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April 24, 2004
"It's So Simple, It's Ridiculous": Taxing times for 16th Amendment rebelsThis is one of the most interesting articles I've read about the modern income tax resistance movement. Reason: "It's So Simple, It's Ridiculous": Taxing times for 16th Amendment rebels |
March 19, 2004
Controversial government tape airs on local TV
Controversial government tape airs on local TV - Thursday, 03/18/04
Nashville television station WTVF aired a now-controversial video news release that was generated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to trumpet Bush administration praise for the recently passed Medicare drug bill.
WTVF news director Mike Cutler said that the video appeared once during a 7 a.m. newscast on Jan. 23 after morning producer snagged it from a sampling satellite news feeds.
Cutler added that the news station was unaware that it had been generated by the federal government, which has come under fire for using fake news reporters to deliver messages that praised the administration's work in on December's Medicare drug-benefit bill.
...
March 16, 2004
Propaganda: It's not just for "evil" nations anymore!
U.S. Videos, for TV News, Come Under Scrutiny
(TruthOut permacopy)
WASHINGTON, March 14 — Federal investigators are scrutinizing television segments in which the Bush administration paid people to pose as journalists praising the benefits of the new Medicare law, which would be offered to help elderly Americans with the costs of their prescription medicines.
The videos are intended for use in local television news programs. Several include pictures of President Bush receiving a standing ovation from a crowd cheering as he signed the Medicare law on Dec. 8.
The materials were produced by the Department of Health and Human Services, which called them video news releases, but the source is not identified. Two videos end with the voice of a woman who says, "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting."
But the production company, Home Front Communications, said it had hired her to read a script prepared by the government.
Another video, intended for Hispanic audiences, shows a Bush administration official being interviewed in Spanish by a man who identifies himself as a reporter named Alberto Garcia.
...
March 05, 2004
US faces mounting international fury over Aristide's 'forced' exit
US faces mounting international fury over Aristide's 'forced' exit
(TruthOut permacopy)
February 22, 2004
White House Press Secretary Lashes Out at Reporter
Washingtonian: Washington BUZZ
White House Press Secretary Lashes Out at Reporter: “There’s a Difference Between Trashy Rumors and Journalism”
(TruthOut's archived copy of this has the transcript of the long exchange described in this article.
White House Press Secretary Lashes Out at Reporter
Washingtonian: Washington BUZZ
Washingtonian: Washington BUZZ
White House Press Secretary Lashes Out at Reporter: “There’s a Difference Between Trashy Rumors and Journalism”
(TruthOut's archived copy of this has the transcript of the long exchange described in this article.
February 20, 2004
64% Favor Smaller Government
Rassmussen Survey: 64% Favor Smaller Government
February 16, 2004--Sixty-four percent (64%) of American voters say that they prefer smaller government with fewer services and lower taxes. A Rasmussen Reports survey finds that just 22% would rather see a more active government with more services and higher taxes.
Scott Rasmussen notes that "This data helps explain the recent decline in George W. Bush's approval ratings and general election polls. Being seen as a big spender is dangerous for any candidate."
The President has been challenged on a number of budget items recently by both his opponents and supporters. In fact, voters early in the campaign say they trust Massachusetts Senator John Kerry more than President Bush when it comes to cutting government spending.
The Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll shows a race between Bush and Kerry is very close at this time. The tracking poll is updated daily by noon.
The national telephone survey of 1,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports February 13-15, 2004. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. (see Methodology)
Support for smaller government cuts across just about all demographic lines. It is the preference for 67% of men and 62% of women; 52% of those under 30 and 70% of those over 65; 79% of Republicans, 59% of unaffiliateds, and 53% of Democrats; 61% of white voters and 52% of non-white voters.
The only exception to this pattern is voters who identify themselves as very liberal. Among this group, 49% say they want a more active government with more services and higher taxes. Just 40% prefer smaller government.
