By: Richard Reeves  

So, the Attorney General of the United States tells me: "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists."

Well, screw you, buddy!...

Editorial from:  

The Bush administration's post-Sept 11 security proposals have caused the knees of both liberals and conservatives to jerk. Some liberals reject any new surveillance of potential terrorists as an assault on the Bill of Rights. For some conservatives no crackdown justified by Sept. 11 can go too far.

By: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy  

The Department of Justice must not put the interests of the gun lobby above the nation's public safety in the battle against terrorism.

According to press reports, Justice Department officials have refused to let the F.B.I. examine its background-check records, to determine whether any of the 1,200 people detained following the September 11th attacks recently bought guns.

"Here's the problem, is that Enron is a vast and far-flung empire. But one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries is the one that's going to pay the price, and it's called Bush, Inc. George W. Bush is bought and paid for by Enron."

- Paul Begala, on CNN's Crossfire

By: David S. Broder  

George Bush campaigned for president on the promise of cutting taxes, and made that the first priority of his administration. When the Bush tax cut, officially estimated at $1.3 trillion but actually much larger, was passed last spring, administration officials offered ironclad assurances that it was easily affordable in a 10-year span when surpluses were supposed to total $5.6 trillion. The mantra then was, "We're returning to the taxpayers less than one-fourth of the surplus the government will enjoy".

Now, of course, the surplus is gone. Partisans can argue how much of it disappeared because of the recession, the rising costs of the war on terrorism or the tax cut itself. But it has disappeared, and Bush's budget director, Mitch Daniels, says the red ink in the federal budget will continue for at least three years.

Unlike his brother, George Bush is adamant about refusing to look at the revenue that will be lost in coming years because of promised tax cuts. And most Democrats are afraid to talk about freezing or delaying them. Instead, the two parties are jousting over the size and shape of additional tax reductions.

Editorial from:  

Whatever acceptance the attorney general may have deserved for his cause, however, he forfeited it with Thursday's attack on those who dare to criticize the administration.

In essence, he said, they are traitors.

To that, it must be said: Sir, have you no shame? At long last, have you no shame?

Editorial from:  

...Ashcroft's willingness to subvert civil liberties in pursuit of terrorists apparently has limits. Pressed to explain why he has refused to let the FBI tap the Justice Department's database of criminal background checks to see if any terror suspects have tried to buy guns in this country, this apostle of law and order wrapped himself in the Second Amendment - or at least, his interpretation of it. Under the law, he said, the database can be used only to verify prospective gun buyers' eligibility to own a firearm and not for any "unrelated" purpose. In this case, presumably, suspected foreign terrorists do have a constitutional right.

By: Bryan Zepp Jamieson  

Enron is dead.

That, in itself, is no loss whatsoever. Enron, in its not-brief-enough existence, came to symbolize the utterly ruthless and vicious willingness of corporations to crucify Americans in a never-sated lust for ever more profit. In an honest society, the CEO and other board officers would be in jail right now, facing charges of felony fraud.

But that's in an honest society. In the hopelessly corrupt system that Putsch represents, the worst they face is a toothless congressional investigation, and they get to skate, with the hundreds of millions in salaries and bonuses they grabbed before the bottom fell out intact.

From:  

The Justice Department on Friday (12/7/01) said reporters who characterized Attorney General John Ashcroft's Senate testimony as an attack on his opponents were "absolutely wrong" and "part of the exact problem" facing law enforcement officials.

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Ashcroft - who has been criticized by rights groups and some lawmakers for a series of anti-terrorism measures implemented since Sept. 11 - warned against excessive opposition.

By: Ellis Henican  

Religious zeal, it turns out, is a mighty wobbly touchstone for balanced political leadership.

Osama bin Laden has been proving that principle quite convincingly, you'd have to say. So has Mullah Mohammed Omar, his seemingly cornered host. Yesterday in Washington, to a lesser though still rattling extent, John Ashcroft proved it too.

The Attorney General of the United States is no Muslim fundamentalist. His own spiritual allegiance lies with the fundamental wing of American Christianity - Pentecostalism, to be precise. Which is his right, of course. And on issue after issue, from Missouri politics to the U.S. Senate and now to the Justice Department, Ashcroft has fashioned his personal beliefs into a staunch political agenda, becoming a true stalwart of the American religious right.

By: Frank Rich  

It's no longer just politically incorrect to criticize George W. Bush or anyone in his administration these days - now it's treason.

