Bush and Continuing Problems

THE BELOW MINI-ARTICLES SHOW THE LENGTHS BUSH WILL GO TO IMPRESS HIS FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN EXTREMIST THINKING ON THE REST OF US.

CBS' about-face
CBS' argument for not airing a MoveOn.org ad during the Super Bowl sounded legit – the network cited a policy against airing advocacy ads on controversial issues. The MoveOn ad in question, "Child's Pay," somberly and poignantly explored the impact of the Bush deficits on future generations. Last week, CBS cited this same policy in pulling a Bush Administration ad promoting the new Medicare prescription drug law, pending a General Accounting Office probe into whether the ad represents improper use of taxpayer funds for political purposes. But now, CBS says it will resume airing the Bush Medicare ad. The Center for American Progress says CBS has bowed to conservative pressure and is calling for an email barrage of complaints to the network. "The ad was produced at taxpayer expense by Bush's campaign media firm -- a firm that also does ads for the drug industry," CAP says. The details about how inaccurate and partisan the ads are can be found on the Progress Report site.

-- Geraldine Sealey

[09:53 PST, Feb. 19, 2004]

Bush Losing Popularity
President Bush's poll ratings on the issues of honesty and trustworthiness are at the lowest of his presidency, the USA Today reports. In general, "Bush's slip coincides with growing complaints about slow job growth, accusations that he shirked his National Guard duty in the 1970s, failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and stalled efforts to establish democracy there."

Plus, if the election were held today, either John Kerry or John Edwards would beat Bush. One week ago, the matchup would have resulted in a tie. In early January, Bush would have walloped any democrat in the race. It's early in the campaign, of course. Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution, told the paper it is too early to consider the new numbers a forecast of the Nov. 2 election. "The economy and Iraq are unpredictable factors, and the campaign has yet to take shape, he said. 'To say that Bush has not yet begun to fight is an understatement for a man who is sitting on $100 million,' Hess said."

Big Ruling on 527s
The Federal Election Commission ruled that 527s, advocacy groups designed to work around fund-raising restrictions in campaign finance law, can continue to spend unlimited contributions for television commercials and other communications, though they face new restrictive rules. The New York Times article on the ruling says it "could have profound effects on the 2004 election by helping Democrats, who have been much more aggressive than Republicans in creating these committees to help the party compete with the Republicans' overall 2-to-1 fund-raising advantage. None of this money winds up in the candidates' hands but it can be used to raise issues and attack or promote candidates by name." The FEC considered the state of 527s because Republicans want the commission to prevent soft money contributions by the committees. Curbing soft-money spending would help the GOP because Republicans far outraise Democrats in "hard money."

"Some Republicans objected on free-speech grounds to their party's own drive to prohibit 527's from using soft money. In fact, Bradley Smith, a Republican who is chairman of the Federal Election Commission, said he does not understand the Republican drive to further regulate 527's. 'I'm disappointed that so many people in the party hierarchy feel that this is important,' said Mr. Smith, who voted against Wednesday's ruling. 'It comes at the cost of good law.'"

The Junk Science Administration
More than 60 leading scientists, including a dozen Nobel laureates, have accused the Bush administration of frequently suppressing or distorting scientific analysis from federal agencies when it disagrees with administration policies, the Los Angeles Times reports. "When scientific knowledge has been found to be in conflict with its political goals, the administration has often manipulated the process through which science enters into its decisions," the scientists said in a statement. The scientists say the Bush administration distorts science by putting people with conflicts of interest into official positions, censoring and suppressing reports by its own scientists and failing to seek independent advice.

Iraq June 30 Deadline
The New York Times says diplomats and some Bush administration officials are starting to worry that the June 30 deadline to return sovereignty in Iraq is a function of the president's reelection ambitions more than what's good for Iraq. "Many in the administration say that while they have no proof that the urgency to install a government is politically motivated, it feels to them like part of a White House plan to permit President Bush to run for re-election while taking credit for establishing self-rule in Iraq. 'I can make all kinds of arguments about why we need to establish democracy in Iraq on an urgent basis,' said another administration official. 'But when you hear from on high that this is what we must do, and there can be no questioning of it, it sounds like politics.'"

