Fox Slips Again with Admission of Bias

Slate picked up another Fox slip (in addition to the one we noted here), in this case from Scott Norvell, the London bureau chief for Fox News, as quoted in the European edition of the Wall Street Journal on May 20:

Even we at Fox News manage to get some lefties on the air occasionally, and often let them finish their sentences before we club them to death and feed the scraps to Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly. And those who hate us can take solace in the fact that they aren't subsidizing Bill's bombast; we payers of the BBC license fee don't enjoy that peace of mind.

Fox News is, after all, a private channel and our presenters are quite open about where they stand on particular stories. That's our appeal. People watch us because they know what they are getting. The Beeb's institutionalized leftism would be easier to tolerate if the corporation was a little more honest about it.

Downing Street Memo as Evidence for Impeachment

Obviously there's not much chance between a Repubican controlled Congress and a media which has ignored the Downing Street Memo, but we wish afterdowningstreet.org luck in their goal of seeking the impeachment of George Bush. Clearly such a conspiracy to deceive the country into going to war unnecessarily, and distract from the more urgent threats from al Qaeda, Iran, and North Korea, was far more serious than anything Bill Clinton did. From their announcement:

A coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups, and political activist groups announced a campaign today to urge that the U.S. Congress launch a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war. The campaign focuses on evidence that recently emerged in a British memo containing minutes of a secret July 2002 meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security officials.

John Bonifaz, a Boston attorney specializing in constitutional litigation, sent a memo to Congressman John Conyers of Michigan, the Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, urging him to introduce a Resolution of Inquiry directing the House Judiciary Committee to launch a formal investigation into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House to impeach President Bush.

Bonifaz's memo, made available today at www.AfterDowningStreet.org, begins: "The recent release of the Downing Street Memo provides new and compelling evidence that the President of the United States has been actively engaged in a conspiracy to deceive and mislead the United States Congress and the American people about the basis for going to war against Iraq. If true, such conduct constitutes a High Crime under Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution."

In February and March 2003, John Bonifaz served as lead counsel for a coalition of United States soldiers, parents of U.S. soldiers, and Members of Congress (led by Representatives John Conyers, Jr. and Dennis Kucinich) in a federal lawsuit challenging President George W. Bush’s authority to wage war against Iraq absent a congressional declaration of war or equivalent action. Bonifaz is the author of Warrior-King: The Case for Impeaching George W. Bush (NationBooks-NY, 2004, foreword by Rep. John Conyers, Jr.), which chronicles that case and its meaning for the United States Constitution.

The organizations forming the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition include: Global Exchange, Gold Star Families for Peace, Democrats.com, Veterans for Peace, Code Pink, Progressive Democrats of America, and Democracy Rising. These organizations, beginning today, will be urging their members to contact their Representatives to urge support of a Resolution of Inquiry.

Deep Throat Revealed

Vanity Fair has the answer to one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century. Mark Felt, former number two person at the FBI has identified himself as Deep Throat in the July issue.

Looking at John McCain in Shades of Gray

I see that my quotation of John McCain defending Kerry against the Swift Boat Liars has resulted in a number of comments on Light Up The Darkness regarding McCain's character.

With John McCain it isn't a black or white question.

This comment is useful to have a link to should the Swifties return. It may also be useful should Kerry run again in 2008 and should McCain backtrack on the truth.

As for McCain himself, he is neither the honest straight shooter the media makes him out to be or as dishonest as the current GOP leadership. Certainly McCain played politics and backtracked in his defense of Kerry, knowing that his future in the GOP depended upon being seen as a reliable supporter of their candidates.

A Republican will have a hard time, but it is not impossible to win with the opposition of the religious right, especially if their support is divided up among several people. A Republican has virtually no chance to win the nomination if seen as disloyal to the party itself, and loyalty to the party means supporting its candidates.

If not pulled by political necessity, I believe McCain would run a more honorable campaign than we have seen from recent Republicans. If McCain had won the nomination, and leadership of the party, in 2000, I do not think the party would have engaged in the type of dirty politics which now appears to be characteristic of them. Maybe we would have even had fair elections based upon the true differences in positions between the candidates, as opposed to the GOP tactic of distorting the opponent's positions and record.

Another example of how McCain differs from those running the GOP was seen in his comments on Jane Fonda and others who protested the war. While I disagree with his objection to protestors against the war, at least he sees this as an honest difference of opinion, and not a reason for the type of vicious attacks we have recently seen (including movie theaters refusing to show Fonda's movies). From yesterday's Late Edition interview:

BLITZER: Over the years, on my occasions, I've heard you speak about forgiveness, forgiving those with whom you disagreed during the Vietnam War. When a mutual friend of ours, David Ifshin, died, you gave the eulogy for him, even though he was a radical in the '60s, SDS, and went to Hanoi while you were a prisoner of war.

MCCAIN: You know, but the fact is, David Ifshin reached out to me, and I reached out to him. And David Ifshin is a man of honor and a man of decency and a man of integrity. And I was grateful for the opportunity to call him a friend.

BLITZER: And you've even forgiven Jane Fonda.

MCCAIN: She said she was sorry. If people say they were sorry, then -- I'm a great believer in redemption. All the things I've done wrong in my life and all the times I've failed, I'm a great believer in redemption.

BLITZER: When she went -- while you were a POW, did you know she visited Hanoi?

MCCAIN: Oh, yeah. They played us the tapes and showed us the pictures. But also, they showed us -- when Ramsey Clark, former attorney general of the United States, came. I think he's far more responsible than a young actress.

