' that control its nuclear arsenal. Ivanov and Russian
generals report that in response to US
escalation they are deploying ``the most advanced state-of-the-art
missile in the world,'' perhaps next to
impossible to destroy, something that ``would be very alarming
to the Pentagon,'' says former Assistant
Defense Secretary Phil Coyle. US analysts suspect that Russia
may also be duplicating US development of a
hypersonic cruise vehicle that can re-enter the atmosphere from
space and launch devastating attacks
without warning, part of US plans to reduce reliance on overseas
bases or negotiated access to air routes.
US analysts estimate that Russian military expenditures have
tripled during the Bush-Putin years, in large
measure a predicted reaction to the Bush administration's militancy
and aggressiveness. Putin and Ivanov
cited the Bush doctrine of ``preemptive strike''-- the ``revolutionary''
new doctrine of the National Security
Strategy -- but also ``added a key detail, saying that military
force can be used if there is an attempt to limit
Russia's access to regions that are essential to its survival,''
thus adapting for Russia the Clinton doctrine that
the US is entitled to resort to ``unilateral use of military
power'' to ensure ``uninhibited access to key markets,
energy supplies, and strategic resources.'' The world ``is a
much more insecure place'' now that Russia has
decided to follow the US lead, said Fiona Hill of the Brookings
Institution, adding that other countries
presumably ``will follow suit.''
In the past, Russian automated response systems have come
within a few minutes of launching a nuclear
strike, barely aborted by human intervention. By now the systems
have deteriorated. US systems, which are
much more reliable, are nevertheless extremely hazardous. They
allow three minutes for human judgment
after computers warn of a missile attack, as they frequently
do. The Pentagon has also found serious flaws in
its computer security systems that might allow terrorist hackers
to seize control and simulate a launch--``an
accident waiting to happen,'' Bruce Blair writes. The dangers
are being consciously escalated by the threat
and use of violence.
Concern is not eased by the recent discovery that US presidents
have been ``systematically misinformed''
about the effects of nuclear war. The level of destruction has
been ``severely underestimated'' because of
lack of systematic oversight of the ``insulated bureaucracies''
that provide analyses of ``limited and `winnable'
nuclear war''; the resulting ``institutional myopia can be catastrophic,''
far more so than the manipulation of
intelligence on Iraq.
The Bush administration slated the initial deployment of a
missile defense system for summer 2004, a move
criticized as ``completely political,'' employing untested technology
at great expense. A more appropriate
criticism is that the system might seem workable; in the logic
of nuclear war, what counts is perception. Both
US planners and potential targets regard missile defense as a
first-strike weapon, intended to provide more
freedom for aggression, including nuclear attack. And they know
how the US responded to Russia's
deployment of a very limited ABM system in 1968: by targeting
the system with nuclear weapons to ensure
that it would be instantly overwhelmed. Analysts warn that current
US plans will also provoke a Chinese
reaction. History and the logic of deterrence ``remind us that
missile defense systems are potent drivers of
offensive nuclear planning,'' and the Bush initiative will again
raise the threat to Americans and to the world.
China's reaction may set off a ripple effect through India,
Pakistan, and beyond. In West Asia, Washington is
increasing the threat posed by Israel's nuclear weapons and other
WMD by providing Israel with more than
one hundred of its most advanced jet bombers, accompanied by
prominent announcements that the bombers
can reach Iran and return and are an advanced version of the
US planes Israel used to destroy an Iraqi
reactor in 1981. The Israeli press adds that the US is providing
the Israeli air force with ```special' weaponry.''
There can be little doubt that Iranian and other intelligence
services are watching closely and perhaps giving
a worst-case analysis: that these may be nuclear weapons. The
leaks and dispatch of the aircraft may be
intended to rattle the Iranian leadership, perhaps to provoke
some action that can be used as a pretext for
an attack.
Immediately after the National Security Strategy was announced
in September 2002, the US moved to
terminate negotiations on an enforceable bioweapons treaty and
to block international efforts to ban
biowarfare and the militarization of space. A year later, at
the UN General Assembly, the US voted alone
against implementation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and
alone with its new ally India against steps
toward the elimination of nuclear weapons. The US voted alone
against ``observance of environmental
norms'' in disarmament and arms control agreements and alone
with Israel and Micronesia against steps to
prevent nuclear proliferation in the Middle East--the pretext
for invading Iraq. A resolution to prevent
militarization of space passed 174 to 0, with four abstentions:
US, Israel, Micronesia, and the Marshall
Islands. As discussed earlier, a negative US vote or abstention
amounts to a double veto: the resolution is
blocked and is eliminated from reporting and history.
Bush planners know as well as others that the resort to force
increases the threat of terror, and that their
militaristic and aggressive posture and actions provoke reactions
that increase the risk of catastrophe. They
do not desire these outcomes, but assign them low priority in
comparison to the international and domestic
agendas they make little attempt to conceal.
Noam Chomsky is a Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy
at MIT. In addition to Hegemony or Survival,
America's Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project,
Metropolitan Books), he is the author
of numerous books on linguistics and on U.S. foreign policy.
[Reader's Note: The footnotes to the well-sourced "Afterword"
to the paperback edition of Hegemony or
Survival have been removed from this version. An expanded version
of the afterword is also available as part
of an expanded e-book version of Hegemony or Survival.] Reprinted
by arrangement with Metropolitan
Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company, LLC
Copyright C2004 Aviva Chomsky, Diane Chomsky and Harry
Chomsky
=====================================================+
Journalism Under Fire
by Bill Moyers, TomPaine.com Exclusive
Print it. Read it. This is one of Moyers' most important speeches.
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/#001916
=====================================================+
Blog Of Blogs: Global Fear
Finds A Voice
by Editor's Cut
You've seen the international polls. Now read their words. The
world is united against the current trajectory of U.S. policy.
Both Bush and Kerry need to listen.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/global_fears_find_a_voice.php
=====================================================+
From: publications@survival-international.org
To: <archdruid@igc.org>
Date: Friday, September 17, 2004 9:42 AM
http://www.survival-international.org/news.htm
e-news from Survival International
17 September 2004 e-news from Survival International,
supporting tribal peoples worldwide.
Founded in 1969, registered charity (UK) no. 267444
BANGLADESH: Settlers attack tribal family
There has been an upsurge in violence against the tribal peoples
of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. In August, an 11-month
old baby was badly injured during an attack by settlers in which
both his parents were killed; no action has been taken against
the perpetrators.
BRAZIL: Guarani Kaiowá take back ancestral lands
Just before dawn on 8 September, several hundred Guarani Kaiowá
Indians returned to part of their ancestral territory of Guyraroká
in Mato Grosso do Sul state. This marks their fourth attempt
to return to their land, from which they were evicted by cattle
ranchers and tea planters in the 1950s.
COLOMBIA: Indians march in protest at killings
Indians from across Colombia have marched in the past week in
protest at the killing of their leaders by all sides in the country's
civil war. In the largest protest, more than 40,000 Paez, Guambiano
and other tribes marched to the south-western city of Cali.
UK: A rare opportunity to listen to the Bushmen in
London
The Gana and Gwi 'Bushmen' of Botswana are fighting for their
very survival. Come and hear Bushman representatives Roy Sesana
and Jumanda Gakelebone talk about the Botswana government's eviction
of the Bushmen from their reserve, and their campaign to return
to the land of their ancestors.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Survival International is a worldwide organisation supporting
tribal peoples. It
stands for their right to decide their own future and helps them
protect their
lives, lands and human rights. It receives no government funding
and is dependent
on donations from the public. To find out more or to help see
http://www.survival-international.org
or email info@survival-international.org
=====================================================+
From: Institute for Public
Accuracy <dcinstitute@igc.org>
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 10:45:45 -0500
To: browerpower@wildnesswithin.com
International Election Monitors Arrive in the U.S.
Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org
* ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________
Friday, September 17, 2004
International Election Monitors Arrive in the U.S.
BRIGALIA BAM, http://www.fairelection.us
Dr Brigalia Bam is the Chairperson of the Independent Electoral
Commission
of South Africa. She is the former General Secretary of the South
African
Council of Churches. She said today: "We are civic leaders,
parliamentarians, diplomats, academics, electoral officials,
journalists,
and veteran election monitors. We come from 15 countries on all
five
continents. We have worked for decades in our home countries
to reform our
electoral systems, to make them more responsive, more open, and
more fair.
We have been invited by the U.S. non-governmental organization
Global
Exchange with the aim of assisting Americans in the effort to
increase
confidence in the electoral process. ... Our experience in dozens
of
countries around the world has shown that the presence of non-partisan,
non-governmental observers from other countries can help ensure
fair and
transparent elections and build trust in democratic processes.
... Through
sharing with Americans the democratic innovations and advances
occurring
around the world, we hope to bring to light the best practices
that may
benefit the U.S. political system."
JASON MARK, jason@globalexchange.org
Jason Mark works with Fair Election, a project of Global Exchange.
He said
today: "Electoral experts from 14 countries will arrive
in the United
States this week to begin an unprecedented international monitoring
of the
U.S. elections. The 20-person team consists of distinguished
pro-democracy
advocates who have spent much of their lives creating and improving
electoral systems in their home countries. The electoral observers
will
spend two weeks in the U.S. investigating controversies that
appear to be
undermining public faith in the U.S. political process. ... The
pre-electoral fact-finding team will spend four days in Washington,
D.C.
... The delegation will then split into five groups to conduct
further
investigations in Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Missouri, and Ohio.
In those
states the monitors will meet with secretaries of state, hear
from county
voting registrars, talk with community organizations, observe
voter
registration drives, and hold town hall meetings to get a full
picture of
American democracy."
Other members of the delegation include the following:
* Oscar Gonzalez. Mr. Gonzalez received the UNESCO Award for
Human Rights
in 2002, and he has been president of the Mexican Academy of
Human Rights
(1997-2002).
* Pansy Tlakula. She is chief Electoral Officer of the Independent
Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa, a position that makes
her the
overall head of elections in the country.
* Terence Humphreys. He is currently the Chief Executive of
Electoral
Reform International Services (ERIS), where he provides overall
direction
for all ERIS programs worldwide.
* Ms. Somsri Hananuntasuk. She is the Executive Director for
Asian Network
for Free Elections (ANFREL) and has extensive experiences in
election
monitoring in Indonesia, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Thailand, Sri
Lanka, East
Timor, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Laos and Vietnam.
* David MacDonald. MacDonald is a former Minister of Communications
of the
Canadian Parliament. He served as a Conservative under the Pearson,
Trudeau, and Clark governments from 1965 to 1980.
* Victoria Somers. Ms. Somers has observed elections in South
Africa,
Bosnia, Tanzania, Kosovo and Sri Lanka on behalf of the Irish
Government,
United Nations and European Union.
* Damaso Guerrero Magbual. He is a member of the National
Council and
concurrently Chairman of the National Capital Region and Deputy
Secretary
General for the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections
(NAMFREL),
which was the very first election monitoring organization in
Asia.
* K.J. Rao. Mr. Rao is currently the Elections and Training
Advisor to the
Election Commission of India.
* Shanta Martin. She is an international legal advisor currently
working
for the Commission for the Verification of Codes of Conduct (COVERCO)
in Guatemala.
* Horacio Boneo. Since 2000, Boneo has served as a consultant
on issues of
democratic governance and elections for the United Nations, the
United
Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Swedish International
Development
Agency, the National Democratic Institute, the Organization for
Security
and Cooperation in Europe, and the International Foundation for
Electoral
Systems, as well as a visiting professor at the Universidad Nacional
de San Martin.
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public
Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
To: <rbrower4@mac.com>
Date: Thursday, September 16, 2004 2:53 PM
Subject: U.S. Intelligence: Iraq Future Bleak
t r u t h o u t | 09.17
Kelpie Wilson | Bush Bites the Biscuit
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
U.S. Intelligence: Iraq Future Bleak
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704A.shtml
Edwards: No Military Draft if Democrats Win
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704B.shtml
17,000 Short: Press Lowballs Reports on U.S. Casualties
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704C.shtml
Kofi Annan: Iraq War was Illegal, Breached U.N. Charter
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704D.shtml
Washington Post Reveals Leaker Identity in CIA Agent Case
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704E.shtml
Army Defends Baghdad Battle that Left 16 Dead
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704F.shtml
Patrick Sabatier | Lessons
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704H.shtml
Mary Jacoby | The Dunce
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704I.shtml
Jonathan Turley | Soldiers of Fortune - at What Price?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704J.shtml
On Death Row, a Battle over the Fatal Cocktail
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704K.shtml
Adbusters: Going after Nike
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704L.shtml
U.S. Military Running Out of Guard, Reserve Troops
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704W.shtml
Two Americans, Briton Abducted in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704X.shtml
Military Leaders: "Bush's War is Already Lost"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704Y.shtml
Kerry: Bush Lying to America about Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704Z.shtml
The TO Overview
William Rivers Pitt: 'The Worst Case Has Become True'
http://www.truthout.org/overview.htm
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
=====================================================+
From: Ron Good <ron@hetchhetchy.org>
To: <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Date: Thursday, September 16, 2004 11:00 AM
Autumn 2004 Restore Hetch Hetchy newsletter now is on-line!
Hello members and friends of RESTORE HETCH HETCHY,
I'm pleased to let you know that our Autumn 2004 newsletter is
now on-line:
http://www.hetchhetchy.org/newsletter/pdf/rhh_newslettter_sept_2004.pdf
Articles include:
* Sacramento Bee publishes major series of articles and
editorials about Hetch Hetchy
* Restoration of the Tuolumne River using natural materials --
Mark Cederborg
* Meet our Board: Bill Resneck, Chair of the RHH Legal Committee
* RHH at the "Wild T Party" celebrating the 20th-year
anniversary designation of the Tuolumne River as a national wild
& scenic river
* RHH volunteers Kay Pitts and Glenn Ovitt at our Free Speech
table in Yosemite Valley
* Eastern Madera County (Oakhurst-area) Chamber of Commerce endorses
a Hetch Hetchy restoration Feasibility Study
* RHH volunteer Dan Lucas at the Sacramento State Earth Day festival
* * * *
Ron Good
Executive Director
RESTORE HETCH HETCHY
P.O. Box 3538
Sonora, CA 95370
(209) 533 - HHV 1 [4481]
(415) 987-9944 cell
<http://www.hetchhetchy.org>
ron@hetchhetchy.org
=====================================================+
Published on Thursday, September
16, 2004 by the Miami Herald
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0916-01.htm
Kerry Needs the Courage to Walk Away from Iraq
by Howard
Zinn
If John Kerry wants to win, he must recognize that our military
intervention in Iraq is a disaster -- for
Americans, for Iraqis, for the world. He must stop boasting about
his courage in Vietnam and instead start
talking about his moral courage in opposing that war. He needs
to stop saying, as he did recently in the
Midwest, that he defended this country when he was fighting in
Vietnam. That is not an honest statement. If it
were true, then he would not have turned against the war.
He was not defending this country when he fought in Vietnam.
He was defending this country when he said
that we were wrong to be in Vietnam and we should get out.
He should not be saying that he will wage the Iraq War better,
that he will replace U.S. troops with soldiers
from other countries. If it is immoral for our soldiers to be
occupying Iraq and killing Iraqis every day, then it is
immoral for foreign soldiers to do the same.
He should be clear: We are not defending our country by our
war in Iraq, and we should get out.
He should stop saying what President Bush is saying, that
we have to ''stay the course.'' We stayed the
course in Vietnam and it cost more than 58,000 American lives
and untold Vietnamese lives.
To those who say that we must not ''cut and run,'' Kerry can
say, with some authority: We did cut and run in
Vietnam, and it was the right thing to do.
Kerry needs to stop talking about how he will be stronger
than Bush and how he will do more for our national
security. He should stop accepting the traditional definitions
of strength and security.
He should say that strength should not be measured in military
terms, but in moral terms. Did the possession
of almost 10,000 nuclear weapons prevent Sept. 11? Will a $400
billion military budget make us stronger or
weaker? Will our military actions diminish terrorism or increase
it?
Does not our strength lie in being an example to the world
of a peace-loving nation, which uses its wealth not
for bombs but for food and medicine, for our people and for others
in need around the world? Should we not
stop defining security in military terms, but talk instead of
''health security,'' ''job security,'' ``children's security''?
This is not Utopian. It is what Americans have shown that
they want, before they are made hysterical and
fearful by government propaganda. It is not simply a moral program,
but a winning program.
William Lloyd Garrison, the great Massachusetts abolitionist,
was urged by a friend to speak more cautiously.
Garrison replied: ``Slavery, sir, will not be overthrown without
excitement, a tremendous excitement.''
War and corporate thievery will not be overthrown without
excitement, either. Kerry, if he will stop being
cautious, can create an excitement that will carry him into the
White House and, more important, change the
course of the nation.
Howard Zinn, who served as a bombardier in the Air Force
in World War II,
is author of the best-selling 'A People's History of the United
States'.
Copyright 1996-2004 Knight Ridder
=====================================================+
Published on Thursday, September
16, 2004 by the Guardian / United Kingdom
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0916-10.htm
Far Graver Than Vietnam
Most Senior US Military Officers now Believe the War on
Iraq
has turned into a Disaster onan Unprecedented Scale
by Sidney Blumenthal
'Bring
them on!" President Bush challenged the early Iraqi
insurgency in July of last year. Since then, 812
American soldiers have been killed and 6,290 wounded, according
to the Pentagon. Almost every day, in
campaign speeches, Bush speaks with bravado about how he is "winning"
in Iraq. "Our strategy is
succeeding," he boasted to the National Guard convention
on Tuesday.
But, according to the US military's leading strategists and
prominent retired generals, Bush's war is already
lost. Retired general William Odom, former head of the National
Security Agency, told me: "Bush hasn't found
the WMD. Al-Qaida, it's worse, he's lost on that front. That
he's going to achieve a democracy there? That
goal is lost, too. It's lost." He adds: "Right now,
the course we're on, we're achieving Bin Laden's ends."
Retired general Joseph Hoare, the former marine commandant
and head of US Central Command, told me:
"The idea that this is going to go the way these guys planned
is ludicrous. There are no good options. We're
conducting a campaign as though it were being conducted in Iowa,
no sense of the realities on the ground.
It's so unrealistic for anyone who knows that part of the world.
The priorities are just all wrong."
Jeffrey Record, professor of strategy at the Air War College,
said: "I see no ray of light on the horizon at all.
The worst case has become true. There's no analogy whatsoever
between the situation in Iraq and the
advantages we had after the second world war in Germany and Japan."
Andrew Terrill, professor at the Army War College's strategic
studies institute - and the top expert on Iraq
there - said: "I don't think that you can kill the insurgency".
According to Terrill, the anti-US insurgency,
centred in the Sunni triangle, and holding several cities and
towns - including Fallujah - is expanding and
becoming more capable as a consequence of US policy.
"We have a growing, maturing insurgency group,"
he told me. "We see larger and more coordinated military
attacks. They are getting better and they can self-regenerate.
The idea there are x number of insurgents, and
that when they're all dead we can get out is wrong. The insurgency
has shown an ability to regenerate itself
because there are people willing to fill the ranks of those who
are killed. The political culture is more hostile to
the US presence. The longer we stay, the more they are confirmed
in that view."
After the killing of four US contractors in Fallujah, the
marines besieged the city for three weeks in April - the
watershed event for the insurgency. "I think the president
ordered the attack on Fallujah," said General
Hoare. "I asked a three-star marine general who gave the
order to go to Fallujah and he wouldn't tell me. I
came to the conclusion that the order came directly from the
White House." Then, just as suddenly, the order
was rescinded, and Islamist radicals gained control, using the
city as a base.
"If you are a Muslim and the community is under occupation
by a non-Islamic power it becomes a religious
requirement to resist that occupation," Terrill explained.
"Most Iraqis consider us occupiers, not liberators."
He
describes the religious imagery common now in Fallujah and the
Sunni triangle: "There's talk of angels and
the Prophet Mohammed coming down from heaven to lead the fighting,
talk of martyrs whose bodies are
glowing and emanating wonderful scents."
"I see no exit," said Record. "We've been down
that road before. It's called Vietnamisation. The idea that
we're going to have an Iraqi force trained to defeat an enemy
we can't defeat stretches the imagination. They
will be tainted by their very association with the foreign occupier.
In fact, we had more time and money in
state building in Vietnam than in Iraq."
General Odom said: "This is far graver than Vietnam.
There wasn't as much at stake strategically, though in
both cases we mindlessly went ahead with the war that was not
constructive for US aims. But now we're in a
region far more volatile, and we're in much worse shape with
our allies."
Terrill believes that any sustained US military offensive
against the no-go areas "could become so
controversial that members of the Iraqi government would feel
compelled to resign". Thus, an attempted
military solution would destroy the slightest remaining political
legitimacy. "If we leave and there's no civil war,
that's a victory."
General Hoare believes from the information he has received
that "a decision has been made" to attack
Fallujah "after the first Tuesday in November. That's the
cynical part of it - after the election. The signs are all
there."
He compares any such planned attack to the late Syrian dictator
Hafez al-Asad's razing of the rebel city of
Hama. "You could flatten it," said Hoare. "US
military forces would prevail, casualties would be high, there
would be inconclusive results with respect to the bad guys, their
leadership would escape, and civilians would
be caught in the middle. I hate that phrase collateral damage.
And they talked about dancing in the street, a
beacon for democracy."
General Odom remarked that the tension between the Bush administration
and the senior military officers
over Iraqi was worse than any he has ever seen with any previous
government, including Vietnam. "I've never
seen it so bad between the office of the secretary of defence
and the military. There's a significant majority
believing this is a disaster. The two parties whose interests
have been advanced have been the Iranians and
al-Qaida. Bin Laden could argue with some cogency that our going
into Iraq was the equivalent of the
Germans in Stalingrad. They defeated themselves by pouring more
in there. Tragic."
· Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to
President Clinton, is Washington bureau chief of salon.com
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 2:46 PM
Subject: Steve Weissman | Don't Count on Europe in Iraq
t r u t h o u t | 09.16
At War Against Dam, Tribe Turns to Old Ways
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
Steve Weissman | Don't Count on Europe in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604A.shtml
9/11 Widows: "President Bush Thwarted Our Attempts at
Every Turn"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604B.shtml
Group Offers $50,000 for Proof of Bush Service
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604C.shtml
Iraq: A Descent into Civil War?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604D.shtml
Sharon Abandons Mideast Peace 'Road Map'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604E.shtml
Kerry Questions Bush's Honesty on Health Care, Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604F.shtml
Patrick Sabatier | Tunnel
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604H.shtml
Chalmers Johnson | The Military-Industrial Man
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604I.shtml
Nicholas D. Kristof | Mr. Bush's Glass House
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604J.shtml
Vote Drives Gain Avid Attention of Youth in '04
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604K.shtml
In Sudan, Rape's Lasting Hurt
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604L.shtml
Judge Orders Nader Name off Florida Ballot
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604W.shtml
Patrick Guerriero | Log Cabin Republicans Say No to Bush
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604X.shtml
Hunt for bin Laden Weaker Now than Before 9/11
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604Y.shtml
Arab League: "Gates of Hell" Opened in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091604Z.shtml
The TO Overview
William Rivers Pitt: 'A Sword Clanging Against Bush's Political
Armor'
http://www.truthout.org/overview.htm
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
=====================================================+
nytimes.com - September 14, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/14/opinion/14krugman.html?ex=1096217061&ei=1&en=f0a808df6017e27f
Taking On the Myth
By PAUL KRUGMAN
On Sunday, a celebrating crowd gathered around a burning
U.S. armored vehicle. Then a helicopter opened fire; a
child and a journalist for an Arabic TV news channel were
among those killed. Later, the channel repeatedly showed
the journalist doubling over and screaming, "I'm dying;
I'm
dying."
Such scenes, which enlarge the ranks of our enemies by
making America look both weak and brutal, are inevitable in
the guerrilla war President Bush got us into. Osama bin
Laden must be smiling.
U.S. news organizations are under constant pressure to
report good news from Iraq. In fact, as a Newsweek headline
puts it, "It's worse than you think." Attacks on coalition
forces are intensifying and getting more effective; no-go
zones, which the military prefers to call "insurgent
enclaves," are spreading - even in Baghdad. We're losing
ground.
And the losses aren't only in Iraq. Al Qaeda has regrouped.
The invasion of Iraq, intended to demonstrate American
power, has done just the opposite: nasty regimes around the
world feel empowered now that our forces are bogged down.
When a Times reporter asked Mr. Bush about North Korea's
ongoing nuclear program, "he opened his palms and
shrugged."
Yet many voters still believe that Mr. Bush is doing a good
job protecting America.
If Senator John Kerry really has advisers telling him not
to attack Mr. Bush on national security, he should dump
them. When Dick Cheney is saying vote Bush or die,
responding with speeches about jobs and health care doesn't
cut it.
Mr. Kerry should counterattack by saying that Mr. Bush is
endangering the nation by subordinating national security
to politics.
In early 2002 the Bush administration, already focused on
Iraq, ignored pleas to commit more forces to Afghanistan.
As a result, the Taliban is resurgent, and Osama is still
out there.
In the buildup to the Iraq war, commanders wanted a bigger
invasion force to help secure the country. But civilian
officials, eager to prove that wars can be fought on the
cheap, refused. And that's one main reason our soldiers are
still dying in Iraq.
This past April, U.S. forces, surely acting on White House
orders after American television showed gruesome images of
dead contractors, attacked Falluja. Lt. Gen. James Conway,
the Marine commander on the scene, opposed "attacking out
of revenge" but was overruled - and he was overruled again
with an equally disastrous decision to call off the attack
after it had begun. "Once you commit," General Conway
said,
"you got to stay committed." But Mr. Bush, faced with
the
prospect of a casualty toll that would have hurt his
approval rating, didn't.
Can Mr. Kerry, who voted to authorize the Iraq war,
criticize it? Yes, by pointing out that he voted only to
give Mr. Bush a big stick. Once that stick had forced
Saddam to let W.M.D. inspectors back in, there was no need
to invade. And Mr. Kerry should keep pounding Mr. Cheney,
who is trying to cover for the absence of W.M.D. by lying,
yet again, about Saddam's ties to Al Qaeda.
Some pundits are demanding that Mr. Kerry produce a
specific plan for Iraq - a demand they never make of Mr.
Bush. Mr. Kerry should turn the tables, and demand to know
what - aside from pretending that things are going fine -
Mr. Bush intends to do about the spiraling disaster. And
Mr. Kerry can ask why anyone should trust a leader who
refuses to replace the people who created that disaster
because he thinks it's bad politics to admit a mistake.
Mr. Kerry can argue that he wouldn't have overruled the
commanders who had wanted to keep the pressure on Al Qaeda,
or dismissed warnings from former Gen. Eric Shinseki, then
the Army's chief of staff, that peacekeeping would require
a large force. He wouldn't have ignored General Conway's
warnings about the dangers of storming into Falluja, or
overruled his protests about calling off that assault
halfway through.
On the other hand, he can argue that he would have fired
Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary who ridiculed
General Shinseki. And he would definitely have fired Donald
Rumsfeld for the failure to go in with enough troops, the
atrocities at Abu Ghraib and more.
The truth is that Mr. Bush, by politicizing the "war
on
terror," is putting America at risk. And Mr. Kerry has to
say that.
=====================================================+
From: "OpenTheGovernment.org"
<blumr@ombwatch.org>
Reply-To: "OpenTheGovernment.org" <blumr@ombwatch.org>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 10:56:41 -0400
To: <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Subject: OpenTheGovernment.org Updates for September 15,
2004
OpenTheGovernment.org Updates for September 15, 2004
There's only one new policy today and plenty of news. With
Congress back in session, please share any new legislation you
see dealing with open government or updates to any bills your
organization may be tracking. If you have any policy items that
you think should be included in our weekly updates, please send
us an email <mailto: info@openthegovernment.org> .
Please forward this email on and encourage people to sign-up
at our website <http://www.openthegovernment.org/article/subarchive/44>
! As always, let us know how we can improve the updates and any
omissions.
Policy Updates
(New information is highlighted with [new] or [updated]
in the title)
TAKE ACTION
Whistleblower Protection Legislation
The Senate is ready to vote on the "Federal Employee Protection
of Disclosures Act" (S. 2628), which would be the first
stand-alone whistleblower protection bill to be approved by the
Senate Committee in ten years. This legislation would amend the
Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) to ensure protection against
reprisal for federal employees who bring government wrongdoing
to light. The House companion bill (H.R. 3281) has yet to leave
committee, despite promises from the committee chairman that
he would act.
Status: S.2628 is ready for Senate vote but H.R.3281 has
not left the House Government Reform Committee.
Source: Government Accountability Project press release
<http://www.whistleblower.org/uploads/07-21-04
WPA Senate Victory.pdf> .
