By P.M. Carpenter  

According to a 1993 account in the Observer, prior to the White House's defiance of the Judiciary Committee a half-dozen Bush administration lawyers had gathered in the Old Executive Office Building to "co-ordinate a response to the numerous congressional requests for documents" pertaining to the Iraqi policy. "The group... decided on a plan to create multiple hurdles for any congressman wishing to obtain documents", including the assertion of executive privilege and the insistence that even the notes taken by a congressman allowed access to papers were "to be marked as classified documents". A State Department official later characterized this and subsequent meetings as having a "bunker mentality", and a presidential aide confessed "there was a lot of hand-wringing and at times it was quite pathetic. We couldn't figure out what to do". Finally, the president himself "began to play a personal role in the efforts to keep Congress from learning of his Iraqi policies. The sheer inability of [the] group to sort out the problem seemed to warrant Oval Office attention".

Concluded the Observer, Bush's strategy "proved highly effective in slowing down congressional investigations and many of the documents... were withheld for another year". A House committee chairman summarized the administration's actions with unconcealed contempt: they "advance[d] the notion that cover-up mechanisms have become an integral cog in the machinery of this administration". The matter evaporated from the pages of the press when Clinton took office, as Republicans quickly shifted public attention toward Whitewater, "Nannygate", gays in the military, and various other issues utterly insignificant in comparison to the level of executive wrongdoing in the Bush White House.

These press reports leave aside the still-unanswered questions about Papa Bush's involvement in another arms scandal: the Iran-Contra affair. According to the independent prosecutor's final report on that wretched business, Vice President Bush, despite indignant protestations to the contrary, "was fully aware of the Iran arms sales". A complete investigation was blocked by President Bush in 1992 when he granted post-election pardons to six officials involved in the illegal dealings. Said the prosecutor in a January 19, 1994 press conference, "I think President Bush will always have to answer for his pardons. I think that was the most unjustifiable act. There was no public purpose served by that".

By: William Rivers Pitt  

The attacks of September 11^th, 2001 were the defining events within a year that saw so very much go wrong. The reaction of the current administration has exacerbated the fallout from that traumatic day to such an incredible degree that one is forced to wonder if the terrorists have not already won this undeclared war. This is not the same America that saw the dawn on September 10^th, a fact that is sure to bring smiles to the faces of Al Qaeda warriors from horizon to horizon.

So be it. The past cannot be changed. The future, however, is another matter.

The world was born again by fire on the morning of September 11^th, 2001. In its wake lies the tattered remains of a nation that once was considered a beacon of freedom that lit the world. We are tasked to live on in the wreckage, and are faced with a defining realization: At the bottom, the passivity of the American people invited the catastrophes of 2001. We were unconcerned, unprepared, disinformed, disinterested, willfully blind.

From:  

Man, Republicans sure are good at naming stuff. After Republicans changed the name of National Airport in Washington, D.C., to "Bonzo National" (Oops! Sorry. That was me), George W. Bush continued that brilliant tradition by signing into law legislation designating that September 11 be henceforth known as "Patriot Day". This new law decrees that flags be lowered to half staff, and that the President issue some sort of proclamation. I'm guessing that Bush will observe the day by mandating tax cuts for all corporations with red, white, or blue in their logos.

By: J.G. Schwam  

The Bush policy is simple. The current right wing Republican policy is simple. Preserve and polarize wealth and power. There is no doubt that money in America is the be all and end all. I may have more than many and vastly less than some but if I had a billion dollars I would surely see no reason to seek more. Why would I need more? There is a wealthy conservative faction in this country that believes that their wealth and their power must be perpetuated at all costs and that plight of the so-called working classes means nothing to them. They are fodder for their mills, factories, super stores and chains...

By: Frederick H. Winterberg III  

Does anybody remember Bush's promise during the campaign last year to, as he put it, "change the tone in Washington"? It would be hard to forget, considering the fact that every time a Democrat has so much as questioned anything related to Bush, Ari Fleischer snips "Well, President Bush is trying to change the tone in Washington, so he will not respond to that".

It seems, however, that changing the tone only applies to one side of the aisle. One need look no farther than the current right wing jihad against Senate majority leader Tom Daschle. The first shot across the bow in this all out right wing offensive was an advertisement in South Dakota newspapers last month, which pictured Daschle and Saddam Hussein side by side. Daschle's crime? He is opposed to opening the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. According to the Republicans, this stance is helping to keep Hussein in power. Never mind that the most generous estimates (which were compiled by the oil companies) suggest there is only enough oil in ANWR to last the country six months. Never mind that we could save far more oil than we could ever pull out of ANWR by simply mandating that trucks and SUV's be held to the same fuel efficiency standards as automobiles. As far as the right wing is concerned, if you don't want to drill in ANWR, you are Saddam's best friend. Dick Cheney, when asked about the ads, stood behind them. Hmmm, hard to detect a change in tone here.

