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December 29, 2005
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Thursday's Links
Activism
You Have the Need to Know. Psssst, pass it on: one of Washington's best-kept secrets is that your Representative works for you. One of the main reasons our whole system is such a mess today is because most people tend to have a laissez-faire relationship with those who have been elected to represent them. Stepping into that gap has paid off in spades for big-money lobbyists, who now have more of your Representative's time and attention than you do. You can help correct that balance using the tools at Congress.org, which provide many ways to both keep track of what your representatives are doing and to get in touch with them to tell them what you think. One of the best tools there is the MegaVote newsletter, which will email you once a week with how your Senators and Congressmen are voting. There are also search and contact tools, as well as information on how Congress works and a Soapbox area for you to speak your piece. Getting involved can start as simply as keeping track of what your representatives are up to, and letting them know what you think. If you don't, who will?
News
Campaign Veterans Run Anti-Wal-Mart Effort. Every now and then, Wal-Mart surfaces in the news, usually some story about how they don't pay their workers enough, or allow them to form workers' unions, or give them adequate health care. Now, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union is working with strategists from the Howard Dean and Wesley Clark campaigns to wage a campaign of their own: convincing people not to spend money at Wal-Mart. “We need a broad social movement to change this company,” says former Dean campaign political director Paul Blank. The union is counting on tactics like petition drives and grassroots house parties to help them get the word out. Wal-Mart's response is that it provides people a way out of poverty, by offering competitive wages, retirement benefits, and a stock purchase plan. Senator Ted Kennedy, promoting his bill which would identify companies with fifty or more employees whose workers receive taxpayer-funded health benefits, said recently that while public money is subsidizing health benefits for some Wal-Mart workers, the company is showing record profits that its executives distribute among themselves and their shareholders.
EPA Seeks to OK Pesticide Tests on Humans. The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules that would allow it to accept some pesticide studies involving children, pregnant women, and newborns. These rules also state it would not establish an independent ethics review board to scrutinize human studies on the grounds that this would "unnecessarily confine EPA's discretion." In 1998, President Clinton issued a moratorium on using human testing in pesticide applications, but under the Bush administration such tests are being accepted on a case-by-case basis while new standards are crafted. This testing is performed on humans to determine at what point the chemicals become toxic, but the rules may also allow tests on prisoners, who are potentially vulnerable to coercion, and omit some provisions that would impose more stringent ethical limits on such studies.
Prewar Findings Worried Analysts. An oldie-but-goodie: four days before President Bush gave his January 24, 2003 State of the Union address, National Security Council staff were still trying to find evidence to support the administration's claims that Saddam Hussein had chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons programs. Almost every major piece of prewar intelligence touted by Bush and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell was being questioned internally by U.S. intelligence analysts during the run-up to war. The yellow cake uranium from Niger, the mobile weapons labs, the weapons of mass destruction, even Iraq's connection to Al Qaeda and September 11th: All false, every single bit of it constructed from shaky sources and unconfirmed reports in support of the war Bush was determined to have at any cost. This is why the Downing Street Memos are important, because they contain the statement by the head of British Intelligence to Prime Minister Blair that the Bush administration was determined to proceed with the Iraq war, and that the intelligence and facts were being twisted into shape to provide a legal justification for an illegal and unjustifiable war.
Editorials
The Day After the Fireworks. Ahhhh, July 4th. Hot dogs, fireworks, parties, flags; all ways in which we commemorate the birth of our country and its victory over the forces of tyrannical oppression. But what about all the other days of the year? Does our nation's current leadership uphold the lofty ideals on which it was founded? War is sometimes a necessity but always a tragedy, and while no-one would question the patriotism of the troops fighting in Iraq there still remain serious questions about the justifications with which those troops have been deployed. As yet another Independence Day fades behind us, take a moment to think about what we've just celebrated, and what those who fought and died to give us our freedom might think about how things are going today. Does our flag today stand for the same things theirs did then? Or are we simply nearing the tail end of a grand curve bringing us back to the very things the Founding Fathers were so desperate to deliver us from?