By: Bridget Gibson  

It's getting harder for me to determine exactly whose side George Bush and John Ashcroft are on. That is such a strange statement. But bear with me for a minute. Supposedly Osama bin Laden planned and executed the September 11 attack on America precisely because of our freedoms. That is what George Bush said on September 20, 2001. So following that logic, would it not be the proper thing to protect exactly those freedoms if we are to fight terrorism? To continue to live normally, to go on with our lives, to show the terrorists that they did not win, that the only way to prove that terrorism lost is to defeat its goal. Terrorism's goal is to change the victim of such in a profound way. The perpetrator wants to alter how each and every person affected by terrorism views his/her world and force a change to the ways of the terrorist.

By: Isaac Peterson  

A New York state senator is bringing up a bad idea that has been killed several times in the past and deserves another stake through the heart once and for all.

Roy Goodman is a member of a special anti-terror committee that was created after September 11. They came up with about 50 ideas to fight terrorism in this country, and the national ID card was one of the ideas.

From:  

The nation's unemployment rate took another big leap upward in November to 5.7%, the highest level in six years, as 331,000 more Americans lost their jobs, the government reported Friday.

It marked the second consecutive month of massive job losses as the weak economy continued to stagger from the blow delivered by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

By: Anne Gearan  

The Justice Department is violating the Constitution and federal law by withholding basic information about some 1,000 people picked up by police since the terror attacks, the first lawsuit challenging government actions in the detentions alleged Wednesday (12/5/01).

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

- George Orwell

By: Lionel Van Deerlin  

Strange times inevitably focus attention on some strange people. And on the strange, often supernatural ideas they would foist upon the rest of us - occasionally with the aim of turning a fast buck.

So now it's on to the war itself, and to numerous purveyors of the paranormal who see the new crisis as a chance for peddling their peculiar services to government. And, glory be, with taxpayers picking up the tab.

It's happened before. The CIA shelled out $20 million on a Cold War scheme to spy on the Soviet Union with "remote viewers".

By: Norman Solomon  

From all indications, the gatekeepers for big media in the United States don't want to hear what Noam Chomsky has to say - and they'd prefer that we not hear him either.

Mainstream journalists in other nations often interview Chomsky. Based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he's a world-renowned analyst of propaganda and global politics. But the chances are slim that you'll ever find him on a large network here at home.

Chomsky is ill-suited to providing soundbites - and that's not just a matter of style. A few snappy words are sufficient when they harmonize with the conventional wisdom in a matter of seconds. It takes longer to intelligibly present a very different assessment of political realities.

No one disputes that Chomsky revolutionized the study of language more than 40 years ago. The rich and powerful have no quarrel with his work as the world's most significant linguist. But as a political analyst, he's pretty much persona non grata at big U.S. networks and influential dailies.

Editorial from:  

"We need honest, reasoned debate, and not fear-mongering. To those... who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends. They encourage people of goodwill to remain silent in the face of evil."

Thus does the Attorney General, John Ashcroft, characterize critics of his tactics in investigating terrorism and of the new authorities he has sought. Mr. Ashcroft's remarks were not off the cuff; he delivered them as part of his opening statement yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. They explain perfectly why many people have concerns about his leadership in this uncertain time. It is the attorney general's function, or should be, to ensure that a lively debate over policy is protected - even during wartime. Mr. Ashcroft instead challenges the patriotism of those who dissent.

By: Paul Krugman  

Shortly after Sept. 11, George W. Bush interrupted his inveighing against evildoers to crack a joke. Mr. Bush had repeatedly promised to run an overall budget surplus at least as large as the Social Security surplus, except in the event of recession, war, or national emergency. "Lucky me", he remarked to Mitch Daniels, his budget director. "I hit the trifecta."

Lucky him, indeed. The Enron analogy will soon become a tired cliché, but in this case the parallel is irresistible. Enron management and the administration Enron did so much to put in power, applied the same strategy: First, use cooked numbers to justify big giveaways at the top. Then, if things don't work out, let ordinary workers who trusted you pay the price. But Enron executives got caught; Mr. Bush believes that the events of Sept. 11 will let him off the hook.

"The gap between rich and poor is the foundation of religious, ethnic, cultural and ideological conflicts."

- South Korean President Kim Dae-jung

Where are the investigations of Bush's liaison with the bankrupt company?

By: Molly Ivans  

Hail and farewell, o Enron! What a flameout. The Establishment media, sucking its collective thumb with unwonted solemnity, is treating us to meditations on two themes: "How the mighty have fallen", and, "Who would have thunk it?". Pardon me while I snort, in lieu of ruder noises, and offer two themes of my own: "What took so long?" and, "Anyone with an ounce of common sense".