Perle's Pearls
Richard Perle, that Prince of Darkness, was the guest at the Monitor breakfast in Washington on Tuesday. Here's a smattering of quotes from the Monitor. Perle's pearls of wisdom and observation included: Recommending the firing of George Tenet at CIA because weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq; saying he hadn't been interviewed in the Valerie Plame case. And in this assessment of how President Kerry would execute foreign policy, is he suggesting that Kerry is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder? Perle: "My worst fear is that ... he will behave as president the way he talks about the issues today. It will lead to a weak and indecisive policy -- a policy animated by what appears to have been a searing experience in Vietnam."

-- Geraldine Sealey

[13:57 PST, Feb. 18, 2004]

The Prosecutorial 'Peyton Place'
The Washington Post reports that a prominent 15-year prosecutor in Detroit has taken the "highly unusual step" of filing a lawsuit against Attorney General John Ashcroft and other top Justice Department officials, alleging he was the target of a smear campaign that resulted in the exposure of a valuable counterterrorism informant.

Richard Convertino accuses Justice of "gross mismanagement" of terrorism cases, contending that "DOJ Washington had continuously placed 'perception' over 'reality' to the serious detriment of the war on terror." The move adds to the tumult that has roiled the offices of the U.S. attorney and the FBI in Detroit, which have overseen several major terrorism cases since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but have recently come under scrutiny for allegedly mishandling both informants and evidence, the Post writes.

Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said a lawsuit like Convertino's is almost unheard of within the Justice Department and could undermine the government's credibility in other terrorism cases. "This is really turning into the prosecutorial version of 'Peyton Place,' " Turley said. "Detroit has been a particular embarrassment for the government, because this is one of a number of such accusations there. . . . But most of these fights stay in-house. It's viewed with great disfavor for a prosecutor to be critical in public of either DOJ or the attorney general."

Permanent Tax Cuts? Not So Fast
The Hill reports that President Bush's biggest hurdle in furthering his tax cut plans may come from within his own party. "Several Senate centrist Republicans are trying to blunt President Bush's tax-cutting plans. These Republicans — who used their clout in the Senate to cut Bush's 2003 tax-cut proposal in half — are now cautiously evaluating Bush's new efforts to make the enacted tax cuts permanent. One, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, says: "People are now realizing that deficits are a problem — realizing what we raised last spring," she said. Last month, officials predicted the federal budget deficit could reach $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years, $1 trillion more than previously estimated. Making the Bush tax cuts permanent would result in a loss to the Treasury of some $1.2 trillion, without accounting for any offsets, such as increased economic activity, the Hill says. Some $88 billion in tax cuts are due to expire this year unless Congress acts.

"Since Bush has made the tax cut issue a major aspect of his re-election drive, the centrists' stance could prove to be a political liability to the president. While none of these centrists has voiced direct opposition to any of the tax cuts, members of the group are nevertheless gauging the political climate in the Senate while eyeing the forecasted deficits. If they end up adopting a hard position against any of the tax cuts, it would pose a major obstacle to Bush, who likely will need 60 votes for a Senate victory."

"Your Rights" -- Or Not
The Washington Post reports that even as the Bush administration is caught up in the debate on gay marriage, a Republican appointee at the independent agency Office of Special Counsel, whose mission is to protect whistleblowers and other federal employees from retribution, pulled references to sexual orientation discrimination off the Web site where government employees can learn about their rights in the workplace.

"The Web pages at the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency, has removed references to sexual orientation from a discrimination complaint form, training slides, a brochure titled 'Your Rights as a Federal Employee' and other documents. Scott J. Bloch, the agency head, said he ordered the material removed because of uncertainty over whether a provision of civil service law applies to federal workers who claim unfair treatment because they are gay, bisexual or heterosexual." More Post: "The provision usually has been interpreted to mean that a worker's off-duty behavior cannot be used as a justification for dismissal, demotion or discipline unless it hampers job performance or interferes with the work of others. That has been the stance at the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the government's workplace policies, for at least two decades. The OPM Web site continues to advise employees that bias based on sexual orientation is unlawful and informs them that complaints may be filed at the Office of Special Counsel."

