MissionNotAccomplished.com
The real Flipper... GWB's Administration Shifts on Global Warming, the latest flip flop from President Bush: Flip-Flopper-In-Chief. Read 'em and weep... 25 of his biggest flip-flops.
Steve Earle has begun hosting a radio show on Air America Sunday nights. His new album is called The Revolution Starts …Now. Read this Friday, August 27, 2004 transcript of his interview with Amy Goodman - The Revolution Starts Now: Steve Earle on the Republican Convention, the Death Penalty and the GOP Hijacking of Johnny Cash
Thursday, August 26, 2004
On RetroVsMetro.org you can learn about how the escalating war between two Americas, "one traditional and rooted in the past, and one modern and focused on the future," affects each of our lives. Pick up a copy of The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America, just published (8/24/2004) and already one of Amazon's top 25 best sellers.
Caitlin, Valerie, Carly and friends provide a new twist on dissent with their sports fashion conversation openers... They have created a collection of new team names on colorful sports jerseys ("made in the USA by companies paying prevailing wages") that pay tribute to the national pastime - special interest politics. Support your favorite team: "Axis of Evil Doers", "Far Righteous Indignators", "Family Devaluers", "Corporate Apologists", "Halliburton Overchargers", "Constitutional Tramplers." and many more at ClothingOfTheAmericanMind.com.
On a more serious note the One Thousand Coffins Procession is set to take place in New York City at 10 AM on August 29. "a serene observance parade of realistic symbolic caskets draped in the Flag - to represent and honor each of our fallen soldiers and marines, and make a bold statement that the truth of their sacrifice cannot be censored."
‘His Scream’ Marine’s Father Burns Van, Himself After Learning of Son’s Death in Iraq
"This was his scream that his Chi-Chi — that's what he called Alex — this is his scream that his child is dead and the war needs to stop," said wife and mother Melida Arredondo.
Luz Marina Arredondo, Alexander's grandmother, said the government is at fault in her grandson's death. "I blame them a lot," she said. "They send them like guinea pigs over there."
Caitlin, Valerie, Carly and friends provide a new twist on dissent with their sports fashion conversation openers... They have created a collection of new team names on colorful sports jerseys ("made in the USA by companies paying prevailing wages") that pay tribute to the national pastime - special interest politics. Support your favorite team: "Axis of Evil Doers", "Far Righteous Indignators", "Family Devaluers", "Corporate Apologists", "Halliburton Overchargers", "Constitutional Tramplers." and many more at ClothingOfTheAmericanMind.com.
On a more serious note the One Thousand Coffins Procession is set to take place in New York City at 10 AM on August 29. "a serene observance parade of realistic symbolic caskets draped in the Flag - to represent and honor each of our fallen soldiers and marines, and make a bold statement that the truth of their sacrifice cannot be censored."
‘His Scream’ Marine’s Father Burns Van, Himself After Learning of Son’s Death in Iraq
"This was his scream that his Chi-Chi — that's what he called Alex — this is his scream that his child is dead and the war needs to stop," said wife and mother Melida Arredondo.
Luz Marina Arredondo, Alexander's grandmother, said the government is at fault in her grandson's death. "I blame them a lot," she said. "They send them like guinea pigs over there."
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
"America Alone" a new book by Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke is hitting the book stores, describing how a group of radical intellectuals seized the reins of US national security policy after 9/11. Republicans and Democrats alike are finding it a valuable resource in assessing what has happened to the nation under the leadership of George W. Bush.
To quote the description, "It shows how, at this 'inflection point' in US history an inexperienced president was persuaded to abandon his campaign pledges and the successful consensus-driven, bi-partisan diplomacy that managed the lethal Soviet threat over the past half century, and adopt a neo-conservative foreign policy emphasizing military confrontation and 'nation-building.' To date, the costs - in blood, money and credibility - have been great, and the benefits few. Traditional conservatives deplore this approach. This book outlines the costs in terms of economic damage, distortion of priorities, rising anti-Americanism, encroachment on civil liberties, domestic political polarization and reduced security. Then, it sets out an alternative approach emphasizing the traditional conservative principles of containing risk, consensus diplomacy and balance of power. "
LINKS:
The Centre for Public Opinion & Democracy has been established at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia in order to further research, information exchange, and education on the changing dynamic of public opinion on both global and regional issues. It is unique among the handful of similar centres around the world in that its principle focus is not only the public opinion climate of its home country — Canada — but also the attitudes and perceptions of citizens around the world on the political, social, and economic happenings that shape the future of humanity.