Rasmussen Reports provides a comprehensive Election 2004 polling service including daily updates of the Presidential Race and economic confidence.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
February 06, 2004
February 02, 2004
January 18, 2004
Voters to be asked about registering for the draft
Voters to be asked about registering for the draft
Enough signatures have been collected so that voters in April will be asked whether Anchorage men should be excused from registering for the military draft.
Scott Kohlhaas, Alaska Libertarian Party chairman, and supporters collected about 10,000 petition signatures to get the question on the April 6 ballot. The minimum necessary was 6,352.
...
Petition drive opposes military draft
WorldNetDaily: Petition drive opposes military draft
A Libertarian candidate for president is spearheading a petition drive on his website to put a stop to legislation that would re-institute the draft in the U.S. – for both men and women.
Aaron Russo began his effort against S.89 and H.R.163 last month. The petition – addressed to President Bush, Vice President Cheney and members of the House and Senate – states: "We, the undersigned, being citizens of the United States, protest against this infringement upon our personal freedoms and reject this idea of a new draft."
...
January 08, 2004
Still No Vetoes From President Bush
This is not a healthy thing.
FOXNews.com - Politics - Still No Vetoes From President Bush
January 01, 2004
IRS to Step Up Audits and Collections
The Heartland Institute - IRS to Step Up Audits and Collections - by Daniel J. Pilla
December 28, 2003
NY Times Delusion: A Campaign Finance Triumph
t r u t h o u t - New York Times | A Campaign Finance Triumph
December 24, 2003
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
Published: December 23, 2003
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 — As a special envoy for the Reagan administration in 1984, Donald H. Rumsfeld, now the defense secretary, traveled to Iraq to persuade officials there that the United States was eager to improve ties with President Saddam Hussein despite his use of chemical weapons, newly declassified documents show.
Mr. Rumsfeld, who ran a pharmaceutical company at the time, was tapped by Secretary of State George P. Shultz to reinforce a message that a recent move to condemn Iraq's use of chemical weapons was strictly in principle and that America's priority was to prevent an Iranian victory in the Iran-Iraq war and to improve bilateral ties.
During that war, the United States secretly provided Iraq with combat planning assistance, even after Mr. Hussein's use of chemical weapons was widely known. The highly classified program involved more than 60 officers of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who shared intelligence on Iranian deployments, bomb-damage assessments and other crucial information with Iraq.
The disclosures round out a picture of American outreach to the Iraqi government, even as the United States professed to be neutral in the eight-year war, and suggests a private nonchalance toward Mr. Hussein's use of chemicals in warfare. Mr. Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials have cited Iraq's use of poisonous gas as a main reason for ousting Mr. Hussein.
The documents, which were released as part of a declassification project by the National Security Archive, and are available on the Web at www.nsarchive.org, provide details of the instructions given to Mr. Rumsfeld on his second trip to Iraq in four months. The notes of Mr. Rumsfeld's encounter with Tariq Aziz, the foreign minister, remain classified, but officials acknowledged that it would be unusual if Mr. Rumsfeld did not carry out the instructions.
Since the release of the documents, he has told members of his inner circle at the Pentagon that he does not recall whether he had read, or even had received, the State Department memo, Defense Department officials said.
One official noted that the documents reflected the State Department's thinking on Iraq, but did not indicate Mr. Rumsfeld's planning for his meeting with Mr. Hussein nor his comments on the meeting after its conclusion.
Mr. Rumsfeld's trip was his second visit to Iraq. On his first visit, in late December 1983, he had a cordial meeting with Mr. Hussein, and photographs and a report of that encounter have been widely published.
In a follow-up memo, the chief of the American interests section reported that Mr. Aziz had conveyed Mr. Hussein's satisfaction with the meeting. "The Iraqi leadership was extremely pleased with Amb. Rumsfeld's visit," the memo said. "Tariq Aziz had gone out of his way to praise Rumsfeld as a person."
When news emerged last year of the December trip, Mr. Rumsfeld told CNN that he had "cautioned" Mr. Hussein to forgo chemical weapons. But when presented with declassified notes of their meeting that made no mention of that, a spokesman for Mr. Rumsfeld said he had raised the issue in a meeting with Mr. Aziz.