"But I must tell you - of course you know this - the current president of the United States is the son of the former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency. So one can say that we were in a family circle. We understood each other quite well."

- Vladimir Putin, President of Russia and former head of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB - formerly known as the KGB)

By: Robert Kuttner  

Just as Watergate became a metaphor for the Nixon era and Whitewater the right's symbol for Clinton, Enron is the emblem of the Bush administration's way of life. Enron is to George W. Bush what Teapot Dome was to Warren G. Harding. Its demise should also signal the collapse of a whole economic paradigm, in which smart people were traders and those left behind in the outmoded economy were throwbacks who actually made things.

By: William Safire  

A device is now available to help pet owners find lost animals. It's a little chip implanted under the skin in the back of the neck; any animal shelter can quickly scan lost dogs or cats and pick up the address of the worried owner.

That's a good side of identification technology. There's a bad side: fear of terrorism has placed Americans in danger of trading our "right to be let alone" for the false sense of security of a national identification card.

By: William D. Hartung  

The timing of the Bush administration's recent decision to give Russia six months' notice of its intent to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty seemed peculiar in the extreme.

Why risk alienating Russia, China, and major U.S. allies in Europe in pursuit of a technologically unproven, immensely expensive ballistic missile defense system? And why abandon the ABM Treaty now, when experts like the Pentagon's former top testing official, Philip Coyle, have indicated that an effective missile defense testing program can go on for years before it runs up against the limits imposed by the agreement?

By: Christopher H. Schmitt and Julian E. Barnes  

Last summer, Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski settled on California's power blackouts as the reason that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should be opened up to oil drilling. Since the terrorist attacks, California's electricity shortages have ebbed in the face of new supplies, recession, and conservation. But that hasn't changed Murkowski's mind - only the way he pitches the controversial project. He now says we must drill to lessen our dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

Bush Expected to Weaken Portions of Clean Air Act

By: David L. Greene  

In a boon for the energy industry and a setback for environmentalists, the Bush administration is expected to announce soon that it is weakening portions of the Clean Air Act, allowing coal-burning power plants to bypass some anti-pollution rules.

President Bush has argued that some Clean Air Act rules stifle energy output and do little to protect the environment. That stance has angered environmentalists, but it was mostly forgotten after Sept. 11. Now, riding high on wartime approval ratings, Bush is revisiting some of his more hotly disputed proposals, including the idea of easing some environmental regulations.

Word of the announcement has set off a new storm of protest from environmental groups. They say the move would stymie efforts by local and state officials to bring heavy polluters to court. And some members of Congress have complained that the administration has not consulted them about changing the law.

By: David Lister  

Arthur Miller, America's greatest living playwright, will speak out against the Bush administration for abusing civil rights, in a BBC interview to be broadcast on Christmas Day.

Miller was called before Senator McCarthy's Un-American Activities Committee in the crusade against supposed left-wingers in 1956 and wrote one of his greatest plays, The Crucible, in response to it. He says he now fears the United States is using the war on terrorism to "increase its power over civil rights". Miller's words make him the highest-profile figure in the American arts world to take issue with President Bush's stance.

By: Tamara Baker  

Remember how the GOP Media buried the "Funeralgate" story surrounding George W. Bush - just as they buried the Air National Guard desertion story, the drug-use stories, and the booze stories (until his DUI's started coming to light)?

Remember how the main figure in that story, Eliza May, was convinced to settle out of court, rather than (horrors!) drag the sacred Bush name through the mud?

Well, this is one story that won't stay buried.

By: Bruce S. Ticker  

Quit pouncing on the boy scout. Otherwise known as Tom Daschle, Senate majority leader.

You and your minions are in top bully mode right now and with that you are risking much. Your current course of action could contribute to your political destruction.

By: Geoffrey Gray  

For all the difficulty protecting nuclear reactors, safeguarding nuclear weapons facilities has proved no easier. According to a newly released study by the watchdog Project on Government Oversight (POGO), "terrorists" making mock attacks on labs and munitions plants were able to breach security at least 50 percent of the time, even making off once with the goods in a garden cart from Home Depot.

The drills, conducted by the Department of Energy, featured U.S. Special Forces as the enemies. POGO got access to the startling results with the assistance of a dozen whistle-blowers who took part in the exercises.

"Every good Christian should line up and kick Jerry Falwell's ass."

"I am a conservative Republican, but I believe in democracy and the separation of church and state. The conservative movement is founded on the simple tenet that people have the right to live life as they please as long as they don't hurt anyone else in the process."

- Barry Goldwater

Editorial from:  

It is clearly up to the White House and the Congress to provide aid where it is indicated - and to provide it now. In this holiday season, however, there is scant evidence that Mr. Bush and much of Congress, fixated primarily on ways to benefit the well-off, are even aware of such mundane matters as homelessness. But the skeletal wraiths of Christmas Present ought to be haunting their sleep.