McCain is also not the moderate he is being depicted as, but not as extreme as those in control of the Republican Party. Unlike those in control of the Republican Party, I do not believe he is willing to destroy the democratic principles this country was founded on. I'd much rather have a true conservative like McCain, despite disagreements on many issues, than this nightmarish marriage of the religious right and neoconservatives.

John Conyers on the Downing Street Memo

May 27, 2005

Dear Friend:

As many of you are aware, a classified memo was recently disclosed in Great Britain that I believe has serious ramifications for the integrity of the United States Government. Dubbed the “Downing Street Memo,” but actually comprising the minutes of a meeting of Prime Minister Tony Blair and other top British government officials, the memo casts serious doubt on many of the contentions of the Bush Administration in the lead up to the Iraq war. With over 1,600 U.S. servicemen and servicewomen killed in Iraq, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and over $200 billion in taxpayer funds going to this war effort, we cannot afford to stand by any longer.

Along with 88 of my colleagues, I wrote to the President requesting answers about this grave matter. Thus far, our search for the truth has been stonewalled and I need your help. I believe the American people deserve answers about this matter and should demand directly that the President tell the truth about the memo. To that end, I am asking you to sign on to a letter to the President requesting he answer the questions posed to him by 89 Members of Congress.

I will personally insure that this letter is delivered to the White House.

You can read the letter here and sign on to it below. You and I know the White House is just hoping that this matter will fade away, but in a few short weeks, with our steadfastness, the memo has found its way into leading newspapers and White House press briefings. With your help, we can hold this Administration accountable.

Please pass on this important letter to your friends and colleagues, and ask them to sign as well.

Thank you for your help and support.

John Conyers, Jr.

Letter to President Bush Concerning the Downing Street Memo

McCain: Swifties Dishonorabe and Dishonest

From CNN's Late Edition:

BLITZER: The whole Vietnam War became such a powerful issue during the last campaign. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth really went after John Kerry during the campaign. Looking back on it now, how fair were they in skewering him? He himself had served in Vietnam, was injured there.

MCCAIN: Well, first of all, he and I had worked together to try to heal those wounds -- normalization of relations; resolution of the POW-MIA issue. And John Kerry is a friend of mine.

I didn't agree with what John Kerry did after the war was over when he came home. I have that right to disagree, just like we all have a right to disagree with one another.

I thought it was dishonorable and dishonest to question the medals and citations that he had received in combat. Those medals and citations were reviewed up the line to the highest level in the Navy. He had earned them.

And to question those, in my view, was not only improper, but -- look, should we go back and examine everybody's medals and how they got them and under what circumstances?

I'll tell you a dirty little secret. It was much easier at the end of the Vietnam War to get a medal than it was at the beginning. That's true in every conflict. And I'm not saying no one deserved them. They all deserved them. They were brave Americans.

But I just thought it was wrong. And I know that some of my friends, including those I was in prison with, strongly disagreed with that view.

John Kerry at National Head Start Association

John Kerry spoke before a National Head Start Association conference in Florida today to promote his Kid's First proposal. Here's some excerpts from Kerry's statement:

I went back and reread the whole New Testament the other day. Nowhere in the three-year ministry of Jesus Christ did I find a suggestion at all, ever, anywhere, in any way whatsover, that you ought to take the money from the poor, the opportunities from the poor and give them to the rich people.

We need enlist and join together in a great cause across the country that puts a simple choice before our fellow Americans. It's a choice that, I think, is based on values.

The fact is, 10 million more Americans voted for our idea of what we wanted to do than voted for Bill Clinton in 1996 when he was the sitting president of the United States. The fact is, a million people volunteered. The fact is, across America we created an energy.

And that energy is going to keep on going and keep on fighting until we achieve what we want to.

Senator Kerry Honors Massachusetts War Heroes on Memorial Day Weekend, 2005

Boston, MA -- As Americans celebrate Memorial Day Weekend, Senator John Kerry today paid tribute to the fallen heroes of Massachusetts and their families: “Memorial Day is a day of mixed emotions: sorrow for the families whose sons and daughters have given their lives for our country, coupled with universal pride in the great Americans who for generations and particularly today teach us the full meaning of service and sacrifice. The courage and bravery of our young men and women fighting overseas continues to inspire all of us, and indeed inspire the free world and those yearning for freedom. “America’s fallen soldiers shouldered a responsibility greater than any of us will ever know. Their families, their units, and their nation depended on them, and they answered the call of duty with selflessness and devotion. Our soldiers did not shirk from this responsibility, and all the uncertainty, danger and honor that came with it. Their families remember them as special sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, and cherished friends. Their nation remembers them as special citizens. Grown men will touch their names etched on granite walls and will today weep for fallen comrades who gave their lives so that others can live. “In this time of war, and in memory of our fallen heroes, we must be mindful to do everything in our power to keep our troops safe as they keep us safe. We must do better to take care of their families, who sacrifice in ways too many count. “While we can never repay our nation’s debt to families who have made the ultimate sacrifice, we must always remember the legacy of their fallen sons and daughters: a safer and freer world. On this Memorial Day, I believe it appropriate to take a small step in that direction by recognizing in the record those exceptional individuals from Massachusetts who this year gave their lives, and earned the eternal gratitude of the American people: Arredondo, Alexander S., Lance Corporal, USMC, 25-Aug-2004 - Randolph, MA Connolly, David, S., Major, USA, 6-Apr-2005 - Boston, MA Cunningham, Darren J., Staff Sergeant, USA, 30-Sep-2004 - Groton, MA Depew, Cory R., Private, USA, 04-Jan-2005 - Haverhill, MA Desiato, Travis R. Lance Corporal, USMC, 15-Nov-2004 - Bedford, MA Farrar Jr., Andrew K., Sergeant, USMC, 28-Jan-2005 - Weymouth, MA Fontecchio, Elia P., Gunnery Sergeant, USMC, 04-Aug-2004 - Milford, MA Fuller, Travis J., 1st Lieutenant, USMC, 26-Jan-2005 - Granville, MA Gavriel, Dimitrios, Lance Corporal, USMC, 18-Nov-2004 - Haverhill, MA Johnson, Markus J., Private, USA, 1st Class 01-Jun-2004 - Springfield, MA Lusk, Joe F. II, Captain, USA, 21-Jan-2005 - Framingham, MA Moore, James M., Colonel, USA, 29-November-2004 - Peabody, MA Oliveira, Brian, Corporal, USMC, 25-Oct-2004 - Raynham, MA Ouellette, Brian J., Petty Officer, 1st Class, USN, 29-May-2004 - Needham, MA Palacios, Gabriel T., Specialist, USA, 21-Jan-2004 - Lynn, MA Schamberg, Kurt D. Sergeant, USA, 20-May-2005 - Melrose, MA Sullivan, Christopher J., Captain, USA, 18-Jan-2005 - Princeton, MA Vangyzen IV, John J. Lance Corporal, USMC, 05-Jul-2004 - Bristol, MA Zabierek, Andrew J., Lance Corporal, USMC, 21-May-2004 - Chelmsford, MA.”