-- Geraldine Sealey

[06:56 PST, Feb. 18, 2004]

Red state, blue win
Democrat Ben Chandler won the special election held today in Kentucky's 6th district, with 55 percent of the vote to 43 percent for Republican Alice Forgy Kerr. From Kos: "This wasn't just a victory. It was a mauling. Of Kerr, of McConnell, of Bush. And in Bush country no less."

Before the results came in, CBS News had this take on why the Kentucky election matters nationally: "Republicans have a 228 to 205 advantage in the 208th Congress, meaning a 12-seat swing could put the House under Democratic control. That makes the Kentucky race significant. The election is also seen as an indicator of support for the president. For those reasons, both national parties have shown unusual interest in it. Top members of Congress, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell and number two Democrat Steny Hoyer are among those who campaigned for their candidates. Early in her campaign, Kerr appeared with Mr. Bush in a commercial that said the two were 'cut from the same cloth.' Kerr mentioned her support of the president in subsequent commercials."

Next House special election: June 1 in South Dakota to fill the seat vacated by Republican Bill Janklow, who resigned after a manslaughter conviction stemming from a traffic accident.

-- Geraldine Sealey

[16:53 PST, Feb. 17, 2004]

Censure update
Moveon.org says it has a half million signatures on its petition calling for Congress to censure the president for misleading the country into war with Iraq. Censure ads have run in the Washington Post and on radio stations around the country. Now, Moveon is asking members to call their congresspeople.

From MoveOn: "The fact is, President Bush was planning for war with Iraq from his first days in office. Having made that decision, he ran a campaign of misinformation, hype and hysteria that led us into war. Before the war, Bush was repeatedly told there was no definitive evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. He knew Iraq was not a nuclear threat. He knew there was no Iraq connection to 9/11. Iraq posed no imminent danger to the United States. There was no case for a pre-emptive war."

"Yet Bush relentlessly led us into a war that has cost 500 American lives, left 3,000 seriously injured, and wasted tens of billions of dollars. Thousands of Iraqis have been killed as well. President Bush has betrayed our trust, and there must be consequences."

-- Geraldine Sealey

[15:36 PST, Feb. 17, 2004]

Halliburton watch
Investigations from Nigeria to Kuwait. Disputed invoices for meals for U.S. troops. The hiring of Baker Botts. Here's the good news on Halliburton today:

Halliburton Stops Billing U.S. for Meals Served to Troops, New York Times.
Nigeria Investigates US's Halliburton, Sacramento Observer.
Halliburton calls in Bush lawyer, London Evening Standard
Kuwait parliament group to probe Halliburton deal, Reuters.

-- Geraldine Sealey

[15:12 PST, Feb. 17, 2004]

The Capacity to Make an Excuse for War
The Boston Globe debunks President Bush's latest explanation for why we went to war with Iraq – the oft-repeated assertion in his interview with Tim Russert on Feb. 8 that Saddam had "the capacity to make a weapon" of mass destruction. "Prewar Iraq was highly unlikely to produce a device that could easily inflict mass casualties … former weapons inspectors and former national security officials say." Bush cites former chief weapons inspector David Kay in his current rhetoric. "David Kay did report to the American people that Saddam had the capacity to make weapons," Bush said on Meet the Press. "Saddam Hussein was dangerous with weapons. Saddam Hussein was dangerous with the ability to make weapons." But the Globe says: " Kay did not describe Iraq's production capacity so clearly in either his interim public report last fall or in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Jan. 28. In an interview last week, he told the Globe that although Iraq had pesticide equipment that could be switched to produce fine-grain anthrax in a lab, it would have remained a challenge to deliver it in a way that would inflict mass casualties."