Action: Contact the Government Reform Committee <http://capwiz.com/ombwatch/issues/alert/?alertid=6328216>
.
NIH Proposes Open Access Policy
A new proposal from the National Institutes of Health would require
all published scientific articles based on taxpayer-funded research
to be publicly available for free. Currently, scientific journals
publish the studies, which can only be accessed by subscriptions
or through an academic institution that has its own subscription.
Status: The NIH proposal is open for a 60-day comment
period.
Source: Alliance for Taxpayer Access < http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/>
Action: Send a letter to Congress < http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/you.html>
.
Satellite Imagery FOIA Exemption
A proposed Freedom of Information Act exemption, restricting
public access to satellite images and related data will be considered
this month in conference. The Senate already approved the measure,
which would prohibit disclosure of any commercial satellite images
or any products derived from the data. This broad exclusion would
threaten significant amounts of unclassified data that journalists,
public interest groups, scientist, and the public use routinely.
Status: After the Senate passed S. 2400, which contained
the provision, the Senate incorporated S. 2400 in H.R. 4200 as
an amendment. H.R. 4200 is currently in House-Senate conference.
Source: Secrecy News, Sept. 7, 2004.
Action: Ask Congress to drop the FOIA exemption <http://capwiz.com/ombwatch/issues/alert/?alertid=6338701>
.
Independent Classification Board
Legislation has been introduced in both houses of Congress to
create an Independent National Security Classification Board
in the executive branch.
Status: S.2672 has been referred to the Committee on Intelligence.
H.R.4855 was referred to the House Committee on Intelligence.
Action: Send a letter to Congress in support of a classification
board! <http://capwiz.com/ombwatch/issues/alert/?alertid=6156091>
Patriot Act: Reversing the Patriot Act
The Civil Liberties Restoration Act 2004 (S. 2528) would end
secret hearings, ensure due process for detained individuals,
limit secret seizures of records, and limit the use of secret
evidence.
Status: Introduced by members of the House and Senate
June 16, and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Source: Text of the bill < http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:s2528:>
, June 16, 2004. A bill analysis talking points is available
from the Rights Working Group <http://www.rightsworkinggroup.org/?id=5>
.
Action: Organizations can add their name to this letter
< http://www.rightsworkinggroup.org/?id=10>
and individuals can send a letter to Congress < http://capwiz.com/ombwatch/issues/alert/?alertid=6213761>
.
Should trains identify hazardous materials? Tom Ridge wants
input
Despite their own study concluding the current system works,
the Department of Homeland Security wants to know if railcars
should continue to identify whether their contents are hazardous.
Quickly identifying hazards is critical to saving lives in an
accident involving hazardous chemicals.
Status: The Department of Homeland Security is accepting
public comment on the proposal through October 18, 2004.
Action: Read the proposal <http://www.openthegovernment.org/otg/hazmat_placards.pdf>
. Note: Check these updates for a sample letter to be
posted as soon as the government begins accepting public comment
through its electronic docket system.
Sensitive Security Information (SSI): Federalism v. Secrecy
The Senate pushed to pre-empt state and local sunshine laws in
order to mandate secrecy about public safety problems in aviation,
rail and other transportation systems.
Status: The administration-sponsored secrecy provisions
were in the Senate-passed version of the $350 billion transportation
bill (H.R. 3550); the version passed by the House lacks them.
Currently in conference.
Action: Send a letter through the American Library Association
action alert <http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/washnews/news2004/37jun14.htm>
.
Warning
[new] Waxman Introduces Bill to Fix Secrecy Policies
Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) introduced legislation to
restore open government on several fronts. The Restore Open Government
Act of 2004 would restore the presumption of disclosure, ease
public oversight of critical infrastructure safeguards, restore
historians' access to presidential records, address excessive
overclassification, and eases challenging agencies that are improperly
withholding information.
Status: The bill was introduced on 9/14/04.
Source: House Committee on Government Reform Minority
Office <http://democrats.reform.house.gov/features/secrecy_report/index.asp>
Patriot Act: Extending Patriot Act
H.R. 3179, introduced by Reps. Sensenbrenner and Goss, includes
several sections of Patriot II. After opposition from many groups
coordinated by the Rights Working Group, H.R. 3179 was not added
to the intelligence authorization bill (S. 2386) during a closed
mark-up session on June 16th.
Status: May come up as a floor amendment to the intelligence
authorization bill in the Senate.
Source: Bill of Rights Defense Committee <http://www.bordc.org/BORDCnews3-5.htm#leg>
.
Patriot Act: Patriot Act Sunsets
On May 21, ten senators introduced a bill, S. 2476, that would
make permanent many provisions of the Patriot Act scheduled to
sunset next year.
Status: The bill is referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Source: THOMAS <http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:s2476:>
.
For other policies that OpenTheGovernment.org is watching,
please visit our compendium <http://www.openthegovernment.org/article/subarchive/69/>
.
In the Library section < http://www.openthegovernment.org/article/subarchive/7/>
of OpenTheGovernment.org < http://www.openthegovernment.org/>
, you can find files for download, an extensive link library,
information on key books and hardcopy resources useful to RTK
advocates. Also, you can email us if you have information to
add that others would find useful!
News Highlights
Looking for authors! The Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
distributes op-ed opinion pieces on any topic related to freedom
of information. The op-eds may be published freely as long as
the author is credited. To view the latest op-ed as well as all
pieces in the series, go to Knight Ridder/Tribune <http://www.krtdirect.com/FOI.html>
. Pieces should be 700 words in length and sent to Ray Walker
at rwalker@krtinfo.com and oped@krtinfo.com. Please also let
us know if you submit a piece!
Reporters Committee Releases 5th Edition of War Report <http://www.rcfp.org/homefrontconfidential/>
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press released the
5th Edition of its "White Paper" chronicling the effects
the War on Terrorism has had on the public's right to know.
Too much secrecy: Overclassification hampers cooperation <
http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=347512>
Many sources indicate that one of the biggest problems in tracking
terrorists before the 9/11 attacks was government secrecy.
[Federal Times Sept. 13, 2004]
Court ruling deals setback to secrecy < http://www.jdnews.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=25636&Section=Opinion>
A North Carolina court of appeals recently found that only members
of the public are entitled to initiate judicial action seeking
enforcement of their information requests, as the state's open
government laws do not allow local governments to initiate judicial
action declaring its efforts to keep information from the public
legal.
[Daily News Sept. 13, 2004]
Veil of secrecy to lift on drug tests < http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0913/p11s02-ussc.html>
Pressure is mounting to reform the pharmaceutical industry so
that the results of clinical drug trials are available to the
public. Many have endorsed a public registry of drug trials.
[Christian Science Monitor Sept. 13, 2004]
FDA Urged Withholding Data on Antidepressants: Makers Were
Dissuaded From Labeling Drugs as Ineffective in Children <
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9802-2004Sep9.html>
Government regulators pressured antidepressant manufacturers
not to disclose clinical trials' results that indicate the effectiveness
of the medications in children were no better than sugar pills.
[Washington Post Sept. 10, 2004]
Hiding Genome Data Won't Protect Us, Experts Say < http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=2LP3RY1NCORJ2CRBAEZSFEY?type=scienceNews&storyID=6196728>
Scientists on a National Research Council committee found that
making the genetic codes of dangerous pathogens a secret will
not save anyone from bioterrorism. In fact, it may make the population
vulnerable to natural attacks from pathogens.
[Reuters Sept. 9, 2004]
Whistleblowers Call for Disclosure of Government's Iraq Deceit
< http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=35915>
; Ellsberg, Former CIA, FBI Officials Say Americans Need Full
Disclosure of Lies, Cover-ups, and War's Projected Costs in Livesand
Dollars
Former government officials are calling for the disclosure of
classified information that is being wrongly withheld.
[U.S. Newswire Sept. 9, 2004] http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=14003
Past Updates... <http://www.openthegovernment.org/article/subarchive/60/>
=====================================================+
The Nation - 09/08/2004
http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=1793
Vice President of the Apocalypse
by John Nichols
For those who feared that the speakers at last week's Republican
National Convention had failed to adequately impress upon the
American electorate the view that death and grief and sorrow
would be
the predictable byproducts of John Kerry's election to the
presidency, Vice President Dick Cheney has spelled out the threat
in
excruciating detail.
"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today,
on Nov. 2,
we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice
then
the danger is that we'll get hit again in a way that will be
devastating from the standpoint of the United States," Cheney
grumbled to a gathering of the ceaselessly-nodding Republican
party
faithful in Des Moines.
Cheney's claim that the replacement of the administration
he runs --
with an assist from George W. Bush -- by a Kerry administration
would
call down the wrath of global terrorism on the homeland is easily
the
most irresponsible statement of a campaign that has not exactly
been
characterized by moderation.
The Democratic response was to condemn Cheney in the bizarrely
tepid
fashion that has come to characterize the opposition party's
dysfunction attempt to retake the White House. "Protecting
America
from vicious terrorists is not a Democratic or Republican issues,
it's an American issue and Dick Cheney and George Bush should
know
that," whined Democratic vice presidential nominee John
Edwards.
Let it be recorded that, despite the firm slap on the wrist
that was
administered by Mr. Edwards, Mr. Cheney did not choose to retract
his
remarks. And he won't.
Edwards and other Democrats make a mistake when they assume,
as
Edwards did, that the vice president is merely playing politics.
When
Edwards suggested that Cheney was employing "scare tactics,"
and that
the Republicans "will do anything and say anything to save
their
jobs," he gave Cheney far too much credit.
It is true, of course, that the vice president would say anything
and
do anything in order to maintain his grip on power. But it does
not
necessarily follow that Cheney is simply carrying out a political
hit. Indeed, if the past is prologue, there is every reason to
assume
that the vice president believes what he is saying about the
damage
that will befall the land if he and his minions are not working
the
levers of authority.
Few figures in American politics maintain a world view that
is so
consistently apocalyptic as does Cheney. Fewer still have allowed
petty fears and profound ignorance to so dramatically warp their
actions and public pronouncements.
Cheney's Cold War obsessions have frequently placed him on
the wrong
side of history, causing him to misread the geopolitical realities
of
regions around the world -- and of the key players within them.
This
is the man who was so certain that the African National Congress
was
a dangerous group that he regularly voted, as a member of Congress
in
the 1980s, against House resolutions calling for the release
of
Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners in South Africa.
While
leading conservative Republicans such as Jack Kemp were hailing
Mandela as an iconic fighter for freedom and racial justice,
Cheney
continued to decry the ANC as "a terrorist organization"
and to
dismiss its leaders as threatening radicals.
During the same period that Cheney was championing the imprisonment
of Mandela, the Republican representative from Wyoming was one
of the
most prominent Congressional advocates for the Reagan
administration's illegal war making in Central America. When
the
administration's crimes were exposed as the Iran-Contra scandal,
former White House counsel John Dean notes, "Cheney became
President
Reagan's principle defender in Congress." Cheney argued
that those
who sought to hold the Reagan administration accountable for
illegal
acts in Latin America were "prepared to undermine the presidency"
and
the ability of future presidents to defend the United States.
When he left the House to become George Herbert Walker Bush's
Secretary of Defense, Cheney struggled to maintain the Pentagon's
Cold War footing even as the Berlin Wall was crumbling. Obsessed
with
the notion that the United States should retain the capacity
to
launch preemptive wars against nation's that were perceived even
as
possible threats, Cheney was a hyperactive advocate for the 1991
Persian Gulf War. Unfortunately for Secretary of Defense, whose
passion for deposing Saddam Hussein reached surreal levels, the
"Operation Scorpion" scheme he and his aides developed
for imposing
"regime change" upon Iraq was so ineptly plotted that
it was scrapped
after a cursory review by General Norman Schwarzkopf. "I
wondered
whether Cheney had succumbed to the phenomenon I'd observed among
some secretaries of the army," observed Schwarzkopf, the
commander on
the ground in the region. "Put a civilian in charge of professional
military men and before long he's no longer satisfied with setting
policy but wants to outgeneral the generals."
When Cheney and a self-selected Praetorian Guard set up the
new
Republican administration that took charge of the White House
after
the 2000 election, the vice president could not be bothered to
address real threats to the country because he remained obsessed
with
what turned out to be a ridiculously hyped Iraqi threat. As former
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill noted, Cheney and his aides were
in
the first days of 2001 "already planning the next war in
Iraq and the
shape of a post-Saddam country."
On the issue of Iraq, Cheney has allowed his tendency toward
apocalyptic fantasies to go unchecked. When the vice president
was
peddling the "case" for invasion, he made far more
remarkable claims
than did Bush. Charging that Saddam had "resumed his efforts
to
acquire nuclear weapons," Cheney warned a 2002 Veterans
of Foreign
Wars convention that, "Armed with an arsenal of these weapons
of
terror, and seated atop 10 percent of the world's oil reserves,
Saddam Hussein could then be expected to seek domination of the
entire Middle East, take control of the world's energy supplies,
directly threaten American friends throughout the region, and
subject
the United States or any other nation to nuclear blackmail."
Whew! Scary stuff!
Even scarier, however, is the fact that, as Cheney's claims
were
proven wrong, the vice president continued to repeat them --
long
after Bush had backed off, and long after there was any political
advantage to be gained.
This, of course, is where assessing Cheney gets difficult.
It is no
longer clear where Cheney is deliberately deceiving the American
people and where he has deliberately deceived himself. It is
easy to
call Cheney a "liar," -- and there is no question that
the vice
president has been caught more than once twisting the truth.
But Dick
Cheney's biggest lies are almost certainly the ones he tells
himself.
As such, he will never back away from his charge that changing
administrations would be a "wrong choice."
A man who so frequently anticipates the apocalypse is likely
to fall
into the habit of believing that he alone recognizes that true
dangers facing his country.
But why would anyone else treat Cheney seriously? Why would
the press
repeat his over-the-top charges without noting that Dick Cheney
has a
track record of reading the world wrong, imagining threats where
they
do not exist and neglecting real dangers? Why would it go unmentioned
that the man who is questioning John Kerry's judgement thought
Nelson
Mandela was a terrorist?
That's what John Edwards should be talking about.
Instead of complaining that the vice president is engaging
in "scare
tactics," the Democrat should be suggesting that Americans
ought to
be afraid, very afraid, of Dick Cheney.
(John Nichols' book on Cheney, Dick: The Man Who Is President,
has
just been released by The New Press. It's available in independent
bookstores nationwide and at www.amazon.com)
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 2:46 PM
Subject: William Rivers Pitt | When the Rabbits Get a
Gun
t r u t h o u t | 09.15
Blair to U.S.: Ratify Kyoto
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
William Rivers Pitt | When the Rabbits Get a Gun
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504A.shtml
Car Bomb Kills at Least 47 at a Police Headquarters in Baghdad
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504B.shtml
U.S. Troops Face New Torture Claims
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504C.shtml
'He's Just Sleeping, I Kept Telling Myself'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504D.shtml
Paul Krugman | Taking On the Myth
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504E.shtml
CBS Offers New Experts to Support Guard Memos
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504F.shtml
Jean-Marcel Bouguereau | "Impotence"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504H.shtml
J. Sri Raman | What India, Pakistan Won't Talk About
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504I.shtml
Senator Backs Voting Machine Bill after Experiencing Glitch
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504J.shtml
Children of Laos Tribe 'Butchered by Soldiers'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504K.shtml
Robert Novak Believes in Revealing Confidential Sources
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504L.shtml
Ex-Feds Blast 9-11 Panel and Bush
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504W.shtml
Improving Lives, One Child at a Time
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504X.shtml
Colin Powell: Unlikely WMD Stocks Will Be Found in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504Y.shtml
Five 9/11 Widows to Endorse Kerry
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504Z.shtml
The TO Overview
William Rivers Pitt: 'Erased from the Book of History'
http://www.truthout.org/overview.htm
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
=====================================================+
The Nation - September 14, 2004
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040927&s=williams
Bush, Kerry and Vietnam
by Ian Williams
The mystery is not that newspapers, television and news agencies
want
to look into George W. Bush's National Guard record--but rather
why
they have not done much more about it earlier.
We will probably never discover whether it was arrogance or
an
assumption of the inherent niceness of the Kerry team that made
the
Bush campaign choose battle on the terrain of Vietnam, since,
as we
pointed out when Swift Boat ads ran, those veterans, despite
their
other confabulations, all testified that John Kerry was indeed
in
combat and in Vietnam. Pointing to Kerry's war record by
implication highlights the absence of his contemporary George
W.
Bush, who, on his own admission, had joined the Texas Air National
Guard to avoid the war.
Kerry was badly advised, and waited several weeks to counterattack,
but Cheney's insults finally seemed to rouse him into action
last
week. And in the weird way of American media, the fact that a
Senator
and a candidate raised the issue seems to have aroused them from
their torpor. As a result, young George Bush's career during
the
Vietnam War is now being ventilated--which is an easy task because
it
has so many holes in it!
There is little coming out that is startlingly new. Much of
the
information was available, already well researched by local
newspapers and magazines when I finished writing Deserter four
months
ago. What is new is the serious and concerted attention it is
finally, and deservedly, getting. And each new piece of information
reinforces rather than rebuts the evidence of a spoiled rich
frat boy
who got an easy ride because of family influence while 58,000
of his
contemporaries died.
At issue is not really whether or not George W. Bush dodged
in
Vietnam, it is the hypocrisy of his career then and since, the
constant dissimulation about his service then, morphing inexorably
into his current self-righteous lies. The attack on Kerry, who
did
serve, and served by military standards with honor, has clearly
been
too much for too many people.
And so the revelations belatedly roll in. On CBS's 60 Minutes,
Ben
Barnes, the former Speaker of the Texas House, once again pricked
the Bush image of self-made man of the prairies by testifying
how he
got the young WASP Yale graduate with no redeeming academic features
a slot and a commission in the Texas Air National Guard as the
tail
end of the Tet Offensive still raged. CBS's further revelation
of
Bush's former commanding officer's private files demonstrate
that
pressure from senior officers meant that Bush was being given
kid-glove treatment and glowing reports throughout his career,
even
though in 1972 he was suspended from flying, not only for failing
to
accomplish his flight medical--which he had been trying to dodge
even earlier, but for his "failure to perform to US Air
Force/Texas
Air National Guard standards." (Challenges have been raised
about
the authenticity of some of the documents but they are consistent
with numerous other sources.)
The Associated Press has discovered documents that show, contrary
to
established hagiographies and published citations that depicted
the
young Bush as a superb pilot, that he was mediocre, although
perhaps
better than his 25 percent on the pilot aptitude test may have
indicated.
Particular scrutiny then follows on his time in Alabama, where
the
widow of Jimmy Allison, with whom Bush campaigned for some several
very conservative candidates, now reveals in Salon that far from
Bush's service's being requested by the Blount Campaign in Alabama
in
1972, he was sent there to avoid making a visible mess in Texas.
By all other accounts, he lived down to his reputation there,
where
he was known by the GOP stalwarts as the Texas Soufflé
for
boasting so much about his nocturnal exploits.
She confirms the sound of silence across Alabama, from all
Bush's
would-be colleagues in the Alabama Air National Guard. Did he
ever
attend National Guard duty? "Lord, no!" The offer from
local veterans
of $3,500 for anyone who says they saw him on a base in the state
remains unclaimed.
Every time the White House announces that it has released
all its
records on Bush the Younger's brief, inglorious military career,
more
turn up. The AP, still trawling, wants to know where the records
are
of the administrative and disciplinary action that should have
followed Bush's "Failure to Accomplish" his flight
medical when he
effectively grounded himself. The Boston Globe returns to the
trail
they were on before, showing that Bush should not have had that
honorable discharge but really should have been disciplined and
placed on active service duty for his failures.
The Bush campaign has claimed that he decided not to bother
because
he knew his plane, the F-102, was being phased out. In fact,
his
nominal unit in Texas continued flying it for another two years,
and
even as he was campaigning or cavorting in Alabama was activated
for
continental defense.
All military people, whichever party that they are in, all
admit that
for a pilot to voluntarily drop flying duties would be an immense
blow to his pride. Bush seems to have taken the blow manfully,
and
says he is proud of his service--without ever explaining what
happened to his pilot's license.
To round it all off, Kitty Kelley's book (The Family: The
Real Story
of the Bush Dynasty), presumably leaked by her publicity machine,
quotes Sharon Bush, estranged ex-wife of Neil, on the proclivities
of
young George for cocaine. The Bush campaign has said that their
candidate did not use drugs after 1974. Kelley recounts that
he was
using the stuff in Camp David, much later than that, while his
father
was President, although Sharon Bush now denies the story.
Scott McClellan, White House spokesman, flat-out refused to
answer
when Helen Thomas asked earlier this year if the young Bush had
been
sentenced to some form of mandatory community service in Alabama
at
the end of 1972. According to his own biography, he did indeed
work
for the first six months of 1973 in an organization dedicated
to
helping minority kids in downtown Houston. No one had noticed
any
charitable impulse on his part before--and precious little since,
one
might say.
All the various revelations are like extra dots in a picture--and
the
picture is of a gaping hole in George W. Bush's record. Now that
Cheney, Bush and the Swift Boats have spoken, it would not be
surprising if Kerry has decided "no more Mr Nice Guy."
The Bush campaign made Vietnam an issue. The flag and uniform
Bush
has wrapped himself in should be ripped off. Calls to the NBC
to
stifle the Kelley stories and the refusal of several local CBS
affiliates to air the 60 Minutes program suggest that the Bush
campaign is unhappy with that line of inquiry. As he himself
said in
another context, "Bring
it on!"
=====================================================+
LATimes - September 12, 2004
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-emissions12sep12.story
EDITORIAL
The Fact of Global Warming
The Union of Concerned Scientists plans to release a study Monday
explaining the ways global warming is changing California. The
report predicts a rise in average summer temperatures of up to
5.5 degrees by mid-century, far higher than previous studies
have projected. Even the scientists' most optimistic scenario,
a temperature rise of only 2 degrees, could cause a host of economically
damaging effects, such as the premature ripening of wine grapes.
Already, global warming is drying up water sources (such as
the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which is melting earlier than usual).
It may also be helping some tropical diseases, such as West Nile
virus, migrate north.
California may soon become the first state to curb vehicle
tailpipe emissions, which after power plant emissions are the
key fossil-fuel pollutants responsible for the rapid acceleration
of global warming. On Sept. 23, the state's Air Resources Board
is scheduled to order that new vehicles sold in the state cut
their greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2016. California, however,
will get nowhere without Washington's help, and that doesn't
seem forthcoming. Congress, apparently buying into the ridiculous
junk-science argument that global warming is a natural phenomenon
that people can do little to thwart, is poised to pass spending
bills for fiscal 2005 that will only worsen the problem.
Legislators should reconsider in light of a study presented
to them Aug. 25 by President Bush's own science advisor and the
secretaries of Energy and Commerce. It concluded that man-made
emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases, not
Mother Nature, had caused most of the increase in temperatures
around the globe over the last three decades. Last month, various
science officials abroad, including British Prime Minister Tony
Blair's top science advisor, former United Nations chief weapons
inspector Hans Blix and Canada's environment minister, went even
further, characterizing global warming as a far greater threat
in the coming decades than terrorism.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) should use his new pull with Bush
to pressure Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to schedule
a vote on the Climate Stewardship Act. This modest and pragmatic
bill, which McCain co-authored with Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.),
would require U.S. industrial plants to cut pollution from burning
fossil fuels to 2000 levels by 2010.
More immediately, Congress should stop the phaseout of the
tax deduction given to people who buy hybrid cars. The deduction
started at $2,000 in 2002, but dropped to $1,500 this year and
will fall to nothing in 2007 without new funding. Meanwhile,
current tax rules heap obscene rewards on those who drive the
least fuel-efficient cars on the road. One tax break, for example,
gives business owners a deduction of up to $100,000 if they buy
SUVs weighing 6,000 pounds or more. The $2 billion over 10 years
that it would take to fully restore funding for the "clean"-hybrid
tax deduction could be found by nixing some of the $9 billion
in tax incentives that pending appropriations bills give to the
"dirty" oil and gas industries.
Those opposed to decisive measures to reduce fossil fuel emissions
argue that even if all of them were enacted tomorrow, they would
still only slow, not stop, global warming. Even if that's true,
it's no excuse for inaction. As any successful insurance executive
will attest, risk may be unavoidable but dangers can be foreseen
and thwarted. Or to put it more colloquially, it's cheaper to
be safe than sorry.
=====================================================+
LATimes - September 12, 2004
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-kotkin12sep12.story
Sewer Socialism
Cities need a back-to-basics strategy. Catering to art-loving
yuppies just won't work.
By Joel Kotkin
Joel Kotkin, a contributing editor of Opinion, is an Irvine
senior fellow at the New America Foundation. He is the author
of "The City: A Global History," to be published next
year by Modern Library.
Not too long ago, U.S. elections were determined - and sometimes
stolen - in cities. In the 21st century,
however, the nation's major urban areas have become largely politically
peripheral, except as stages for national party conventions.
As a result, neither major party makes a serious effort to
address the crises affecting U.S. cities - dysfunctional school
systems, a declining middle class, eroding employment and rising
populations of mostly poor, new immigrants. Instead, cities are
essentially a kept constituency of liberal Democrats whose idea
of an urban policy, aside from patronage, increasingly revolves
around cosmetic face-lifts and the arts.
Missing today from national and local agendas is anything
remotely resembling the progressivism that spurred the successful
evolution of U.S. cities in the last century. Sometimes dubbed
"sewer socialism," this program for development started
at the municipal level and aimed to repair the legacy of the
Industrial Revolution. From small, faded industrial cities like
Bridgeport, Conn., to Los Angeles, enlightened administrations
- sometimes led by labor-oriented socialists, other times by
business-oriented "progressives" - cleaned up disease-ridden
environments with new sanitation systems, created municipal-owned
water and power systems, developed parks and upgraded education
systems.
Cities' political irrelevance stems partly from their diminishing
share of the nation's population and electorate. Fifty years
ago, two in five Illinois voters lived in Chicago; today, fewer
than one in five live there. New York City once contained half
of New York state's electorate, a proportion that has been cut
to less than one-third. In 1952, 40% of Maryland voters lived
in Baltimore; today the city is home to less than 10%.
As the urban electoral base has shrunk, city politics have
become increasingly homogeneous. A generation ago, a Ronald Reagan
or a Richard Nixon could contest for working- and middle-class
voters on Chicago's Northside, in the borough of Queens or in
the San Fernando Valley. These areas today are so heavily Democratic
that any national Republican effort to woo them would be virtually
pointless. Most cities, says Brookings Institution demographer
Bill Frey, have continued to lose middle-class, middle-aged,
native-born Americans since 2000 - the swing voters who supported
reform-minded Republicans like Richard Riordan and Rudy Giuliani.
Cities' declining political clout is reflected in the state
of urban policy. The focus now is on what sociologist John Kasarda
calls "visual prosperity" - the attempt to dress up
urban areas with fancy edifices, cultural attractions and high-end
housing.
"Patronage aside, Democratic Party policy in the cities,"
said Fred Siegel, professor of urban history at New York's Cooper
Union, "often boils down to how to attract the beautiful
people."
The policies of many of the brightest stars in the Democratic
firmament - Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, Denver Mayor John
W. Hickenlooper and Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm - seem
predicated on this beautiful-people principle. All emphasize
the creation of cafe districts, arts entertainment and culture
palaces as the best means to revive urban centers. In Los Angeles,
Mayor James K. Hahn is similarly hitching his legacy to a $2-billion
double feature for the leisure class - the proposal for the ersatz
Champs-Elysées on Grand Avenue and the glitzy LA Live
project around Staples Center.
There is an alternative to the culture-and-arts approach to
revive declining cities. It's sewer socialism, a back-to-basics
strategy that encourages business investment and the development
of healthy neighborhoods.
Such an urban agenda has its origins in the early decades
of the last century. In the West, it unfolded under the tutelage
of business-oriented progressives who invested heavily in basic
infrastructure - public education, transit, water and power systems
- to encourage commerce and improve the living conditions for
at least part of the middle and working classes. In Los Angeles,
cheap water was brought to a dry city to benefit citizens and
businesses. Nominally nonpartisan, but mostly Republican, city
leaders fostered municipal ownership of utilities and worked
to prevent the Southern Pacific Railroad from dominating the
city's new port. They also zoned to create a multipolar city
to avoid the pitfalls of the traditional industrial one.
In the more industrialized Midwest and Northeast, the progressive
impulse frequently took on a proletarian coloration. In places
like Bridgeport, Milwaukee and, most remarkably, New York City
under Fiorello LaGuardia, reformers were openly supported by
socialists and leftist labor activists. The goal of their policies
was to improve basic services and infrastructure for the vast
majority of citizens, not just a designated elite.