Requires (free D/L)

By: Reggie Rivers  

Please buckle your seat belts and bring your civil liberties into the full upright and surrendered position, because the war on terrorism is going to last a long time.

The bombing in Afghanistan is just about done, but the war isn't over because Congress never declared war...

The war on terrorism will never end because it wasn't designed to end. It's a power-grab put into effect during a time when few Americans felt committed to Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" proposition. After Sept. 11, we didn't want to choose between two principled extremes. The enduring theme of America today is: "Here's my liberty; give me safety."

So get comfortable. The war on terrorism - like the war on drugs, the war on poverty and the war on common sense - is here to stay.

By: Bridget Gibson  

Behavior is a very telling feature. When children are very young and are unable to take responsibility for their action, they often fall into the habit of blaming others. It takes a very mature person to accept the responsibility for their actions and to understand that many positions in life do not allow for the passing of blame. Harry Truman summed up the presidency very well when he said "The buck stops here". He was, in essence, explaining the very nature of the top office of the United States of America.

Stolen from:  

Tne great task of wartime leadership, said Eliot A. Cohen, a professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University, "is not only to communicate resolve and determination and will, but to explain what you are doing and why you are doing it".

Hmm. Where do you think he is going with this one? Think he is impressed with Dubya's "wartime leadership"?

"I think thus far that is not quite what we have seen", he said. "We have seen a tremendous pulse of staunchness, but we have not seen the more intellectual side of war leadership, making the case for what we are doing and laying out the arguments for what we do next."

"Our overriding purpose, from the beginning right through to the present day, has been world domination - that is, to build and maintain the capacity to coerce everybody else on the planet: nonviolently, if possible; and violently, if necessary. But the purpose of our foreign policy of domination is not just to make the rest of the world jump through hoops; the purpose is to facilitate our exploitation of resources. And insofar as any people or states get in the way of our domination, they must be eliminated - or, at the very least, shown the error of their ways."

- Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General under President Lyndon Johnson

Protecting the United States Constitution Over-Shadows Terrorism

From:  

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died in creating and defending the United States Constitution. We cannot be sidetracked in our supporting and defending the United States Constitution because terrorists killed 6000 Americans. Every reaction we take must be constitutional or we have all ready lost the war, regardless of how many military battles we win.

By: John Miller  

When the videotape of Osama bin Laden talking about the Sept. 11 terror attacks was released by the United States government on Dec. 13, administration officials spoke at length about the extensive effort to achieve a full and accurate transcript.

The translation commissioned by ABCNEWS, however, reveals new elements that raise questions about what the government left out of the official version and why.

The new translation uncovers statements that could be embarrassing to the government of Saudi Arabia...

"The blind drive to win is a hallmark of the Bush family clan. One thing that G.W.'s childhood friends told me repeatedly was that he has to win, he absolutely has to win and if he thinks he's going to lose, he will change the rules or extend the play. Or if it really is bad he'll take his bat and ball and go home."

- Gail Sheehy

By: Fox Butterfield  

Homicides have increased sharply this year in many large cities, a development that troubles law enforcement officials and experts who fear it may signal a return to rising crime rates after a large decline in the 1990's.

The rise in homicides was led by Boston and Phoenix, which had increases of more than 60% through Dec. 18, compared with the same period last year, according to police figures in a survey of 18 major cities.

Homicides jumped 22% in St. Louis, 17.5% in Houston, 15% in San Antonio, 11.6% in Atlanta, 9.2% in Los Angeles and 5.2% in Chicago, the police departments in those cities said.

However, even the sharp increases this year leave the big cities far below the peak in homicide in 1991...

"Our great country has had dishonest but intelligent presidents. It has had relatively honest but not-so-intelligent presidents. But have we - before today - been governed by a man who is both mentally handicapped and totally unscrupulous?"

- Matilda Lipscomb, on our Pretender-in-Thief

By: Bob Herbert  

It's a nice neighborhood. And everything would be swell if the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church could only manage to take its Christian charity mandates a little less seriously. You see, the church has been allowing homeless people to sleep on its property.

They sleep on the steps and on the ground adjacent to the church - 20 or 30 of them spending the night in cardboard boxes and other makeshift shelters. The church makes bathrooms available to them and allows them to come in and warm up in the morning, before they take off for the day.

This may sound like just the sort of thing President Bush had in mind when he suggested that faith-based organizations fill some of society's social service needs. But the thing you have to remember about the homeless, if you want to look at this from, say, the point of view of the Giuliani administration, is that they are unsightly...

By: John Carle (ulysses)  

What's not realized is that the language of the debate changed around 1980 and has been changing ever since. America didn't move to the right, but its political language did.

The upshot of this is that progressive values have been marginalized. In a nation the idea of which is built on words, language represents nothing less than civic wealth - there is a reason that the freedom of speech guarantee resides in the first amendment to the Constitution - and that wealth (along with so much other kinds of wealth) has been appropriated by the right wing.

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