The Sad, Sad Conservatives

The Wall Street Journal is not very happy with the progress the Republicans have made in furthering their agenda:

Americans have learned to expect little from Congress, and by that standard the 109th version controlled by Republicans has met expectations. On the other hand, anyone who hoped that the GOP would make something of its historic governing opportunity is bound to be disappointed so far.

Five months in, Congress can point to the following achievements: a bankruptcy bill 10 years in the making, and a class-action reform watered down essentially to a jurisdictional change to federal from state courts. That's about it. Among the 2004 campaign promises that aren't close to being fulfilled are making the Bush tax cuts permanent, reforming Social Security and expanding the market for private health care. Instead of any of those big three, Congress next seems poised to pass a subsidy-laden energy bill and a highway bill with some 4,000 earmarks for individual Members. For this we elected Republicans?

The Democratic/media explanation for this performance is that Republicans are "overreaching" and trying to "govern from the right." We should be so lucky. The fact is that they are governing from nowhere at all. Far from pushing their agenda, they seem cowed by their opposition into playing it safe and attempting too little.

When we are disappointed with the compromises made by the Democratic leadership, we must keep in mind that they are keeping the far right from achieving what they really want. The WSJ gets it wrong in the last paragraph quoted. The Republicans are trying to "govern from the right." The reason that they are not happy is that they have only been partially successful in getting their extremist policies passed. It appears that they are likely to fail, for example, on crippling Social Security not because they haven't moved too far to the right but because their far right policies are being rejected.

It is thanks to the lack of public support for their policies that they must write of developing an "exit strategy" on the Social Security issue with hopes of reviving it in 2006. Should they be so foolish as to take their goals to the voters, this could result in a change in control of Congress similar to what occurred after the Democrats offered a health care plan as poorly conceived in its own way as the Republican's Social Security plan.

They conclude by noting that, "Above all, the fight over Mr. Bush's Supreme Court nominations will determine whether the GOP's Senate majority counts for anything at all. The voters don't expect miracles, but they do expect better than what Republicans have so far been able to produce." They are again wrong if they believe the public wants the type of far right extremist judges they desire. Fortunately the threat of a filibuster remains alive after last weeks deal, which will likely reduce the rightward drift of the court which we would have seen if Reid hadn't outsmarted Frist.

Activist Judge Prohibits Wicca Teaching

Maybe we have freedom of religion, but in one Indiana court this only applies to court-approved religions. An activist judge in Indiana has prohibited parents from instructing their children about their pagan beliefs:

An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge's unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals."

The parents practice Wicca, a contemporary pagan religion that emphasizes a balance in nature and reverence for the earth.

Cale J. Bradford, chief judge of the Marion Superior Court, kept the unusual provision in the couple's divorce decree last year over their fierce objections, court records show. The order does not define a mainstream religion.

Amnesty International Warns US Leaders May Be Charged for War Crimes

Amnesty takes aim at Gitmo

BY JOHN RILEY
STAFF WRITER

May 25, 2005, 8:01 PM EDT

Amnesty International Thursday called the U.S. military's anti-terror prison at Guantanamo Bay the "gulag of our times" and warned that American leaders may face international prosecution for mistreating prisoners.

"When the most powerful country in the world thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights, it grants a license to others to commit abuse with impunity and audacity," said Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan at a London news conference releasing the group's annual report on global human rights, a blistering, 308-page survey.

The influential human-rights monitoring group has criticized U.S. detention practices before. But Tuesday marked its first call to close Guantanamo, and the group used unusually sharp language in demanding an independent investigation of torture and abuse of prisoners there and at detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If U.S. officials don't act, other countries will, warned Amnesty's U.S. director, William Schultz. "The apparent high-level architects of torture should think twice before planning their next vacation to places like Acapulco or the French Riviera, because they may find themselves under arrest," he said.

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Fox Slips and Admits Bias: We (Republicans) Had the Votes

Media Matters for America has reported on a slip over at Fox News in which the interviewer confirmed what we already knew. Fox used the word "we" to indicate how they were on the same side as the Republicans--hardly a sign of being fair and balanced.

From the May 25 edition of Fox News Live:

ASMAN: You're the chairman of the rules committee. Did Senator [Bill] Frist [R-TN] have the votes to end the filibuster?