Most important, politicians like LaGuardia and Emil Seidel,
Milwaukee's first socialist mayor, moved to overturn corrupt
urban machines that primarily viewed the public purse as a means
to reward friends and supporters. The progressive governments
quickly earned a reputation for both frugal management and getting
things done.
The working-class political base that supported sewer socialism,
as well as the collectivist ideology that underpinned it, has
largely evaporated. Yet, development-oriented urban politics
are still relevant. To some extent, a variant of sewer socialism
was practiced in Los Angeles during the 1980s when Mayor Tom
Bradley united labor and corporate interests. Together, they
pushed for the development of a job-creating infrastructure -
most notably at the airport and port complexes - that help lay
the foundation for the city's ascendancy in the 1980s as the
primary U.S. hub for Pacific Rim trade and commerce.
Such union leaders as the late Jim Wood of the Los Angeles
County Federation of Labor essentially cut a deal with business:
Unions would support huge publicly funded projects with broad
economic goals as long as their members got to work on them.
In turn, many of the jobs created in business services, at the
port, in warehouses and at import-processing factories generated
relatively well-paying private-sector jobs.
A more recent example of modern sewer socialism occurred in
Houston under then-Mayor Bob Lanier. His administration focused
on improving neighborhoods by enhancing public safety and constructing
new roads, lighting and sewers, the groundwork for private sector-led
economic development.
"You need to look at every neighborhood as your own and
start from there," Lanier explained after leaving office.
"First, you bring back residents and then the commercial
- and jobs will come back. That's what city governments should
do. Play that role and things will happen on their own."
Under Lanier's administration, Houston rose from the wreckage
of the 1980s oil bust to become one of the nation's fastest-growing
economies and demographically diverse cities.
Sewer socialism offers one possible direction out of the genteel,
gradual decline that now threatens our cities. Any party or politician
who embraces such a sensible, tried approach would deserve the
grateful support of the beleaguered denizens of urban America.
=====================================================+
From: Kelly Hill Scanlon
<kelly@northern.org>
Reply-To: <kelly@northern.org>
Organization: Northern Alaska Environmental Center
To: <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Date: Monday, September 13, 2004 11:28 AM
Subject: [arctic-action] Extreme Oil Examines Our Crude
Addiction
Extreme Oil Examines Our Crude Addiction
Tonight PBS debuts a three-part documentary examining the
pursuit of oil. "Extreme Oil" can be seen at 9 pm on
KUAC. For more information read the attached New York Times Review
of the series, or go to www.pbs.org/wnet/extremeoil/ <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/extremeoil/>
New York Times - September 13, 2004
Wilderness to War Zones: In Relentless Pursuit of Oil
By NED MARTEL
Oil is often described majestically as the lifeblood of the
global economy, the fluid that courses through major arteries
and fuels the industrial pulse. But after three hours spent watching
''Extreme Oil,'' the crude energy source seems more an addictive
stimulant that leaves a mess after use and drives its dependents
to madness just to acquire more.
This adventurous three-part series, which begins tonight on
consecutive Mondays on most PBS stations, diagnoses the thirst
for oil as desperate and unquenchable, and given this dependence
- 77 million barrels are consumed daily worldwide - a taste for
other renewable energy sources seems far off or far-fetched.
So "Extreme Oil'' wonders where new underground reservoirs
might be tapped, and describes how each site then becomes an
ecological or geopolitical danger zone.
Oil lurking under rocks is like money growing on trees for
the companies that know best how to retrieve it. This series
first travels the 1,100-mile route of the half-completed Caspian-to-Mediterranean
pipeline. Then the program revisits sins of extraction in Angola
and Ecuador.
Finally, the northern coastal plains of Alaska are surveyed
with a discussion of the environmental harm expected with proposed
drilling.
In its Canadian debut this summer, "Extreme Oil'' was
more heatedly titled
"Oil: The World Over a Barrel.'' Nonetheless, the documentary
tries to hear out oil industry leaders and government insiders,
whom more strident filmmakers might renounce or even goad. That
is all for the good, not just for balance and not just because
oil companies have helped PBS through the years, but also because
these business and government types do know a few things worth
knowing.
For instance, the United States ambassador to Georgia, Richard
Miles, explains the presence of American military trainers in
that country: "The primary purpose is to modernize the Georgian
Army, and it does have a backup role, I would say, with regard
to pipeline security.'' Or, he says, it's in the American strategic
interest not to rely merely on Middle Eastern or, if it came
to that, Russian oil and gas, "so this is another source
and therefore it's valuable." (One soldier on site had just
explained that he was told to say they were somehow aiding the
war on terror.)
Panakh Guseinov, the former prime minister of Azerbaijan,
goes on camera to recall how, after the Soviet Union splintered,
the Caspian's underground assets were then considered freedom's
prize. "We saw the signing of the oil contracts as a guarantee
of our independence,'' says Mr. Guseinov, who has been replaced
by a head of state whose administration the narrator calls "comically
corrupt.'' But even in the heady days, there were special favors:
priority was given to the British Petroleum Company, Mr. Guseinov
said.
Something does transpire between companies and politicians
that seems at times criminal, at least in Angola, where oil multinationals
have spent more than $4 billion that now cannot be tracked, the
series reports. Faced with an impoverished populace, the Angolan
minister of finance offers this explanation for the losses: "Our
capacity to administer is still very weak. There is no missing
money whatsoever. This is accounting problems.''
The series resorts to some visuals that seek to simplify the
complicated disputes, but they veer toward the simplistic. In
Ecuador a bat struggles to free its wings from iridescent sludge
and looks a lot like 1991's CNN-hyped cormorants in the burning
Kuwaiti oil fields. In Alaska a newborn caribou struggles to
its hoofs and nuzzles its mother, which feels like a further
Bambi-fication of wildlife debates. But these conflicts, especially
the Alaskan fight to open a vast refuge, are essentially symbolic:
oil companies want to drill in ecosystems preserved by law, and
environmentalists do not want land protections undone.
"The Amazing Race 5'' has engrossed its summer reality-TV
devotees with American can-do contestants who will burn rubber
toward any contrived tourist trap. This PBS all-terrain expedition
has a similar drive (and soundtrack), but a larger, more edifying
purpose.
In places where oil springs from the ground, there really
are noble indigenous tribes who get sick when their streams turn
black, in this case the Huaoranis of Ecuador. There really are
bands of bandits who occupy a Georgian no man's land and seem
beyond the laws of any government. And the painful facts of a
faulty, crucial resource are hard to refute when seen up close.
EXTREME OIL
PBS, Monday nights; check local listings.
Stephen Segaller, executive producer. Produced by Paladin
Invision
for Thirteen/WNET New York in association with BBC, CBC and
Channel 4 International.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/13/arts/television/13mart.html?ex=1096081888&ei=1&en=281abcf5805ddad2
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
Please Post and Distribute as Appropriate
*************************************************
Please visit our website at www.northern.org <http://www.northern.org/>
or send email to our main address (info@northern.org)
*************************************************
"Arctic Actions" is a broadcast alert list managed
by the Northern Alaska Environmental Center to keep you updated
on issues affecting Arctic Alaska.
To learn how you can do more to protect Alaska's Arctic, or to
find out about becoming a Northern Alaska Environmental Center
member, intern or volunteer, please contact:
Northern Alaska Environmental Center
830 College Road
Fairbanks, AK 99701
ph: (907) 452-5021
fx: (907) 452-3100
info@northern.org
http://www.northern.org
=====================================================+
From: John A. Knox <johnknox@earthisland.org>
To: "<browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>"
Date: Monday, September 13, 2004 3:43 PM
Brower Film "Monumental" - SF debut starts
Friday
Hope to see you at the movies . . .
MONUMENTAL
David Brower's Fight for Wild America
* September 17th- 23rd
* Roxie Cinema
* 3117 16th Street (at Valencia Street)
* San Francisco
* Nightly 6:15, 8:00, 9:45
* Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday matinee 2:00, 4:00
"Stylish and substantial enough to prompt even a couch
potato to action, Kelly Duane's Monumental delivers a
stirring and visually dense account of the life and times of
Brower . . . " - Variety
"If anyone's been searching for the soul of the new West,
here it is." - San Francisco Magazine
"An inspiring testament to the power of the individual."-
Mother Jones
Mark your calendar and bring all your friends to the SF
Premiere of Monumental.
September 17 - The opening night screening is dedicated to
the memory of the late Brian Maxwell, Executive Producer of
Monumental and founder of Power Bar. Director Kelly Duane
and other special guests from the film will be attending the
8:00 p.m. screening. There will be a Q&A following the film.
September 17 - Premiere Pre-party at Build, 483 Guerrero, San
Francisco, 5:00-7:30 with D.J. Science. Come drink some Pabst
Blue Ribbon!
Live in Marin?
See Monumental at the beautiful Rafael Film Center
October 1st- 6th
San Rafael, CA
California Film Institute//Smith Rafael Film Center
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Climbing Mountains, Inventing a Movement
Many of us know that David Brower was
the longtime leader of the Sierra Club
and founder of Earth Island Institute and Friends of the Earth,
but did you
know he is credited with halting the construction of dams in
the Grand
Canyon and establishing both Redwood National Park and Point
Reyes National
Seashore? The legendary Berkeley native comes to life for a new
generation
in local filmmaker Kelly Duane's "Monumental: David Brower's
Fight for Wild
America." Brower was a true rugged American original who,
before extreme
sports were invented, was backcountry skiing, running rivers,
and climbing
Shiprock with sneakers and a hemp rope. During World War II,
he applied
his climbing skills to train the US Army division that defeated
the Nazis in
a key battle in the high Alps. He was at home in the wild, partied
with
Ansel Adams, hob-nobbed with John F. Kennedy, and steered Lady
Bird Johnson
into becoming an environmentalist.
With a playful visual aesthetic, a cool alt-country soundtrack,
and hand-held
wilderness footage from as far back as the 1930s, "Monumental"
documents
the golden age of American environmentalism, when Brower took
the Sierra Club
from a regional hiking group to become a national political force.
Seeing through
Brower's own eyes - he was an accomplished filmmaker - a 1956
raft trip down
Glen Canyon, before its damming, evokes the awful sadness of
losing a natural jewel
we've failed to protect.
"Monumental" is playing at The Roxie Cinema, 3117
16th Street (at Valencia),
Friday, Sept. 17 through Thursday, Sept. 23. Show times: Nightly
at 6:15,
8:00 & 9:45. Wed., Sat., Sun. matinees at 2:00 and 4:00.
Patagonia, Inc., the
outdoor gear and apparel company, is sponsoring distribution
of the film as
part of the company's Vote the Environment campaign. For more
information
about the Vote the Environment campaign to activate voters across
the country, visit http://www.loteriafilms.org/screenings.html
and
http://www.patagonia.com/vote.
"Monumental" reminds us this election year that
these natural places need
our protection and that our passion for the wilderness has a
place in the
voting booth. See this movie. Tell a friend.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
And don't miss Brower
Youth Awards
6:00 pm, Thursday, September 30, 2004
Florence Schwimley Theatre, Berkeley
It's free! Come and bring a friend:
http://www.earthisland.org/bya
JOHN A. KNOX
Executive Director
Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway, Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133 USA
Voice (work): 415-788-3666, Ext. 108
Fax (work): 415-788-7324
Voice (home): 415-282-1071
Fax to e-mail: 928-438-4172
E-mail: johnknox@earthisland.org
EII home page: http://www.earthisland.org
Earth Island Institute welcomes your interest
and your involvement. Contributions from
individuals continue to be our most
important source of support. Earth Island
Institute members receive the quarterly
Earth Island Journal.
We invite you to join us:
http://www.earthisland.org/join/join.html
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Monday, September 13, 2004 2:57 PM
Subject: Rumsfeld's Dirty War on Terror
t r u t h o u t | 09.14
Bush Environment Record an Issue in Nevada
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
9/11 Pollution 'Could Cause More Deaths than Attack'
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
Rumsfeld's Dirty War on Terror
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404A.shtml
At Least 80 Civilians Die in Iraqi Violence
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404B.shtml
Gore Unleashes Fury on Democrats' Behalf
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404C.shtml
Service Record Gaps Now Come Back to Haunt Bush
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404D.shtml
Absentee Votes Worry Officials as November 2 Nears
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404E.shtml
Adrien Jaulmes | The Shackled Fist
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404H.shtml
Bob Herbert | Protect the Vote
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404I.shtml
Bernard Weiner | The Great Pall & Its Fall
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404J.shtml
Dr. Abele | A Turn to the (Religious) Right
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404K.shtml
Georgie Anne Geyer | How to Turn Opponents into Terrorists
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404L.shtml
Eric Margolis | Why the West is Losing
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404W.shtml
Howard Dean: An Expiration Date on Safety
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404X.shtml
Scores are Dead after Violence Spreads in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404Y.shtml
Kerry Challenges Bush on Iraq-9/11 Connection
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091404Z.shtml
The TO Overview
William Rivers Pitt: 'If They Weren't Terorists Before, They
Are Now'
http://www.truthout.org/overview.htm
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
=====================================================+
WorkingForChange - 09.09.04
Molly Ivins says it's Bush's supporting cast that *really*
deserves the boot.
Ivins' "Forget Bush" is at:
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=17635
Forget Bush
Molly Ivins - Creators Syndicate
AUSTIN, Texas -- This is the Tommy Corcoran column. Tommy
the Cork, so dubbed by FDR, was a Washington wise man. His various
biographers called him the ultimate insider, the super lawyer
and the master fixer. He came to Washington in 1926 to clerk
for Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and became a fixture, an almost
institutional source of wisdom about American politics, before
his death in 1981.
The Cork had a theory about how to choose a president. He
always said it didn't matter who was running, that it was unnecessary
to pay any attention to them. What matters, he said, is the approximately
1,500 people the president brings to Washington with him, his
appointments to the positions where people actually run things.
The question to consider is which 1,500 people we get.
So here are a few suggestions:
-At the EPA, you do not want people who think it's a good
idea to allow more arsenic in the water. When someone, anyone
proposes allowing more arsenic in the water, what you want is
people at the EPA who promptly say: "No. Not a good idea."
-There are some lawyers, and then there are other lawyers.
You do not want lawyers at the Justice Department (or the White
House or the Defense Department) who, when asked to prepare a
legal brief defending torture, do so. You want lawyers at Justice
(and the White House and the Defense Department) who say: "No.
Torture is not a good idea. Trying to wiggle out from under our
laws, international treaties and civilized norms is not a good
idea."
You especially don't want lawyers who defend torture promoted
to the federal bench. It is not a good idea to have the CIA using
the same "interrogation technique" that was so favored
by the Gestapo. This is counterproductive as well as wrong.
-You don't want folks in charge of the IRS who think it is more
important to audit poor people than rich people. That is dumb.
-You do not want people in charge of foreign policy who are fools
enough to believe in Ahmad Chalabi, a convicted con man and,
it turns out, probably a spy for Iran. Those people should be
fired. Especially when some of them are now also being investigated
for giving classified information to Israel.
-Having your Department of Homeland Security turn out to be a
public disgrace indicates that you have either not put the right
people in charge or they are not getting enough support.
-When "Hurricane Hits Florida Yet Again" becomes a
standing headline right up there with "Canadian Trade Talks
Continue," you may want to put people in charge of policy
who recognize that global warming not only exists but threatens
us all.
-If the people a president puts in charge of foreign policy are
all from the same small circle of rigid ideologues, what happens
is that they end up listening only to themselves, and on that
way lies disaster.
-When the people who are running the Food and Drug Administration
do so to benefit the big processors and the big drug companies,
people get hurt, and some of them die.
-When the people in charge of prosecuting terrorists in this
country screw up case after case, those people should be replaced.
-When the country endures a hideous terrorist attack, is it actually
useful for the White House to oppose the commission assigned
to find out how it happened? To first deny it adequate funding,
then refuse to provide it with critical documents, then oppose
an extension of its deadline, then refuse to allow the commission
access to prisoners who played key roles in the attack, then
try to stop Condoleezza Rice from testifying, then refuse to
have the president testify under oath?
-When the people in charge make a decision to start an unprovoked
war because of nonexistent weapons of mass destruction and nonexistent
ties to the terrorists who have attacked us, you may conclude
that these people are lying, or dumb, or just not helpful.
-When a new administration comes into office with a huge budget
surplus and then blows it all on tax cuts that benefit the very
rich, should it be retained? If an economic team leads the country
to a record $422 billion deficit this year and $2.3 trillion
in the next decade, do you really want a team in charge that
announces it wants more tax cuts that will double the total deficit
to $4.6 trillion by the end of the decade? Do these people have
a sense of responsibility? If the economic team produces a net
loss of 1.1 million jobs after four years, should its contract
be renewed?
Forget Bush -- the people around him are a complete disaster.
John Kerry will basically re-hire the Clinton team and presumably
remain faithful to his wife. Of course, Clinton didn't get Osama
bin Laden, either. But his people worked harder at it.
(c) 2004 Creators Syndicate
=====================================================+
berkeleydailyplanet.com (09-10-04)
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?issue=09-10-04&storyID=19606
Editorial
Pushing Back Against Evil
By BECKY O'MALLEY
It's hard to believe that it's been only three years since
Saudi Muslim extremists commandeered commercial aircraft and
crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. What
was before September 11, 2001, a small fire fanned by a few fanatics
has become a firestorm which threatens to engulf the world. The
historic willingness of human beings to kill and be killed for
a religious ideology has been demonstrated again and again since
9/11, most recently in the appalling occurrences in North Ossetia,
now part of Russia, where men and (most tragically) women were
willing to kill defenseless children who had done nothing to
harm them, in support of an abstraction which is essentially
meaningless to non-believers.
The Bush regime has supplied the gasoline for the conflagration.
Iraq has been transformed from an admittedly vicious secular
dictatorship, a pariah state even for religious fanatics, into
a spawning ground for more fanaticism and inter-sect warfare
which imminently threatens to spread beyond its borders. And
while the U.S. has been preoccupied in Iraq, religious militants
of every stripe have been actively recruiting elsewhere, including
Chechinya, the Phillipines and Indonesia. Some originally secular
nationalist movements whose militants came from an Islamic background,
like Chechins and Palestinians, are being captured by religious
extremists who are even more dangerous because their beliefs
allow recruiting for suicide missions with the promise of an
after-life to follow.
People who are not religious have difficulty understanding
how religion turns to fanaticism. Here in Berkeley the resurgent
Christian right seems just about as alien to non-believers from
a Christian cultural background as Islamic fundamentalism does.
And it's not only the monotheistic religions with roots in
the desert which have bloodthirsty adherents. Hindus, Native
Americans, African animists if you can name a group, any group,
it's probably had members who have been willing to kill for belief.
Religion does not have a monopoly on ideological fanatics,
of course. Atrocities have been committed on behalf of secular
beliefs ever since the Enlightenment at least: by the French
Revolution and its progeny, during the Spanish Civil War, under
Stalin and many other Communists, by Saddam and the Baathists
in Iraqthe list is long and getting longer. Killing for the cause
is part of the human gene pool, a curse which other species have
been spared.
Is there anything we can do about it? Dedicated believers
have always attempted to restrain the extreme elements in their
group, with varying amounts of success. Lysistrata recounts the
attempt by Athenian women to stop a war with Sparta. Christian
believers were the earliest and most persistent opponents of
the war in Vietnam, and the Pope condemned the invasion of Iraq.
Both religious and non-religious people from the world Jewish
community have spoken out for peace and justice in Israel and
Palestine. It is heartening to see the launch of Not in the Name
of Islam in the United States, and the voices against extremism
in the French Muslim community. As long as humans have lived
on the earth, good people have always had to struggle with the
killer instinct in their midst.
Sometimes, as when footage of the tragedy in Russia is shown
on television, it's tempting to believe that this struggle can't
be won. And in truth it is the fate of humans to need constantly
to push back the dark side of our inheritance. Many belief systems
have stories about this aspect of the human condition. Christian
theology calls the persistence of evil among humans Original
Sin, and dates it back to the first humans on earth. The ancient
Greeks had the myth of Sisyphus, condemned to rolling a rock
uphill, else it would roll back and crush him. That's where we
are today as humans, rolling that rock up the hill. As hard as
it is to continue to push back against those who want to kill
for their cause, we've just got to keep doing it, all of us,
or we'll be crushed.
=====================================================+
boston.com - September 12, 2004
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/09/12/words_matter/
Words matter
How Bush speaks in religious code
By Bruce Lincoln
George W. Bush believes God has called him to be president.
You won't hear him say so openly, of course, but he regularly
conveys this to a core constituency -- the religious right.
As president, Bush has always been outspoken about his faith,
letting evangelicals know he shares their values and vision for
America. But he has also been careful. Aware that he must appeal
to the center to secure reelection, he employs double-coded signals
that veil much of his religious message from outsiders. Biblical
references, allusions to hymns, and specialized vocabulary are
keys to this communication.
The president learned this art when he served as his father's
liaison to the religious right in 1988, just after his born-again
conversion. Well-connected staff introduced him to evangelical
leaders and taught him to win their trust. "Signal early
and signal often" was their motto. Unlike his Episcopalian
father, the younger Bush took this advice to heart.
Accordingly, most of Bush's speeches are discreetly larded
with religious content. His seemingly secular acceptance speech
at the recent Republican National Convention offers a case in
point. Beyond the single paragraph on abortion, gay marriage,
and "faith-based" charities, a strong religious subtext
was carefully crafted to slip beneath the radar.
Biblical references were firmly planted at the beginning and
end of the speech. Early on, Bush spoke of "hills to climb"
and seeing "the valley below," an allusion to Israel's
escape from slavery and Moses' vision of the Promised Land, as
described in Deuteronomy 34. Given the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr.'s famous use of the same passage ("I've been to the
mountaintop"), Bush thus associated himself with both King
and Moses, characterizing his presidency not just as a struggle
for freedom, but a religious mission with risks of martyrdom.
In his closing paragraph, Bush quoted Ecclesiastes 3, "To
everything there is a season," but quickly departed from
the Biblical text. "A time for sadness," he began,
with reference to 9/11, then "a time for struggle"
-- Afghanistan and Iraq -- and finally "a time for rebuilding."
This pattern of loss followed by recovery recurred in passages
devoted to the economy, the war against terrorism, the national
mood, and the state of morality since the 1960s.
In all cases, Bush described losses overcome through hope,
steadfastness, and faith. Only when he reached his culminating
example did he name what he saw in them all. "For as long
as our country stands," he proclaimed, "people will
look to the resurrection of New York City and they will say:
Here buildings fell, and here a nation rose." Resurrection.
Lower Manhattan may be a case in point, but it was not the point
of the story.
Twelve times Bush used the phrase "I believe," many
more than any other. Sometimes it meant only "I hold this
opinion," and sometimes it marked a profession of faith.
But repetition hammered home the crucial point: Bush is a man
who believes.
Two of these beliefs were meant to justify his wars as holy.
The first -- "I believe that America is called to lead the
cause of freedom in a new century" -- prompts a question:
Called by whom? The second helps answer that query: "I believe
freedom is not America's gift to the world, it is the Almighty's
gift to every man and woman." And, a bit later: "Like
generations before us, we have a calling from beyond the stars
to stand for freedom."
In the course of his speech, the president thus suggested
he is a pious man, called to lead a righteous nation. Like the
nation itself, he is committed to a sacred cause and is guided
in all things by his Christian faith. His sole concern in Iraq
-- so he insists -- is to spread freedom, and in doing this he
serves the Almighty. If you heard that and can accept it, it
must be terribly reassuring.
Rather less comforting is the realization that Bush is selling
his dubious war to the base he has skillfully courted for years,
which he knows to be credulous, fiercely patriotic, and enormously
loyal.
Bruce Lincoln is a professor of the history of religions
at the University of Chicago and author of "Holy Terrors:
Thinking about Religion after September 11."
© Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
=====================================================+
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Sunday,
September 12, 2004
http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113%257E7252%257E2397258,00.html
Bush family history shows a dark past unseen by most
DOUGLAS YATES
Few would argue that trust, like democracy, is earned and not
inherited. So how is it that we've missed the lessons of four
generations of Bush family history?
As Kevin Phillips recounts in "American Dynasty,"
the Bush family presents a record of war profiteers who use public
office to gain wealth and advantage. Along the way, Bush family
business cronies receive political access and legitimacy.
One of the most venal characters is Prescott Bush, the president's
grandfather.
In 1942, Congress seized the assets of Prescott Bush and charged
him with trading with the enemy. Bush and his father-in-law,
George Herbert Walker, were managing directors of the Union Banking
Corp. of New York City. Allied with Brown Brothers Harriman,
the largest private investment bank in the world, Bush and Walker
were front men for Nazi industrialist Fritz Thyssen.
Thyssen, whose empire was founded on coal and steel, financed
the rise of Adolf Hitler. Then as now, cloaking funds destined
for subversion of democracies or weapons shipment was a useful
tactic. To hide transactions and conceal ownership, Thyssen created
a banking network. The first node was established in Berlin,
a second in neutral Holland. UBC in New York was the linchpin.
Little more than a money-laundering office for Nazi operations
in the United States, Bush, Walker and other confederates oversaw
almost a dozen separate businesses. Acting with Thyssen's money,
they aided the Nazi invasion of Europe by supplying resources
for weaponry. In 1937, Bush set up a deal to help the Luftwaffe
obtain tetraethyl lead to boost aircraft performance.
Americans first heard about Thyssen's American operations
in the New York Herald-Tribune on July 30, 1942, eight months
after Pearl Harbor. The headline declared "Hitler's Angel
Has $3 Million in U.S. Bank." However, the story did not
identify Bush or Harriman as UBC executives.
After the war ended in 1945, investigators learned that Bush
had extremely close ties to Thyssen and continued to work as
his agent to the end. When hostilities ceased, Bush helped move
Thyssen assets to Panama, Argentina and Brazil, all major destinations
for the flight of Nazi capital.
In 1951, following Thyssen's death in Argentina, the U.S.
alien property custodian released the assets of Union Banking
Corp. Prescott Bush cashed out his ownership share for $1.5 million.
(In 2004 dollars, that's more than $10 million.) He used it to
fund a successful U.S. Senate campaign from Connecticut and launch
his son, the president's father, in the oil business.
Other American companies that armed Hitler included General
Motors, Standard Oil and Chase Bank. All were quietly sanctioned
after Pearl Harbor; then government files were lost or forgotten.
For 60 years, the full record of Prescott Bush's complicity in
the Nazi war machine has been ignored or denied by participants
and the U.S. media.
But no more. Documents relating to the seizures were recently
uncovered in the National Archives and the Library of Congress.
Confirmed by Dutch government sources, they show that Bush shipped
tons of strategic resources to the Third Reich as Hitler prepared
to invade Poland.
Despite this history, the news media continues to present
a selective picture of the Bush family and its business connections.
People who tried to show the warts were shouted down; in 2000,
the publisher of "Fortunate Son," a George Bush biography,
was forced to recall and burn its inventory.
After launching a bloody occupation of Iraq, perhaps it's
time Americans connect the dots and see the big picture. It ought
to have been done before the invasion, but since we're trained
to accept media and TV dinners uncritically, developing a context
for identifying domestic enemies is a challenge. Rhetoric and
flag waving have replaced hard-nosed insistence on the truth.
Meanwhile, lies send our troops to die far from home; war profits
flow to favored industries in billion-dollar contracts.
In private action and public policy, Bush family history reveals
a pattern of war profiteering spanning four generations. It's
a legacy of deceit and death. For the naïve and uninformed,
the facts may be a slap in the face. For those who look closely,
the sign is as clear as blood on snow.
Then again, perhaps the pattern is lost in the noise. According
to Bob Woodward's "Bush At War," the president attended
a New York Yankees game not long after the 9/11 attacks. Wearing
a New York City fireman's jacket, Bush threw out the first pitch
and the crowd roared its approval. From a sky box above the stadium,
Karl Rove, Bush's political adviser, likened the roar of the
crowd to "a Nazi rally."
Douglas Yates, a Marine Corps veteran, is a writer and
photographer living in Ester.