Lawrence Di Rita, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said on Friday that there was no inconsistency between Mr. Rumsfeld's previous comments on his missions to Iraq and the State Department documents.
By early 1984, events threatened to upset the American-Iraqi relationship. After pleading for a year for international action against the chemical warfare, Iran had finally persuaded the United Nations to criticize the use of chemical weapons, albeit in vague terms.
Pressure mounted on the Reagan administration, which had already verified Iraq's "almost daily" use of the weapons against Iran and against Kurdish rebels, documents show. In February, Iraq warned Iranian "invaders" that "for every harmful insect there is an insecticide capable of annihilating it." Within weeks, the American authorities intercepted precursor chemicals that were bound for Iraq. Finally, on March 5, the United States issued a public condemnation of Iraq.
But days later, Mr. Shultz and his deputy met with an Iraqi diplomat, Ismet Kittani, to soften the blow. The American relationship with Iraq was too important — involving business interests, Middle East diplomacy and a shared determination to thwart Iran — to sacrifice. Mr. Kittani left the meeting "unpersuaded," documents show.
Mr. Shultz then turned to Mr. Rumsfeld. In a March 24 briefing document, Mr. Rumsfeld was asked to present America's bottom line. At first, the memo recapitulated Mr. Shultz's message to Mr. Kittani, saying it "clarified that our CW [chemical weapons] condemnation was made strictly out of our strong opposition to the use of lethal and incapacitating CW, wherever it occurs." The American officials had "emphasized that our interests in 1) preventing an Iranian victory and 2) continuing to improve bilateral relations with Iraq, at a pace of Iraq's choosing, remain undiminished," it said.
Then came the instructions for Mr. Rumsfeld: "This message bears reinforcing during your discussions."
The American relationship with Iraq during its crippling war with Iran was rife with such ambiguities. Though the United States was outwardly neutral, it tilted toward Iraq and even monitored talks toward the sale of military equipment by private American contractors.
Tom Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive, said: "Saddam had chemical weapons in the 1980's, and it didn't make any difference to U.S. policy."
Mr. Blanton suggested that the United States was now paying the price for earlier indulgence. "The embrace of Saddam in the 1980's and what it emboldened him to do should caution us as Americans that we have to look closely at all our murky alliances," he said. "Shaking hands with dictators today can turn them into Saddams tomorrow."
Thom Shanker contributed reporting for this article.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
December 16, 2003
Pork Spending in the 2004 Budget
From the Heritage Foundation: Another Omnibus Spending Bill Loaded with Pork
Bob Smith turns it into a call for action:
Save this list. During the 2004 campaign, pick any one of these organizations, and try to get a chance to ask your incumbent politician about it.
Ask him where it is.
Ask him what it does.
Ask him to explain it's value to us.
Ask him why it wasn't funded by the people who will use it.
Ask him why he wanted to spend your money on it.
If you're feeling bold, and he's still paying attention, ask him what HE got out of it.
Scarmig: How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
This is the story of how I successfully refused to accept a Social Security Number for my child.
I simply said “no.”
Really. That’s how easy it was. I just said no, again, and again.
...
December 10, 2003
Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling
This statement from the president of Common Cause is one of the most delusional claims I've heard from a public figure in a while.
"The toxic link between donors who write six-figure checks and people in power at the highest levels of government has been severed for good," said Chellie Pingree, the group's president, in a statement.
It's almost as funny as "The era of big government is over" was. Oh, yeah, folks....this time they've got it all worked out. Sure.
CNN.com - Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling - Dec. 10, 2003
Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban
CNN.com - Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban - Dec. 10, 2003
December 01, 2003
Geoff Metcalf: Under the Color of Authority
IRS: Abuse of Power
Under the Color of Authority
Geoff Metcalf
Monday, Nov. 24, 2003
Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. – Frederick Douglass
For over a decade I have been interviewing and reporting on what has been called The "Tax Honesty Movement." Some people call these folks “tax protesters," others call them wackos. To a growing many, they are patriots committed to redressing what they perceive as a grievous wrong.