More Globe: "Vincent Cannistraro, a former head of the CIA's counterterrorism unit and a former director of intelligence for the National Security Council, noted that Bush has been accused of exaggerating intelligence before the war by taking shards of analysis that included conditions and hedged suspicions about what Iraq might be harboring -- then representing it as a certainty. Cannistraro said Bush's description of Kay's postwar findings is also a questionably aggressive interpretation of the evidence."

"It's not as flatly wrong, but it is misleading," Cannistraro said. "To translate knowledge . . . to capability, that's inaccurate because knowledge can be, 'Yeah, I know how to do this.' But having the capability of doing this requires the acquisition of a lot of component parts you don't have."

'I Assumed the Media Would Ignore Lies'
The New York Times is among the news organizations to carry the public denial from a 27-year-old woman who was the subject of a tawdry rumor campaign last week that she had an affair with John Kerry.

"While there was no independent evidence to support it, the rumor has had a vibrant life on the Internet, on talk radio, and in the foreign news media, especially in Australia and England, since it was first reported Thursday by the Drudge Report Web site. It has received far less attention in the mainstream American news media. Denials from Mr. Kerry on the radio program of Don Imus on Friday, and later during a session with reporters, were reported by some American television news organizations and newspapers, including The New York Times." In her statement on Monday, Alexandra Polier said she came forward because she was frustrated by the attention the rumor was continuing to receive. "Because these stories were false, I assumed the media would ignore them," she wrote in her statement. "It seems that efforts to peddle these lies continue, so I feel compelled to address them."

5 Rules for Covering the 2004 Campaign
Perhaps the restraint demonstrated by most mainstream news organizations in not running with Matt Drudge's Kerry-intern rumors last week is a good omen for 2004 campaign coverage. In the March 1 issue of the American Prospect, Eric Alterman and Michael Tomasky find other encouraging signs that the political media won't succumb to "schoolyard silliness" as it did during the 2000 campaign. In just the first week of February, they point out: "the media started raising new questions about the justification for the Iraq War; broke an important story about the administration knowing last fall that the Medicare bill would cost $134 billion more than it let on to its employers (the public); broke another about a probe of alleged bribes at Dick Cheney's Halliburton; and finally, led by The Boston Globe's Walter Robinson, started to take a semi-meaningful look into George W. Bush's disputed National Guard record."

"Don't start dancing to the music just yet, though. Bad habits die hard, and we've all come to expect too little genuine journalism and far too much of what might be called 'journalism-related program activity.' This is what we got back in 2000, when Al Gore was deemed a lying SOB for statements he made that were wholly accurate. (Gore did play a large role in creating the predecessor to the Internet, he did hold the hearings that 'discovered' contamination at Love Canal, and his only mistake regarding that most crucial of 'lies' about who inspired the characters in Erich Segal's Love Story was accurately recalling a decades-old mistaken story in The Tennessean.) Remember, he was running against a guy who couldn't remember a year of his military service or anything connected with a million-dollar bailout he received regarding a fishy stock sale during which he was privy to inside information about the same stock's likely collapse. But hardly anyone thought those questions worth examining."

Alterman and Tomasky offer the following rules the political media should follow to redeem itself after its performance in 2000: "Go beyond the 'he said, she said' and tell us what you believe to be true and important about a story. Challenge the master narrative with genuine investigative reporting. Show proportionality in covering controversies. A little solidarity on behalf of the truth, please. Don't let non-news organs drive the news cycle."

-- Geraldine Sealey

[06:20 PST, Feb. 17, 2004]

Bush Records Quietly Released
All week long the Bush administration has tried to close the books on questions about the president's record -- or lack thereof -- of his service in the National Guard. Again on Friday, the White House hoped to put out the final word; according to the Associated Press, the administration has now released hundreds of pages of documents detailing Bush's service in the Guard in Texas and Alabama during the early 1970s. While many of the pages were "duplicates," and "there were no new documents about Bush's serving in Alabama," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush had fulfilled his pledge to release all his records, according to AP. "Our understanding is that this is the entire file," McClellan said.