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Sunday, September 12, 2004 2:49 PM
Subject: Steve Weissman | Will Bush Learn from Vietnam?
t r u t h o u t | 09.13
Smog Harms Children's Lungs for Life, Study Finds
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
Steve Weissman | Will Bush Learn from Vietnam?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091304A.shtml
Three Years and Growing: 70,000 al-Qa'ida at Large
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091304B.shtml
Hersh: Bush Officials Told of Detainee Abuse
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091304C.shtml
Powell Called Cheney and Neo-Cons "F---ing Crazies"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091304D.shtml
Turkey Reacts with Fury to U.S. Assault on Iraqi City
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091304E.shtml
Georgie Anne Geyer | 'I Thought We Were Different'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091304F.shtml
"Our Army is Only Cannon Fodder for Rumsfeld"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091304H.shtml
Iran, North Korea Raise More Nuclear Fears
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091304I.shtml
The New York Times | On the Voting Machine Makers' Tab
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091304J.shtml
Iraq Power Grid Shows U.S. Flaws
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091304K.shtml
Sweig and Kornbluh | Amid Cheers, Terrorists Have Landed in
the U.S.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091304L.shtml
FOCUS: Disabled Vet | Bush is Dividing our Country
http://www.truthout.org/letters.htm
Surge of Baghdad Violence Leaves 59 Dead
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091304X.shtml
New York Times | Preventive War: A Failed Doctrine
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091304Y.shtml
Fierce Fighting Erupts Near Baghdad 'Green Zone'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091304Z.shtml
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
=====================================================+
commondreams.org - SEPTEMBER 9,
2004
http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0909-06.htm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Sierra Club
Marianne Maw (415) 977-5761
Sierra Club Announces 2004 National Awards
SAN FRANCISCO- September 9 - Several individuals who have worked
to protect the California coastline are
among those being honored with national awards from the Sierra
Club this year.
Ken and Gabrielle Adelman of Corralitos, California, are the
recipients of this year's Ansel Adams Award for
conservation photography. The Sierra Club is honoring the Adelmans
for their work on the California Coastal
Records Project, a massive effort to photograph the entire 1,100-mile
California coastline from the air. Their
photographs, which now number more than 12,000, have been used
by numerous organizations in their efforts to
protect the California coastline. They are available free of
charge at www.californiacoastline.org
Peter Douglas, who has served as executive director of the
California Coastal Commission since 1984, is also
being recognized for his efforts to protect the California coastline.
Douglas is receiving the Distinguished Service
Award, which honor persons in public service for strong and consistent
commitment to conservation. "Peter has
improved protection of our coast from pollution, strengthened
enforcement under the California Coastal Act, and
enhanced public education and outreach about the importance of
our marine resources," says U.S. Senator
Barbara Boxer.
Also receiving the Distinguished Service Award is California
State Senator Byron Sher, who has been one of the
nation's preeminent state legislators on environmental issues.
Laws he has authored during his 24-year career in
the California State Legislature have served as models for similar
legislation in other states around the nation.
"Over the years Senator Sher has shown consistent leadership
on environmental issues, writing legislation to
protect California's air, water, forests and wilderness areas.
He has been an inspiration to like-minded state
legislators around the country, and he will be deeply missed,"
said Sierra Club President Larry Fahn. Sher is retiring
in November due to term limits.
Other notable honorees this year include former Secretary
of the Interior Stewart Lee Udall of Santa Fe, New
Mexico, who is being recognized with the Edgar Wayburn Award
for service to the environment by a person in
government; and syndicated columnist Molly
Ivins of Austin, Texas, who is the recipient of the David Brower Award
for environmental journalism. Neither Udall nor Ivins
will be present at the Sierra Club's annual awards ceremony.
The Sierra Club's highest honor, the John Muir Award, which
honors a distinguished record of achievement, goes
to Vicky Hoover, a club member from San Francisco who has spent
more than 30 years working on wilderness
protection and leading outings for the Sierra Club.
The Joseph Barbosa Earth Fund Award, which recognizes a club
member under the age of 30, is being presented
to 18-year-old Paul Dana of San Diego, California. Dana organized
more than 20,000 students around the country
to participate in Earth Day events this year.
Others receiving Sierra Club awards for 2004 include the following:
Distinguished Achievement Award (honors persons in public
service for an act of particular importance): Michael
Parker of Maryland; and Allan Laird of Littleton, Colorado.
EarthCare Award (honors an individual, organization or agency
that has made a unique contribution to
international environmental protection and conservation): James
Barnes of France.
Electronic Communication Award: Angeles Chapter (for angeles.sierraclub.org).
Environmental Alliance Award (recognizes individuals or groups
that have forged partnerships with other non-Sierra
Club entities: Ross Vincent of Pueblo, Colorado.
Ida and Denny Wilcher Award (for outstanding efforts related
to fundraising or membership development): The
Cumberland Chapter (Kentucky).
Madelyn Pyeatt Award (recognizes the contributions of Club
members working with youth): Mark Walters of Coral
Gables, Florida.
Newsletter Award: The Indiana Sierran (published by the Indiana
Chapter); and The Bugle (published by the Indian
Peaks).
Oliver Kehrlein Award (for outstanding service to the club's
Outings program): Brad and Katy Cristie of Richmond,
California.
One Club Award (recognizes people who use outings as a way
to instill an interest in conservation and protecting
public lands): David Simon of Los Altos, California.
Raymond Sherwin International Award (for international conservation):Judy
Olmer of Cabin John, Maryland.
Special Achievement Award (recognizes a single act of importance
dedicated to conservation): Keith Schue of
Mount Plymouth, Florida.
Special Service Awards (for strong and consistent commitment
to conservation over an extended period of time):
Sam Booher of Augusta, Georgia; Ruth Caplan of Washington, D.C.;
Sherm Janke of Bozeman, Montana; and
Gwen Nystuen of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Susan E. Miller Award (for outstanding service to Sierra Club
chapters): Mark Collier of Boulder, Colorado; and
Charles Oriez of Littleton, Colorado.
William Colby Award (the club's highest honor for administrative
work): Greg Casini of Denver, Colorado.
William O. Douglas Award (for contributions in the field of
environmental law): Roger Beers of Oakland, California.
Most of the awards will be presented this week at the Sierra
Club's Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA.
Saturday's banquet will feature keynote speaker, Arianna
Huffington.
For more information on the Sierra Club awards program,
visit www.sierraclub.org/awards.
=====================================================+
Published
on Wednesday, September 8, 2004 by the Daily Camera / Boulder,
Colorado
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0908-04.htm
The Nerve of Bush
by Molly Ivins
The wire services are reporting that we just lost seven Marines
in Fallujah. To use Linda Ellerbee's line, "And
so it goes ..."
The way it does not, NOT go is as claimed last week at the
Republican convention. I feel like the janitor in
that photo of Madison Square Garden after the party, facing a
sea of garbage that needs to be collected and
thrown out. Even after several days and with alert bloggers to
help, it's hard to catch all the lies. The number
of things John Kerry is supposed to have said that he never said
was the largest category.
Kerry never said we need to have a "sensitive war."
(Bonus points if you can find Bush's references to our
need for more sensitivity.)
Kerry never said we need other countries' permission to go
to war.
Kerry has never failed to "support our troops in combat."
The whole list of defense programs Kerry supposedly voted
against mostly came out of one vote against a
huge defense package in 1990 - he supported a smaller package,
as did then-Secretary of Defense Dick
Cheney. I especially like the inclusion of the Apache helicopter
in list of weapons opposed by Kerry - that's
the one that kept crashing.
The United States has not gained jobs under George Bush. The
net job loss is 1.1 million jobs, according to
the Bush Department of Labor.
Special bonus points for the novel charge by Cheney that Kerry
wants to "show al-Qaida our softer side."
Showing real imagination there.
Then we have what can most kindly be called differences of
interpretation. Are things peachy-keen in
Afghanistan? Hunky-dory in Iraq? Or are the only things that
have fully recovered in Afghanistan the warlords
and the opium trade? What have we created in Iraq - freedom or
more terrorists? In either case, none dare
call it peace.
Well, last week's news was not all about lies. This investigation
of alleged spying for Israel out of Douglas
Feith's office has now broadened to include Harold Rhode, also
of Feith's office, David Wurmser of Dick
Cheney's office and Richard Perle of the Defense Policy Board.
I am indebted to several bloggers for the reminder that Gen.
Tommy Franks, according to Bob Woodward,
once called Doug Feith "the dumbest f--ing guy on the planet."
Perle had an especially bad week, having been blasted to smithereens
by the new report on the Hollander
Inc. media debacle, in which Lord Conrad Black and Perle both
engaged in looting the company.
Let me put in a word of caution here about any so-called "spy
charges." Recall that we have a bad habit of
charging people who are quite innocent (Wen Ho Lee) and missing
those who are quite guilty (Aldrich Ames
and the FBI's Robert Hanssen).
In fact, what we're looking at across the board is evidence
of massive incompetence. Turns out the Justice
Department can't even prosecute terrorists straight. It has always
seemed to me a bad idea to put a party full
of people who are against government in principle in charge of
running it. They just don't seem to do a very
good job. In case you hadn't noticed, we have gone from massive
surplus to massive deficit, and the only
people who really benefited were the richest 1 percent of Americans.
That leaves the other 99 percent of us
worse off than we were four years ago.
I really had to take a deep breath after Bush declared that
he wants to "get government on your side." Where
has he been for the last four years? Almost every program he
mentioned, saying he wanted to build them up,
he has already cut, including job training. And I am truly dazzled
by "the noive of him" in claiming that No
Child Left Behind, which is massively underfunded, has somehow
mysteriously become a great success.
His peculiar contention that our policy in Iraq is a triumph
is close to bizarre. What we have there is dangerous
chaos.
I thought the saddest theme was about how Sept. 11 had united
us - and then, for reasons never
explained, half the country and most of the rest of the world
just sort of drifted away. How could that have
happened? Could George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have had anything
to do with it? For example, did they
tell us a lot of things that aren't true? Republicans seemed
to find it all a great mystery.
Copyright 2004, The Daily Camera
=====================================================+
Published
on Thursday, September 9, 2004 by Arianna Huffington
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0909-14.htm
Heroes and Villians: Reframing the 2004 Race
by Arianna Huffington
John Kerry is suddenly being bombarded with more advice than
an obese, alcoholic, unwed teenage mother
seated between Dr. Laura and Dr. Phil on a cross-country bus
trip.
Spurred by Bush's convention bounce, jittery Democrats of
every stripe -- including a hospital-bound Bill
Clinton -- are urging him to "throw caution to the wind,"
"start smacking back," "hammer home jobs, the
economy, health care and education," and concentrate on
domestic issues.
So the party faithful have gone from expecting John Kerry
to beat George Bush by outmachoing the
counterfeit cowboy from Crawford to expecting him to win by offering
a better Medicare plan.
The truth is neither of these strategies addresses the greatest
challenge facing the Kerry camp: the need to
change the frame in which the campaign is conducted -- a frame
thus far constructed by Karl Rove and the
Bush/Cheney brain trust.
A new poll by CNN/USA Today/Gallup makes it clear that, unlike
2000, issues are not driving this year's
election. Voters are more concerned with leadership skills than
the candidates' issue-by-issue positions.
There is no doubt that Kerry wins on the issues. Indeed, among
the minority of voters making their decision
based on the issues, Kerry has a 20-point lead. But Bush has
opened a 20-point lead among the majority
that's focused on leadership.
Of course, leadership is about more than "a spine of
tempered steel". It's about character, values, priorities,
and a clear vision of where the country should be heading. So
Kerry needs to offer a compelling, overarching
narrative tying his strength -- and Bush's weakness -- on issues
like jobs, the economy, the environment, and
health care to his vision for America's future.
Thankfully -- and ironically -- during its convention, the
Bush/Cheney team delivered the very narrative that
can defeat it. It was offered to Kerry on a platter in Madison
Square Garden when speaker after speaker
relentlessly and shamelessly ridiculed the undeniable reality
that we are two Americas, separated by an
ever-widening gulf -- not just in income but in educational opportunities,
access to health care, and the ability
to realize the American Dream.
Rudy Giuliani and Dick Cheney even went so far as to use the
notion of two Americas as the set up for jokes.
"Senator Kerry says he sees two Americas," said
Cheney. "It makes the whole thing mutual. America sees
two John Kerrys." And according to Giuliani, Democrats need
"two Americas -- one where John Kerry can vote
for something and another where he can vote against the same
thing." Hardee-har-har.
It's worth noting that this frivolity at the expense of the
Other America came just days after the release of a
devastating report from the Census Bureau showing that over 12
percent of the American people -- 35.9
million, 12.9 million of them children -- now live below the
poverty line, and that the number of Americans with
no health insurance has increased by 5.8 million under Bush,
bringing the total to 45 million. Pretty funny, eh
boys?
And the growing chasm between the Two Americas is chillingly
documented in a report released this week by
the Economic Policy Institute which shows how over the last few
years "income shifted extremely rapidly and
extensively from labor compensation to capital income (profits
and interest)." As Jared Bernstein, co-author of
the report, put it: "The economic pie is growing gangbusters
and the typical household is falling behind."
And yet Arnold Schwarzenegger had the gall to tell us at the
convention that "America is back!" The fact that
the Republicans chose not only to render the increasing pain
of increasing millions invisible but to use it as a
punchline tells you all you need to know about the current mindset
of the Grand Old Party. And, even more
importantly, it offers an unparalleled opportunity for the Kerry
campaign to stop defending itself against the
flip-flopping caricature of Kerry that Rove has created and start
defining who George Bush really is -- a callous
leader whose regressive policies have made America a crueler
and more dangerous place.
The Two Americas narrative shows that, far from providing
strong leadership, Bush has turned his back on the
traditional American values of fairness, opportunity, and responsibility.
What's more, it's impossible to talk about the reality of
the Two Americas without talking about Bush's
miserable failures in Iraq, as Kerry did on Labor Day, pointing
out to a crowd in Cleveland that this "wrong war
in the wrong place at the wrong time. cost all of you $200 billion
that could have gone to schools, could have
gone to health care, could have gone to prescription drugs, could
have gone to our Social Security."
It's the Other America that's paying this cost in forgone
opportunities and investments. And it's the Other
America that's also paying the highest price of all in lost lives
and maimed bodies. There are precious few
denizens of Bush's America slogging through the bloody streets
of Najaf and Fallujah -- other than the
occasional Halliburton executive, there to check on the company's
investment in democracy.
It was a great relief to hear Kerry slam Bush on Iraq, and
ignore the siren song of those advising him to cede
the foreign policy front to the president and stick to domestic
issues. This, of course, is the same strategy
Democrats followed in 2002, when they went along with Bush on
Iraq in the hope they could take it off the
table as a campaign issue and win on the economy. And we all
remember how well that turned out. For the
GOP.
The storyline of this campaign is really about heroes and
villains. John Kerry and John Edwards are running
because they are committed to the most important and heroic task
facing our country: the building of one
indivisible nation. They desperately want to make us one America.
Bush and Cheney are running so they can
continue to make life easier, plusher, and more privileged for
the only America they choose to see. To
succeed, they have to convince enough people between now and
Election Day that the Other America is
somehow a pessimistic figment of the Democratic imagination.
The people who flock to John Kerry's rallies know the truth.
People like Lori Sheldon, a 45-year old mother of
two who approached Kerry at a Labor Day rally in Canonsburg,
Pennsylvania where he spoke of the struggle
of middle-class Americans no longer even trying to get ahead
but just to hang on.
"You told our story," she said, sobbing. Sheldon's
husband is a baggage handler for financially strapped US
Airways and faces being laid off this fall. So her story is the
story of one more family the Republican
convention had no time for, living paycheck to paycheck, in fear
of losing it all.
This is the voice of the Other America. And no matter how
vehemently and blithely the president and his
surrogates insist that it doesn't exist, it does. And if John
Kerry continues to tell its story, amplify its voice, and
give the Other America a reason to turn out in November, he'll
win in a landslide.
C 2004 ARIANNA HUFFINGTON.
=====================================================+
Published on Friday, September
10, 2004 by the Inter Press Service
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0910-02.htm
Warming Trend Will Decimate Arctic Peoples, Report Warns
by Stephen Leahy
BROOKLIN, Canada - Climate change will soon make the Arctic regions
of the world nearly
unrecognisable, dramatically disrupting traditional Inuit and
other northern native peoples'
way of life, according to a new report that has yet to be publicly
released.
The dire predictions are just some of the findings by the
Arctic Climate Impact Assessment
(ACIA), an unprecedented four-year scientific investigation into
the current and future impact
of climate change in the region.
"This assessment projects the end of the Inuit as a hunting
culture," said Sheila
Watt-Cloutier, chairwoman of the group that represents about
155,000 Inuit in the Arctic
regions of Canada, Russia, Greenland, and the United States.
The report predicts the depletion of summer sea ice, which
will push marine mammals like
polar bears, walrus and some seal species into extinction by
the middle of this century,
Watt-Cloutier told IPS.
The assessment was commissioned by the Arctic Council, an
intergovernmental body
involving the eight Arctic nations -- Canada, Denmark, Finland,
Sweden, Iceland, Norway,
Russia, and the United States.
The Inuit and other Arctic peoples also participate in the
Council and contributed to the ACIA
report, along with over 600 hundred scientists from around the
world. Although complete, it
will not be made public or presented to governments until after
the U.S. presidential elections
at a conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, Nov. 9-12.
The impacts of climate change are already widely felt in the
Arctic. Thawing permafrost -- the
normally perpetually frozen layer of earth -- has collapsed roads
and buildings. Unexpectedly
thinner sea ice and small streams that have become raging rivers
has led to several
drownings in recent years, according to Watt-Cloutier.
"Our traditional wisdom on how to survive and thrive
on the land is becoming useless
because everything is changing and changing fast."
Alaska experienced its warmest and driest summer ever this
year, Patricia Anderson of the
ACIA Secretariat University of Alaska said in an interview. Temperatures
soared 10 degrees
C. above normal and millions of hectares of forest burned in
the worst wildfires ever recorded,
following several recent years with major fires.
And now the state is facing infestations from the spruce budworm,
a tree-eating insect that
had only plagued southern forests previously.
"It used to be too cold for it up here," Anderson
noted.
Unable to provide details on the report itself, Anderson confirmed
that the report documents
that these are not just unusual events but are in fact trends.
"Sea ice will continue to get thinner, there will be
much more melting of permafrost and more
coastal erosion due to stronger storm surges."
Inuit people will be unable to continue living off the land
in the future and the changes are
coming so fast they won't be able to adapt, she said. "These
are the results of climate
change."
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as anywhere else because
of global air circulation
patterns and natural feedback loops such as less ice reflecting
sunlight, leading to increased
warming at ground level and more ice melt.
Computer projections by the ACIA show that trend will continue
with the Arctic warming by an
average of 6 degrees C by the end of the century -- even if the
Kyoto Protocol commitments
to reducing greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide go into effect
on a global scale.
And yet things could be even worse. Scientists deliberately
selected moderate projections to
avoid controversy, Anderson said.
"The rest of the world needs to pay attention to what's
happening in the Arctic because it's
acting as an early warning barometer for what will happen in
the rest of the world," said
Watt-Cloutier.
If that's not reason enough, another key finding in the ACIA
report, Anderson said, is the
concern that the melting of Arctic ice and snow will dump enough
fresh water into the Arctic
ocean to slow or shut down the vital North Atlantic Ocean conveyor
current.
This conveyor current brings warm tropical waters north and
moderates temperatures in
eastern North America and Europe. Large volumes of fresh water
spilling out of the Arctic
ocean could slow its northward movement, leading to an abrupt
climate shift where the
region would experience much cooler temperatures in just a few
years time.
Some scientists have detected signs that this may be already
starting to happen.
Despite the alarming evidence, there is little good news when
it comes to taking action on
climate change. Carbon dioxide emissions are climbing globally,
including by the biggest
contributor, the United States.
"The Bush administration doesn't believe there's a problem
and are behind the delay in the
release of the report," said Gordon McBean, an ACIA participant
from the Institute for
Catastrophic Loss Reduction at the University of Western Ontario.
"They don't even think
they ought to reduce their emissions, period."
But to truly reduce the impact on the Arctic, global emissions
have to be reduced by a
whopping 50 percent before the year 2050, McBean told IPS.
The Kyoto Protocol, which has not been ratified in the seven
years since it was created
because the United States and Russia, among others, will not
support it, would reduce
emissions a mere 5 percent by 2012.
"Kyoto was just a first step, we need a strategy to get
to a 50 percent reduction," McBean
said.
Even Canada, which strongly supports Kyoto and emissions reductions,
has done little to
reduce its own pollution, he said.
Government inaction on climate change by Canada and the United
States is due in large
part to the failure of the general public to apply pressure on
the issue, says Watt-Cloutier.
"People don't seem to understand that what they do on
a daily basis has a direct impact on
the people and wildlife of the north," she said, adding
that she hopes people will begin to
see that their actions -- their choice of vehicle, for example
-- can produce negative
consequences for others and future generations.
"People do want to do the right thing, but they just
don't realise that the Arctic is melting and
they are responsible," she said.
© Copyright 2004 IPS - Inter Press Service
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Thursday, September 9, 2004 3:33 PM
Subject: Marjorie Cohn | The Preemptive President
t r u t h o u t | 09.10
Scientist: Millions Will Die in Extreme Climate Change
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
Marjorie Cohn | The Preemptive President
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004A.shtml
Monica Davey | For 1,000 Troops, There is No Going Home
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004B.shtml
At Least 8 Killed in Blast at Australian Embassy in Jakarta
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004C.shtml
Sidney Blumenthal | Now It's Bush's Turn to Squirm
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004D.shtml
Tens of Thousands of Iraqis Estimated Killed
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004E.shtml
Kerry Calls Cheney Comment "Outrageous and Shameful"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004F.shtml
Despair in Iraq over the Forgotten Victims of U.S. Invasion
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004H.shtml
Tribunal Finds Guantanamo Detainee Not an Enemy Combatant
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004I.shtml
Richard Clarke: War Against Terror is a Failure
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004J.shtml
Retired Generals, Admirals Call for Independent Probe into
Torture
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004K.shtml
Maureen Dowd | Cheney Spits Toads
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004L.shtml
FOCUS: The Faces of 1,000 Soldiers
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004W.shtml
Children among Dead in U.S. Airstrikes on Fallujah
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004X.shtml
Records: Bush Suspended from Flying, Given Special Treatment
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004Y.shtml
Family 'Thanks' Bush for Death of Son in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004Z.shtml
The TO Overview
William Rivers Pitt: 'They Believed Their President'
http://www.truthout.org/overview.htm
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
=====================================================+
From: Richard Kiiski <kiiski@earthlink.net>
To: Robert Brower <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Date: Thursday, September 9, 2004 8:18 PM
Subject: Re: DON'T LOOK AT THE FLASH -- Ruppert Fingers
Cheney as Chief Architect of 9/11
As I'm sure you know, there's an rising tide of new books
about 9/11. Two that I've read recently are:
The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush
Administration
9/11 and Inside Job: Unmasking the 9/11 Conspiracies
The first is by David Ray Griffin, Professor of Philosophy
of Religion at the Claremont School of Theology in So. California
and author and editor of more than 20 books (hardly your wild-eyed
conspiracy theorist). The second is by Jim Marrs, a Texas-based
investigative reporter and author of Rule by Secrecy and Crossfire:
The Plot that Killed Kennedy (who is a conspiracy theorist).
Both books make for fascinating reading and cast serious
doubt on the "official" story of 9/11. It really is
amazing, when you stop and think about it, that one of the most
horrific events of our lifetimes has not yet been thoroughly
investigated.
Incidentally, Jim Marrs will be a featured speaker this
weekend at the 9/11 Truth Convergence, which is being held Friday
and Saturday, September 10 & 11, at the College of Marin,
835 College Avenue, in Kentfield. Also on the speaker's list
is Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange, among others. For more
information on this event, got to http://www.911Truth.org
or call (415) 435-4073.
Since you enjoyed Greg Palast's article, consider signing
up for his free mailing list at: http://www.gregpalast.com.
Another great free list can be found at http://www.capitolhillblue.com.
The latter is fueled by a loose-knit bunch of grumpy, irreverent
Washington-based journalists--some retired, some still active.
The site's motto: "Nobody's life, liberty or property is
safe while Congress is in session."
Best regards,
~rck
PS--As I was writing the above, the following arrived.
The plot thickens!
==================+++
SEPTEMBER 11: WHAT YOU "OUGHT NOT TO KNOW"
DOCUMENT 199-I AND THE FBI'S WORDS TO CHILL THE SOUL
Thursday, September 9, 2004
by Greg Palast
On November 9, 2001, when you could still choke on the dust
in the air near Ground Zero, BBC Television received a call in
London from a top-level US intelligence agent. He was not happy.
Shortly after George W. Bush took office, he told us reluctantly,
the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the FBI, "were
told to back off the Saudis."
We knew that. In the newsroom, we had a document already in
hand, marked, "SECRET" across the top and "199-I"
- meaning this was a national security matter.
The secret memo released agents to hunt down two member of
the bin Laden family operating a "suspected terrorist organization"
in the USA. It was dated September 13, 2001 -- two days too late
for too many. What the memo indicates, corroborated by other
sources, was that the agents had long wanted to question these
characters ... but could not until after the attack. By that
time, these bin Laden birds had flown their American nest.
Back to the high-level agent. I pressed him to tell me exactly
which investigations were spiked. None of this interview dance
was easy, requiring switching to untraceable phones. Ultimately,
the insider said, "Khan Labs." At the time, our intelligence
agencies were on the trail of Pakistan's Dr. Strangelove, A.Q.
Khan, who built Pakistan's bomb and was selling its secrets to
the Libyans. But once Bush and Condoleeza Rice's team took over,
the source told us, agents were forced to let a hot trail go
cold. Specifically, there were limits on tracing the Saudi money
behind this "Islamic bomb."
Then we made another call, this time to an arms dealer in
the Mideast. He confirmed that his partner attended a meeting
in 1995 at the 5-star Hotel Royale Monceau in Paris where, allegedly,
Saudi billionaires agreed to fund Al Qaeda fanatics. We understood
it to be protection money, not really a sign of support for their
attacks. Nevertheless, rule number one of investigative reporting
is "follow the money" -- but the sheiks' piggy banks
were effectively off-limits to the US agents during the Bush
years. One of the men in the posh hotel's meeting of vipers happens
to have been a Bush family business associate.
Before you jump to the wrong conclusion, let me tell you that
we found no evidence -- none, zero, no kidding -- that George
Bush knew about Al Qaeda's plan to attack on September 11. Indeed,
the grim joke at BBC is that anyone accusing George Bush of knowing
anything at all must have solid evidence. This is not a story
of what George Bush knew but rather of his very-unfunny ignorance.
And it was not stupidity, but policy: no asking Saudis uncomfortable
questions about their paying off roving packs of killers, especially
when those Saudis are so generous to Bush family businesses.
Yes, Bill Clinton was also a bit too tender towards the oil
men of Arabia. But this you should know. In his last year in
office, Clinton sent two delegations to the Gulf to suggest that
the Royal family crack down on "charitable donations"
from their kingdom to the guys who blew up our embassies.
But when a failed Texas oil man took over the White House
in January 2001, demands on the Saudis to cut off terror funding
simply stopped.
And what about the bin Laden "suspected terrorist organization"?
Called the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, the group sponsors
soccer teams and summer camps in Florida. BBC obtained a video
of one camp activity, a speech exhorting kids on the heroism
of suicide bombings and hostage takings. While WAMY draws membership
with wholesome activities, it has also acted as a cover or front,
say the Dutch, Indian and Bosnian governments, for the recruitment
of jihadi killers.
Certainly, it was worth asking the bin Laden boys a few questions.
But the FBI agents couldn't, until it was too late.
In November 2001, when BBC ran the report on the spike of
investigations of Saudi funding of terror in November 2001, the
Bush defenders whom we'd invited to respond on air dismissed
the concerns of lower level FBI agents who'd passed over the
WAMY documents. No action was taken on the group headed by the
bin Ladens.
Then, in May this year, fifty FBI agents surrounded, invaded
and sealed off WAMY's Virginia office. It was like a bad scene
out of the 'Untouchables.' The raid took place three years after
our report and long after the bin Ladens had waved bye-bye, it
is not surprising that the feds seized mostly empty files and
a lot of soccer balls.
Why now this belated move on the bin Laden's former operation?
Why not right after the September 11 attack? This year's FBI
raid occurred just days after an Islamist terror assault in Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia. Apparently, messin' with the oil sheiks gets this
Administration's attention. Falling towers in New York are only
for Republican convention photo ops.
The 199-I memo was passed to BBC television by the sleuths
at the National Security News Service in Washington. We authenticated
it, added in our own sleuthing, then gave the FBI its say, expecting
the usual, "It's baloney, a fake." But we didn't get
the usual response. Rather, FBI headquarters said, "There
are lots of things the intelligence community knows and other
people ought not to know."
Ought not to know?
What else ought we not to know, Mr. President? And when are
we supposed to forget it?
Greg Palast's reports for BBC Television Newsnight and
The Guardian paper of Britain (with David Pallister) on White
House interference in the investigation of terrorism won a 2002
California State University Journalism School 'Project Censored'
Award.