Rumsfeld Has Until July 11 to Produce Iraq Benchmarks. President Bush scoffs at setting a timetable for US involvement in Iraq. It would simply embolden the insurgents, he says, letting them know that we're only willing to go so far. However, hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent (and, in some cases, simply lost) in Iraq, while mandates like No Child Left Behind remain unfunded and the Office of Homeland Security is still unable to completely secure our own borders and internal services. Congress continues to provide funding for Iraq, and military contractors continue to reap the primary benefits in lucrative reconstruction and security contracts while the Iraqi people are not allowed to participate in rebuilding their own country. Unfortunately for Bush, a provision in the May defense spending bill passed by Congress requires Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to send Capitol Hill a "comprehensive set of performance indicators and measures of stability and security" by July 11th - now only four days away. Bush continues to denounce any talk of a deadline for withdrawal of US and coalition forces, and there is currently no yardstick for measuring what success consists of and no way to determine when it has been achieved. In fact, the Bush administration refuses to provide even accountability for establishing a strategy to achieve this as-yet-unmeasurable success, ensuring only that the War in Iraq will continue indefinitely; perhaps as long as there's a profit to be made.
The Price of Polarization. In his first Presidential campaign, George Bush ran on a promise to bring a sense of unity to Washington and the nation. Instead, we end up more divided than any time in recent memory. While Bush deplores the "lack of civility" seen in today's Washington, his own party leadership reinforces the division by promoting a stance based in absolutes: You are either with them or against them. Democrats are forced into the role of opposition party, partly because the only reasonable response to this administration's policies is opposition but also because there is no room for debate in a Republican-controlled White House and Congress. Vice President Dick Cheney famously said "Go fuck yourself" to Senator Lahey, on the Senate floor no less, and later said that it "felt good" and he wouldn't apologize. So much for Bush's claims that Republicans aren't the party of "if it feels good, do it." As a side note, it's somewhat ironic that this exchange took place the same day the Senate passed, by 99 to 1 vote, legislation described as the "Defense of Decency Act."
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December 29, 2005
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Thursday's Links
Activism
You Have the Need to Know. Psssst, pass it on: one of Washington's best-kept secrets is that your Representative works for you. One of the main reasons our whole system is such a mess today is because most people tend to have a laissez-faire relationship with those who have been elected to represent them. Stepping into that gap has paid off in spades for big-money lobbyists, who now have more of your Representative's time and attention than you do. You can help correct that balance using the tools at Congress.org, which provide many ways to both keep track of what your representatives are doing and to get in touch with them to tell them what you think. One of the best tools there is the MegaVote newsletter, which will email you once a week with how your Senators and Congressmen are voting. There are also search and contact tools, as well as information on how Congress works and a Soapbox area for you to speak your piece. Getting involved can start as simply as keeping track of what your representatives are up to, and letting them know what you think. If you don't, who will?
News
Campaign Veterans Run Anti-Wal-Mart Effort. Every now and then, Wal-Mart surfaces in the news, usually some story about how they don't pay their workers enough, or allow them to form workers' unions, or give them adequate health care. Now, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union is working with strategists from the Howard Dean and Wesley Clark campaigns to wage a campaign of their own: convincing people not to spend money at Wal-Mart. “We need a broad social movement to change this company,” says former Dean campaign political director Paul Blank. The union is counting on tactics like petition drives and grassroots house parties to help them get the word out. Wal-Mart's response is that it provides people a way out of poverty, by offering competitive wages, retirement benefits, and a stock purchase plan. Senator Ted Kennedy, promoting his bill which would identify companies with fifty or more employees whose workers receive taxpayer-funded health benefits, said recently that while public money is subsidizing health benefits for some Wal-Mart workers, the company is showing record profits that its executives distribute among themselves and their shareholders.
EPA Seeks to OK Pesticide Tests on Humans. The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules that would allow it to accept some pesticide studies involving children, pregnant women, and newborns. These rules also state it would not establish an independent ethics review board to scrutinize human studies on the grounds that this would "unnecessarily confine EPA's discretion." In 1998, President Clinton issued a moratorium on using human testing in pesticide applications, but under the Bush administration such tests are being accepted on a case-by-case basis while new standards are crafted. This testing is performed on humans to determine at what point the chemicals become toxic, but the rules may also allow tests on prisoners, who are potentially vulnerable to coercion, and omit some provisions that would impose more stringent ethical limits on such studies.
Prewar Findings Worried Analysts. An oldie-but-goodie: four days before President Bush gave his January 24, 2003 State of the Union address, National Security Council staff were still trying to find evidence to support the administration's claims that Saddam Hussein had chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons programs. Almost every major piece of prewar intelligence touted by Bush and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell was being questioned internally by U.S. intelligence analysts during the run-up to war. The yellow cake uranium from Niger, the mobile weapons labs, the weapons of mass destruction, even Iraq's connection to Al Qaeda and September 11th: All false, every single bit of it constructed from shaky sources and unconfirmed reports in support of the war Bush was determined to have at any cost. This is why the Downing Street Memos are important, because they contain the statement by the head of British Intelligence to Prime Minister Blair that the Bush administration was determined to proceed with the Iraq war, and that the intelligence and facts were being twisted into shape to provide a legal justification for an illegal and unjustifiable war.