To quote the description, "It shows how, at this 'inflection point' in US history an inexperienced president was persuaded to abandon his campaign pledges and the successful consensus-driven, bi-partisan diplomacy that managed the lethal Soviet threat over the past half century, and adopt a neo-conservative foreign policy emphasizing military confrontation and 'nation-building.' To date, the costs - in blood, money and credibility - have been great, and the benefits few. Traditional conservatives deplore this approach. This book outlines the costs in terms of economic damage, distortion of priorities, rising anti-Americanism, encroachment on civil liberties, domestic political polarization and reduced security. Then, it sets out an alternative approach emphasizing the traditional conservative principles of containing risk, consensus diplomacy and balance of power. "
LINKS:
The Centre for Public Opinion & Democracy has been established at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia in order to further research, information exchange, and education on the changing dynamic of public opinion on both global and regional issues. It is unique among the handful of similar centres around the world in that its principle focus is not only the public opinion climate of its home country — Canada — but also the attitudes and perceptions of citizens around the world on the political, social, and economic happenings that shape the future of humanity.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Megan Cavanaugh brings the latest news from New York...
"I'm Gonna Kill the President!" A Federal Offense, is now playing through Sept. 4 at an undisclosed location in Manhattan's East Village. When you call 212.802.7446 for ticket reservations a voice explains, "To see the show, go to Manhattan and proceed to the middle of 10th Street, between Avenue A and Avenue B. Our agents will contact you there. You must arrive at least 30 minutes before showtime." The show's reservation line closes with the further warning, "Latecomers will not be shown to the theatre. And make sure you're not followed." The recording also sends a message to the feds: "If you're some kind of law enforcement agent or official, hang up now, there's nothing illegal happening here." Tickets are, "available to Republican delegates (with ID) for free" and are priced at $15.
Meanwhile New Yorkers are talking up the show, promoting it with posters and bumper stickers that all shout the name of the show... "I'm Gonna Kill the President!" while bookstores are hawking another new release... Checkpoint: A Novel by Nicholson Baker a novella that explores the peculiar angst many Americans are feeling right now about their country and their president. The book is set up as a conversation between two old high school buddies. One of them, in despair about the direction the country is going, is convinced he must kill the president; the other tries to talk him out of it.
"I'm Gonna Kill the President!" A Federal Offense, is now playing through Sept. 4 at an undisclosed location in Manhattan's East Village. When you call 212.802.7446 for ticket reservations a voice explains, "To see the show, go to Manhattan and proceed to the middle of 10th Street, between Avenue A and Avenue B. Our agents will contact you there. You must arrive at least 30 minutes before showtime." The show's reservation line closes with the further warning, "Latecomers will not be shown to the theatre. And make sure you're not followed." The recording also sends a message to the feds: "If you're some kind of law enforcement agent or official, hang up now, there's nothing illegal happening here." Tickets are, "available to Republican delegates (with ID) for free" and are priced at $15.
Meanwhile New Yorkers are talking up the show, promoting it with posters and bumper stickers that all shout the name of the show... "I'm Gonna Kill the President!" while bookstores are hawking another new release... Checkpoint: A Novel by Nicholson Baker a novella that explores the peculiar angst many Americans are feeling right now about their country and their president. The book is set up as a conversation between two old high school buddies. One of them, in despair about the direction the country is going, is convinced he must kill the president; the other tries to talk him out of it.
Monday, August 23, 2004
Why are so many New Yorkers angry about the RNC coming to their city?
“Our tests show that it is safe for New Yorkers to go back to work in New York’s financial district,” said Christine Todd Whitman days after the 9/11 attack - even though there were no tests, none that would have told the government to announce that all was safe.
Unlike on Iraq, the Bush administration can’t try to blame this lie on faulty intelligence. Only later did New Yorkers and the general public learn that scientists found the residue from the Twin Towers was as corrosive as drain cleaner, and that between 100 and 1,000 tons of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were released into the local environment.