LOTT: I believe that he did. It would have been very close. We would have probably gotten a 50-50 tie vote, with the vice president breaking the tie. Perhaps we'd have had 51 before it was over. I do think it's a rule that should be in place because what the Democrats have been doing is not, you know, protecting a rule, they have been causing something different. The filibusters on a serial basis, federal judicial nominees to the appellate courts, was unprecedented for 214 years. So, to put that rule in place saying that it only takes 51 votes to confirm these judges was something I thought we should do. Remember now --

ASMAN: So, Senator, if we should have done it and if we had the votes to do it in the Senate -- if you guys in the Republican Party did -- then why did you need a compromise?

LOTT: Well, you know, I would argue that we probably should have gone forward with the vote, all things considered.

Christian Reformed Professor Backs Gay Marriage

A professor at Hope College, a Christian Reformed college in Holland Michigan, has a book coming out next Tuesday which supports gay marriage. In What God Has Joined Together? A Christian Case for Gay Marriage," to be released May 31, psychologist David Myers said research has shown strong marriages, heterosexual and homosexual, benefit society. Myers, an elder in the Reformed Church of America, urges church members to reconsider their opposition to gay marriage.

The book is causing causing quite a bit of controversy in conservative West Michigan. While the views of the religious right remain in the majority, we are seeing increasing signs of dissent. As a sign of how things are changing, in 1995 Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan was forced to split from the Reformed Church of America largely due to its acceptance of gay members. Last week a sizable minority of students and faculty members at Calvin College in Grand Rapids protested against George Bush as he delivered the commencement speech.

This Is How Freedom Dies

The latest installment in the Star Wars series has gained attention for showing a fictional account of how a free society surrenders its liberty. History has showed how this has happened from Caesar to Hitler. The Washington Post gives a brief overview of the Republican power grab in the United States in a front page article today:

The campaign to prevent the Senate filibuster of the president's judicial nominations was simply the latest and most public example of similar transformations in Congress and the executive branch stretching back a decade. The common theme is to consolidate influence in a small circle of Republicans and to marginalize dissenting voices that would try to impede a conservative agenda.

Later in the article:

Bush created a top-down system in the White House much like the one his colleagues have in Congress. He has constructed what many scholars said amounts to a virtual oligarchy with Cheney, Karl Rove, Andrew H. Card Jr., Joshua Bolton, himself and only a few others setting policy, while he looks to Congress and the agencies mostly to promote and institute his policies.

President Bill Clinton oversaw a transition of government away from strong agencies, which historically provided a greater variety of opinions in policymaking. "On the surface it looks like Bush is doing this better than Clinton, but there is much more going on," said Paul C. Light, an expert on the executive branch.

Light said Bush has essentially turned most of the agencies into political arms of the White House. "It's not just weakening agencies but strengthening political control of the agencies," he said.

Secrecy has also increased:

This has coincided with a dramatic increase in overall government secrecy. In 1995, the government created about 3.6 million secrets. In 2004, there more than 15.5 million, according to the government's Information Security Oversight Office. The White House attributes the rise in information the public cannot see to the security threats in a post-Sept. 11, 2001, world.

But experts on government secrecy say it goes beyond protecting sensitive security documents, to creating new classes of information kept private and denying researchers access to documents from past presidents.

"We have never had this kind of control over information," said Allan J. Lichtman, a professor of history at American University. "It means policy is being made by a small clique without much public scrutiny."

Having increased their control over the Executive and Legislative branches, they are also seeking to reduce the independence of the Judicial branch:

Now, the Republicans, with the support of the White House, are looking to reshape the courts in their image. The Senate's bipartisan compromise on judges will cost the president a few of his nominees to the appeals court but will require him to secure only 50 votes for future picks for the Supreme Court and other openings. If Democrats filibuster, Bush and Republican senators can move again to pull the trigger on the "nuclear option" and, if successful, prevent the minority party from ever again using the filibuster on judges. "I will not hesitate to use it if necessary," Frist said this week.

Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) has been assigned by GOP leaders to look for new ways to provide oversight of the federal courts and tougher discipline for judges. In a recent interview he said some judges have "deliberately decided to be in the face of the president and Congress." Senate Republicans are weighing legislation to limit court authority, as well.

This is a must-read article on the increased control of the Executive and Legislative branches by a small oligarchy, as well as the risk of the same happening to theJudicial branch. To fully show the dangers to liberty which is now occuring under Republican rule, I wish it had also discussed the K Street Project and the increased power of the Republican propaganda machine which has greatly reduced the ability of the media to keep a check on excessive government power.

John Kerry on the Vote to confirm Priscilla Owen, Nominee for 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

The following statement was just released by John Kerry regarding the vote to confirm Priscilla Owen:

"It would be an irrevocable mistake to confirm Priscilla Owen for a lifetime appointment on the federal bench. She is an activist judge with a history of rewriting the law based on her personal political ideology.

"Priscilla Owen, a former oil and gas attorney, has consistently ruled in favor of big business and against working people. She took contributions from Enron and Halliburton and ruled in their favor. Her decisions have been called 'an unconscionable act of judicial activism' by her former colleague and now Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and as 'nothing more than inflammatory rhetoric' by a majority of her colleagues on the Texas Supreme Court. Even Republican Senator and then Justice John Cornyn said her decision in a medical malpractice case was contrary to the Texas constitution. I question her ability to set her personal beliefs aside and follow the Constitution when deciding the important issues of our time. We need judges who make legal decisions and not political decrees from the bench.

"As a Senator, I have a Constitutional obligation to withhold my consent for such a nominee."