The BBC television reports, expanded and updated, will
be released this month in the USA as a DVD, "Bush Family
Fortunes," produced by BBC's Meirion Jones. View a 2-minute
preview at http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm
The film will be premiered in 21 cities beginning on September
11, sponsored by Democracy for America. http://www.takeyourcountryback.com/BUSHFAMILYFORTUNES/
Sign up for Greg Palast's investigative reports at http://www.gregpalast.com/contact.cfm
=====================================================+
From: Earthjustice <action@earthjustice.org>
Reply-To: notice-reply-8igkes29ji7d7j@ga0.org
To: Robert Brower <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Date: Thursday, September 9, 2004 3:58 PM
There's still time: Stand up for the Roadless Rule!
All across the country, thousands of concerned Americans are
standing up for the Roadless Rule. The Bush administration and
the Forest Service are feeling the heat and, just yesterday,
extended the public comment deadline until November 15. Help
us keep the momentum going--send your comment to the Forest Service
to oppose the Bush administration's plan to eliminate the Roadless
Rule TODAY.
It only takes a minute:
Earthjustice is part of an all-out effort to stand up to
the Bush administration's reckless plan to scrap the Roadless
Area Conservation Rule--the landmark law that protects 58.5 million
acres of unspoiled national forest lands from road building.
Eliminating the Roadless Rule means 34.5 million acres of pristine
national forests are immediately open to road building and the
industrial development that comes with it. Help us send the administration
and its friends in the timber, mining, and energy industries
the message: Our national forests are not for sale!
ACT NOW!
SEND YOUR COMMENT TODAY and help SPREAD THE WORD.
Thank you!
Please copy and paste the following link into your browser window:
http://ga0.org/campaign/roadless_rule/8igkes29ji7d7j
© 2004 Earthjustice | 426 17th St., 6th Floor, Oakland,
CA 94612 | 510-550-6700
webmaster@earthjustice.org
=====================================================+
Published on Wednesday, September
8, 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0908-16.htm
Apocalypse Bush!
Why Care for the Planet When the End Times are Almost
Here?
Vote Bush and Hop On the Salvation Train!
by Mark Morford
This is the great thing about rabid fundamentalism. You really
just don't have to give a damn.
Take the environment. I mean, isn't it just a little pointless
to care so damn deeply about the air and the soil
and the water and the stupid little disposable animals on this
silly spinning ball of expendable rock when the
Second Coming is imminent and a blood-soaked fire-breathin' Jesus
who looks remarkably like Mel Gibson will
return very soon to smite the heathens and the gays and the vegetarians
and the Francophiles, and who will
rescue all those who worship patriarchy and country music and
blue-chip oil portfolios? You're goddamn right
it is.
Look. This much has become clear. Bush is, more than anything
else, an extreme fundamentalist Christian.
He is widely regarded as the most openly pious and sanctimonioous
president in modern American history. He
actually preaches the GOP screed in evangelical churches across
America. He panders so slavishly to the
anti-choicers and the Bible-thumpers and the homophobes it makes
Jerry Falwell swoon and giggle.
And Bush actually says, out loud, that God speaks through
him, and that God is on our side we bomb the
living crap out of Afghanistan and Iraq and that it is the Almighty's
wish that we take control of these angry
pip-squeak nations and in so doing kill thousands of civilians
and tens of thousands of young Iraqi soldiers,
as over 1,000 American soldiers are now dead over a makeshift
cause that never really existed. God wanted
it this way, that's why.
Bush has called Jesus his "favorite philosopher."
He has claimed that the act of being "born-again" saved
him
from a long, sad life of vaguely homoerotic frat parties and
repetitive binge drinking and going AWOL from the
National Guard, all so he could turn his full attention to righteously
ruining multiple businesses and then
making Texas the most murderous and polluted state in the union.
But, you know, why stop there?
God, of course, isn't just about the current Iraqi war. Bush
understands this. Nor is God just about slamming
gays or creating nasty, isolationist foreign policy. God is not
merely about setting those gul-dang Muslim
heathens straight about who is the supreme big-daddy all-powerful
mega-righteous SUV-drivin'
American-flag-wavin' God and who is just a dimestore wannabe
false idol scruffy Allah.
Because above all, God is nothing if not all about putting
a quick and fiery stop to all this Earthly nonsense
ASAP. He is nothing if not all about the coming apocalypse. And
He is nothing if not all about saving those
who believe, as Bush does, that he is among the chosen to be
saved.
This is the fundamentalist truth. And this is the BushCo maxim.
The End Times provide the ultimate meaning,
the final straw, the only thing worth caring about, because it
defines the BushCo worldview like nothing else
except maybe embarrassing grammar and crushing deficits and a
secret craving for gin. You can see it in his
sad, vacant eyes: Bush is absolutely convinced that God is a
Republican. Why else would He create all those
cool M-1 tanks and oil refineries and those neat deer-antler
chandeliers? Exactly.
Do you see? Do you get it? If not, you haven't been reading
nearly enough of those silly pulpy sociopathic
gazillion-selling "Left Behind" doomsday books so frighteningly
adored by the Christian Right. It's simple,
really: The world is gonna end real soon. The End Times are comin'.
All the signs are in place -- famine, war,
disease, sodomy, fires, hurricanes, Avril Lavigne -- and Bush,
by instigating holy wars and inciting more
terrorism and burning through the planet's natural resources
as fast as humanly possible, is merely hastening
the blessedly inevitable. As his fellow fundamentalists say,
God bless him.
Hey, it explains a lot, this view. It explain how Bush can
just smirk and mumble and, with one big, heartless
shrug, dismiss the complete lack of WMD and the loss of 1.6 million
U.S. jobs and the nation's staggering
$422 billion budget deficit. Pay down the national debt? Bah.
Planet's going to hell anyway, people. Stock up
on nuclear missiles and get yourself an escape pod. Can't afford
one? Whatta shame.
It surely explains the general GOP hatred of gay marriage,
of open-hearted sex, of those wicked, sin-inducing
vaginas (that harlot Eve is gonna pay, dammit), of environmentalism,
of caring about air quality and water
quality and the EPA and organic foods and homeopathic medicine
and resource management and the
Alaska Wildlife Refuge and the U.N. and any country that doesn't
have a McDonald's and a Starbucks and a
decent strip club for lonely gin-soaked Republican expats.
And it explains not only the outright contempt for any view
other than Bush's own, but the willingness to
legislate that hatred, codify it, to make it outright illegal
to think or feel or love otherwise.
Look at it this way: When you have an angry, patriotic God
and the red-hot promise of the juicy apocalypse
on your side, there is no such thing as a counter-argument. There
is no such thing as competition. There is
no such thing as giving a damn what anyone else thinks.
How else do you explain it? How else can you understand the
most aggressive, war-hungry, abusive,
nature-loathing, isolationist administration in American history?
How else can you explain BushCo's overall "F"
grade from every environmental organization in the world? How
can you explain his mauling of long-term
Social Security planning? The decimation of the idea of universal
health care? A pre-emptive,
attack-first-ask-questions-never, warmongering policy that creates
more anti-U.S. hatred by the minute?
How can you explain the fact that every human rights organization
on the planet is appalled by Bush's
actions? Guantanamo Bay to Abu Ghraib to John Ashcroft to the
Patriot Act to gutting funding for
international women's health care. Hey, if God had wanted us
to care about other viewpoints, He would've
made everyone speak English. Can I get a "hell yeah?"
This lust for apocalyptica, then, is perhaps the best way
we have to at least partially understand the
shamelessness of this administration's policies and its blatant
disregard for international law, its open hatred
of any nation that disagrees with us and the deep, profound concern
only for nations that either cower in our
God-flexin' presence and/or have resources that Bush's corporate
pals are salivating to exploit.
And it is the perhaps ultimate explanation for the Right's
final cattle call, its bitter war cry of a message, its
exact parallel to every pseudo-religious evangelical scam artist
on late-night cable TV.
Listen, good people of America. If you just send your money
to the party and give up all that careful,
nuanced thinking, if you just quite questioning our decisions
and load up on blind faith, it will all be OK and
you can have all the guns and fast food you want and those terrifying
gays will leave you alone because
BushCo will take care of you and God will reserve your seat on
the glory train to salvation. Deal? Praise
Jesus! Praise Bush/Cheney! Hallelujah you are saved! Even as
we are, you know, doomed.
Isn't bogus salvation fun?
©2004 SF Gate
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Wednesday, September 8, 2004 2:47 PM
Subject: Senator Graham: Bush Covered Up Saudi Involvement
in 9/11
t r u t h o u t | 09.09
Senator Graham: Bush Covered Up Saudi Involvement in
9/11
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904A.shtml
Now with Bill Moyers | 9/11: For the Record
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904L.shtml
Pollution Triggers Bizarre Behaviour in Animals
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
New Evidence Shows Bush Avoided National Guard
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904B.shtml
Letter from President Carter to Zell Miller
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904C.shtml
Iraqis Mount Attacks Across Baghdad
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904D.shtml
Bush to Allow Assault Weapons Ban to Expire
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904E.shtml
California to Sue Diebold over False Claims
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904F.shtml
Andre Fontaine | The Wrong War in the Wrong Place
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904H.shtml
A Deepening Debate on Soldiers and Their Insurers
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904I.shtml
Final Tally Awaits the Police and Protesters
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904J.shtml
Gay Activists in the G.O.P. Withhold Endorsement
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904K.shtml
Deep Shade of Red Seen in Deficit
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904X.shtml
New Military Records Confirm Bush was Absent
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904Y.shtml
U.S. Concedes 'Rebels' Control Large Regions in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904Z.shtml
FOCUS: Nicholas D. Kristof | Missing in Action
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090904W.shtml
The TO Overview
William Rivers Pitt: 'Sincerely, and With Deepest Regrets...'
http://www.truthout.org/overview.htm
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
=====================================================+
From: Richard Kiiski <kiiski@earthlink.net>
To: <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Date: Wednesday, September 8, 2004 12:52 PM
Subject: Don't Look at the Flash
DON'T LOOK AT THE FLASH
by Greg Palast
On September 11, 2001, we Americans were the victims of a
terrible attack.
By September 12, we became the suspects.
Not one single U.S. citizen hijacked a plane, yet President
Bush and
Attorney General John Ashcroft, through powers seized and codified
in
the USA PATRIOT Act, fingered 270 million of us for surveillance,
for
searches, for tracking, for watching.
And who was going to play Anti-Santa, watching to see when
we've been
good or bad? A guy named Derek Smith.
And that made September 11, 2001 Derek's lucky day.
Even before the spying work could begin, there were all those
pieces of
people to collect - tubes marked "DM" (for "Disaster
Manhattan") - from
which his company, ChoicePoint Inc, would extract DNA for victim
identification, work for which the firm would receive $12 million
from
New York City's government.
Maybe Smith, like the rest of us, grieved at the murder of
innocent
friends and countrymen. As for the 12-million-dollar corpse
identification fee, that's chump change to the $4 billion corporation
Smith had founded only four years earlier in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Nevertheless, for Smith's ChoicePoint Inc., Ground Zero would
become a
profit center lined with gold.
As the towers fell, ChoicePoint's stock rose; and from Ground
Zero,
contracts gushed forth from War on Terror fever. Why? Because
this
outfit is holding no less 16 billion records on every living
and dying
being in the USA. They're the Little Brother with the filing
system
when Big Brother calls.
ChoicePoint's quick route to no-bid spy contracts was not
impeded by
the fact that the company did something for George W. Bush that
the
voters would not: select him as our president.
Here's how they did it. Before the 2000 election, ChoicePoint
unit
Database Technologies, held a $4 million no-bid contract under
the
control of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, to identify
felons who had illegally registered to vote. The ChoicePoint
outfit
altogether fingered 94,000 Florida residents. As it turned out,
less
than 3,000 had a verifiable criminal record; almost everyone
on the
list had the right to vote.
The tens of thousands of "purged" citizens had something
in common
besides their innocence: The list was, in the majority, made
up of
African Americans and Hispanics, overwhelmingly Democratic voters
whose
only crime was V.W.B: Voting While Black. And that little ethnic
cleansing operation, conducted by Governor Jeb Bush's gang with
ChoicePoint's aid, determined the race in which Harris named
Bush the
winner by 537 votes.
To say that ChoicePoint is in the "data" business
is utterly to miss
their market concept: These guys are in the Fear Industry. Secret
danger lurks everywhere. Al Qaeda's just the tip of the iceberg.
What
about the pizza delivery boy? ChoicePoint hunted through a sampling
of
them and announced that 25 percent had only recently come out
of
prison. "What pizza do you like?" asks CEO Smith. "At
what price? Are
you willing to take the risk?..."
War fever opened up a whole new market for the Fear Industry.
And now Mr. Smith wants your blood. ChoicePoint is the biggest
supplier of DNA to the FBI's "CODIS" system. And, one
company insider
whispered to me, "Derek [Smith] told me that it is his hope
to build a
database of DNA samples from every person in the United States."
For now, Smith keeps this scheme under wraps, fearing "resistance"
from
the public. Instead, Smith pushes "ChoicePoint Cares"
- taking DNA
samples to hunt for those missing kids on milk cartons. It's
for, "the
mothers of this country who are wrestling with threats"
- you know, the
pizza guy from Al Queda, the cult kidnappers. In other words,
ChoicePoint's real product, like our President's, is panic.
In Hollywood, Jack Nicholson picked up the zeitgeist: "If
I were an
Arab American I would insist on being profiled. This is not the
time
for civil rights."
Maybe Jack's right: screw rights, we want safety.
But wait, Jack. We're both old farts who can remember the
Cuban
Missile Crisis. In 1962, the Russians were going to drop The
Big One on
us. But we didn't have to worry, Mrs. Gordon told us, if we just
got
under the desk, covered our necks. And she'd warned, it will
all be OK
as long as we, "Don't look at the flash!"
ChoicePoint's Smith admonishes that, if we,d only had his
databases
humming at the airports on September 11, the hijackers, who used
their
own names, would have been barred from boarding. However, experts
inform me that Osama no longer checks in as "Mr. bin Laden,"
even at
the cost of losing his frequent flyer miles.
ChoicePoint's miles of files, the FBI's CODIS system, taking
off your
shoes at the airport, Code Purple days, the whole new Star-Spangled
KGB'ing of America is the new "Duck and Cover."
Thank you, ChoicePoint. Thank you, Mr. Ashcroft. Thank you,
Mr. Bush.
We're safe now, as long as we don't look at the flash!
****
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller,
"The Best
Democracy Money Can Buy" and "Joker's Wild: Dubya's
Trick Deck" -
investigative regime change cards from Seven Stories Press. All
are
available here: http://www.gregpalast.com/store.htm
This month, Palast will release, "Bush Family Fortunes,"
the film based
on his investigative reports for BBC television. View a 2-minute
preview at http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm
Sign up for Greg Palast's investigative reports at
www.gregpalast.com/contact.cfm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Richard C. Kiiski
240 Redwood Highway, #3
Mill Valley, CA 94941-6605
(415) 332-0223
kiiski@earthlink.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
=====================================================+
From: Richard Kiiski <kiiski@earthlink.net>
To: <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Date: Wednesday, September 8, 2004 7:58 PM
Subject: Ruppert Fingers Cheney as Chief Architect of
9/11
The following is a press release for his new book posted by
Michael C. Ruppert, former LAPD narcotics officer, member of
Mensa, creator of the "From the Wilderness" website,
investigative reporter and meticulous researcher. If he can actually
prove the allegations enumerated below, the political scene in
the ol' US of A could get very interesting in months ahead. ~rck
=================+++
Crossing the Rubicon:
The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
by Michael C. Ruppert
September 2, 2004
This is a detective story that gets to the innermost core
of the 9/11 attacks. It places 9/11 at the center of a desperate
new America, created by specific, named individuals in preparation
for Peak Oil: an economic crisis like nothing the world has ever
seen.
The attacks of September 11th, 2001 were accomplished through
an amazing orchestration of logistics and personnel. Crossing
the Rubicon discovers and identifies the key suspects and persons
of interest -- finding some of them in the highest echelons of
American government -- by showing how they acted in concert to
guarantee that the attacks occurred and produced the desired
result.
After two and a half years of research and writing, Ruppert
said:
"In my new book I will be making several key points:
1. I will name Vice President Richard Cheney as the prime
suspect in the mass murders of 9/11 and will establish that,
not only was he a planner in the attacks, but also that on the
day of the attacks he was running a completely separate Command,
Control and Communications system which was superceding any orders
being issued by the FAA, the Pentagon, or the White House Situation
Room;
2. I will establish conclusively that in May of 2001, by presidential
order, Richard Cheney was put in direct command and control of
all wargame and field exercise training and scheduling through
several agencies, especially FEMA. This also extended to all
of the conflicting and overlapping NORAD drills -- some involving
hijack simulations -- taking place on that day.
3. I will also demonstrate that the TRIPOD II exercise being
set up on Sept. 10th in Manhattan was directly connected to Cheney's
role in the above.
4. I will also prove conclusively that a number of public
officials, at the national and New York City levels, including
then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, were aware that flight 175 was en
route to lower Manhattan for 20 minutes and did nothing to order
the evacuation of, or warn the occupants of the South Tower.
One military officer was forced to leave his post in the middle
of the attacks and place a private call to his brother -- who
worked at the WTC -- warning him to get out. That was because
no other part of the system was taking action.
5. I will also show that the Israeli and British governments
acted as partners with the highest levels of the American government
to help in the preparation and, very possibly, the actual execution
of the attacks."
"There is more reason to be afraid of not facing the
evidence in this book than of facing what is in it."
For details on ordering, and availablity, please visit:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com
"A Nonpartisan, Non-sectarian, MAP from the Here That
Is, Into the Tomorrow of Our Own Making."
Copyright (c) 2003 From The Wilderness. All Rights Reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Richard C. Kiiski
240 Redwood Highway, #3
Mill Valley, CA 94941-6605
(415) 332-0223
kiiski@earthlink.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
=====================================================+
laweekly.com - SEPTEMBER 3 - 9,
2004
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/41/features-kelly.php
Loss and Loathing on the Cheney Trail
The environmental destruction wrought by the vice president's
secret energy plan
by William J. Kelly
A neighbor had warned Lisa Bracken of a strange phenomenon on
the trail up to western Colorado's towering Mamm Mountain. On
an April morning, she set off from her home in the small town
of Silt, in the shadow of Mamm, to see it for herself. She hiked
for about an hour through the budding trees and brush. After
climbing several hundred feet, Bracken reached Divide Creek,
and grew alarmed at what she saw.
Cold water, but bubbling like a boiling pot. Bubbles rose
and popped everywhere. To test a theory that gas from a nearby
well caused the bubbles, Bracken and her father, who had hiked
with her that day, lit a match and found that a stream of bubbles
burned. After taking photos, she headed home worrying about her
family's health and the future of the water supply for the residents
and farm animals along the creek.
When she got home, Bracken called state authorities to report
the bubbles in the creek, which flows to the Colorado River.
Within days, energy giant EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. began
trucking 5-gallon water jugs to the Brackens and 20 neighboring
families. Monitoring showed that the seeping gas apparently had
contaminated the water with unhealthful levels of benzene and
other toxic chemicals that typically occur in gas wells. After
investigating, the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
cited EnCana for allegedly polluting the creek. EnCana has paid
a $375,000 fine without admitting guilt.
Authorities assure Bracken and her neighbors that the creek
is again safe because EnCana has repaired the well and the toxic
chemicals have dissipated, but the residents continue to fear
for their health and worry that their properties have become
worthless.
The people of Silt are among a growing legion of farmers,
ranchers, American Indians, and businesspeople - Republican,
Democrat and Independent alike - who are bearing the brunt of
booming natural-gas development in the Rocky Mountains under
Vice President Dick Cheney's secretly developed 2001 National
Energy Policy.
The public will never know for sure what went through Cheney's
mind and who influenced the policy; the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
earlier this summer that he had a right to keep the information
secret. Environmental groups fought the secrecy all the way to
the Supreme Court in a vain attempt to reveal what they believed
to be undue influence over the nation's energy and environmental
policies by energy companies, large and small. They suspected
that the administration had unfairly stacked the national energy
policy in favor of the energy industry at the expense of the
general public.
Three years after the policy was introduced, it is clear that
Cheney - former chief of the energy-services company Halliburton
- has done just that. His policy has allowed his energy-industry
cronies and campaign contributors to drill on the cheap in the
absence of environmental standards that commonly apply to most
any other industry in America, such as a duty to control air
pollution with the best available technology.
Major campaign contributors have been beneficiaries of the
secretly developed policy and are among the biggest drillers
for natural gas in Colorado and Wyoming. They include Secretary
of Commerce Don Evans' former employer Tom Brown Inc., which
was recently bought by EnCana, and George and John Yates, who
run Yates Petroleum, and R.D. Cash, a former chairman of Questar
Corp. who still remains on its board. Household-name companies
such as BP and Marathon Oil also are busy drilling under eased
environmental requirements while they reap record profits under
the Cheney blueprint to open every gas-bearing area in the Rocky
Mountains to drilling while he holds office. Halliburton is another
big winner as it carves up the new business created by drilling
tens of thousands of new wells with just a few major competitors.
Energy companies contend they are merely meeting the nation's
growing demand for energy. "This is about providing what
is being required by the consumer," said Hugh Depland, general
manager of public affairs for BP America Exploration. He rejected
the notion that BP and other energy companies have exchanged
campaign contributions for relaxed environmental standards under
the National Energy Policy. "The industry is a lot greener
than it's been for a long time." Said Don Larson, director
of public affairs for BP America's Rocky Mountain operations:
"I don't see it being politically driven. It's stricter
than ever now." Other energy industry executives, including
Allan Urlis, chief spokesperson for Mid American Energy Holdings,
said that more domestic drilling is needed to reduce reliance
on foreign sources of energy.
Meanwhile, there are many losers in the growing swath of
denuded land, contaminated soil, polluted water and air pollution
along a path - call it the Cheney Trail - that runs up the Rocky
Mountains from New Mexico all the way to Canada. However, that
should come as no surprise, because that is exactly what Cheney
had planned, even before taking office in 2000.
"I voted for Bush," said Bracken. "I'm part
of the problem." This fall she will vote against Bush-Cheney
because they are "too far removed from real people to know
what's going on in their back yards."
Old hands in the region are not necessarily out to deny California
and the rest of the nation from tapping Rocky Mountain gas. Instead,
they demand strong environmental policies and believe the price
of gas should account for good practices needed to preserve their
own back yards. They point out that while it takes about $1 million
to drill a gas well around Silt, wells there can produce up to
$50 million worth of gas over their life at today's prices. They
also advocate investment in renewable energy and laud Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger's plans to put solar panels on new homes
and, by 2017, to make 33 percent of the state's electricity from
renewable resources, up from today's goal of just 20 percent.
Moved by the stories of Bracken and others, I decided to travel
to this land of majestic green peaks, rushing water, American
Indian spirituality and rugged cowboy traditions. I strapped
myself behind the wheel of a cheap rental car, cranked up the
sound, and drove hard and fast to hit the Cheney Trail. I felt
compelled to meet the people and see what was becoming of this
last great wilderness in the lower 48 states, an iconic land
that holds a special place in the American imagination.
My time was too limited to drive the entire 1,600-mile length
of the Cheney Trail - from the Mexican border to Canada - so
I set out to explore the middle portion where drilling has become
most intense.
First, I headed for the San Juan Basin, an area in northwest
New Mexico that already has thousands of gas wells and recently
has been opened to expanded gas development by the Bush administration.
As I drove the 700 miles from Los Angeles, I remembered that
while leading Halliburton, Cheney, in a 1999 report he helped
develop as a key member of the National Petroleum Council, advocated
opening the Rocky Mountains to massive gas drilling. The report
showed that the lower 48 states' biggest reserve of natural gas
remains in the Rocky Mountain region, but that it could not be
developed due to environmental protections intended to maintain
the land as a wilderness that provided water to the thirsty West,
ranch land to feed the nation, and recreational space for the
burgeoning number of city dwellers.
That same year, in a speech to the London Institute of Petroleum,
Cheney complained that oil and gas "is the only large
industry whose leverage has not been all that effective in the
political arena." Determined to change that situation when
elected, he invited energy-industry executives to become part
of a secretive task force charged with rewriting the nation's
energy policy. The task force quickly invited the National Petroleum
Council to make a presentation to federal officials on March
27, 2001. The council's key recommendations: increased access
to gas on federal lands, streamlined approval of drilling, and
rollbacks of regulations that impaired gas development.
In that same speech, Cheney described himself as "mean-spirited,
short-tempered and intolerant of those who disagreed." So
before the task force could complete writing its policy, Bush
administration officials got busy adopting the industry's recommendations,
shooting off a series of policy directives to field offices of
the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) and other federal agencies. BLM director Kathleen Clarke
directed her agency's field-office staff to rush drilling permits
out the door, while other directives told them to short-circuit
environmental analysis for drilling projects backed by major
campaign donors to the Bush-Cheney administration.
Typical of this is Yates Petroleum, which has the rights
to drill at the beginning of the Cheney Trail on the Otero Mesa,
an empty desert area near its headquarters in Artesia, New Mexico.
In 2002, George Yates ran a fund-raiser for Cheney and Bush in
Artesia, a poor community dominated by a rusty gas-processing
plant, train tracks, rundown buildings and a dump full of rusting
oil-and-gas well equipment. The town's only bright spot
is the block where Yates has its modern corporate headquarters
at one end and a family-owned restaurant known as the Wellhead
RestaurantBrew Pub at the other. Oil-and-gas-industry executives
journeyed to the dilapidated town to eat with Cheney for $250
a plate and pay $1,000 to ham it up in grip-and-grin photos with
the vice president.
President Bush himself picked up $2.2 million in Denver at
a June fund-raiser at the Phipps Mansion organized by oil-and-gas
man Bruce Benson, who now chairs the Benson Mineral Group after
the company he formerly headed, U.S. Exploration, Inc., was bought
out in 2003. Bush pledged to explore for energy in more "environmentally
sensitive areas" with better drilling technology. Guests
dressed in formal wear sipped Coors, the only beer available
at the $5,000-a-couple fund-raiser, and applauded Bush's pledge,
said the White House press office.
A Yates Petroleum employee who would not speak for attribution
dismissed as "ridiculous" any suggestion that the fund-raiser
led to concessions from the Bush administration. The vice president's
press secretary, Kevin Kellems, said he could not address questions
about any connection between energy company contributions and
changes in energy policy under Cheney's watch. Ann Womack, Cheney's
spokesperson in the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign organization, did
not return calls.
When I finally reached Gallup, in the San Juan Basin, I drove
north along U.S. Highway 491 on the New Mexico side of the Navajo
Nation. The setting sun shone over craggy rock formations around
the town of Shiprock, dotted with gas wells and small
houses without electricity. Ahead, a trail of orange pollution
from the stacks of the San Juan coal power plant, which sends
electricity to distant Southern California, stretched downwind
toward Farmington, New Mexico.
The next morning I met Samuel Sage, who is a behavioral counselor
for the Indian Health Service in Farmington and president of
the Navajo Chapter in Councilor, New Mexico. His community recently
has joined in a legal challenge to massive gas development in
the San Juan Basin in the northwest corner of the state.
"We're sacrificing our lungs for your lungs," said
Sage. "In the long run there's not going to be that much
oil and gas here. It's all going to be used up."
He said that many of his constituents are concerned about
gas development because they still live traditional Navajo lives,
hauling water from springs, growing their own food, herding animals
and making traditional spiritual offerings at sacred spots.
While the Navajo control the land's surface, the federal government
retains the option to lease development rights of the gas below
to energy companies, Sage explained. Along with those
leases, the companies gain the right to use the surface of the
land as needed for establishing wells, service roads, and pipelines
to carry the gas to market.
Energy companies have long produced gas in the San Juan Basin.
Late last year, however, the Interior Department's BLM approved
a request by companies to drill 10,000 new gas wells in the basin.
Some of the giants of the energy world operate in this
rolling desert area. They have been among Bush's biggest
contributors, including BP, which gave almost $1 million to Republicans
in the 2000 election. Less well-known companies such as Houston-based
Burlington Resources and Fort Worthbased XTO Energy also
are big operators in the San Juan Basin. Burlington chairman
Bobby Shackouls is well-known by Cheney as a member of the National
Petroleum Council and one who could easily write a $2,000 check
to Bush-Cheney 04 Inc. XTO contributes heavily to Republicans
in Congress who oversee energy issues. It has paid off too. The
company saw its profit jump 73 percent in the second quarter
of this year over a year ago.
"We had a great relationship for the first 35 years,"
said Tweeti Blancett, a well-to-do Republican with a 32,000-acre
ranch in the San Juan Basin. Blancett, who helped run George
Bush Sr.'s New Mexico campaign, was busy when I was in the area,
but told me by phone that she had become dismayed by the scale
of gas development in her area and the increasing arrogance of
the energy industry.