In fact, the city had never witnessed an incident that resulted in the release of more airborne toxins. Months later, the EPA’s Inspector General admitted that, “National security concerns and the desire to reopen Wall Street played a role in the EPA’s air quality statement.”
On Oct. 26, 2001 Juan Gonzalez with the Daily News, one of only a few crusading journalists posted a front-page expose entitled, “A Toxic Nightmare At Disaster Site.”
New Yorker Mike Burke says, "I remember reading the story where I was working just blocks from the still-burning site. Then I learned what I had been breathing for the past six weeks: benzene, heavy metals, PCBs and other dioxins."
None of the other news outlets felt it was appropriate to warn readers about the danger. And government officials continued lying. The media eventually caught on and would later reveal how the Bush administration pressured the EPA to rewrite press releases to downplay the risks the still-burning site posed to New Yorkers.
But by then Mt. Sinai’s Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine had already treated 4,000 people left ill by the fallout. Hundreds of firefighters and cops went on disability after working at Ground Zero or the Fresh Kills landfill.
Burke remembers, "For ten weeks that smell permeated the lives of the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who worked or lived downtown. Many woke up to the smell. Many more toiled through the workday breathing it in. While working downtown, I would face the smell coming off the train, during lunch breaks and after work. Sometimes when the wind was strong it would fill my office on Nassau Street. This didn’t end until Thanksgiving. All of us New Yorkers were collectively lied to about what we were smelling and how dangerous it was."
The Sierra Club has just released a major 180-page report on the entire affair...
"Air Pollution and Deception at Ground Zero: How the Bush Administration's Reckless Disregard of 9/11 Toxic Hazards Poses Long-Term Threats for New York City and the Nation" criticizing the Bush administration's handling of the post-9/11 clean-up in downtown New York.
"The Republicans chose to hold their convention here, I think most of us believe, to continue the political exploitation of 9/11, which this administration started almost immediately after 9/11," says Rep. Jerrold Nadler, whose congressional district in Manhattan includes the site where the World Trade Center once stood.
NYC AGAINST RNC LINKS:
www.rncnotwelcome.org/
www.counterconvention.org
www.windowtreatmentnyc.com
www.norncposters.org/
www.liteupbush.com/
“Our tests show that it is safe for New Yorkers to go back to work in New York’s financial district,” said Christine Todd Whitman days after the 9/11 attack - even though there were no tests, none that would have told the government to announce that all was safe.
Unlike on Iraq, the Bush administration can’t try to blame this lie on faulty intelligence. Only later did New Yorkers and the general public learn that scientists found the residue from the Twin Towers was as corrosive as drain cleaner, and that between 100 and 1,000 tons of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were released into the local environment.
In fact, the city had never witnessed an incident that resulted in the release of more airborne toxins. Months later, the EPA’s Inspector General admitted that, “National security concerns and the desire to reopen Wall Street played a role in the EPA’s air quality statement.”
On Oct. 26, 2001 Juan Gonzalez with the Daily News, one of only a few crusading journalists posted a front-page expose entitled, “A Toxic Nightmare At Disaster Site.”
New Yorker Mike Burke says, "I remember reading the story where I was working just blocks from the still-burning site. Then I learned what I had been breathing for the past six weeks: benzene, heavy metals, PCBs and other dioxins."
None of the other news outlets felt it was appropriate to warn readers about the danger. And government officials continued lying. The media eventually caught on and would later reveal how the Bush administration pressured the EPA to rewrite press releases to downplay the risks the still-burning site posed to New Yorkers.
But by then Mt. Sinai’s Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine had already treated 4,000 people left ill by the fallout. Hundreds of firefighters and cops went on disability after working at Ground Zero or the Fresh Kills landfill.
Burke remembers, "For ten weeks that smell permeated the lives of the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who worked or lived downtown. Many woke up to the smell. Many more toiled through the workday breathing it in. While working downtown, I would face the smell coming off the train, during lunch breaks and after work. Sometimes when the wind was strong it would fill my office on Nassau Street. This didn’t end until Thanksgiving. All of us New Yorkers were collectively lied to about what we were smelling and how dangerous it was."
The Sierra Club has just released a major 180-page report on the entire affair...
"Air Pollution and Deception at Ground Zero: How the Bush Administration's Reckless Disregard of 9/11 Toxic Hazards Poses Long-Term Threats for New York City and the Nation" criticizing the Bush administration's handling of the post-9/11 clean-up in downtown New York.