Why Even Big Business Should Abandon Republicans

We've often noted reasons why small business is better off supporting Democrats over the current Republican policies. Thomas Friedman gives some good reasons why even big business should abandon its blind support for the Republican's failed policies. Here's some highlight's of his column:

America faces a huge set of challenges if it is going to retain its competitive edge. As a nation, we have a mounting education deficit, energy deficit, budget deficit, health care deficit and ambition deficit. The administration is in denial on this, and Congress is off on Mars. And yet, when I look around for the group that has both the power and interest in seeing America remain globally focused and competitive - America's business leaders - they seem to be missing in action. I am not worried about the rise of the cultural conservatives. I am worried about the disappearance of an internationalist, pro-American business elite.

Is there any company in America that should be more involved in lobbying for some form of national health coverage than General Motors, which is being strangled by its health care costs? Is there any group of companies that should have been picketing the White House more than our high-tech firms, after the Bush team cut the National Science Foundation budget by $100 million in 2005 and in 2006 has proposed shrinking the Department of Energy science programs and basic and applied research in the Department of Defense - key sources of innovation?

Is there any constituency that should be clamoring for a sane energy policy more than U.S. industry? Is there any group that should be mobilizing voters to lobby Congress to pass the Caribbean Free Trade Agreement and complete the Doha round more than U.S. multinationals? Should anyone be more concerned about the fiscally reckless deficits we are leaving our children than Wall Street?

Yet, with a few admirable exceptions, American business has not gotten out front on these issues. In part, this is because boardrooms tend to be culturally Republican - both uncomfortable and a little afraid to challenge this administration. In part, this is because of the post-Enron keep-your-head-down effect. And in part, this is because in today's flatter world, many key U.S. companies now make most of their profits abroad and can increasingly recruit the best talent in the world today without ever hiring another American.

So with business with its head in the clouds, labor with its head in the sand, the administration focused on terrorism and Congress catering to people who think "intelligent design" is something done by God and not by Intel, it's not surprising that "we don't have a strategy for making America competitive in the 21st century - a century of three billion new capitalists," as Clyde Prestowitz put it. He is the author of a smart new book about the rise of China and India, called, appropriately, "Three Billion New Capitalists."

Statement by John Kerry on Stem Cell Research

Statement by John Kerry on Stem Cell Research

“President Bush’s threat to veto potentially life-saving stem cell research marks a sad break with our best values and a refusal to listen to leaders of both parties committed to finding cures for the deadliest diseases. Ideological rigidity in Washington should not be allowed to stand in the way of promising work on spinal cord injuries, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and diseases affecting millions of Americans. 100 million Americans are suffering today from illnesses that might one day be treated or cured with stem cell therapy, but only if Washington will allow doctors to pursue promising research balanced by strict ethical guidelines.

“From heart transplants to polio vaccines, throughout our history America’s progress has been defined by our sense of limitless possibility and our commitment to use the power of science to improve the lives of all our people. It’s wrong to turn away from stem cell research that offers some of the best hopes for the future.”

Kerry to Speak at National Head Start Conference

John Kerry will be the main speaker 2005 National Head Start Association (NHSA) Annual Training Conference, at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, May 27, during the closing general session.

The NHSA gathering is serving as the largest commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the successful and popular Head Start program, which gets America's most at-risk children ready to learn in kindergarten and beyond.

More than 5,000 Head Start educators and parents from across the United States will participate in the intensive five-day program, which includes more than 400 educational training sessions and several celebrations to mark the fourth decade of success for Head Start. During the NHSA gathering, the spotlight will focus at several points on Head Start success stories, including both students and parent volunteers.

“John Kerry will discuss the future of Head Start and the new “Kids First Act” that he has introduced in Congress. If enacted, the act will provide health insurance to nearly 11 million children who currently have none.”

Action Alert: Visit SaveHeadStart.org and help Save Head Start!

From IGotaHeadStart.org: New success stories available this week at IGotAHeadStart.org include: a Fortune 250 company senior loan officer in Texas ... the California daughter of a California mother serving in the military ... and a Massachusetts woman who was encouraged by Head Start to get a degree and become a Boston school teacher ...

White House Backs Down on Media Bashing over Newsweek Story

McClellan Backs Away from Claims that 'Newsweek' Story Cost Afghan Lives

By E&P Staff

Published: May 24, 2005 1:10 PM ET
NEW YORK At a White House press briefing Monday, Press Secretary Scott McClellan, pressed by reporters and with Afghan President Karzai in disagreement, retreated on claims that Newsweek's retracted story on Koran abuse cost lives in Afghanistan.

He also claimed that he had never said it did, even though a check of transcripts disputes that. On May 16, for example, he said, "people have lost their lives." On May 17, he said, "People did lose their lives," and, "People lost their lives" due to the Newsweek report.

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John Kerry’s Commencement Address at BU

Yesterday I reported here that John Kerry received an honorary Doctor of Laws at BU on Sunday and he delivered the commencement address at BU’s Medical School.

Here are a few quips from his commencement address:

"You and everyone here understand better than anyone that healthcare is the real crisis of our country. Premiums have gone up over $3,500 for the average family. Over 45 million Americans have no healthcare at all. Benefits are going down while deductibles and co-pays are going up. Doctors increasingly perform services that cost more than they are likely to be paid."

"How do I change all this? The answer is you have to make your issues the voting issues of this nation. That may sound corny, but you’re not the first generation to face significant challenges. Women wouldn’t have gained the right to vote if they hadn’t fought for it. No one gave blacks civil rights out of the goodness of their hearts – they demanded it."