In the wake of years of study, interviews and analysis I have come to my own personal conclusions:
-As an academic exercise, and objective evaluation of the facts in evidence, the Tax Freedom crowd is mostly right.
-However, as a practical reality check, and ‘The Golden Rule’ (those with the gold make the rules), when contemporary ‘Davids’ square off with the federal government’s ‘Goliath,’ right is NOT might.
-Those who take on “The G” can and will be eviscerated by bureaucratic ‘shock and awe’ that has and will ruin lives.
...
One of the most heroic crusaders cast in the role of ‘David’ is Joseph R. (Joe) Banister. Joe is a CPA and former IRS Criminal Investigation Division special agent [www.freedomabovefortune.com]. He is a good guy with a fascinating story and about to become another victim of abuse of power under the color of authority.
...
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Demonstrators gathered outside Fort Benning to protest a military school were hit with a sonic barrage Saturday: patriotic music Army officials had blaring from the main gate.
A crowd estimated by Columbus police at 8,000 gathered to protest the school once known as the School of the Americas, which they blame for Latin American human rights abuses. It appeared to be the largest first-day gathering in the 14-year history of the protest.
The Army's loudspeakers, playing "The Army Song" and "God Bless the U.S.A.," were 50 yards away from where protesters were speaking to the crowd.
...
November 27, 2003
Kidd: This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
By Devvy Kidd
November 22, 2003
Millions of Americans have read the Joseph Banister story. For those who may not know of this courageous individual, a short refresher is in order. Joseph was an IRS CID agent (Criminal Investigation Division) for a little over five years. In late 1996, he happened to hear some information about the nature of the income tax on a radio show. After two years of trying to prove the so-called "tax protesters" wrong regarding their beliefs, he finally concluded that the "tax honesty" individuals were indeed correct in their analysis of the income tax and its voluntary nature.
Joseph had no choice but to resign his job, which at that time paid $80,000 per year. You see, this remarkable young man could no longer perform his duties as a CID agent after he discovered the truth. He could not look in the mirror every morning knowing that it was the IRS, his employer, who was breaking the law and committing fraud against the American people. How many people do you know would give up their $80,000 a year job for something called integrity?
With no paycheck coming in, times got tough for this young man; a husband and father of two young boys who attended private Catholic school. However, as a college graduate with a CPA license, Joseph began the process of building a clientele, appearing at numerous events throughout the country and in his soft spoken manner, he told his story and why he could no longer participate in this fraud against his fellow Americans.
As time has gone by, the IRS attempted to silence this courageous young man by making sure he knew a grand jury was sniffing around him. Then the IRS began contacting Joseph's clients and scaring them off so that his income began to once again dwindle. When that didn't work, suddenly the State of California took an interest in him. Stepping up this Nazi style persecution, the State of California is now attempting to take away his CPA license. Not because he has violated any law, but to shut up this courageous young man and deny him the right to work in his profession - all because he told a truth which threatens the powerful, global, banking cartel.
...
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 14, 2003
DownsizeDC.com Radio Ads: Scripts and MP3s
These ads are pretty cool. They're put out by the American Liberty Foundation, which is also quite cool.
Read the ads, listen to them if you can, and then donate some money to help keep them on the air. Three simple steps to becoming an instant freedom activist. Who would have believed it could be so easy?
- "We Believe..." Play
believe.mp3 (935k)
- "Talk Radio" Play
talk_radio.mp3 (935k)
- "Broken Promises" Play
promises.mp3 (935k)
- "Suzie and the Senator" Play
senator.mp3 (936k)
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R.5
Freedom Rating: 4.5
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 12, 2003
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Appeals court upholds rule requiring digital tuners by July 2007
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 Posted: 2:41 PM EST (1941 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a government rule requiring all but the smallest new televisions to have tuners that can receive digital TV signals by July 2007.