Action Alert

By: David Lazarus  

It's awfully hard not to sneer as Philip Morris, home of the Marlboro Man, attempts to slink away from its deadly past by changing its name to Altria...

The USA PATRIOT Act and the US Department of Justice

By: Professor Susan Herman  

My general level of trust in the government is conditioned on the existence of the Constitution’s elaborate structure of checks and balances: the hydraulic pressures among the three branches of the federal government, the dialectic of federalism, and the ultimate political power of an informed electorate. Now, there increasingly often seems to be only one locus of power. Increasingly often, the other two branches, the other axis of government (the states), and the electorate, including me, are asked not to know, but just to trust.

I have found myself thinking often lately about the world of George Orwell’s 1984, and not only because Orwell’s “Big Brother” has become such a pervasive metaphor for expansive governmental surveillance. The people in Orwell’s totalitarian state, Oceania (Orwell’s prescient amalgam of Britain and America?), knew that their state was engaged in a murky foreign war, against some enemy or other – either Eastasia or Eurasia. The war had become wallpaper, and there wasn’t much point in trying to understand what the war was about, or evaluating the government’s claims of victory. Information about the war was no more specific and no more reliable than the Newspeak about domestic affairs.

I don’t know whether we have lost our balance, but I do know that power is careening in one direction. That, combined with the extent of what I don’t know, is reason enough to worry.

Girls Nite Out

Ann Coulter, Paula Jones, Peggy Noonan and Linda Tripp were at a strip club. None of them had gotten laid in 2001 and they were hornier than a frog from TCU.

Coulter got things started when the Chippendale dude danced over towards her. She reached in her purse, pulled out a $10 bill, licked it and stuck it on his ass. The Chippendale dude did a nasty dance in Coulter's face.

Wanting to be part of the gang, Paula Jones reached into her purse and pulled out a $20 bill, licked it, and stuck in on his ass, so he did a nasty dance for Paula Jones.

Trying to one-up the others, Peggy Noonan reached into her purse and pulled out a $50 bill, licked it, and stuck in on his ass, so he did a nasty dance for Peggy Noonan.

So the Chippendale dude looked at Linda Tripp and cringed. Tripp reached into her purse, pulled out her ATM card, swiped it thru the crack of his ass and grabbed the $80 off his ass and said, "I need the money real bad", and left.

Senator Says Enron Violated 401(k) Law, Should Pay

By: Susan Cornwell  

Sen. Barbara Boxer charged on Tuesday that one-time energy giant Enron Corp. broke the law when it prohibited employees from divesting company shares from their retirement plans.

Enron Execs Got $55 Million Just Before Bankruptcy

By: Neil Weinberg and Lynn Cook  

Enron paid out $55 million in bonuses to executives and other employees two days prior to filing for bankruptcy, the company confirmed today. A total of 500 employees received bonuses.

"In order to protect and maintain the value of the estate, we wanted to retain key employees in critical businesses", said Mark Palmer, an Enron spokesman.

The so-called "stay-on" payments were made Nov. 29 in exchange for select employees' agreeing to remain at Enron for 90 days. Enron filed for restructuring Dec. 2 in the biggest bankruptcy filing in history. Enron has $50 billion in assets and booked $101 billion in sales last year.

By: Richard Prasad  

If Bush ran his private sector companies into the ground and he ran the country into the ground economically with his first round of tax cuts, why should he be given another chance with another round of tax cuts? In this round of tax cuts the President wants to cut the A.M.T., or alternate minimum tax, which would allow corporations to pay almost no corporate tax. Therefore corporations like Enron could reap the benefits of such a tax cut, overstate its profits and then turn around and declare Chapter 11, like Enron surely will have to do. It's throwing good money after bad.

Furthermore, if Bush's initial tax cut was so stimulative, why do we need more corporate tax cuts? The lack of logic in the President's argument is astounding.

A year ago, the people of Texas were understandably proud. Enron was one of the largest corporations in the US, and George W. Bush was President Elect. One has to wonder, if, after a year of misrepresentations, Texas will have anything to be proud of in the future.

By: Frederick H. Winterberg III  

So here is what we have. We have a President usurping as much power as he can get his hands on, an Attorney General who is gleefully trampling the Constitution and Bill of Rights he swore to uphold, and a Congress more interested in handing huge sums of money to corporations than in monitoring what the executive branch is doing. The fact that 60% or more of the people polled are supposedly in favor of this tells me that far too many people are not paying any attention whatsoever, as it is the only logical conclusion.

First they came for the Communists...
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews...
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics...
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me...
and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.

- Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945

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