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Polls Mostly Favorable to Democrats

Other than for Bush still managing to fool people into believing that he has been effective in fighting terrorism, the latest poll results look bad both for him and his party. Here's some highlights of the latest USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday:

By 47%-36%, those polled say the country would be better off if Democrats controlled Congress. That's the best showing for Democrats since the GOP won control of both houses of Congress in 1994.

Bush's overall approval rating was 46%, down 4 percentage points since early May but higher than the 45% low in March. On specific issues, 40% approved of his handling of Iraq and the economy, 33% of his handling of Social Security.

Only on handling terrorism did Bush receive a net positive rating: 55% approve, 40% disapprove.

There are red flags for Bush on two standard measures of a president's political health. The proportion that says he has "the personality and leadership qualities a president should have" fell to a new low of 52%. A record 57% say they disagree with him on the issues that matter the most to them.

On the filibuster confrontation--defused by a compromise announced late Monday--those surveyed favored the Democrats by 48%-40%. But they saw merit in the arguments of each side. A 53% majority say the filibuster-- the ability of at least 41 senators to continue debate and delay a vote--should be preserved. Still, 69% wanted the Senate to hold up-or-down votes on judicial nominees.

Kerry Signs Form 180

The Boston Globe reports that John Kerry has signed the Form 180. I guess this shouldn't be a surprise considering their history, but a Globe writer actually managed to turn this into a negative story on Kerry.

This is also presented as a negative by the author, but if read objectively the article also demonstrates how Kerry is sticking to principles while many other Democrats are trying to move to the right since the election:

Later, Kerry said, ''Let me be crystal clear. We do not have to reformulate or redefine the Democratic Party. I'm tired of hearing that the Democratic Party doesn't stand for anything." The party, he said, stands for healthcare for every single American; public education that works and gets the necessary resources, with strict accountability; foreign policy that demonstrates both strength and respect for multinationalism; a tax structure that is fair; protecting the environment, and energy independence.

Fallout from 'nuclear option'

By John F. Kerry | May 24, 2005

THE REPUBLICAN leadership's ''nuclear option" would eliminate the filibuster and turn the Senate into a rubber stamp for even the most controversial of President Bush's judicial nominations. The arguments can seem obscure, but there will be consequences for all of us.

The Bush administration's new plan on mercury pollution, for example, illustrates the importance of maintaining a strong and independent judiciary. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin harmful to fetuses' and infants' nervous systems.

Frighteningly, one in six American women carries enough accumulated mercury to potentially harm her children. Mercury has been linked to developmental disabilities such as autism, and researchers suspect a connection with cardiovascular disease in adult men.

The Bush administration does not seem particularly concerned with the mercury threat and proposes rolling back current law and allowing more of this toxic chemical to stay in the environment. The administration's corporate-driven plan does too little, too late to protect our families and our communities. Their plan may also violate environmental and health laws.

Eleven state attorneys general, including Tom Reilly, recognize that mercury pollution presents a danger to the public health and have taken the only course of action available to stop the president's harmful plan: filing suit in federal court.

This is exactly why the federal courts exist and why an independent and fair-minded judiciary matters. Our courts are obligated to objectively review actions like the mercury plan to ensure consistency with federal law and our Constitution. The courts are a vital check on abuse of power from Washington. If the Republican leadership triggers its nuclear option, the administration will gain unprecedented power over the selection of federal judges and leave our democracy in a weaker position.

Imagine, for example, that the mercury challenge came before Janice Rogers Brown, who has been nominated to the very court set to hear the mercury case. Justice Brown has little faith in government's ability to do good, calling our government a ''leviathan" that is ''crushing everything in its path." She called New Deal programs such as Social Security ''the triumph of our own socialist revolution." Her legal views are hostile to bedrock laws that protect public health, workplace safety, and our environment.

Or consider what might happen when a critical environmental case comes before William Myers, another of Bush's controversial nominees. Myers called environmental laws ''outright, top-down coercion" and has criticized ''the fallacious belief that centralized government can promote environmentalism." Myers has repeatedly voiced his extreme opposition to almost any environmental protection based on an activist interpretation of the Constitution.

It's hard to see how Attorney General Reilly or any citizen concerned with mercury pollution would get a fair hearing before Myers or Justice Brown. Both seem ready to set precedent and fact aside to promote their personal political agenda.

The filibuster fight is more than a beltway battle. The very foundation of our government -- an effective system of checks and balances -- is at stake. Over 200 years ago James Madison warned us: ''The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." We must remember that warning, and remember that the greatest strength and virtue of our democracy is the protection it provides to the minority.

If the Republican leadership gets its way, America will lose the protection of a strong, independent judiciary for the first time in history. In 1937, President Roosevelt attempted a court-packing scheme to assert his influence on the courts. His own party said no. Thomas Jefferson once attempted to impeach a Supreme Court justice who disagreed with his political agenda. His own party said no. I hope some Republican senators look at history and find the courage to speak truth to power in defense of our democracy.

John F. Kerry is the junior senator from Massachusetts.

Kerry Concerned Social Security Private Accounts Will Cost Small Businesses

WASHINGTON, May 23 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Sen. John F. Kerry (news, bio, voting record) (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Sen. Tom Harkin (news, bio, voting record) (D-Iowa) today sent a letter to the Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA) expressing their concerns that establishing private accounts under "The president's own Social Security commission has acknowledged that privatization would mean expensive new costs and administrative headaches for small businesses, yet the president has put forward no real plan on Social Security and no plan on how to make this work for small-business owners and employees," Kerry said.

In the letter, Kerry and Harkin expressed concerns that President Bush's private accounts for Social Security would be mandatory for small businesses "because employers would have to accommodate the wishes of employees who want to have a private account." Private accounts, they wrote, could potentially further complicate the payroll system, place unnecessary burdens on small businesses such as new administrative costs like those associated with 401(k) plans, increase paperwork, and hold small businesses accountable for any financial losses due to reporting errors.