The makers of TVs, VCRs and DVD players tried to block the Federal Communications Commission rule, saying it would make sets more expensive and is unnecessary because cable and satellite viewers don't need the tuners.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the FCC, which said the requirement was needed because the industry was not moving quickly enough to make tuners available.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 55%
November 07, 2003
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
Saturday, November 01, 2003
By Eric Burns
We have come a long way.
Early in the 17th century in Jamestown, the first permanent British colony in the New World, cursing was considered a crime. For a first offense, a person was to suffer "severe punishment." For a second offense, he was to have "a bodkin [a small, pointed instrument used to make holes in cloth or leather] thrust through his tongue."
There would be no fourth offense; for the third, a curser would be put to death.
Now, early in the 21st century, the Federal Communications Commission has decided that the most common, if also most crude, four-letter synonym for the sex act may be uttered on television---if, that is, it is used "properly."
How do you say "f***" properly, you ask?
First, the background. On Jan. 19 of this year, on the nationally televised Golden Globes Awards program, the singer Bono, accepting an award, said either "this is really, really f***ing brilliant," or "this is f***ing great." As a result, 234 complaints were filed against the TV stations that carried the show, one of them from a watchdog group called the Parents' Television Council.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2.2
Learning Percentage: 35%
November 05, 2003
US raises spectre of conscription
US raises spectre of conscription
The American defence department has begun a recruitment drive for local draft boards, raising questions about a possible revival of conscription.
A notice on a department website invites United States citizens over the age of 18 to volunteer for the boards.
The board members will decide who can be exempted if a draft is needed.
The campaign comes as the US faces questions about the state of its armed forces at a time of costly operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There has been no draft in the US since it was ended by Congress in 1973, the year that US troops pulled out of Vietnam.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 20%
October 09, 2003
Dowd: Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 9, 2003
Excerpt:
The administration that never let you see it sweat is sweating, as two of its control freaks openly tug over control. The president's foreign policy duenna and his grumpy grampy over at the Pentagon are suddenly mud wrestling.
Women who are discouraged at the ascension of Conan the Barbarian in Cal-ee-fornia can take heart. In this delicious gender-bender, Condoleezza Rice triumphs as the macho infighter, driving Rummy into a diva-like meltdown.
The trigger was Monday's coverage of the Iraq Stabilization Group (a.k.a. Fat Chance Group); the group is a desperate bid to get a grip on Baghdad before the campaign starts by transferring power for postwar Iraq from the Pentagon to the national security adviser's office inside the White House.
Condi used a trick she learned from Rummy: pre-emption. She outflanked the famous Washington infighter by talking about the new alignment to The New York Times before he had a chance to object.
It was the first time the chesty defense czar — who had tried to freeze out the softies at State, which the Pentagon sneeringly refers to as "the Department of Nice" — had been downgraded by the president and outmaneuvered by a colleague.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: L3.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 25%
October 05, 2003
Ashcroft Linked to Rove
Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 2, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- Deep political ties between top White House aides and Attorney General John Ashcroft have put him into a delicate position as the Justice Department begins a full investigation into whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday.
Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Those connections led Democrats on Wednesday to assert that Mr. Rove's connections to Mr. Ashcroft amounted to a clear conflict of interest and undermined the integrity of the investigation. The disclosures have also emboldened Democrats who have called for the appointment of an outside counsel.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
October 01, 2003
Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
FOXNews.com - Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON — The story of America's heroes, accomplishments and ideals is getting surprisingly short shrift in a place of great influence: the nation's public schools.
That's the theme of a provocative report about U.S. civics and history education that is drawing praise from leaders and groups whose views span the ideological spectrum.
Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute and released Tuesday, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's grasp of its own past and present. Authors hope it will lead to curriculum changes and stir debate about social studies lessons as people reflect on the terrorist attacks of two years ago.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%
September 21, 2003
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
...
But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
September 04, 2003
Inside Karl Rove's Diary
This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.
Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
Dear Diary:
Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.
Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.
The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.
Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%
August 24, 2003
Ashcroft Criticized for "PATRIOT Act" promo tour
Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Attorney General John Ashcroft faced sharp criticism today from Democrats and others over his decision to give more than a dozen speeches around the country in defense of anti-terrorism legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 70%
August 17, 2003
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
August 16, 2003
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
Controversial government tape airs on local TV
Controversial government tape airs on local TV - Thursday, 03/18/04
Nashville television station WTVF aired a now-controversial video news release that was generated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to trumpet Bush administration praise for the recently passed Medicare drug bill.
WTVF news director Mike Cutler said that the video appeared once during a 7 a.m. newscast on Jan. 23 after morning producer snagged it from a sampling satellite news feeds.
Cutler added that the news station was unaware that it had been generated by the federal government, which has come under fire for using fake news reporters to deliver messages that praised the administration's work in on December's Medicare drug-benefit bill.
...
Propaganda: It's not just for "evil" nations anymore!
U.S. Videos, for TV News, Come Under Scrutiny
(TruthOut permacopy)
WASHINGTON, March 14 — Federal investigators are scrutinizing television segments in which the Bush administration paid people to pose as journalists praising the benefits of the new Medicare law, which would be offered to help elderly Americans with the costs of their prescription medicines.
The videos are intended for use in local television news programs. Several include pictures of President Bush receiving a standing ovation from a crowd cheering as he signed the Medicare law on Dec. 8.
The materials were produced by the Department of Health and Human Services, which called them video news releases, but the source is not identified. Two videos end with the voice of a woman who says, "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting."
But the production company, Home Front Communications, said it had hired her to read a script prepared by the government.
Another video, intended for Hispanic audiences, shows a Bush administration official being interviewed in Spanish by a man who identifies himself as a reporter named Alberto Garcia.
...
March 05, 2004
US faces mounting international fury over Aristide's 'forced' exit
US faces mounting international fury over Aristide's 'forced' exit
(TruthOut permacopy)
February 22, 2004
White House Press Secretary Lashes Out at Reporter
Washingtonian: Washington BUZZ
White House Press Secretary Lashes Out at Reporter: “There’s a Difference Between Trashy Rumors and Journalism”
(TruthOut's archived copy of this has the transcript of the long exchange described in this article.
White House Press Secretary Lashes Out at Reporter
Washingtonian: Washington BUZZ
Washingtonian: Washington BUZZ
White House Press Secretary Lashes Out at Reporter: “There’s a Difference Between Trashy Rumors and Journalism”
(TruthOut's archived copy of this has the transcript of the long exchange described in this article.
February 20, 2004
64% Favor Smaller Government
Rassmussen Survey: 64% Favor Smaller Government
February 16, 2004--Sixty-four percent (64%) of American voters say that they prefer smaller government with fewer services and lower taxes. A Rasmussen Reports survey finds that just 22% would rather see a more active government with more services and higher taxes.
Scott Rasmussen notes that "This data helps explain the recent decline in George W. Bush's approval ratings and general election polls. Being seen as a big spender is dangerous for any candidate."
The President has been challenged on a number of budget items recently by both his opponents and supporters. In fact, voters early in the campaign say they trust Massachusetts Senator John Kerry more than President Bush when it comes to cutting government spending.
The Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll shows a race between Bush and Kerry is very close at this time. The tracking poll is updated daily by noon.
The national telephone survey of 1,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports February 13-15, 2004. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. (see Methodology)
Support for smaller government cuts across just about all demographic lines. It is the preference for 67% of men and 62% of women; 52% of those under 30 and 70% of those over 65; 79% of Republicans, 59% of unaffiliateds, and 53% of Democrats; 61% of white voters and 52% of non-white voters.
The only exception to this pattern is voters who identify themselves as very liberal. Among this group, 49% say they want a more active government with more services and higher taxes. Just 40% prefer smaller government.
Rasmussen Reports provides a comprehensive Election 2004 polling service including daily updates of the Presidential Race and economic confidence.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
February 06, 2004
February 02, 2004
January 18, 2004
Voters to be asked about registering for the draft
Voters to be asked about registering for the draft
Enough signatures have been collected so that voters in April will be asked whether Anchorage men should be excused from registering for the military draft.