Editorials
The Day After the Fireworks. Ahhhh, July 4th. Hot dogs, fireworks, parties, flags; all ways in which we commemorate the birth of our country and its victory over the forces of tyrannical oppression. But what about all the other days of the year? Does our nation's current leadership uphold the lofty ideals on which it was founded? War is sometimes a necessity but always a tragedy, and while no-one would question the patriotism of the troops fighting in Iraq there still remain serious questions about the justifications with which those troops have been deployed. As yet another Independence Day fades behind us, take a moment to think about what we've just celebrated, and what those who fought and died to give us our freedom might think about how things are going today. Does our flag today stand for the same things theirs did then? Or are we simply nearing the tail end of a grand curve bringing us back to the very things the Founding Fathers were so desperate to deliver us from?
Rumsfeld Has Until July 11 to Produce Iraq Benchmarks. President Bush scoffs at setting a timetable for US involvement in Iraq. It would simply embolden the insurgents, he says, letting them know that we're only willing to go so far. However, hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent (and, in some cases, simply lost) in Iraq, while mandates like No Child Left Behind remain unfunded and the Office of Homeland Security is still unable to completely secure our own borders and internal services. Congress continues to provide funding for Iraq, and military contractors continue to reap the primary benefits in lucrative reconstruction and security contracts while the Iraqi people are not allowed to participate in rebuilding their own country. Unfortunately for Bush, a provision in the May defense spending bill passed by Congress requires Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to send Capitol Hill a "comprehensive set of performance indicators and measures of stability and security" by July 11th - now only four days away. Bush continues to denounce any talk of a deadline for withdrawal of US and coalition forces, and there is currently no yardstick for measuring what success consists of and no way to determine when it has been achieved. In fact, the Bush administration refuses to provide even accountability for establishing a strategy to achieve this as-yet-unmeasurable success, ensuring only that the War in Iraq will continue indefinitely; perhaps as long as there's a profit to be made.
The Price of Polarization. In his first Presidential campaign, George Bush ran on a promise to bring a sense of unity to Washington and the nation. Instead, we end up more divided than any time in recent memory. While Bush deplores the "lack of civility" seen in today's Washington, his own party leadership reinforces the division by promoting a stance based in absolutes: You are either with them or against them. Democrats are forced into the role of opposition party, partly because the only reasonable response to this administration's policies is opposition but also because there is no room for debate in a Republican-controlled White House and Congress. Vice President Dick Cheney famously said "Go fuck yourself" to Senator Lahey, on the Senate floor no less, and later said that it "felt good" and he wouldn't apologize. So much for Bush's claims that Republicans aren't the party of "if it feels good, do it." As a side note, it's somewhat ironic that this exchange took place the same day the Senate passed, by 99 to 1 vote, legislation described as the "Defense of Decency Act."
|
December 29, 2005
You Have the Need to Know. Psssst, pass it on: one of Washington's best-kept secrets is that your Representative works for you. One of the main reasons our whole system is such a mess today is because most people tend to have a laissez-faire relationship with those who have been elected to represent them. Stepping into that gap has paid off in spades for big-money lobbyists, who now have more of your Representative's time and attention than you do. You can help correct that balance using the tools at Congress.org, which provide many ways to both keep track of what your representatives are doing and to get in touch with them to tell them what you think. One of the best tools there is the MegaVote newsletter, which will email you once a week with how your Senators and Congressmen are voting. There are also search and contact tools, as well as information on how Congress works and a Soapbox area for you to speak your piece. Getting involved can start as simply as keeping track of what your representatives are up to, and letting them know what you think. If you don't, who will?
News
Campaign Veterans Run Anti-Wal-Mart Effort. Every now and then, Wal-Mart surfaces in the news, usually some story about how they don't pay their workers enough, or allow them to form workers' unions, or give them adequate health care. Now, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union is working with strategists from the Howard Dean and Wesley Clark campaigns to wage a campaign of their own: convincing people not to spend money at Wal-Mart. “We need a broad social movement to change this company,” says former Dean campaign political director Paul Blank. The union is counting on tactics like petition drives and grassroots house parties to help them get the word out. Wal-Mart's response is that it provides people a way out of poverty, by offering competitive wages, retirement benefits, and a stock purchase plan. Senator Ted Kennedy, promoting his bill which would identify companies with fifty or more employees whose workers receive taxpayer-funded health benefits, said recently that while public money is subsidizing health benefits for some Wal-Mart workers, the company is showing record profits that its executives distribute among themselves and their shareholders.