"In December 2001, the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security acknowledged that establishing and maintaining a system of private accounts could impose new costs on small businesses," they wrote. "Since then, the structure of private accounts and the increased administrative, regulatory and cost requirements have not been addressed."

Harkin is a member of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. To read the full letter, visit the Committee's website at http://sbc.senate.gov/democrat/correspondence.cfm

http://www.usnewswire.com

Let's Make a Deal

We may not know for a while what the real effects of today's deal on the filibuster are. The down side is that some of the far right wing judges may go through, and there is no way to be certain that Frist won't still go through with the nuclear option should Democrats try to filibuster an extreme choice for the Supreme Court.

Unfortunately the only thing that would have made us happy--stopping these judges without Frist having the votes to end filibusters--might have been impossible. We had two bad choices. Either this deal or and end to the filibuster, and the far right wing judges still would have gone through

The real questions remain whether the threat of the filibuster remaining will have any impact in keeping out the most extreme judges, and whether this will have an impact politically which is harmful to the Republicans. A comment from First Read today provides hope that this might turn out to be harmful to the Republicans:

Social conservative leaders are warning that "a failure to end judicial filibusters would leave rank-and-file activists dispirited after having worked to re-elect President Bush and expand Republican majorities in the House and Senate last year," Roll Call reports. "In fact, they suggest a loss in the judicial battle might be enough to drive these activists away from the polls in 2006 and perhaps in 2008, denying Republicans a loyal political base seen as vital to GOP victories.

I'm not all that optimistic about this if they get conservative judges through, but the more this can come off as being called a Democratic victory, the more likely some on the religious right will question the value of their recent political action. Reid is smart to declare a victory now that the deal has been made. At very least this makes Frist look weaker, which is not a bad thing.

Hopefully the Democrats can also use this as an argument that a Democratic-controlled Senate is the only way to keep the far right judges off the Supreme Court. In the past I don't think people really thought Rowe v. Wade was in danger. It now may be possible to get them to think along these lines.

John Kerry Receives Honorary Doctor of Laws from BU

John Kerry received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Boston University yesterday.



Kerry also spoke at BU's medical school commencement yesterday on health care reform. He told the new doctors, ''pound the pavement, get your hands dirty, endure real sacrifice, take on antiquated thinking, and lead the public debate."

Seattle Times Refutes Republican Claims in Gubernatorial Election

Despite considerable evidence of voter suppression tactics being employed by the Bush campaign in both 2000 and 2004, Republicans ignored all calls for election reform and denied the existence of well documented events (including some leading to indictments against Bush campaign officials). However, when the recounts went against them in Washington, the Republicans have come up with numerous tin foil hat theories of how the Gubernatorial election was stolen from them. Their leading theory is based upon votes from felons. The Seattle Times has published an analysis showing that "even if those votes were disqualified, Gregoire would still prevail over GOP challenger Dino Rossi."

According to the Seattle Times, "That finding undercuts what has been the most prominent element of the Republicans' case to overturn the election. The case moves to trial in Wenatchee tomorrow."

Officers Want Out of Bush's Perpetual War

While there have been many reports in the media of the military having difficulty with recruiting, the Los Angeles Times shows yet another way in which George Bush's irrational and irresponsible foreign policy moves are undermining our national security. The LA Times reports that, "With thousands of soldiers currently on their second combat deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan and some preparing for their third this fall, evidence is mounting that an exodus of young Army officers may be looming on the horizon."

The article continues to report:

Last year, Army lieutenants and captains left the service at an annual rate of 8.7% — the highest since 2001. Pentagon officials say they expect the attrition rate to improve slightly this year. Yet interviews with several dozen military officers revealed an undercurrent of discontent within the Army's young officer corps that the Pentagon's statistics do not yet capture.

Young captains in the Army are looking ahead to repeated combat tours, years away from their families and a global war that their commanders tell them could last for decades. Like other college grads in their mid-20s, they are making decisions about what to do with their lives.

And many officers, who until recently had planned to pursue careers in the military, are deciding that it's a future they can't sign up for.

Officiers are looking at other alternatives, such as pitches from the private sector:

It's not the money he's after. It's the fact that an Army that was gutted after the Cold War was promising him a future of perpetual deployments fighting a war that could last for decades.

That is not a future he is sure he can commit to.

"What's the end point?" he asked. "When do you declare victory?"

Neocons: Sith or Vogons?

There has been plenty of talk this week comparing the Bush administration to the Sith of Star Wars due to the manner in which Bush has used an unnecessary war to strike at the very foundations of democracy in this country. Lines such as that "Only a Sith deals in absolutes" or "If you're not with me, you're my enemy!" further remind us of our current government.

Today's interview with Richard Perle and Wesley Clark on CNN provided evidence that perhaps we should look at an additional alien race as models for the neoconservatives--the Vogons of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Vogons composed the bulk of the galactic bureaucracy and are described as "one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy. Not actually evil, but bad tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public enquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters. The best way to get a drink out of a Vogon is stick your finger down his throat, and the best way to irritate him is to feed his grandmother to the ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal."

While Clark argued that going into Iraq was a "strategic blunder" and showed how the intelligence was misused, Perle provided yet in another in the long list of reasons for going to war, failing to provide the proper paperwork after destroying the weapons of mass destruction. "The fact is if Saddam Hussein had documented the destruction of his weapons of mass destruction, the war would not have taken place."