The White House also opened up some Bush medical records for reporters:

"Bush's medical records -- dozens of pages in all -- were opened for examination by reporters in the Roosevelt Room, but the material was not being distributed publicly...

"His medical checks, from 1968 through 1971, show no signs of illness at the time except for a brief episode of hemorrhoid symptoms."

Aside from that slightly unflattering revelation, however, it's not likely that an in-depth analysis of the new material will hit the front pages right away, given that the flood of documents arrived on a Friday afternoon at the start of a holiday weekend. But if the widespread coverage over the last several days is any indication, even the classic tactic of burying an undesirable story at the tail end of the week may not pull Bush's National Guard issue out of the headlines.

-- Mark Follman

[17:28 PST, Feb. 13, 2004]

Dems get Lucky in Kentucky
The Wisconsin primary isn't the only contest of national interest on Tuesday. A special House election in Kentucky's Sixth District will provide the first real referendum, for GOP and Democratic voters alike, on President Bush and the Republican congressional leadership this election year. If Democrat Ben Chandler wins the race to fill a vacant House seat, it won't be from luck. Chandler has faced the worst the national GOP apparatus has to offer, from well-funded attacks and distortions to strong-arm tactics from party leaders.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert practically bribed Kentuckians to vote for Chandler's opponent when he dangled a federal tobacco buyout to benefit Kentucky farmers if they voted for Chandler's GOP opponent, Alice Forgy Kerr. Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, who hand-picked Kerr as the Republican candidate, promised to "do whatever it takes" to defeat Chandler. In its editorial endorsing Chandler, the Lexington newspaper expressed disgust at the "waves of attacks and distortions, most fueled by out-of-state Republican money, coming by TV, mail and phone … This multimillion-dollar mudslide is so repulsive that voters could hardly be blamed for ignoring Tuesday's special election, which has the added disincentive of falling on the day after a federal holiday for some workers. But voters should not let the waves of negativity keep them from going to the polls to decide who will speak for them in the U.S. House of Representatives. By wading through the muck and examining the candidates' credentials, they will see that Ben Chandler is easily the most qualified."

In the polls leading up to the election, Chandler led Kerr 49.4 percent to 39.6 percent. As Roll Call (sub. only) reports, this strong Democratic showing isn't what Republicans expected when the seat opened last November.

Roll Call: "GOP strategists planned to make the special election a referendum on a popular president and a contrast of ideologies in a conservative district … But, instead of being an unadulterated asset, the president is proving to be more of a mixed blessing, and Kerr and the Republicans are struggling, at least so far, to convince voters that the race presents a stark choice between a liberal and a conservative."

This is one to watch on Tuesday.

-- Geraldine Sealey

[14:59 PST, Feb. 13, 2004]

Backpedaling on Outsourcing
It didn't take long for President Bush and his advisers to backtrack from a report released earlier this week that praised the effect job outsourcing has on the economy. On a campaign trip Thursday to Pennsylvania, a state that knows a thing or two about losing jobs overseas, Bush tried to distance himself from his top economic adviser, who said sending jobs abroad is "probably a plus" for the economy.

As CNN reported: "People are looking for work because jobs have gone overseas and we need to act in this country. We need to act to make sure there are more jobs at home," Bush said as he touted his "21st century" job plan in a state that has lost 85,000 jobs since Bush took office.

Senate Democrats were incensed by the president's economics report and pushed a proposal that would fight outsourcing. "The president's economic report is an insult to every hard-working American. It's unpatriotic economics, and he should apologize for it," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts.

-- Geraldine Sealey

[13:03 PST, Feb. 13, 2004]

Shock and Awe
The Republican Party and its allies, frantic as President Bush's poll ratings drop and questions persist about the administration's war motives and Bush's guard duty, have tried making all manner of dirt stick to John Kerry as he emerges as the Democratic front-runner -- and polls show he'd beat Bush in a head-to-head contest.