EPA Seeks to OK Pesticide Tests on Humans. The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules that would allow it to accept some pesticide studies involving children, pregnant women, and newborns. These rules also state it would not establish an independent ethics review board to scrutinize human studies on the grounds that this would "unnecessarily confine EPA's discretion." In 1998, President Clinton issued a moratorium on using human testing in pesticide applications, but under the Bush administration such tests are being accepted on a case-by-case basis while new standards are crafted. This testing is performed on humans to determine at what point the chemicals become toxic, but the rules may also allow tests on prisoners, who are potentially vulnerable to coercion, and omit some provisions that would impose more stringent ethical limits on such studies.
Prewar Findings Worried Analysts. An oldie-but-goodie: four days before President Bush gave his January 24, 2003 State of the Union address, National Security Council staff were still trying to find evidence to support the administration's claims that Saddam Hussein had chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons programs. Almost every major piece of prewar intelligence touted by Bush and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell was being questioned internally by U.S. intelligence analysts during the run-up to war. The yellow cake uranium from Niger, the mobile weapons labs, the weapons of mass destruction, even Iraq's connection to Al Qaeda and September 11th: All false, every single bit of it constructed from shaky sources and unconfirmed reports in support of the war Bush was determined to have at any cost. This is why the Downing Street Memos are important, because they contain the statement by the head of British Intelligence to Prime Minister Blair that the Bush administration was determined to proceed with the Iraq war, and that the intelligence and facts were being twisted into shape to provide a legal justification for an illegal and unjustifiable war.
Editorials
The Day After the Fireworks. Ahhhh, July 4th. Hot dogs, fireworks, parties, flags; all ways in which we commemorate the birth of our country and its victory over the forces of tyrannical oppression. But what about all the other days of the year? Does our nation's current leadership uphold the lofty ideals on which it was founded? War is sometimes a necessity but always a tragedy, and while no-one would question the patriotism of the troops fighting in Iraq there still remain serious questions about the justifications with which those troops have been deployed. As yet another Independence Day fades behind us, take a moment to think about what we've just celebrated, and what those who fought and died to give us our freedom might think about how things are going today. Does our flag today stand for the same things theirs did then? Or are we simply nearing the tail end of a grand curve bringing us back to the very things the Founding Fathers were so desperate to deliver us from?
Rumsfeld Has Until July 11 to Produce Iraq Benchmarks. President Bush scoffs at setting a timetable for US involvement in Iraq. It would simply embolden the insurgents, he says, letting them know that we're only willing to go so far. However, hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent (and, in some cases, simply lost) in Iraq, while mandates like No Child Left Behind remain unfunded and the Office of Homeland Security is still unable to completely secure our own borders and internal services. Congress continues to provide funding for Iraq, and military contractors continue to reap the primary benefits in lucrative reconstruction and security contracts while the Iraqi people are not allowed to participate in rebuilding their own country. Unfortunately for Bush, a provision in the May defense spending bill passed by Congress requires Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to send Capitol Hill a "comprehensive set of performance indicators and measures of stability and security" by July 11th - now only four days away. Bush continues to denounce any talk of a deadline for withdrawal of US and coalition forces, and there is currently no yardstick for measuring what success consists of and no way to determine when it has been achieved. In fact, the Bush administration refuses to provide even accountability for establishing a strategy to achieve this as-yet-unmeasurable success, ensuring only that the War in Iraq will continue indefinitely; perhaps as long as there's a profit to be made.
The Price of Polarization. In his first Presidential campaign, George Bush ran on a promise to bring a sense of unity to Washington and the nation. Instead, we end up more divided than any time in recent memory. While Bush deplores the "lack of civility" seen in today's Washington, his own party leadership reinforces the division by promoting a stance based in absolutes: You are either with them or against them. Democrats are forced into the role of opposition party, partly because the only reasonable response to this administration's policies is opposition but also because there is no room for debate in a Republican-controlled White House and Congress. Vice President Dick Cheney famously said "Go fuck yourself" to Senator Lahey, on the Senate floor no less, and later said that it "felt good" and he wouldn't apologize. So much for Bush's claims that Republicans aren't the party of "if it feels good, do it." As a side note, it's somewhat ironic that this exchange took place the same day the Senate passed, by 99 to 1 vote, legislation described as the "Defense of Decency Act."