So there we have it. Saddam's crime, for which we rushed to war, was that the proper paperwork had not been completed to document the destruction of the weapons of mass destruction. Anywhere other than on the Bizzaro World we know as Bushworld, actual evidence of being threatened by WMD would have been the standard for deciding whether to go to war.

American Psychiatric Association Supports Same Sex Marriage

Psychiatrists May Push for Gay marriage OK
By DOUG GROSS
Associated Press Writer

May 22, 2005, 5:57 PM EDT

ATLANTA -- Representatives of the nation's top psychiatric group approved a statement Sunday urging legal recognition of gay marriage. If approved by the association's directors in July, the measure would make the American Psychiatric Association the first major medical group to take such a stance.

The statement supports same-sex marriage "in the interest of maintaining and promoting mental health."

It follows a similar measure by the American Psychological Association last year, little more than three decades after that group removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.

The psychiatric association's statement, approved by voice vote on the first day of its weeklong annual meeting in Atlanta, cites the "positive influence of a stable, adult partnership on the health of all family members."

The resolution recognizes "that gay men and lesbians are full human beings who should be afforded the same human and civil rights," said Margery Sved, a Raleigh, N.C., psychiatrist and member of the assembly's committee on gay and lesbian issues.

The document clarifies that the association is addressing same-sex civil marriage, not religious marriages. It takes no position on any religion's views on marriage.

Massachusetts is the only state that allows same-sex marriage. Eighteen states have passed constitutional amendments outlawing same-sex marriage.

Intellligence Community Questioned WMD Claims

There has been much less talk in the media about the Downing Street Memos than we had hoped, but the basic message is gradually becoming the conventional wisdom. It is becoming increasingly clear to anyone who follows news beyond the pro-government propaganda sources such as Fox that Bush lied us into war with false claims of WMD. Today's Washington Post reports that many in the intelligence community doubted these claims:

Prewar Findings Worried Analysts

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 22, 2005; A26

On Jan. 24, 2003, four days before President Bush delivered his State of the Union address presenting the case for war against Iraq, the National Security Council staff put out a call for new intelligence to bolster claims that Saddam Hussein possessed nuclear, chemical and biological weapons or programs.

The person receiving the request, Robert Walpole, then the national intelligence officer for strategic and nuclear programs, would later tell investigators that "the NSC believed the nuclear case was weak," according to a 500-page report released last year by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

It has been clear since the September report of the Iraq Survey Group -- a CIA-sponsored weapons search in Iraq -- that the United States would not find the weapons of mass destruction cited by Bush as the rationale for going to war against Iraq. But as the Walpole episode suggests, it appears that even before the war many senior intelligence officials in the government had doubts about the case being trumpeted in public by the president and his senior advisers.

The question of prewar intelligence has been thrust back into the public eye with the disclosure of a secret British memo showing that, eight months before the March 2003 start of the war, a senior British intelligence official reported to Prime Minister Tony Blair that U.S. intelligence was being shaped to support a policy of invading Iraq.

Moreover, a close reading of the recent 600-page report by the president's commission on intelligence, and the previous report by the Senate panel, shows that as war approached, many U.S. intelligence analysts were internally questioning almost every major piece of prewar intelligence about Hussein's alleged weapons programs.

MORE

Calvin Students Tell Bush: God Is Not A Democrat or Republican

"God is Not A Democrat or Republican." That was the message addressed to President Bush on stickers and badges worn by protestors at Calvin College where he gave today's commencement speech. Local TV coverage showed that this message was included on badges worn by some members of the faculty, and on the caps and gowns of some graduates.

The White House seeks out safe audiences for George Bush, as we described yesterday. A Dutch Reformed Christian College in heavily Republican West Michigan seemed as safe as you could get. Although he was apparently unaware of it when the speech was scheduled. Karl Rove's own grandmother had attended Calvin College around the end of World War I. Calvin graduates include Jay Van Andel, founder of Alticore (formerly Amway), and Betsy DeVos, until recently chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.

While a majority of students supported George Bush for reelection, not all agreed with his policies. Students, alumni, and one third of the faculty took out ads in the Grand Rapids Press yesterday and today (text of both ads here) protesting President Bush's visit, telling Bush that they "see conflicts between our understanding of what Christians are called to do and many of the policies of your administration."

Some students and faculty members expressed concern that, being a Christian College, they would be mistaken for members of the religious right. David Crump, a professor of religion for the last eight years, said, "The largest part of our concern is the way in which our religious discourse in this country has largely been co-opted by the religious right and their wholesale endorsement of this administration."

Writing in today's Grand Rapids Press (not available on line) religion editor Charles Honey noted that Calvin College has had conflicts with the Christian Reformed Church in the past "on issues such as teaching of evolution but has landed on the side of academic freedom." Two weeks ago Jim Wallis spoke at Calvin before a packed college chapel.

The social conservativism of other Christian colleges in West Michigan was noted here last week. The Dutch Reformed Church has also been typically conservative on social issues. For example, in 1995 Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan was forced to split from the Reformed Church of America due to being open to gays and questioning other aspects of conservative religious dogma. In 2004 Christ Community showed that not all religious organizations believed God was a Republican. Although prohibited from openly campaigning for Kerry, their message was clear. During the campaign they ran an ad in local newspapers advising readers to check out the web sites of both candidates to answer a series of questions. Those who conducted this research with an open mind would find that John Kerry was the candidate who better represented moral values.

If members of the faculty and student body at Calvin College are protesting George Bush, it raises questions as to how firmly the Republicans really have won the long term support of religious voters. Many show interest in Democratic values such as a just foreign policy, protecting the environment, and helping the poor. These values may win more votes for Democrats who stick to their moral values in the future.