"The Republicans chose to hold their convention here, I think most of us believe, to continue the political exploitation of 9/11, which this administration started almost immediately after 9/11," says Rep. Jerrold Nadler, whose congressional district in Manhattan includes the site where the World Trade Center once stood.
NYC AGAINST RNC LINKS:
www.rncnotwelcome.org/
www.counterconvention.org
www.windowtreatmentnyc.com
www.norncposters.org/
www.liteupbush.com/
Sunday, August 22, 2004
I'm betting the name Merrie Spaeth doesn't ring a bell with most people...
She's the current media representative working for the Vietnam Swift boat veterans critical of John Kerry's decision to make his military service a major part of his campaign for president. They and Spaeth have publicised claims that Kerry is lying about his military service record, that he cannot be trusted, and that he “betrayed all his shipmates.” They spent $550,000 to create and run "Any Questions", a rebuttal to a pro-Kerry spot, in Wisconsin, Ohio, and West Virginia. I'm betting that not many people also know that Texas Republican activist Merrie Spaeth also served as former President Reagan's chief press officer and later as an advisor to Ken Starr.
Salon's Joe Conason says, "Behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth you will also find eternal Kerry antagonist and Dallas attorney John E. O'Neill, law partner of Spaeth's late husband, Tex Lezar; and retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffman, a cigar-chomping former Vietnam commander once described as 'the classic body-count guy' who 'wanted hooches destroyed and people killed.'"
Conason further explains, "In 2000, Spaeth participated in the most subterranean episode of the Republican primary contest when a shadowy group billed as 'Republicans for Clean Air' produced television ads falsely attacking the environmental record of Sen. John McCain in California, New York and Ohio. While the identity of those funding the supposedly 'independent' ads was carefully hidden, reporters soon learned that Republicans for Clean Air was simply Sam Wyly -- a big Bush contributor and beneficiary of Bush administration decisions in Texas -- and his brother, Charles, another Bush 'Pioneer' contributor."
Journalist Greg Palast bets that while you might remember the name Katharine Harris there is a lot more that you don't know...
So he provided the facts behind a short new on-line video all about how Harris changed Florida's election laws and expanded the data from Choicepoint to "scrub" 55,100 eligible voters from the rolls.
OpenSecrets.org provides a handy bi-partisan guide to help you identify all of the Active Advocacy Groups in the 2004 Election Cycle.
She's the current media representative working for the Vietnam Swift boat veterans critical of John Kerry's decision to make his military service a major part of his campaign for president. They and Spaeth have publicised claims that Kerry is lying about his military service record, that he cannot be trusted, and that he “betrayed all his shipmates.” They spent $550,000 to create and run "Any Questions", a rebuttal to a pro-Kerry spot, in Wisconsin, Ohio, and West Virginia. I'm betting that not many people also know that Texas Republican activist Merrie Spaeth also served as former President Reagan's chief press officer and later as an advisor to Ken Starr.
Salon's Joe Conason says, "Behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth you will also find eternal Kerry antagonist and Dallas attorney John E. O'Neill, law partner of Spaeth's late husband, Tex Lezar; and retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffman, a cigar-chomping former Vietnam commander once described as 'the classic body-count guy' who 'wanted hooches destroyed and people killed.'"
Conason further explains, "In 2000, Spaeth participated in the most subterranean episode of the Republican primary contest when a shadowy group billed as 'Republicans for Clean Air' produced television ads falsely attacking the environmental record of Sen. John McCain in California, New York and Ohio. While the identity of those funding the supposedly 'independent' ads was carefully hidden, reporters soon learned that Republicans for Clean Air was simply Sam Wyly -- a big Bush contributor and beneficiary of Bush administration decisions in Texas -- and his brother, Charles, another Bush 'Pioneer' contributor."
Journalist Greg Palast bets that while you might remember the name Katharine Harris there is a lot more that you don't know...
So he provided the facts behind a short new on-line video all about how Harris changed Florida's election laws and expanded the data from Choicepoint to "scrub" 55,100 eligible voters from the rolls.
OpenSecrets.org provides a handy bi-partisan guide to help you identify all of the Active Advocacy Groups in the 2004 Election Cycle.
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