Not all ranchers agree with Blancett. Rancher Paul Bandy,
who has an 18,560-aczre spread east of Aztec, N.M., told me that
he credits the Bush administration with better enforcement of
regulations on gas development. He also lauded the industry for
taking voluntary steps, such as repairing old wells and maintaining
cattle fences. Burlington Resources and other energy companies,
on their own, are helping to control air pollution from gas operations
in the San Juan Basin as more wells are drilled, said Bruce Gantner,
manager of environmental health and safety for the company. This
includes reducing emissions from engines used to pump and process
gas and reducing vapors emitted at gas wells. "We'd like
to see no increase," he said. "Over time, we'd like
to see a decrease."
Bandy believes energy company initiatives are bringing improvement
for many in the area. Others disagree.
I drove through much of the San Juan Basin with Dan Randolph,
a gray-haired scientist who spent years of his life studying
the changes in plant life and soils in the West before becoming
oil-and-gas-issues organizer for the San Juan Citizens Alliance.
We drove along U.S. Highway 64 for some 30 miles from Farmington
to Bloomington. The gentle green farms on the banks of the slow-moving
San Juan River were giving way to the industrial yards of drilling-services
companies.
A little past Bloomington, we pulled into the 80-acre farm
of Tony Valdez, a native New Mexican born in the area in 1929
who has worked the land for 41 years. With calloused hands he
pointed toward a crew of roughnecks from Halliburton and XTO
Energy, Inc., who were reworking a well on his property. "They
said they'd be here a week, and they've been there for four weeks,"
he said.
We walked down to the well where a group of large-bellied
men with Texas accents labored in coveralls and hard hats under
the hot sun. Engines roared as oil dripping from their equipment
pooled in a ditch just yards from the San Juan River. Valdez
pointed to where they had driven over his planted field in a
heavy truck to stake the derrick needed to re-drill and patch
the well.
"What hurts the worst is the attitude," said Valdez,
who one day faced a Sheriff's deputy at his door after the roughnecks
complained that the slight, elderly farmer had blocked their
access to the well the day before, a charge he flatly denied.
Randolph drove with me out to one of the main gas-development
fields in the area further outside Bloomington. Just over a ridge,
a large flame of burning gas puffed smoke from a newly drilled
well. We turned onto a dirt road above the river where there
were wells as far as I could see, along with their tanks for
holding the liquid hydrocarbons that come up with the gas, as
well as compressors, pipelines and other equipment. All of it
sat on a series of "pads" consisting of two or three
acres where the energy developers had removed the vegetation
to set up their wells. Dust rose as roughnecks in large white
pickup trucks rushed along the miles of dirt roads through the
once bucolic river valley.
As we drove above the river, we could detect a hint of pollution
in the bone-dry air, due in part to emissions from not only
the giant diesel engines and compressors used in drilling
and operating the surrounding wells but also from the heavy
hydrocarbons frequently whiffed in this giant gas field. New
Mexico's Environment Department has found that air pollution
in this rural area nearly exceeds federal health standards. "This
is no longer a wild landscape," lamented Randolph. "It's
an industrialized landscape."
The land became greener as I drove the winding road from New
Mexico some 80 miles to the upland farm town of Ignacio, Colorado.
After taking a hard right turn, I slowly bumped over a
seemingly endless dirt road toward the HD Mountains, named after
a cattle-ranching enterprise that went broke around the turn
of the century after overgrazing of the native grass. Near the
very end of the road, I turned up a dirt driveway and was greeted
by Janine Fitzgerald and her daughter. They welcomed me into
their house made of bales of straw which, with its exposed
framing, plaster walls and solid wood floor, exuded a
rustic beauty.
Fitzgerald - who farms and raises draft horses - explained
that the residents in her area have begun organizing to fight
a plan by the National Forest Service to open the peaks above
them for gas drilling as soon as next spring. BP, XTO and other
companies want to drill some 200 coal-bed methane wells from
which they would pump out water to recover natural gas. People
in the area who depend upon mountain springs and water wells
are concerned that the pumping will deplete their drinking and
irrigation water. They also worry that water removal will cause
gas to rise from the coal into their homes, creating an explosive
hazard, and into fields where it will kill the roots of the grasses
on which their animals graze. Their fears are borne out by the
draft environmental-impact statement for the project, which warns
of such possibilities.
Residents of the HDs will resort to civil disobedience to
stop the drilling when it comes, said Fitzgerald as the afternoon
wind roared in the background. She paused, and I gazed out her
living-room window, momentarily captivated by the puffy white
clouds that blew quickly across the deep-blue sky above this
area the Anasazi Indians once considered the fount of sacred
springs.
"This has been a really contentious project," said
Ann Bond, public-affairs officer for the National Forest Service.
"We've seen a lot of emotion."
I wanted to find out about the water-contamination problem
along Divide Creek, and drove 250 miles to Garfield County, Colorado,
winding over the enchanting San Juan Mountains, across the Gunnison
River and through the red plateaus of western Colorado to Grand
Junction. The next morning, I drove east up the Colorado River
along I-70 to the small town of Rifle, Colorado, where a reporter
without an appointment can walk right into Garfield County Hall
or the Chamber of Commerce and talk to an executive.
Doug Dennison, oil-and-gas auditor for the county, greeted
me warmly with a firm handshake. A robust man with a tan and
open-collared shirt, Dennison has been trying to bring together
residents, elected leaders and the energy industry to resolve
concerns over air and water pollution and changes in the landscape
that are occurring with increased gas drilling in his area. His
strategy is to get drilling companies to follow voluntary best-management
practices, especially when it comes to controlling air pollution,
which, he said, is the source of most of the complaints
to the county about drilling. Some county officials and residents
are also concerned that energy companies, which have come to
Garfield County in waves since the 1950s, will leave after this
"play" of 10,000 new wells is finished, creating a
bust among the businesses that now are expanding to serve them.
I strolled down Rifle's quaint main street to a coffee shop to
meet Lisa Bracken, a real estate broker and trained paralegal.
Bracken said that gas development in Garfield County has reached
the point - with its smoke and odors that regularly cause people's
headaches - where "it's almost a taking" of people's
property. "They can do it right, but they're not forced
to do it right," said Bracken, who is still drinking bottled
water. "What I'm seeing is plunder and degradation in the
interest of a few. That's not in the interest of America."
I let Bracken get on with her day, and headed nine miles up
the Colorado River to Silt, where the EnCana gas well allegedly
contaminated Divide Creek. The city staff there is developing
an ordinance to require best practices, including environmental
monitoring and a city fee for drillers to fund a gas-well inspector.
"A lot of residents are concerned," said Janet Steinbach,
the local community-development director. However, the city's
authority covers only a small area of the land that's open to
drilling, and is limited under a state Supreme Court case won
by the oil-and-gas industry which in large part overturned local
controls set by Frederick, Colorado.
From Silt's small City Hall, I found my way south across the
Colorado River to Divide Creek, which was flanked by modest suburban-like
homes on enough acreage to raise horses, chickens and cows and
to grow some vegetables and fruit trees. I got out under a blazing
sun to look at a portion of the creek, which was the source of
life for a thicket of pine, cottonwood and cedar trees along
its banks. Drilling had ceased in the area after the contamination
was detected early this year, but is due to resume soon.
Later that day, residents of Silt gathered at Burning Mountain
Fire Hall where the Western Colorado Congress had convened a
meeting to plan the course of litigation it has filed against
EnCana. "I would feel better if I could tell Dick Cheney
to fuck himself," said Duke Cox, a local general contractor
who said he has lost business because of his stand for environmental
controls on drilling in Garfield County.
The residents recalled the day when an unexpected gas flare
rocked homes and shot flames into the sky along Divide Creek.
They complained about vibrations, noise, lights and recent patches
of dying vegetation they suspect are caused by gas seeps. Brian
Macke, acting director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation
Commission, confirmed that there recently was "a loud percussion"
from a well near Divide Creek when a piece of equipment unexpectedly
plugged up.
"It's been something short of living your worst nightmare,"
said Gary Gagne, who with his wife once looked out his living-room
window onto quiet, starry mountain nights but now sees the stadium-bright
lights of a noisy well-drilling operation. For four months they
too have been drinking bottled water.
"We've watched our planned retirement go right out the
window," said the Vietnam veteran, who wears an eye patch
due to a war injury and operates an independent computer-maintenance
business in Garfield County. He complained that local, state
and federal authorities have not answered residents' pleas to
regulate gas drilling in their area. "It's almost like,
you have the right to bear arms, go take care of it yourself,"
he mused.
The next day I wanted to get the other side of the
story on gas drilling, so I went over to the Garfield County
Chamber of Commerce, which is housed in a small building in a
park along the Colorado River and which doubles as a visitor's
center. While the chamber has taken no official position on gas
development, chamber manager Kathy Lambert said that many local
people welcome the gas industry. "I see the energy companies
putting some economy into the area," she said.
I left the chamber and drove out Mamm Creek Road past the
new Burger King, McDonald's and Subway, and then by a giant Wal-Mart
just across the Colorado River from Rifle's historic downtown.
It's there that the energy industry has set up a row of equipment
yards, machine shops and other facilities and offices to support
gas development in the county. I pulled into the parking lot
of EnCana where a trim and fit Walter Lowry had traveled from
the company's corporate headquarters in Denver to greet me. Trained
in engineering and law, Lowry spent some 20 years drilling for
oil and gas, but now is director of community and industry relations
for EnCana Oil & Gas (USA), which he notes is the largest
producer of natural gas in North America.
We climbed into a Chevy Suburban and headed out to Grass Mesa,
where the company is drilling for gas high above the Colorado
River. Lowry said that new directional drilling technology has
enabled EnCana and other producers to minimize their impact on
the land by drilling several wells from one drilling pad. The
drill can travel horizontally from the pad before shooting straight
down into the pay dirt of deep sandstone that holds the gas.
Lowry also showed me wells where the company is controlling air
pollution by flaring vapors from the tanks used to collect the
liquid hydrocarbons that come up with gas, and new engines that
are cleaner and quieter to power drills. The company intends
to phase in the new equipment eventually at all of its wells,
he said.
We drove along a gravel-covered road built by EnCana above
well pads where directional drilling has been completed and men
driving bulldozers were busy re-contouring the outer portions
of the barren drilling pads. The company would soon plant the
re-contoured areas with natural vegetation, Lowry explained.
In another step to protect the environment, Lowry said EnCana
has phased out using fluids containing diesel fuel to "fracture"
the sandstone, replacing those toxic liquids with water,
which is recycled. After drilling a gas well, energy companies
pump the water down the well under high pressure to create cracks
in the underground rock that are up to 1,200 feet long and a
few hundred feet high. These fractures make it easier for the
gas to flow out of the porous rock to the well. "We're committed
to be the industry leader," summed up Lowry. Yet residents
remain concerned that the fracturing process is inexact and can
crack the rock all the way to the surface, allowing gas and hydrocarbons
to flow up and contaminate wells, surface water and soil.
To the north, the Bureau of Land Management has opened the
Upper Green River Valley in western Wyoming to the drilling
of 10,000 gas wells near the gates of the Grand Teton
National Park, just south of Yellowstone National Park. The valley
sits under the Wind Mountains of the Bridger-Teton Wilderness
Area and is home to the biggest herd of migratory antelope in
the lower 48 states. Recognizing that energy development might
affect the pristine wilderness area, the Clinton administration
chose to permit gas drilling in the area around Pinedale,
Wyoming, the center of the valley, on the condition that an extensive
environmental monitoring program would be carried out at the
expense of the energy industry.
However, soon after Bush took office, Yates Petroleum, which
drills in the area, convinced the new administration in 2001
to junk the monitoring program. The administration decided to
cave into, rather than defend, a lawsuit Yates had filed against
Clinton's Interior Department. After closing down the local citizen
task force that was to run the environmental-monitoring program,
Bush's Interior secretary, Gale Norton, took more than three
years to appoint a new committee. The environmental-monitoring
process has yet to restart. Meanwhile, the bureau approved hundreds
of permits for gas drilling - including dozens to Yates Petroleum
- which wildlife biologists say threatens the antelope and other
wildlife in Cheney's home state of Wyoming.
"We all sat around and commiserated," remembered
Carol Kruse, who at the time represented the state of Wyoming
on the committee and now works for the BLM in Pinedale.
After the shutdown of the environmental-monitoring committee,
retired U.S. Air Force physicist Perry Walker spent thousands
of dollars to purchase his own scientific instruments to document
the decline in visibility resulting from gas-well flaring and
emissions from other equipment used in the growing gas field
around Pinedale. When companies in the area complete wells, they
often burn in open pits the first gas that comes out until debris
and fluids are forced up and the well runs clean. Walker,
a lifelong Republican, said his data show that in just a few
short years visibility along the Bridger-Teton Wilderness Area
has declined by 15 percent.
His data represent the type of information that the environmental-monitoring
committee, set up in Pinedale by Clinton Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbitt, was supposed to use as the basis for recommendations
on needed steps to prevent environmental degradation in the pristine
wilderness area. However, that would have impeded the aim of
Cheney's energy policy: to make drilling so cheap that energy
companies would leave no gas or oil behind. "The Bush administration
declared a full-court press on energy development in the Rocky
Mountains," said Walker.
The Rocky Mountains are now far behind me as I race home to
Los Angeles, where much of the gas is headed to power plants
and homes. Some of it will travel down the Kern River Gas Transmission
Co.'s pipeline, which runs from the Green River Valley to Bakersfield.
Kern River is owned by Mid-American Energy Holdings Co., whose
chairman, David Sokol, and president, Gregory Abel, recently
opened their checkbooks to give a combined $4,000 to Cheney and
Bush. Kern River has expanded its pipeline to double the amount
of gas it can carry to California.
As I crossed the Cajon Pass, an oppressive cloud of pollution
hung over the San Bernardino Valley as the cookie-cutter
tract homes, shopping malls and midafternoon traffic jams came
into view. Yet I remembered the mountains, the horses in grassy
valleys, and the mighty Colorado River, which makes Southern
California bloom. What will become of them and the people I met
along the Cheney Trail?
The answer lies increasingly here in Los Angeles and in towns
and cities across the nation as voters prepare to vote this fall.
The people can elect candidates at the local, state and federal
levels who support energy conservation and wholesale development
of renewable energy, or they can return Bush and the self-described
"mean-spirited, short-tempered and intolerant" Cheney
to the White House to complete their despoliation of the nation's
premier wilderness area in the name of maximum profits for their
energy-company patrons. Under the Bush administration's secret
energy policy, Cheney has allowed billion-dollar energy barons
to recoup instantly their small-change campaign contributions
and profit like kings. For a few thousand dollars in contributions,
companies like Yates Petroleum, BP, XTO and Questar have been
able to stave off environmental requirements that would cost
them millions of dollars a year and have instead gained billions
in their rush to produce more fossil fuel instead of developing
renewable-energy sources.
This November may mark the last chance for voters to put an
end to the trail of destruction that Cheney has blazed up and
down the Rocky Mountains. Unless Americans re-examine their responsibility
to future generations of urban dwellers and rural folk alike,
and to the migratory herds that rove across the land for a purpose
we may little understand, the destruction of this national treasure
will be virtually assured.
As I recall my trip, I know that this is a chance we
cannot forgo. For despite our bright lights, air-conditioned
homes, satellite communications and military might, we too, like
the Navajo
and ancient Anasazi, are bound to the land, the water and
the wind in a sacred bond we dare not break.
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Tuesday, September 7, 2004 2:45 PM
Subject: William Rivers Pitt | One Thousand and One
t r u t h o u t | 09.08
California Causes a Row over Refineries
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
William Rivers Pitt | One Thousand and One
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804A.shtml
John Kerry: 'W Stands for Wrong'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804B.shtml
Steve Andreasen | Beyond The Roots Of Abu Ghraib
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804C.shtml
The New York Times | Voter ID Problems in Florida
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804D.shtml
China Ex-President May Be Set to Yield Last Powerful Post
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804E.shtml
During School Siege, Russia Took Captives in Chechnya
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804F.shtml
Jean-Marcel Bouguereau | Total Failure
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804H.shtml
Paul Krugman | A Mythic Reality
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804I.shtml
Robert Scheer | GOP Convention's Looney Tunes
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804J.shtml
Bruce Mulkey | Military Families Speak Out
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804K.shtml
James Carroll | The Unwinnable War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804L.shtml
Report: Civil War Most Likely Outcome in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804X.shtml
34 Killed, Including an American in Sadr City
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804Y.shtml
Kerry on Iraq: 'Wrong War, Wrong Place, Wrong Time'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804Z.shtml
The TO Overview
William Rivers Pitt: 'A Moment of Silence'
http://www.truthout.org/overview.htm
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Monday, September 6, 2004 2:59 PM
Subject: Kelpie Wilson | Torture in the Redwoods
t r u t h o u t | 09.07
Kelpie Wilson | Torture in the Redwoods
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704A.shtml
Greg Palast | The Grinch That Stole Labor Day
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704B.shtml
Trial of Saddam Scheduled to Coincide with U.S. Elections
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704C.shtml
Senator Graham: Commander Told of Military Drain
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704D.shtml
Bush's National Guard File Missing Records
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704E.shtml
Spy Case Renews Debate over Pro-Israel Lobby's Ties to Pentagon
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704F.shtml
Maureen Dowd | Amnesia in the Garden
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704G.shtml
Tahar Ben Jelloun | Let's All Vote November 2!
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704H.shtml
Bob Herbert | An Economy That Turns American Values Upside
Down
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704I.shtml
John Cassidy | Tax Code
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704J.shtml
Joe Klein | Tearing Kerry Down
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704K.shtml
William M. Arkin | Five Big American Blunders in Terror War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704L.shtml
Clinton Resting Comfortably after Surgery
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704W.shtml
Howard Dean | Labor Day
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704X.shtml
John Cory | It's Kerry's Fault
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704Y.shtml
At Least Six Marines Killed, Several Wounded in Iraq Attack
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704Z.shtml
The TO Overview
William Rivers Pitt: 'Senator Graham Spills Some Iraq Beans'
http://www.truthout.org/overview.htm
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
=====================================================+
chicagotribune.com - September 6,
2004
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0409060214sep06,1,7819208.story?coll=chi-news-hed
`American dream' goes up in coal dust
Like Illinois miners, other union workers are losing
guaranteed lifetime health benefits
By Rex W. Huppke
Tribune staff reporter
CHRISTOPHER, Ill. -- Twenty-eight years breathing coal dust
and diesel fumes wasn't enough to kill Gary Bartolotti. Neither
was a falling 1,500-pound slab of shale that pinned him to the
jagged floor of a mine shaft, shattered his right ankle and pelvis
and ruptured his bladder. He never lost consciousness, never
even went into shock.
But this coal man, who once walked miles of underground mines
like they were his Main Street, now fears his life might be ruined,
maybe even cut short, by the fallout from a broken promise.
The company that ran the mines he worked went bankrupt, and
a federal judge recently granted Horizon Natural Resources' request
to cancel the health-care benefits of active and retired employees.
By early October, Bartolotti and at least 1,200 other retired
southern Illinois miners and their dependents will lose the lifetime
health-care coverage they'd been counting on.
Those over 65 will be protected by Medicare, but that won't
pay the cost of monthly prescriptions, which run into the thousands
of dollars for many suffering the effects of old age and a life
spent underground.
This Labor Day, they join workers across America who have
grown disillusioned with the notion that a lifetime of hard work
can ensure prosperity.
Bartolotti is only 53--his accident ended his mining career
on Feb. 3, 2000. He can't find an insurance company that will
cover him until Medicare kicks in. His pension, along with his
and his wife's Social Security disability pay, bring in about
$3,200 a month. Without insurance, $2,500 of that will go to
pay for the drugs they both need to survive.
"I have no idea what tomorrow is going to bring,"
said Bartolotti, who spends his retirement as mayor of the tiny
town of Christopher, population 3,000. "When I go to bed
at night, I look around and ask, `Am I going to lose everything
I've worked for?'
"I thought I found the American dream," he said.
"I guess that's all it was--just a dream."
A report titled "The State of Working America" was
released Sunday by the Economic Policy Institute, a non-partisan
economic think tank in Washington, D.C. It paints a bleak picture:
The job market remains weak; real wages have started to fall
behind inflation; and the income gap between rich and poor continues
to widen.
"From 2000 to 2003, a middle-class household lost over
$1,500 of income, when adjusted for inflation," said Lawrence
Mishel, the institute's president. "It's going to be a number
of years before families make up for the ground they've lost."
As pay shrinks, the grand promises of medical benefits for
life--promises rarely, if ever, properly funded--are collapsing
across the country as businesses deal with rising health-care
costs and their own economic problems.
In 2001 Polaroid cut off medical benefits for thousands of
its retirees. Last year, Bethlehem Steel stopped paying health
benefits for about 95,000 retirees and their dependents. This
year, Weirton Steel Corp. in West Virginia terminated health-care
coverage for about 10,000 retirees.
The trend is likely to continue, economists say.
"There's no government oversight, there's nothing to
ensure that the health-care benefits that companies promised
are adequately funded," said Dean Baker, co-president of
the Center For Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.
"So if a company runs into financial problems, there's going
to be a real temptation for them to not pay the benefits. It
was a disaster waiting to happen. And we're going to see a lot
more of it."
Horizon Natural Resources, as part of its bankruptcy reorganization
plan, argued that the only way the company could be made attractive
for sale was to shake loose of its costly health-care commitments.
Late on Aug. 6, after bankruptcy hearings and rowdy protests
by thousands of miners outside a Kentucky courthouse, U.S. Bankruptcy
Judge William Howard agreed with that argument.
Last Tuesday, the judge approved the sale of the company for
nearly $800 million. Hundreds of angry coal workers again marched
in front of the courthouse, and 17 were arrested for sitting
down and blocking the building's entrance.
Company officials declined to comment for this story.
Even though the Illinois miners knew the fate of their benefits
was bleak, the decision hit the Franklin County coal towns of
Christopher and Benton like a punch in the gut. For decades,
coal was the economic lifeblood of this region. Sons followed
fathers and grandfathers into the mines, earning decent wages
and adopting an ethos that hard work ensured a home, security
for the family and a comfortable retirement.
That was certainly Carl Garascia's understanding. He put in
33 years at the mine in nearby Coulterville, all but five of
them working underground cutting coal and heaving it into steel
shuttle cars. He retired on his 62nd birthday, March 5, 1999.
The career left him and his wife in a modest and well-kept
ranch house in Benton. When they're not traveling, entertainment
comes from their excitable dachshund, Trixie, and a wide-screen
TV. Garascia, 67, likes to spend his days tending a prolific
back yard crop of tomato and green bean plants and a year-old
Bradford pear tree that's growing like a teenager.
Fear of losing everything
But lately, sleep hasn't come easy. Worry about health care
keeps his mind toiling through terrifying scenarios: What if
medical costs mount and they lose their savings, lose their house,
maybe even have to declare bankruptcy? Stress over the situation
with Horizon has twice caused him to break out in hives.
"This--it's just killing us," Garascia said, nervously
tapping his fingers on the kitchen table. "You give your
life for that company. And I know they paid me every step of
the way. But now they just kick you out like a dog."
The old miner's worries are not unfounded. After Garascia
retired, his heart started causing him problems. He had angioplasty;
a stent keeps one of his arteries open.
Although he's eligible for Medicare, prescription drugs won't
be covered by Medicare until 2006, meaning he'll have to shell
out $800 a month for his cholesterol and blood-pressure pills
and about the same amount for his wife's monthly medicines.
The drug costs alone will wipe out his monthly pension. Supplemental
insurance for someone his age is far too expensive, he says,
and he fears any future medical bills not covered by Medicare
could ruin him.
Of course, he won't let go that easily. Garascia said he'd
rather stop seeing doctors, stop taking pills and take his chances
than see all he worked for disappear: "I'll just say to
heck with it if I have to."
Historically, coal miners have been viewed as one of the luckiest
labor groups in terms of health-care protection.
Since President Harry Truman declared in 1946 that all coal
miners and their dependents should have cradle-to-grave health
care, the government and the United Mine Workers of America have
worked to achieve that goal. In return, coal miners over the
years agreed to accept lower wages.
In 1992, as coal companies struggling with rising medical
costs began trying to wriggle out of health-care obligations,
the Coal Act was passed, requiring that companies maintain medical
coverage for all miners who would retire before October 1994.
To cover retirees who lost benefits because their company dissipated,
the union established an "orphan fund," which all coal
companies are required to pay into at a rate of 50 cents per
hour worked by a union employee.
Unlike the Coal Act--which forces companies to put in however
much money is needed to take care of retirees--the union has
no legal means to get existing coal operators to pay more into
the orphan fund. Because of that, union officials say, the fund
hasn't been able to keep up with the costs of health care and
the growing number of coal miners dumped by companies that have
shut down.
Fund will run out
About 3,800 miners and their dependents are covered by the
fund, which spends about $20 million a year. Mike Buckner, research
director for the UMWA, said contributions to the fund are about
$17 million a year, and it is operating with only $4 million
in net assets, making its financial situation perilous.
Some 300 to 400 Bethlehem Steel coal miners and dependents
will soon be added to the orphan fund, and Buckner said between
them and the anticipated 2,500 miners and dependents from Horizon,
the fund won't hold out long.
"It would be a matter of a month, perhaps," Buckner
said. "The financial difficulties would just get worse very
quickly."
While the federal government has a safety net in place to
protect pension plans, workers across the country have been shocked
to find there's nothing to back up promises of lifetime health
care. Experts say the current trend of companies--from big steel
corporations to major airlines--shedding promises made to retirees
can be blamed on a lack of foresight.
Douglas Baird, a bankruptcy law professor at the University
of Chicago, said that in the 1970s, legislation was put in place
to protect company pension plans, but little attention was paid
to health-care benefits.
"By Congress saying you've got to make sure that pensions
are fully funded, they opened the door for companies to offer
benefits that don't need to be funded, like health care,"
Baird said. "Now the chickens are coming home to roost."
A domino effect
The canceling of retiree health-benefit plans by some companies
has also created a domino effect, leading others to say they
too need to dump costly benefits to compete.
In 1988, 66 percent of employers offered retiree medical plans,
but in 2003 that figure was down to 38 percent, according to
a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a California-based
health-care research organization.
Last month, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that a record
45 million Americans went without insurance in 2003, a statistic
blamed in part on a drop in the number of people getting health-care
benefits from their employers.
Baker, the Washington economist, agrees no one anticipated
health-care costs would rise as sharply as they have over the
last three decades.
"No one really gave that a moment's thought," he
said. "So the situation that you have today is that companies
have massive health-care liabilities. These costs just keep growing
and growing and growing."
And there's no clear answer ahead. Many, including Democratic
U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama, say federal bankruptcy laws
need to be changed to prevent companies from declaring bankruptcy,
dumping union obligations and then re-forming.
Others say the only hope would be a national health-care program,
a distant possibility at best.
"We will hopefully get there someday, but we're not going
to get there immediately," said Rep. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio),
who constantly hears from steel workers and others in his region
who have lost jobs and medical benefits. "Just doing nothing
is not acceptable. People are desperate. I think people are coming
to lose their sense of security in this country."
Proof of that is easily found on a weekday afternoon in the
wood-paneled office of the mayor of Christopher, Ill. Gathered
with fellow miners, Bartolotti alternates between an empty, far-off
stare, an impassioned rant on the injustice of it all and deep
sighs, exhalations of a world of worry.
"They said it was cradle-to-the-grave coverage,"
said Kenny Kondoudis, union president for Horizon's Coulterville
mine. "It's more like cradle to the bankruptcy court."
"Yeah," Bartolotti said. "And now you'll be
getting to the grave a little quicker than you thought."
Copyright (c) 2004, Chicago Tribune
=====================================================+
commondreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0902-03.htm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - SEPTEMBER 2, 2004
CONTACT: Sierra Club
Annie E. Strickler (202) 675-2384
Sierra Club Report Details Bush Administration's Erosion
of Coastal Protections
WASHINGTON - September 2 - Coast to Coast: As Americans head
out in droves to the coasts this Labor Day
weekend, the Sierra Club is releasing a report that documents
how and where Bush administration policies are
threatening America's coastal treasures and what we can do to
save them. "No Day at the Beach: How the Bush
Administration Is Eroding Coastal Protection" is a comprehensive
look at the Bush administration policies that
threaten America's four coasts: the Atlantic, the Pacific, the
Gulf of Mexico, and America's Freshwater Coast, the
Great Lakes.
The report is available at http://www.sierraclub.org/coastalreport.
The Sierra Club is also running print ads in Santa
Barbara, California; Sarasota, Florida; and Green Bay, Wisconsin,
this week to highlight the report and the threats
to those coasts. The ads can be viewed at http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/media/.