Scott Kohlhaas, Alaska Libertarian Party chairman, and supporters collected about 10,000 petition signatures to get the question on the April 6 ballot. The minimum necessary was 6,352.
...
Petition drive opposes military draft
WorldNetDaily: Petition drive opposes military draft
A Libertarian candidate for president is spearheading a petition drive on his website to put a stop to legislation that would re-institute the draft in the U.S. – for both men and women.
Aaron Russo began his effort against S.89 and H.R.163 last month. The petition – addressed to President Bush, Vice President Cheney and members of the House and Senate – states: "We, the undersigned, being citizens of the United States, protest against this infringement upon our personal freedoms and reject this idea of a new draft."
...
January 08, 2004
Still No Vetoes From President Bush
This is not a healthy thing.
FOXNews.com - Politics - Still No Vetoes From President Bush
January 01, 2004
IRS to Step Up Audits and Collections
The Heartland Institute - IRS to Step Up Audits and Collections - by Daniel J. Pilla
December 28, 2003
NY Times Delusion: A Campaign Finance Triumph
t r u t h o u t - New York Times | A Campaign Finance Triumph
December 24, 2003
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
Published: December 23, 2003
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 — As a special envoy for the Reagan administration in 1984, Donald H. Rumsfeld, now the defense secretary, traveled to Iraq to persuade officials there that the United States was eager to improve ties with President Saddam Hussein despite his use of chemical weapons, newly declassified documents show.
Mr. Rumsfeld, who ran a pharmaceutical company at the time, was tapped by Secretary of State George P. Shultz to reinforce a message that a recent move to condemn Iraq's use of chemical weapons was strictly in principle and that America's priority was to prevent an Iranian victory in the Iran-Iraq war and to improve bilateral ties.
During that war, the United States secretly provided Iraq with combat planning assistance, even after Mr. Hussein's use of chemical weapons was widely known. The highly classified program involved more than 60 officers of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who shared intelligence on Iranian deployments, bomb-damage assessments and other crucial information with Iraq.
The disclosures round out a picture of American outreach to the Iraqi government, even as the United States professed to be neutral in the eight-year war, and suggests a private nonchalance toward Mr. Hussein's use of chemicals in warfare. Mr. Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials have cited Iraq's use of poisonous gas as a main reason for ousting Mr. Hussein.
The documents, which were released as part of a declassification project by the National Security Archive, and are available on the Web at www.nsarchive.org, provide details of the instructions given to Mr. Rumsfeld on his second trip to Iraq in four months. The notes of Mr. Rumsfeld's encounter with Tariq Aziz, the foreign minister, remain classified, but officials acknowledged that it would be unusual if Mr. Rumsfeld did not carry out the instructions.
Since the release of the documents, he has told members of his inner circle at the Pentagon that he does not recall whether he had read, or even had received, the State Department memo, Defense Department officials said.
One official noted that the documents reflected the State Department's thinking on Iraq, but did not indicate Mr. Rumsfeld's planning for his meeting with Mr. Hussein nor his comments on the meeting after its conclusion.
Mr. Rumsfeld's trip was his second visit to Iraq. On his first visit, in late December 1983, he had a cordial meeting with Mr. Hussein, and photographs and a report of that encounter have been widely published.
In a follow-up memo, the chief of the American interests section reported that Mr. Aziz had conveyed Mr. Hussein's satisfaction with the meeting. "The Iraqi leadership was extremely pleased with Amb. Rumsfeld's visit," the memo said. "Tariq Aziz had gone out of his way to praise Rumsfeld as a person."
When news emerged last year of the December trip, Mr. Rumsfeld told CNN that he had "cautioned" Mr. Hussein to forgo chemical weapons. But when presented with declassified notes of their meeting that made no mention of that, a spokesman for Mr. Rumsfeld said he had raised the issue in a meeting with Mr. Aziz.