Let's review the GOP shock and awe campaign against Kerry from just the last two days. The Bush-Cheney '04 Web site unleashed an attack video to 6 million email subscribers last night, called Unprincipled, Chapter 1. The video accuses Kerry of being beholden to special interests. That came hours after Republicans circulated an email highlighting an editorial that criticized Kerry's "shifting stands." Republicans also planted a photo from a 1970 anti-war rally in various media outlets, showing Kerry sitting feet behind Jane Fonda, in an attempt to associate Kerry with Fonda's controversial trip to Hanoi two years after the photo was taken. (Another photo, of Kerry and Fonda next to each other, was mentioned in today's New York Times, but turns out to be a doctored image. Thanks to Atrios for pointing it out.) Never mind the dirty tricks evident on Matt Drudge's "world exclusive" from Thursday -- still his to own because no one else can confirm it -- about Kerry's "intern" problem.

As ABC's The Note noted this morning, "[Republicans] want the daily negative political stories to start being about Kerry, and stop being about Bush. "See, for example, Ed Gillespie's Thursday sleight-of-hand speech in Nevada, in which he pulls every possible and imaginable newspaper quote to 'demonstrate' that the Kerry campaign will be historically rough and negative in going after the President, and simultaneously goes after Kerry!"

Calling it "sleight-of-hand" is being kind to Gillespie. One might take Gillespie's speech, substitute Bush for Kerry, Republican for Democrat, etc., and get something closer to the truth.

Here's Gillespie: "One of Senator Kerry’s campaign consultants was recently quoted in the New York Times saying, 'Everything is on the table. … Everything.' We know that 'everything' means making money to shadow organizations, engaging in voter suppression tactics, and spreading lies on the Internet. It's only February and they have made clear they intend to run the dirtiest campaign in modern presidential politics. This is because they don't want a debate on the issues, and they don't want to run on Sen. Kerry's record. I guess I can't blame them for that. We as a party cannot sink to their level. We must stick to the truth in this race."

Kerry's response to the GOP assault was predictable, if you've heard his stump speech recently: "Bring it on," he said.

"We've seen evidence. We know exactly where these guys are gonna go, and I'm ready for it," Kerry told radio broadcaster Don Imus today. "I've been at this for a while, Don, and I've been through some tough races. I've been pretty well, you know, vetted and examined from one side to the other. And I think that they're in for a surprise. I'm going to fight back. I am a fighter, and I'm ready to fight back."

-- Geraldine Sealey

[10:00 PST, Feb. 13, 2004]

Bush Popularity at Career Low
President Bush's popularity has sunk to its lowest point as questions continue about the Iraq war, frustrations persist on the economy and as John Kerry has sparked public interest, the latest joint ABCNEWS and Washington Post poll finds.

Bush's popularity is at 50 percent, while fewer than half of Americans say the war with Iraq was worth fighting -- for the first time ever. Fifty-seven percent disapprove of Bush's performance creating jobs. And John Kerry leads him in a head-to-head match-up, 51 percent to 43 percent.

"Context is critical: These results come at the zenith of the Democratic primary season, after a period of intense and positive coverage of Kerry; and they follow a slump for Bush extending from his poorly reviewed State of the Union address through his admission that Iraq might not have had weapons of mass destruction after all," writes ABC polling director Gary Langer in his analysis of the numbers.

But Langer also says the continued questions about Bush's National Guard duty during the Vietnam War lack traction with the public so far. Americans by more than 2-to-1 -- 66 percent to 30 percent -- say it's not a legitimate issue in the election campaign. More, by contrast, say it is legitimate to look into questions about Kerry's fundraising as a U.S. senator (a 42 percent to 46 percent split).

"But there's no doubt that the president's in some difficulty. The number of Americans who view him as honest and trustworthy has dived from 70 percent before the Iraq war to 52 percent now. It is threatening for a president to have his fundamental veracity in some doubt, particularly on issues of policy rather than (as with Bill Clinton) personal conduct," Langer writes.

Bush's Elusive Guard Colleagues
The New York Times reports today on the informal search for "someone, anyone, who recalls encountering First Lt. George W. Bush in 1972 in the Alabama Air National Guard.