"As Americans are stocking the coolers and packing the
beach chairs and towels for the last beach weekend of the
summer, we're asking them to consider the future of their favorite
coastal spots," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club
Executive Director. "This Sierra Club report documents how
America's coasts are under siege by a host of Bush
administration policies. Everyone should be asking, 'Will my
favorite beach spot or ocean view look the same next
year? Will the fish at the local seafood restaurant be safe to
eat?'"
The report details the administration policies and philosophies
that threaten the safety of the fish we eat and the
beaches where children learn to swim, and the beauty of the scenic
backdrop along 95,000 miles of America's
coasts. The report details the following major threats to America's
coastlines:
· Mercury contamination
· Nutrient and sewage pollution
· Oil and gas development in sensitive coastal areas
· Destruction of coastal wild lands and wetlands
The report also uncovers several disturbing patterns of decision-making
by the Bush administration when it comes
to coastal policies. Among them are a steady erosion of general
environmental protections, cuts in funding for
coastal and environmental protection programs, subsidizing pollution
and corporate welfare, and manipulation or
suppression of science.
"In four short years, the Bush administration has led
the greatest erosion of environmental protections America has
ever seen, and our beaches, oceans, and coastal communities are
no exception," said Pope.
To date, administration policies have given America outdated
energy proposals, polluted runoff, mercury in our fish,
burgeoning dead zones, and depleted fish and wildlife.
"If left unchecked, the Bush administration's misguided
policies and misplaced priorities could strangle our waters
with mercury and other pollution, spoil our horizons with oil
rigs, and cripple coastal economies that depend on
healthy coasts and oceans," said Pope. "There is a
better way. We can protect our coastal resources while
preserving our coastal economy."
Among the solutions outlined in the report are promoting cleaner,
cheaper, and safer energy solutions that
preserve America's wild heritage, enforcing the laws that protect
our health and safety, and renewing the
commitment to stewardship of public trust lands and waters.
Recently, two major reports on the health of our coasts and
oceans have revealed just how imperiled these
resources are. Both the bipartisan Pew Oceans Commission report,
America's Living Oceans, Charting a Course for
Change (www.pewoceans.org/oceans/index.asp),
and the Preliminary Report of the American Oceans Commission
(www.oceancommission.gov/documents/prelimreport)
agree that our coasts and the oceans upon which much of
humanity depends are in serious trouble. These reports together
aggregate the many warnings that have been
made by scientists and coastal managers for decades.
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Sunday, September 5, 2004 2:43 PM
Subject: Sgt. Ryan's Sister | A Soldier's Last Request
t r u t h o u t | 09.06
Penelope Purdy | Future of Renewable Energy is Now
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
Sgt. Campbell's Sister | A Soldier's Last Request
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604A.shtml
Medicare's Well-Being Suddenly a Key Issue
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604B.shtml
9/11: Senator Accuses Bush, FBI of Covering Up Saudi Role
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604C.shtml
One by One, Iraqi Cities Become No-Go Zones
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604D.shtml
Putin Says Russia Faces Full 'War' to Divide Nation
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604E.shtml
J. Sri Raman | Nepal Sounds an Alarm for South Asia
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604F.shtml
Gilles Kepel: "The Jihadists Are Haunted by Their Isolation"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604H.shtml
Problems Abound in Election System
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604I.shtml
Haaretz | FBI Probes Jewish Sway on Bush Government
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604J.shtml
The New York Times | Working Your Way Down
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604K.shtml
Attempted Coup: Equatorial Guinea Demands Thatcher's Son
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604L.shtml
Kerry Allies Take Shots at Bush, Cheney on Vietnam
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604X.shtml
August, Bloodiest Month Yet for U.S. Troops
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604Y.shtml
Warner Refuses to Release Anti-War Films
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604Z.shtml
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
=====================================================+
To see this story with its related
links on the Guardian Unlimited site, go to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1297267,00.html
Wal-Mart upsets cosmic balance of ruins
Protesters decry building of store near mysterious Mexican
city of
Teotihuacan as attack on heritage which could spoil rural valley
Jo Tuckman in Teotihuacan
Saturday September 04 2004
The Guardian
From the top of the Pyramid of the Sun in the ancient ruined
city of Teotihuacan, Emma Ortega blows a haunting ode on her
conch shell and points out a half-built Wal-Mart supermarket
in the valley below.
Her blood boils at the sight. "It is an attack on our
heritage," fumes Ms Ortega, a colourful figure in a small
but vocal protest movement against the construction of a Bodega
Aurrera superstore, a Wal-Mart Mexico subsidiary, half a mile
from the monuments. "It is an attack on our cosmic equilibrium."
The movement gives full rein to spiritualists, such as Ms
Ortega, who believe Teotihuacan's pyramids and temples possess
a special energy that Wal-Mart's presence threatens to throw
off balance.
The protest is brought down to earth by traditional conservationists
who fear that the development will encourage urban spillover
from the capital 30 miles away and spoil the largely rural valley
for ever. Then there are the local shopkeepers and stall owners
from the small town of San Juan who cannot compete with the biggest
retailer in the world.
Most recently the anti-Wal-Mart campaign in Teotihuacan has
attracted support from other campaign groups because of the undeniable
importance of the ruins.
One of Mexico's oldest and most mysterious civilisations,
Teotihuacan boasted a population of up to 150,000 about 300AD.
It faded away a few centuries later for unknown reasons and leaving
few clues about what life was like. Archaeologists furiously
debate issues such as whether it was ruled by kings or collectives.
"A big supermarket so close to the monuments sounds worrying,"
says Javier Villalobos, of the Paris-based International Council
of Monuments and Sites, an influential conservation group. Mr
Villalobos is planning to visit Teotihuacan this weekend to evaluate
the threat.
But even if the protesters get international heavyweights
on their side, theirs is no easy battle. There are many who welcome
Wal-Mart, seeing modernisation where the protesters fear desecration.
"These people who are trying to stop it [the supermarket]
don't understand the meaning of progress," says Victor Hernandez,
a bicycle salesman who is fed up with travelling 15 miles to
shop in bulk. He is hopeful that Wal-Mart will give his son a
job. "This is progress," he says.
The protesters are also having a tough time challenging a
construction that apparently has all its permits in order.
The development on an alfalfa field, just outside the zone
where all building is prohibited, was approved by the archaeological
authorities on condition that Wal-Mart employed archaeologists
to survey the site.
The archaeologists have reported that there is little worth
saving beyond a semi-rural domestic compound unlikely to produce
anything of value when excavated.
They have also questioned the authenticity of the protesters'
claims to have found pots and ceramic figurines in waste heaps
from the site.
It is very difficult to find out what is actually being uncovered
behind the perimeter fence; the company refuses to let visitors
in and armed guards keep a watchful eye for snoopers.
In the meantime, less than a month after construction began
the grey concrete warehouse shell is already largely in place
and the roof supports will be constructed shortly .
Still, Ms Ortega insists that Wal-Mart has met its match in
Teotihuacan.
"We are going to make them demolish what they have already
built, and return things to the way they were," she says.
She will need all the extra cosmic energy she can get.
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Saturday, September 4, 2004 2:45 PM
Subject: U.S. Soldier | Stop Halliburton from Hurting
Us Grunts
t r u t h o u t | 09.05
U.S. Says It Won't Remove Dams
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
U.S. Soldier | Stop Halliburton from Hurting Us Grunts
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090504A.shtml
Leaks to Israel: FBI Questions Cheney and Rumsfeld Aides
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090504B.shtml
Army Torture Investigators Blame CIA
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090504C.shtml
Bush and Kerry Exchange Blows over Military Service
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090504D.shtml
Medicare Premiums to Jump a Record 17%
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090504E.shtml
Michael Moore | Why Democrats Shouldn't Be Scared
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090504F.shtml
Jean-Marcel Bouguereau | France, Islam, and the Hostages
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090504H.shtml
Protest Groups 'Empowered' by Large Turnout
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090504I.shtml
Thomas Powers | How Bush Got It Wrong
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090504J.shtml
Democrat Says He Helped Bush Into Guard to Score Points
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090504K.shtml
James Carroll | The Bush Crusade
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090504L.shtml
Did Richard Perle Loot $5.4 Million from Hollinger?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090504X.shtml
Car Bomb Kills at Least 20 at Iraq Police Academy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090504Y.shtml
Death Toll Rises in Russia School Standoff
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090504Z.shtml
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
=====================================================+
From: John A. Knox <johnknox@earthisland.org>
To: "<browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>"
Date: Friday, September 3, 2004 11:52 AM
Brower Youth Awards Ceremony - Bring Your Friends!
Earth Island Institute Invites You and Your Friends to
The 5th Annual David Brower Youth Awards:
MEET
THE FUTURE!
This September 30th, join us and get to know six of the most
exciting high school and college environmental leaders in the
country, winners of the 2004 Brower Youth Awards
hosted by
Van Jones and Julia Butterfly
Hill
with a special
performance by musician/activist/poet
Michael Franti
Thursday, September 30, 6:00 pm
(doors open at 5:15 pm)
Florence Schwimley Theater, 1920 Allston Way, Berkeley
(between Milvia and Shattuck, 2 blocks from Berkeley BART)
* Awards Presentation Ceremony with Videos and Performance
* Reception with Refreshments to Meet Recipients
* Big Screen Re-play of the First Presidential Debate*
This event is FREE, but seating is limited
Please reserve your seat now:
CLICK HERE: http://www.earthisland.org/bya/byaRSVP2004.html
E-MAIL: <bya04RSVP@yahoo.com>
CALL: 415-788-3666 x260
The 2004 Brower Youth Award winners:
Lily Dong, 16, of South Pasadena, CA
Hannah McHardy, 18, of Seattle, WA
Billy Parish, 22, of New York, NY
Eugene Pearson, 21, So. Milwaukee, WI
Christina Wong, 21, of Sacramento, CA
Shadia Wood, 17, of Newport, NY
For more on the 2004 winners of the Brower Youth Awards see
http://www.earthisland.org/bya
[We recognize that the first Presidential
Debate of the election season exactly coincides with the time
of this event. We think that you'll have the most fun joining
us for this high-energy gathering, following which we'll have
a video replay of the debates in the theatre. Come and bring
your friends to enjoy both important events!]
-
MIKHAIL DAVIS
Program Director, Brower Youth Awards
Assistant to David Brower 1998-2000
415-788-3666 x112
Earth Island Institute
http://www.earthisland.org/bya
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
JOHN A. KNOX
Executive Director
Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway, Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133 USA
Voice (work): 415-788-3666, Ext. 108
Fax (work): 415-788-7324
Voice (home): 415-282-1071
Fax to e-mail: 928-438-4172
E-mail: johnknox@earthisland.org
EII home page: http://www.earthisland.org
Earth Island Institute welcomes your interest
and your involvement. Contributions from
individuals continue to be our most
important source of support. Earth Island
Institute members receive the quarterly
Earth Island Journal.
We invite you to join us:
http://www.earthisland.org/join/join.html
Earth Island Institute
Growing
Leadership for
Conservation, Preservation, and Restoration
of the Earth
=====================================================+
Published on Friday, September
3, 2004 by USA TODAY
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0903-02.htm
Why Democrats Shouldn't Be Scared
by Michael Moore
NEW YORK - If I've heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times
from discouraged Democrats and liberals as
the Republican convention here wrapped up this week. Their shoulders
hunched, their eyes at a droop, they
lower their voice to a whisper hoping that if they don't say
it too loud it may not come true: "I...I...I think Bush
is going to win."
Clearly, they're watching too much TV. Too much of Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Zell Miller, Dick Cheney and
Rudy Giuliani. Too much of swift boat veterans and Fox News commentators.
Action heroes always look good on TV. On Wednesday night,
the GOP even made an action-hero video and
showed it at the convention. There was White House political
czar Karl Rove and other administration officials
dressed up for "war" and going through boot camp on
the National Mall in Washington.
I could only sit there in the convention hall and wish this
were the real thing: Rove, national security adviser
Condi Rice and Co. being sent to Iraq, and our boys and girls
being brought home. But then the lights came
up, and everyone sitting in the Bush family box was having a
grand ol' hoot and a holler at the video they just
saw.
For some reason, all of this has scared the bejabbers out
of the Democrats. I can hear the wailing and
moaning from Berkeley, Calif., to Cambridge, Mass. The frightening
scenes from the convention have sent
John Kerry's supporters looking for the shovels so they can dig
their underground bunkers in preparation for
another four years of the Dark Force.
I can't believe all of this whimpering and whining. Kerry
has been ahead in many polls all summer long, but
the Republicans come to New York for one week off-Broadway and
suddenly everyone is dressed in
mourning black and sitting shivah?
Exactly what moment was it during the convention that convinced
them that the Republicans had now
"connected" with the majority of Americans and that
it was all over? Arnold praising Richard Nixon? Ooooh,
that's a real crowd-pleaser. Elizabeth Dole decrying the removal
of the Ten Commandments from a
courthouse wall in Alabama? Yes, that's a big topic of conversation
in the unemployment line in Akron, Ohio.
Georgia Sen. Miller, a Democratic turncoat, looking like Freddy
Krueger at an all-girls camp? His speech -
and the look on what you could see of his strangely lit face
- was enough for parents to send small children
to their bedrooms.
My friends - and I include all Democrats, independents and
recovering Republicans in this salutation - do
not be afraid. Yes, the Bush Republicans huff and they puff,
but they blow their own house down.
As many polls confirm, a majority of your fellow Americans
believe in your agenda. They want stronger
environmental laws, are strong supporters of women's rights,
favor gun control and want the war in Iraq to
end.
Rejoice. You're already more than halfway there when you have
the public on board. Just imagine if you had
to go out and do the work to convince the majority of Americans
that women shouldn't be paid the same as
men. All they ask is that you put up a candidate for president
who believes in something and fights for those
beliefs.
Is that too much to ask?
The Republicans have no idea how much harm they have done
to themselves. They used to have a folk-hero
mayor of New York named Rudy Giuliani. On 9/11, he went charging
right into Ground Zero to see whom he
could help save. Everyone loved Rudy because he seemed as though
he was there to comfort all Americans,
not just members of his own party.
But in his speech to the convention this week, he revised
the history of that tragic day for partisan gain:
As chaos ensued, "spontaneously, I grabbed the arm of
then-police commissioner Bernard Kerik and said to
Bernie, 'Thank God George Bush is our president.' And I say it
again tonight, 'Thank God George Bush is our
president.' "
Please.
There were the sub-par entertainers nobody knew. There was
the show of "Black Republicans,"
"Arab-American Republicans" and other minorities they
trot out to show how much they are loved by groups
their policies abuse.
And there were the Band-Aids. The worst display of how out
of touch the Republicans are was those Purple
Heart Band-Aids the delegates wore to mock Kerry over his war
wounds, which, for them, did not spill the
required amount of blood.
What they didn't seem to get is that watching at home might
have been millions of war veterans feeling that
they were being ridiculed by a bunch of rich Republicans who
would never send their own offspring to die in
Fallujah or Danang.
Kerry supporters and Bush-bashers should not despair. These
Republicans have not made a permanent dent
in Kerry's armor. The only person who can do that is John Kerry.
And by coming out swinging as he did just
minutes after Bush finished his speech Thursday night, Kerry
proved he knows that the only way to win this
fight is to fight - and fight hard.
He must realize that he faces Al Gore's fate only if he fails
to stand up like the hero he is, only if he sits on the
fence and keeps justifying his vote for the Iraq war instead
of just saying, "Look, I was for it just like 70% of
America until we learned the truth, and now I'm against it, like
the majority of Americans are now."
Kerry needs to trust that his victory is only going to happen
by inspiring the natural base of the Democratic
Party - blacks, working people, women, the poor and young people.
Women and people of color make up
62% of this country. That's a big majority. Give them a reason
to come out on Nov. 2.
© Copyright 2004 USA TODAY
=====================================================+
indiewire.com
http://www.indiewire.com/biz/biz_040902vote.html
New Website Aims to Inspire Political Action and Promote
Issue-oriented Films
by Brian Brooks
Viewers of issue-oriented films hoping to persuade friends to
see a doc or feature, and perhaps recruit them to their viewpoint,
now have a new web site in their arsenal. FilmstoSeeBeforeYouVote.org,
which launches today, is designed to help the politically stratified
to organize through film. The unprecedented success of "Fahrenheit
9/11" as well as other films including "Control Room,"
"The Corporation," and "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's
War on Journalism," inspired the site's founder Peter Broderick,
former president of Next Wave Films, to create the site. It aims
to be a central source for new political documentary and narrative
films, both well-known and lesser-known, to promote them as "tools"
and to catalyze action before the November 2nd general election.
The website is divided into sections devoted to information about
films currently in theaters, as well as information about features
and docs on DVD. Additionally, the site provides a resource for
organization with a section called "What You Can Do,"
including information on organizing house parties, which have
been a popular tool for political groups such as MoveOn.org.
The liberal advocacy organization recently helped sponsor nationwide
house parties for Robert Greenwald's "Outfoxed," helping
the film to eventually sell more than 100,000 DVDs online prior
to its recent theatrical release.
"These films provide a great way to bring friends and neighbors
together to have an impact," said Broderick in a statement.
"The website expands upon the model of centrally coordinated
house parties by promoting ad hoc, grassroots screening parties
that anyone can organize. We provide visitors with step-by-step
instructions for arranging events where films can be discussed
and political activities planned."
In addition to new films, the website also spotlights a roster
of classic politically-oriented movies, including well-known
titles such as "Born on the Fourth of July," "Bulworth,"
"Wag the Dog," "The War Room," and "Bowling
for Columbine." Also, the site features films in "limited
release," such as "Monumental:
David Brower's Fight for Wild America," which explores
the work of the environmental crusader. Broderick also told indieWIRE
yesterday that the site will add new titles in the near future.
"There's never been a time when so many [issue] films have
been in theaters and on TV," Broderick told iW yesterday.
"It's pretty clear people are interested to see these films,
and indie filmmakers have a chance [to utilize] that interest
[and] are able to team up with groups such as MoveOn or the ACLU
to organize house parties and get their films [out there]."
[ For more information, please visit: http://www.filmstoseebeforeyouvote.org.]
=====================================================+
From: Kelly Duane <kelly@loteriafilms.org>
Date: Friday, September 3, 2004 11:31 AM
Friday Sept. 17th Monumental opens in SF/Oct 1st in
San Rafael
MONUMENTAL
David Brower's Fight for Wild America
"Stylish and substantial enough to prompt even a couch
potato to action, Kelly Duane's Monumental
delivers a stirring and visually dense account of the life and
times of Brower . . . " --Variety
"If anyone's been searching for the soul of the new West,
here it is. --San Francisco Magazine
"An inspiring testament to the power of the individual."
--Mother Jones
Mark your calendar and bring all your friends to the SF
Premiere of Monumental.
Forward this email on to all who might want to join us!
September 17th- 23rd, San Francisco, CA
Roxie Cinema
3117 16th Street (at Valencia Street), San Francisco, CA 94103
Nightly 6:15, 8:00, 9:45
Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday matinee 2:00, 4:00
September 17--The opening night screening is dedicated
to the memory of the late Brian Maxwell, Executive Producer
of Monumental and founder of Power Bar.
Director Kelly Duane and other special guests from the film
will be attending the 8:00 p.m. screening. There will be a Q&A
following the film.
September 17--Premiere Pre-party at Build, 483 Guerrero, San
Francisco, 5:00-7:30 with D.J. Science. Come drink some Pabst
Blue Ribbon!
Live in Marin? See Monumental at the beautiful Rafael Film
Center
October 1st- 6th, San Rafael, CA
California Film Institute//Smith Rafael Film Center
For a complete listing of screenings see below:
NORTH AMERICAN SCREENINGS:
NEW YORK . LOS ANGELES . SAN FRANCISCO . PORTLAND . WASHINGTON
DC . SEATTLE . PUERTO VALLARTA . VAIL . FLAGSTAFF . VANCOUVER
. RENO . TAMPA . BISHOP . NEVADA CITY . AND MORE...
September 11th, Pasadena, CA
Silver Lake Film Festival/Garden Lab Experiment/Director will
attend.
September 17th- 23rd, San Francisco, CA
Roxie Cinema
3117 16th Street (at Valencia Street), San Francisco, CA 94103
Nightly 6:15, 8:00, 9:45
Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday matinee 2:00, 4:00
September 17--The opening night screening is dedicated to
the memory of the late Brian Maxwell, Executive Producer of Monumental
and founder of Power Bar.
Director Kelly Duane and other special guests from the film
will be attending the 8:00 p.m. screening. There will be a Q&A
following the film.
September 17--Premiere Pre-party at Build, 483 Guerrero, San
Francisco, 5:00-7:30 with D.J. Science. Come drink some Pabst
Blue Ribbon!
September 23- October 8th, Vancouver, BC, Canada
The Vancouver International Film Festival/Director will attend.
September 24- 30th, Portland, OR
The Clinton Street Theater
2522 SE Clinton St., Portland, OR 97202
Events phone - 503.238.8899 or Message: 503.238.5588
Contact theater for screening times.
Director attending screenings on opening night and Sat the
25th, along with David Brower's daughter Barbara Brower.
September 24- 26th, Norfolk, VA
Naro Cinema
1507 Colley Ave, Norfolk VA, 23517
757-625-6276
Call theater for show times.
September 29- October 3rd, Aspen, CO
Aspen Filmfest/Ken Brower will attend the screening.
October 1st- 3rd, Seattle, WA
Northwest Film Forum
Screening Friday at 7:00 p.m.& Saturday, Sunday 7:30 p.m.,
9:15 p.m.
Director attending the 7:00 p.m. screenings all nights.
Oct. 1st Join us for the Seattle premiere after party! Eric
Johnson and Dan Strack of the Fruit Bats, and Scientific
American will perform. It'll be fun!
October 1st- 6th, San Rafael, CA
California Film Institute//Smith Rafael Film Center
October 8-14th, Flagstaff, AZ
Movies on the Mall
4650 N. Highway 89, #F-2, Flagstaff, Arizona - 86004
October 8th: 11:00, 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:30
October 9th & 10th: 11:00, 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00
October 11th-14th: 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00
Director attending opening night screening at 7:00 pm.
Director Kelly Duane will introduce the film and be available
for a question and answer period following the 7:00 p.m. screening
on the 8th.
October 14th-24th, Denver, CO
The Denver International Film Festival
Director Kelly Duane will attend.
October 15th-17th, Milford, PA (The Poconos)
Black Bear Film Festival
October 15th, Bishop, CA
Bishop SNOW-FEST
Richard Duane will introduce the film.
October 15th, 16th & 17th, Santa Fe, NM
Center for Contemporary Arts Cinemateque
1050 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87505
505 982 1338
Call theater for screening times.
October 15--Director Kelly Duane and former Secretary of the
Interior Steward Udall under LBJ and JFK will be in attendance
for the Oct. 15th screening.
October 15--Immediately following the film there will be a
post-screening party at the Center for Contemporary Arts. It
will be in honor of Stewart Udall. Tom Udall may also attend.
October 17th @ 2pm, Reno, NV
Screening at 2:00 p.m. The Nevada Art Museum hosted by Cinemareno
160 West Liberty Street, Reno NV 89501
775.329.3333
Environmental historian Michael Cohen will join film director
Kelly Duane in a question and answer period following the screening
of the film.
October 19th, Tampa, FL
The Tampa Theater
711 Franklin Street, Tampa, FL 33602
(813) 274-8982
Contact theater for screening times.
President of the Sierra Club Larry Fahn and film director
Kelly Duane will participate in a question and answer period
following the film.
October 21st, Gainesville, FL
University of Florida/Sierra Club President Larry Fahn and Kelly
Duane will speak.
October 28st, New York City, New York
Lincoln Center/Director will attend.
November 4-14th, Puerto Vallarta, MX
Puerto Vallarta International Film Festival
Director Kelly Duane will attend.
November 4-7th, Shepherdstown, WV
American Conservation Film Festival
January 7th-9th, Nevada City, CA
Wild & Scenic environmental Film Festival
Director Kelly Duane will attend.
FUTURE SCREENINGS/DATE NOT YET SET:
Lake Havasu City, AZ
Ithaca, NY
(More pending)
* * * * * * * * * * *
kelly duane
loteria films
www.loteriafilms.org
* * * * * * * * * * *
=====================================================+
From: Kelly Hill Scanlon
<kelly@northern.org>
Reply-To: <kelly@northern.org>
Organization: Northern Alaska Environmental Center
To: <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Date: Friday, September 3, 2004 4:40 PM
Subject: [arctic-action] Final Alpine Satellite Development
Plan Released
Final Alpine Satellite Development Plan Released
On September 3, 2004, the Bureau of Land Management released
the final Environmental Impact Statement (fEIS) for ConocoPhillips
Alaska's Inc. plan for moving forward with five satellite oil
exploration and drilling operations in an area known as the Alpine
Satellite Development. The Alpine Satellite Development Plan
area encompasses State and Federal lands within the northeast
National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and the Colville River Delta.
ConocoPhillip's Alaska's Inc. (CPAI) proposed development
includes placing 20-30 wells on each of the five drilling pads
and to transport the unprocessed product (a three-phase output
of oil, gas and water) to the Alpine Central Processing Facility
for processing and then shipment to market through the existing
pipeline.
The Alpine Plan will directly impact the village of Nuiqsut
in several ways including increased access into the traditional
hunting grounds used by the villagers. While the village may
see an increase in revenue in the short term, the long-term negative
impacts of development are many. They are best outlined by the
Bureau of Land Management themselves in their newsletter National
Petroleum Reserve-Alaska: Alpine Satellite Development Plan,
Volume 4, September 2004. The following paragraphs describing
the impacts are directly excerpted from that newsletter:
Impacts of the Preferred Alternative
Physical Environment
The Preferred Alternative would create a long-term impact
to over 300 acres of soils and land surface area by mining gravel
from up to 65 acres to cover approximately 250 acres with fill
for drilling pads, roads and an airstrip. Placement of roads,
pads, and bridges could affect the surface hydrology and stream
channels by increasing scour, sedimentation, shoaling and bank
erosion.
Biological Environment
In addition to the approximately 315 acres of vegetation that
would be covered or disturbed to extract gravel, vegetation would
also be impacted by dust, gravel spray, snow accumulations, water
impoundments, thermokarsting and temporary ice roads and ice
pads. These impacts could include altering of plant communities
or changes in productivity. Although individual animals will
be disturbed, displaced or killed, there would be negligible
effects on fish, bird and mammal populations. (An exception to
this might be if a very large spill reached an important habitat
for a bird species at a critical time.) Terrestrial mammals will
be disturbed and, at least in the early years of the project,
displaced from areas near the development.
Social Systems
Taxes and royalties on CPAI's project will increase North
Slope Borough, state and federal government revenues. The total
work force to build the project is projected to peak during construction
in 2006 at over 500; many fewer individuals will be employed
to conduct drilling and operations. The great majority of these
jobs are anticipated to be held by people from outside the North
Slope. Nevertheless, social system impacts will be greatest for
residents of Nuiqsut. The proposed facilities add to the existing
oil production infrastructure in areas of important subsistence
fish, bird and mammal harvesting. Local residents are reluctant
to hunt near oil facilities, so construction of the proposed
development may effectively reduce traditional hunting areas.
The Preferred Alternative places the pipeline 7 feet or higher
above the tundra, in contrast to CPAI's original proposal of
5 feet. This reduces, but does not eliminate the potential that
the pipeline will impede caribou and hunter movement. Consequently,
subsistence hunting could require more lengthy travel and the
associated increase in effort, cost and risk. Reduced or disrupted
subsistence harvests, should they occur, could impact the social
structure of Nuiqsut that depends heavily on the sharing of subsistence
foods. Nuiqsut's social system could also be impacted by increasing
contact with non-residents and increasing job opportunities and
income.
It is for these very reasons that the Northern Alaska Environmental
Center has called the Alpine Satellite Development Plan into
question. We will comment on the fEIS, and encourage you to do
so as well. Comments are due to BLM by October 4, 2004.
Comments can be submitted to:
Jim Ducker
Alpine Satellite Development Plan EIS
Bureau of Land Management
222 W. 7th Avenue
Anchorage, Alaska 99513
(907) 271-3130
You can read the Alpine Satellite Development Plan newsletter
and the fEIS on line at (www.ak.blm.gov).
If you would like to browse the document directly, the Northern
Alaska Environmental Center has a copy of the fEIS on disk as
does the BLM Public Room at 1150 University Avenue, Fairbanks,
Alaska, 99709.
If you have any questions about the plan, please contact Kelly
Hill Scanlon, Arctic Coordinator for the Northern Center.