"At Fort George C. Wallace, the Montgomery headquarters of the Alabama National Guard, officials have responded to growing scrutiny of President Bush's military record by searching through records for proof of his service in the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group. Former comrades from the 187th have been calling and e-mailing one another, always with the same basic question: Did you see him? So far, it appears that their efforts have come to naught. Indeed, in interviews this week with The New York Times, 16 retired officers, pilots and senior enlisted men who served among hundreds with the 187th in 1972 all said that they simply could not recall seeing Mr. Bush at Dannelly Air Base, the sprawling compound adjacent to Montgomery's airport that is home to the 187th."

Halliburton Employees Have Proof of Rip-off
The AP reports on the two former Halliburton employees who have evidence the company routinely wasted U.S. taxpayers' money and the Democratic lawmakers who are bringing the issue to Pentagon auditors.

"While one ex-employee asked that his name not be disclosed, a second, Henry Bunting, agreed to testify Friday before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee -- an organization of Democratic senators. Two of the most persistent Halliburton critics wrote Pentagon auditors on Thursday specifying the allegations of wasteful practices. Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and John Dingell, D-Mich., said 90 percent of the company's global support contract -- worth $3.7 billion so far -- is for work in Iraq. Halliburton, run by Cheney before his 2000 vice presidential campaign, has consistently denied overcharges."

Bush Defies Scientific Evidence, Pushes Abstinence-only
The AP reports on Bush administration plans to double spending on sexual abstinence programs that bar any discussion of birth control or condoms to prevent pregnancy or AIDS "despite a lack of evidence that such programs work." The CDC credits prevention programs that include both abstinence and contraceptive education for the declining teen birth and pregnancy rates.

But Bush seems to have better information than the leading scientists in the field. "In his State of the Union address, President Bush said, 'We will double federal funding for abstinence programs, so schools can teach this fact of life: Abstinence for young people is the only certain way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases.'"

Bush wants to spend $270 million on abstinence-only education, compared with $100 million annually when he took office, and wants to move the programs into the same agency within the Health and Human Services Department that oversees religious-based programs and the president's proposal to promote marriage, the AP says.

"Advocates of comprehensive sex education said the shift, coupled with the additional money, is part of Bush's election-year appeal to conservatives. They said the administration's proposal flies in the face of research that credits both abstinence and contraception with reducing the teenage birth rate by 30 percent in the past decade to historic lows."

-- Geraldine Sealey

[06:30 PST, Feb. 13, 2004]

Beyond the Pale
We know, by now, what to expect from Ann Coulter. But her latest attack on triple amputee Vietnam War veteran and former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland is low, even by her standards. In a froth over the continued questions about gaps in President Bush's National Guard duty, Coulter says Cleland -- who, we'll again remind you, fought in Vietnam and came back a triple amputee -- "should stop allowing Democrats to portray him as a war hero."

In her syndicated column, found on Townhall.com, a project of the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, Coulter tells us that Cleland "did not give his limbs for his country."

"Cleland lost three limbs in an accident during a routine noncombat mission where he was about to drink beer with friends. He saw a grenade on the ground and picked it up. He could have done that at Fort Dix … Indeed, if Cleland had dropped a grenade on himself at Fort Dix rather than in Vietnam, he would never have been a U.S. senator in the first place. Maybe he'd be the best pharmacist in Atlanta, but not a U.S. senator."

More Coulter: "Cleland wore the uniform, he was in Vietnam, and he has shown courage by going on to lead a productive life. But he didn't 'give his limbs for his country,' or leave them 'on the battlefield.' There was no bravery involved in dropping a grenade on himself with no enemy troops in sight."

Not only should Coulter and the Heritage Foundation apologize to Cleland, they also owe an explanation and apology to those families who have lost U.S. soldiers in "noncombat" situations recently in Iraq. Does Coulter really think there's "no bravery involved" in being wounded or killed -- under any circumstances -- while serving?

-- Geraldine Sealey

[14:22 PST, Feb. 12, 2004]

THIS PAGE IS INCOMPLETE - MORE TO BE ADDED SOON!!!

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