Please Post and Distribute as Appropriate
*************************************************
Please visit our website at www.northern.org <http://www.northern.org/>
or send email to our main address (info@northern.org)
*************************************************
"Arctic Actions" is a broadcast alert list managed
by the Northern Alaska Environmental Center to keep you updated
on issues affecting Arctic Alaska.
To subscribe, send a message to info@northern.org with your full
name, email address, USPS mail address, phone number, and issue
concerns in the BODY of the message.
To learn how you can do more to protect Alaska's Arctic, or to
find out about becoming a Northern Alaska Environmental Center
member, intern or volunteer, please contact:
Northern Alaska Environmental Center
830 College Road
Fairbanks, AK 99701
ph: (907) 452-5021
fx: (907) 452-3100
info@northern.org
http://www.northern.org
=====================================================+
From: The Nation Magazine
<emailnation@thenation.com>
Reply-To: emailnation@thenation.com
To: <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Date: Thursday, September 2, 2004 7:38 AM
Bush Mob Orders Up a Hit
"I can't believe they're doing it again, and getting
away with it."
So said a Republican strategist not keen on George W. Bush,
referring to the attack being waged against John Kerry. "The
Bush gang did it to John McCain four years ago. They're doing
it now to Kerry. They're like the mob."
Leading last night's attack was Zell Miller, who reviving
the role of the Southern demagogue, put forward a cartoonish
depiction of Kerry and the leaders of the Democratic Party. Zig
Zag Zell, a nominal Democrat, was so over-the-top, that even
the final speaker of the night, Dick Cheney, sounded calmer than
usual.
Read David Corn's new Capital Games for more on the GOP attack
strategy:
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=1772
During a week of RNC protests and 1,767 arrests to date, demonstrations
have taken many different forms--from singing Johnny Cash songs
to waving pink slips to a mass flashing of bikini underwear featuring
anti-Bush slogans.
But only one demonstration has actually taken place so far
on the floor of Madison Square Garden. Read John Nichols's Online
Beat report for the details.
http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=1771
And listen to Marc Cooper's RadioNation audioblog to hear
why the co-star of the Sopranos, Edie Falco, has agreed to be
featured in a TV ad from The Mob...Mothers Opposing Bush. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/audioblog?bid=8
And check out Liza Featherstone's report on the War Resister's
League protest at Ground Zero. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/protest?bid=12
Featherstone's dispatch is part of "New York Minutes,"
a special co-written weblog featuring numerous new dispatches
each day from the RNC protests and events. You can find recent
reports by Jennifer Block, Dave Enders, Katha Pollitt, Liza Featherstone,
Tom Gogola, Esther Kaplan, Richard Kim and Kristin Jones currently.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/protest?bid=12
Don't miss Katrina vanden Heuvel's examination of last night's
star RNC speaker, the "Janus-faced Democratic Senator from
Georgia." http://www.thenation.com/edcut/index.mhtml?bid=7
And make sure to check out Patricia J. Williams,s special
RNC weblog, "Weblog of a Mad Law Professor," updated
each day. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/madlaw?bid=9
So please make sure to regularly visit http://www.thenation.com
for special RNC coverage, exclusive online reports, info on nationwide
activist campaigns, Nation History offerings, reader letters
and special weekly selections from The Nation magazine.
Best Regards,
Peter Rothberg, The Nation
P.S. Check out The Nation's TV commercial, and help us get
it on the air.
http://www.thenation.com/special/commercial
=====================================================+
From: t r u t h o u t <messenger@truthout.org>
Date: Wednesday, September 1, 2004 2:51 PM
Subject: Steve Weissman | How Soon Will the U.S. or Israel
Bomb Iran?
We covered the Democratic National Convention inside and
out, beginning to end. Now the t r u t h o u t team is in New
York. Go to: http://www.truthout.org/rnc04.shtml
for our video, audio and blog reports from both inside the Republican
National Convention and outside on the streets.
t r u t h o u t | 09.02
GOP Policy Ruins Natural Land
http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml
Steve Weissman | How Soon Will the U.S. or Israel Bomb Iran?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090204A.shtml
Talks to Disarm Rebel Shiites Collapse in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090204B.shtml
FBI Seizes Computer from American-Israel Public Affairs Committee
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090204C.shtml
U.S. Seeks to Dismiss Terror Convictions
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090204D.shtml
Far Right Not Thrilled About Being Left Out
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090204E.shtml
John W. Dean: How Book Defames Kerry - Why He Should Sue
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090204F.shtml
Jean-Marcel Bouguereau | The Savior
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090204H.shtml
Dan Barry | Serving Canapes, Then Recalling the 107th Floor
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090204I.shtml
Zogby: Half of New Yorkers Believe U.S. Leaders Knew About
9-11 Attacks
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090204J.shtml
Bev Harris | Sum of a Glitch
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090204K.shtml
Now with Bill Moyers | Inside the RNC
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090204L.shtml
Hostage Crisis in Russia, Children Held
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090204X.shtml
Iraq's Chalabi Escapes Assassination Bid
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090204Y.shtml
Direct Confrontation, 900 Arrested in NYC
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090204Z.shtml
The TO Overview
William Rivers Pitt | 'Live from NY, Day 3'
http://www.truthout.org/overview.htm
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
=====================================================+
From: paul.rcom@juno.com
To: <archdruid@igc.org>
Date: Wednesday, September 1, 2004 1:35 PM
MONUMENTAL: David Brower Documentary
Information about the film Monumental, a
documentary about the life of David Brower
and the history of the enviromental movement
follows this note. It is directed by Kelley
Duane--a relative of section member Dick Duane--
and appears to be nothing less than excellent.
I hope some of you have the time to attend.
Best Regards,
Paul Romero
MONUMENTAL:
Screening Times and Events
San Francisco, California
Roxie Cinema
September 17-23
Nightly 6:15, 8:0, 9:45
Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday matinee 2:00, 4:00
Film director Kelly Duane and other special guests
will introduce the film, and the film will be followed
by a question and answer period.
This screening is dedicated to the memory of the late
Brian Maxwell, Executive Producer of Monumental and
founder of PowerBar.
Portland, Oregon
The Clinton Street Theater
September 24-30
Contact theater for screening times.
Barbara Brower, David Brower's daughter, and Michael
McClowskey, environmental leader and Executive
Director of the Sierra Club after David Brower, will
join fillm director Kelly Duane in a question and
answer period following the screening of the film.
Seattle, Washington
The Northwest Film Forum
October 1-3
Friday 7:00
Saturday, Sunday 7:30, 9:15
John Dyer, Brower's climbing partner from his ascent
of Shiprock and Polly Dyer, a Sierra Club activist,
will attend the screening.
Reno, Nevada
Cinemareno at The Nevada Museum of Art Theater
October 17, 2:00
Environmental historian Michael Cohen will join film
director Kelly Duane in a question and answer period
following the screening of the film.
MONUMENTAL offers a intimate
look at the golden age
of the environmental movement through the compelling
and colorful life of David Brower, the
1st executive
director of the Sierra Club, and arguably the greatest
environmentalist of the twentieth century. If you've
ever wondered what a single person can do against the
relentless onslaught of development, wait until you
see the charismatic and enigmatic David Brower push
the 1964 Wilderness Act through Congress, and then go
on to save the Grand Canyon from damming and help
establish the Redwoods National Park and Point Reyes
National Seashore.
Ahead of his time, Brower understood the power of the image
to spread his message. He was an avid filmmaker, and was the
first to use photographs by great artists such as Ansel Adams
in
hard-hitting lobbying and advertising campaigns to win over the
hearts of the American public, and the minds of many Washington
politicians. A self-made man who held the banner of environmental
protection, Brower moved into the elite circles of John F. Kennedy,
Lady Bird Johnson, and Stewart Udall.
An uncompromising idealist, Brower pushed the
environmental movement to achieve unprecedented wins.
With a playful visual aesthetic, an alt-country
soundtrack, and 16 mm hand-held wilderness footage,
largely shot by Brower himself between 1930-70,
MONUMENTAL documents Brower's journey as he transforms
the Sierra Club from a regional hiking group into a
national political force. The viewer sees through
Brower's own eyes a 1956 raft trip down Glen Canyon,
before its damming that evokes the awful sadness of
losing public land we've failed to protect. And in
period footage of Brower's early rock-climbs--done in
sneakers, with hemp ropes--and of his training of the
10th Mountain Division and participation in their
victory against the Nazis in the high Alps, Brower
emerges as an unlikely and inspiring national hero.
Distribution sponsored by Patagonia
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER:
Kelly Duane founded Loteria Films after
she co-directed and produced her first documentary
film, See How They Run, chronicling the 1999 Willie
Brown Mayoral bid for re-election in the city of San
Francisco. See How They Run has been broadcast on PBS
stations nationally. It has screened in movie theaters
throughout the Bay Area and film festivals across the
US. Prior to film work Duane was a photojournalist and
photo editor for Random House and Chronicle Books. A
few book titles to her credit include, Mavericks: The
History of Big Wave Surfing, El Capitan, Poker, and
The Rock and Roll Traveler.
=====================================================+
From: aolfriends@earth.care2.com
Date: 31 Aug 2004 10:50:32 -0700
To: <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Roadless forests are under attack - your comments needed
today
We only have two more weeks to tell the Forest Service
to protect our remaining roadless forests. As a recipient
of Animals & Environment Alerts from Care2, I know you
care about protecting our wildlife and forests, so please
take a moment to submit your public comment in support of
forest protection: http://www.care2.com/go/z/16554
In 2001, the Bush administration promised to uphold the
Roadless Area Conservation Rule to protect our last wild
forests. But, guess what - Bush and his administration
have just reneged on this promise.
Under the Bush administration's new proposed changes to
the roadless rule, not a single acre of the 58.5 million
acres of roadless areas in the National Forests will be
protected nationally, and thus will not be safe from the
timber, oil and gas industries. Our roadless wild forests
are a national treasure - how can we allow our government
to give them away to the highest bidder?
The environmental community is trying to gather one
million comments to oppose this dangerous proposal.
Over 21,000 Care2 members have already submitted comments -
help us reach 50,000: http://www.care2.com/go/z/16554
Incredibly, the administration has already received over
2.5 million public comments in support of the Roadless
Area Conservation Rule, during previous comment periods,
and has chosen to ignore them. So, we need to be louder.
Please speak out today for your wild forests before it's
too late: http://www.care2.com/go/z/16554
Thank you for helping our wild forests today!
-Rebecca,
Care2 and ThePetitionSite team
http://www.care2.com/go/z/rebecca
P.S. Public comments are due by September 14, 2004 -
please submit your comments today!
http://www.care2.com/go/z/16554
=====================================================+
MotherJones.com - November/December
2003 Issue
http://www.mojones.com/news/feature/2003/11/ma_559_01.html
The Uncompassionate Conservative
It's not that he's mean. It's just that when it comes
to seeing how
his policies affect people, George W. Bush doesn't have a clue.
by Molly Ivins
In order to understand why George W. Bush doesn't get it, you
have to take several strands of common Texas attitude, then add
an impressive degree of class-based obliviousness. What you end
up with is a guy who sees himself as a perfectly nice fellow
-- and who is genuinely disconnected from the impact of his decisions
on people.
On the few occasions when Bush does directly encounter the
down-and-out, he seems to empathize. But then, in what is becoming
a recurring, almost nightmare-type scenario, the minute he visits
some constructive program and praises it (AmeriCorps, the Boys
and Girls Club, job training), he turns around and cuts the budget
for it. It's the kiss of death if the president comes to praise
your program. During the presidential debate in Boston in 2000,
Bush said, "First and foremost, we've got to make sure we
fully fund LIHEAP [the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program],
which is a way to help low-income folks, particularly here in
the East, pay their high fuel bills." He then sliced $300
million out of that sucker, even as people were dying of hypothermia,
or, to put it bluntly, freezing to death.
Sometimes he even cuts your program before he comes to praise
it. In August 2002, Bush held a photo op with the Quecreek coal
miners, the nine men whose rescue had thrilled the country. By
then he had already cut the coal-safety budget at the Mine Safety
and Health Administration, which engineered the rescue, by 6
percent, and had named a coal-industry executive to run the agency.
The Reverend Jim Wallis, leader of Call to Renewal, a network
of churches that fight poverty, told the New York Times
that shortly after his election, Bush had said to him, "I
don't understand how poor people think," and had described
himself as a "white Republican guy who doesn't get it, but
I'd like to." What's annoying about Bush is when this obtuseness,
the blinkeredness of his life, weighs so heavily on others, as
it has increasingly as he has acquired more power.
There was a telling episode in 1999 when the Department of
Agriculture came out with its annual statistics on hunger, showing
that once again Texas was near the top. Texas is a perennial
leader in hunger because we have 43 counties in South Texas (and
some in East Texas) that are like Third World countries. If our
border region were a state, it would be first in poverty, first
in the percentage of schoolchildren living in poverty, first
in the percentage of adults without a high school diploma, 51st
in income per capita, and so on.
When the 1999 hunger stats were announced, Bush threw a tantrum.
He thought it was some malign Clinton plot to make his state
look bad because he was running for president. "I saw the
report that children in Texas are going hungry. Where?"
he demanded. "No children are going to go hungry in this
state. You'd think the governor would have heard if there are
pockets of hunger in Texas." You would, wouldn't you? That
is the point at which ignorance becomes inexcusable. In five
years, Bush had never spent time with people in the colonias,
South Texas' shantytowns; he had never been to a session with
Valley Interfaith, a consortium of border churches and schools
and the best community organization in the state. There is no
excuse for a governor to be unaware of this huge reality of Texas.
Take any area -- environment, labor, education, taxes, health
-- and go to the websites of public-interest groups in that field.
You will find page after page of minor adjustments, quiet repeals,
no-big-deal new policies, all of them cruel, destructive, and
harmful. A silent change in regulations, an executive order,
a funding cutoff. No headlines. Below the radar. Again and again
and again. Head Start, everybody's favorite government program,
is being targeted for "improvement" by leaving it to
the tender mercies of Mississippi and Alabama. An AIDS program
that helps refugees in Africa and Asia gets its funding cut because
one of the seven groups involved once worked with the United
Nations, which once worked with the Chinese government, which
once supported forced abortions.
So what manner of monster is behind these outrages? I have
known George W. Bush slightly since we were both in high school,
and I studied him closely as governor. He is neither mean nor
stupid. What we have here is a man shaped by three intertwining
strands of Texas culture, combined with huge blinkers of class.
The three Texas themes are religiosity, anti-intellectualism,
and machismo. They all play well politically with certain constituencies.
Let's assume the religiosity is genuine; no one is in a position
to know otherwise. I leave it to more learned commentators to
address what "Christian" might actually mean in terms
of public policy.
The anti-intellectualism is also authentic. This is a grudge
Bush has carried at least since his college days when he felt
looked down on as a frat rat by more cerebral types. Despite
his pedigree and prep schools, he ran into Eastern stereotypes
of Texans at Yale, a common experience at Ivy schools in that
time. John F. Kennedy, the consummate, effortlessly graceful,
classy Harvard man, had just been assassinated in ugly old Dallas,
and Lyndon Johnson's public piety gave many people the creeps.
Texans were more or less thought of as yahoo barbarians somewhere
between the Beverly Hillbillies and Deliverance. I do not exaggerate
by much. To have a Texas accent in the East in those days was
to have 20 points automatically deducted from your estimated
IQ. And Texans have this habit of playing to the stereotype --
it's irresistible. One proud Texan I know had never owned a pair
of cowboy boots in his life until he got a Nieman Fellowship
to Harvard. Just didn't want to let anyone down.
For most of us who grow up in the "boonies" and
go to school in the East, it's like speaking two languages --
Bill Clinton, for example, is perfectly bilingual. But it's not
unusual for a spell in the East to reinforce one's Texanness
rather than erode it, and that's what happened to Bush. Bush
had always had trouble reading -- we assume it is dyslexia (although
Slate's Jacob Weisberg attributes it to aphasia); his
mom was still doing flash cards with him when he was in junior
high. Feeling intellectually inferior apparently fed into his
resentment of Easterners and other known forms of snob.
Bush once said, "There's a West Texas populist streak
in me, and it irritates me when these people come out to Midland
and look at my friends with just the utmost disdain." In
his mind, Midland is the true-blue heartland of the old vox pop.
The irony is that Midland along with its twin city, Odessa, is
one of the most stratified and narrow places in the country.
Both are oil towns with amazingly strict class segregation. Midland
is the white-collar, Republican town; Odessa is the blue-collar,
Democratic town. The class conflict plays out in an annual football
rivalry so intense that H.G. Bissinger featured it in his best-selling
book, Friday Night Lights. To mistake Midland for the volk heartland
is the West Texas equivalent of assuming that Greenwich, Connecticut,
is Levittown.
In fact, people in Midland are real nice folks: I can't prove
that with statistics, but I know West Texas and it's just a fact.
Open, friendly, no side to 'em. The problem is, they're way isolated
out there and way limited too. You can have dinner at the Petroleum
Club anytime with a bunch of them and you'll come away saying,
"Damn, those are nice people. Sure glad they don't run the
world." It is still such a closed, narrow place, where everybody
is white, Protestant, and agrees with everybody else. It's not
unusual to find people who think, as George W. did when he lived
there, that Jimmy Carter was leading the country toward "European-style
socialism." A board member of the ACLU of Texas was asked
recently if there had been any trouble with gay bashing in Midland.
"Oh, hell, honey," she drawled, "there's not a
gay in Midland who will come out of the closet for fear people
will think they're Democrats."
The machismo is what I suspect is fake. Bush is just another
upper-class white boy trying to prove he's tough. The minute
he is questioned, he becomes testy and defensive. That's one
reason they won't let him hold many press conferences. When he
tells stories about his dealings with two of the toughest men
who ever worked in politics -- the late Lee Atwater and the late
Bob Bullock -- Bush, improbably, comes off as the toughest mother
in the face-down. I wouldn't put money on it being true. Bullock,
the late lieutenant governor and W's political mentor in Texas,
could be and often was meaner than a skilletful of rattlesnakes.
Bush's story is that one time, Bullock cordially informed him
that he was about to fuck him. Bush stood up and kissed Bullock,
saying, "If I'm gonna get fucked, at least I should be kissed."
It probably happened, but I guarantee you Bullock won the fight.
Bush never got what made Bullock more than just a supermacho
pol -- the old son of a bitch was on the side of the people.
Mostly.
The perfect absurdity of all this, of course, is that Bush's
identification with the sturdy yeomen of Midland (actually, oil-company
executives almost to a man) is so wildly at variance with his
real background. Bush likes to claim the difference between him
and his father is that, "He went to Greenwich Country Day
and I went to San Jacinto Junior High." He did. For one
year. Then his family moved to a posh neighborhood in Houston,
and he went to the second-best prep school in town (couldn't
get into the best one) before going off to Andover as a legacy.
Jim Hightower's great line about Bush, "Born on third
and thinks he hit a triple," is still painfully true. Bush
has simply never acknowledged that not only was he born with
a silver spoon in his mouth -- he's been eating off it ever since.
The reason there is no noblesse oblige about Dubya is because
he doesn't admit to himself or anyone else that he owes his entire
life to being named George W. Bush. He didn't just get a head
start by being his father's son -- it remained the single most
salient fact about him for most of his life. He got into Andover
as a legacy. He got into Yale as a legacy. He got into Harvard
Business School as a courtesy (he was turned down by the University
of Texas Law School). He got into the Texas Air National Guard
-- and sat out Vietnam -- through Daddy's influence. (I would
like to point out that that particular unit of FANGers, as regular
Air Force referred to the "Fucking Air National Guard,"
included not only the sons of Governor John Connally and Senator
Lloyd Bentsen, but some actual black members as well -- they
just happened to play football for the Dallas Cowboys.) Bush
was set up in the oil business by friends of his father. He went
broke and was bailed out by friends of his father. He went broke
again and was bailed out again by friends of his father; he went
broke yet again and was bailed out by some fellow Yalies.
That Bush's administration is salted with the sons of somebody-or-other
should come as no surprise. I doubt it has ever even occurred
to Bush that there is anything wrong with a class-driven good-ol'-boy
system. That would explain why he surrounds himself with people
like Eugene Scalia (son of Justice Antonin Scalia), whom he named
solicitor of the Department of Labor -- apparently as a cruel
joke. Before taking that job, the younger Scalia was a handsomely
paid lobbyist working against ergonomic regulations designed
to prevent repetitive stress injuries. His favorite technique
was sarcastic invective against workers who supposedly faked
injuries when the biggest hazard they faced was "dissatisfaction
with co-workers and supervisors." More than 5 million Americans
are injured on the job every year, and more die annually from
work-related causes than were killed on September 11. Neither
Scalia nor Bush has ever held a job requiring physical labor.
What is the disconnect? One can see it from the other side
-- people's lives are being horribly affected by the Bush administration's
policies, but they make no connection between what happens to
them and the decisions made in Washington. I think I understand
why so many people who are getting screwed do not know who is
screwing them. What I don't get is the disconnect at the top.
Is it that Bush doesn't want to see? No one brought it to his
attention? He doesn't care?
Okay, we cut taxes for the rich and so we have to cut services
for the poor. Presumably there is some right-wing justification
along the lines that helping poor people just makes them more
dependent or something. If there were a rationale Bush could
express, it would be one thing, but to watch him not see, not
make the connection, is another thing entirely. Welfare, Medicare,
Social Security, food stamps -- horrors, they breed dependency.
Whereas inheriting millions of dollars and having your whole
life handed to you on a platter is good for the grit in your
immortal soul? What we're dealing with here is a man in such
serious denial it would be pathetic if it weren't damaging so
many lives.
Bush's lies now fill volumes. He lied us into two hideously
unfair tax cuts; he lied us into an unnecessary war with disastrous
consequences; he lied us into the Patriot Act, eviscerating our
freedoms. But when it comes to dealing with those less privileged,
Bush's real problem is not deception, but self-deception.
Ever since their paths crossed in high school, Mother
Jones contributing writer Molly Ivins has been an observer
of our president. Her books about Bush include Bushwhacked:
Life in George W. Bush's America and Shrub: The
Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush
© 2003 The Foundation for National Progress
=====================================================+
From: "Arianna Huffington"
<arianna@ariannaonline.com>
Reply-To: Arianna Huffington <arianna@ariannaonline.com>
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 15:56:13 -0400
To: <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Subject: Bush In NYC: Watch Out, The 'Reformer With Results'
Is Back
BUSH IN NYC: WATCH OUT, THE 'REFORMER WITH RESULTS'
IS BACK
By Arianna Huffington
So far the Republican convention has been all about courage,
compassion
and lauding our War President for possessing ample quantities
of both,
including the theater-in-the-round stage designed to highlight
the
president's strength and authority, and the Deco-inspired presidential
lectern meant to invoke the skyscrapers of New York (and oh,
by the way,
those two skyscrapers that are no longer there).
But now it's time for the nitty-gritty: the War President's
big acceptance
speech.
The word is that after a summer of substance-free campaign
stumping, the
president is ready to tangle with "the vision thing"
and roll out his
second-term plans for America.
Sounds promising - until you discover that his vision for
the future is
little more than a reworked blast from the past.
The 2000 campaign's "reformer with results" is planning
to go back to that
poisoned well and trot out a domestic agenda that promises to
reform
everything from Social Security to health care to the tax code.
Of course, the last three and a half years have proven that
when Bush
starts talking about reform, it's time to be very afraid.
His idea of education reform turned out to be the fraudulent
No Child Left
Behind Act, a massively underfunded federal mandate that truth-in-labeling
laws should have required be rechristened the Millions of Children
But
Mercifully Not Your Own Left Behind Act. And his idea of Medicare
reform
was a multibillion dollar gift to drug companies and HMOs disguised
as a
prescription drug bill.
Now he wants to do the same to Social Security and health
insurance, all
in the name of "empowering individuals" and creating
"an ownership
society"- or, in plain English, privatizing as much of the
social welfare
system as possible.
But we are told that Bush has decided to run not only on future
reforms
but on past accomplishments.
"We've got a great record, when you think about it,"
he proclaimed, as if
the idea had just dawned on him.
Now, I'm not sure what record he's been looking at - maybe
Andy Card
replaced the dismal numbers from last week's Census Bureau report
on
income and poverty with Michael Phelps' Olympic stats in his
latest
morning briefing - but if the president truly intends to run
on his
record, I can only say: Bring it on!
I realize that facts mean next to nothing to the fanatics
in the Bush
White House, but they mean a hell of a lot to the people whose
lives they
depict.
Here then, for your voting-booth convenience, is a quick overview
of
President Bush's "great record":
Since he took office, 1.2 million people in America have lost
their jobs,
bringing the total to 8.2 million.
The number of Americans living below the poverty line has
increased by 4.3
million to 35.9 million - 12.9 million of them children.
The number of Americans with no health insurance has increased
by 5.8
million - with 1.4 million losing their insurance in 2003. The
total now
stands at 45 million.
Forty percent of the 3.5 million people who were homeless
at some point
last year were families with children, as were 40 percent of
those seeking
emergency food assistance.
Median household income has fallen more than $1,500 in inflation-adjusted
terms in the last three years, and the wages of most workers
are now
falling behind inflation.
Average tuition for college has risen by 34 percent, while
37 percent of
fourth graders read at a level considered "below basic."
One third of the president's $1.7 trillion in tax cuts benefits
only the
top 1 percent of wealthiest Americans.
President Bush also failed to fulfill his pledge to get Osama
Bin Laden
"dead or alive," traded the moral high ground for preemptive
war and the
horrors of Abu Ghraib, never attended a funeral or memorial service
for
any of the 975 soldiers killed in Iraq, pulled out of the Kyoto
agreement
on global warming, gutted the Clean Air Act, initiated the rollback
of
more than 200 environmental regulations, backed a constitutional
amendment
to outlaw gay marriages, and refused to follow through on his
promise to
extend the assault weapons ban.
So let's get one thing straight: Anyone who is lauding George
Bush at the
Republican Convention - and, yes, that includes you Rudy, Arnold,
Governor
George and Mayor Mike - is endorsing his disastrous and wholly
immoderate
record. Thus, by definition, all these Bush strokers have surrendered
their moderate credentials - no matter how warm and fuzzy their
positions
on social issues. The president's record betrays both courage
and
compassion, and no amount of lofty rhetoric will change that.
© 2004 ARIANNA HUFFINGTON.
DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
=====================================================+
From: Living Rivers <posting@livingrivers.org>
Reply-To: posting@livingrivers.org
To: <browerpower@wildnesswithin.com>
Date: Wednesday, September 1, 2004 1:54 PM
Subject: PR: Lake Powell Draining: Water Intake Tubes
for Coal Plant to be Extended
*********************
N E W S R E L E A S E
______________________________
L I V I N G R I V E R S
&
C O L O R A D O R I V E R K E E P E R
POB 466 - Moab, UT 84532
435-259-1063/fax 259-7612
www.livingrivers.org
_______________________________
September 1, 2004
For immediate release
Contact: John Weisheit - (435) 259-1063
Preparing for Lake Powell Draining
Water Intake Tubes for Coal Plant to be extended.
Today it was announced a major coal-fired power plant adjacent
to Lake Powell reservoir may be left high and dry by rapidly
falling reservoir levels, unless it receives approval from the
National Park Service to begin a major extension of its water
intake infrastructure.
Environmental clearance is being sought to extend the water
intake tubes for the Navajo Generating Station 120 feet to the
near-natural elevation of the Colorado River. What the National
Park services is calling a "maintenance project." involves
five 54-inch-diameter holes being bored 150 feet through Navajo
sandstone for the installation of pipes and submersible pumps
to move 17 million gallons of cooling water per day from Lake
Powell to the power plant.
"This is not maintenance, but a multi-million dollar
undertaking in an effort to preserve outdated and terribly polluting
technologies," says John Weisheit, conservation director
for Living Rivers/Colorado Riverkeeper. "We must prepare
for the end of Lake Powell by investing resources into more appropriate
energy paths such as conservation or solar and wind, not trying
to prolong dirty coal and dams."
Due to climatic changes over the past five years, Lake Powell's
water level has fallen 127 feet to 3573 feet above sea level,
and is now declining at a rate of 21 inches per week. It is projected
that absent a major change in rainfall patterns, that Navajo
Generating Station's power plant intakes will be exposed as early
as 2006. The hydroelectric power plant at Glen Canyon Dam will
suffer a similar fate, but will have to be shut down as lowering
its intakes is not technically feasible.
The Navajo Nation has benefited little from power from either
Navajo Generating Station or Glen Canyon Dam over the past four
decades, as many homes still do not have electricity. Small photo-voltaic
power stations and wind turbines are now being used to provide
energy to individual homes on the reservation.
"Our prayers continue to be answered," says Thomas
Morris Jr. a Navajo medi