Lawrence Di Rita, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said on Friday that there was no inconsistency between Mr. Rumsfeld's previous comments on his missions to Iraq and the State Department documents.
By early 1984, events threatened to upset the American-Iraqi relationship. After pleading for a year for international action against the chemical warfare, Iran had finally persuaded the United Nations to criticize the use of chemical weapons, albeit in vague terms.
Pressure mounted on the Reagan administration, which had already verified Iraq's "almost daily" use of the weapons against Iran and against Kurdish rebels, documents show. In February, Iraq warned Iranian "invaders" that "for every harmful insect there is an insecticide capable of annihilating it." Within weeks, the American authorities intercepted precursor chemicals that were bound for Iraq. Finally, on March 5, the United States issued a public condemnation of Iraq.
But days later, Mr. Shultz and his deputy met with an Iraqi diplomat, Ismet Kittani, to soften the blow. The American relationship with Iraq was too important — involving business interests, Middle East diplomacy and a shared determination to thwart Iran — to sacrifice. Mr. Kittani left the meeting "unpersuaded," documents show.
Mr. Shultz then turned to Mr. Rumsfeld. In a March 24 briefing document, Mr. Rumsfeld was asked to present America's bottom line. At first, the memo recapitulated Mr. Shultz's message to Mr. Kittani, saying it "clarified that our CW [chemical weapons] condemnation was made strictly out of our strong opposition to the use of lethal and incapacitating CW, wherever it occurs." The American officials had "emphasized that our interests in 1) preventing an Iranian victory and 2) continuing to improve bilateral relations with Iraq, at a pace of Iraq's choosing, remain undiminished," it said.
Then came the instructions for Mr. Rumsfeld: "This message bears reinforcing during your discussions."
The American relationship with Iraq during its crippling war with Iran was rife with such ambiguities. Though the United States was outwardly neutral, it tilted toward Iraq and even monitored talks toward the sale of military equipment by private American contractors.
Tom Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive, said: "Saddam had chemical weapons in the 1980's, and it didn't make any difference to U.S. policy."
Mr. Blanton suggested that the United States was now paying the price for earlier indulgence. "The embrace of Saddam in the 1980's and what it emboldened him to do should caution us as Americans that we have to look closely at all our murky alliances," he said. "Shaking hands with dictators today can turn them into Saddams tomorrow."
Thom Shanker contributed reporting for this article.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
December 16, 2003
Pork Spending in the 2004 Budget
From the Heritage Foundation: Another Omnibus Spending Bill Loaded with Pork
Bob Smith turns it into a call for action:
Save this list. During the 2004 campaign, pick any one of these organizations, and try to get a chance to ask your incumbent politician about it.
Ask him where it is.
Ask him what it does.
Ask him to explain it's value to us.
Ask him why it wasn't funded by the people who will use it.
Ask him why he wanted to spend your money on it.
If you're feeling bold, and he's still paying attention, ask him what HE got out of it.
Scarmig: How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
This is the story of how I successfully refused to accept a Social Security Number for my child.
I simply said “no.”
Really. That’s how easy it was. I just said no, again, and again.
...
December 10, 2003
Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling
This statement from the president of Common Cause is one of the most delusional claims I've heard from a public figure in a while.
"The toxic link between donors who write six-figure checks and people in power at the highest levels of government has been severed for good," said Chellie Pingree, the group's president, in a statement.
It's almost as funny as "The era of big government is over" was. Oh, yeah, folks....this time they've got it all worked out. Sure.
CNN.com - Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling - Dec. 10, 2003
Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban
CNN.com - Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban - Dec. 10, 2003
December 01, 2003
Geoff Metcalf: Under the Color of Authority
IRS: Abuse of Power
Under the Color of Authority
Geoff Metcalf
Monday, Nov. 24, 2003
Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. – Frederick Douglass
For over a decade I have been interviewing and reporting on what has been called The "Tax Honesty Movement." Some people call these folks “tax protesters," others call them wackos. To a growing many, they are patriots committed to redressing what they perceive as a grievous wrong.
In the wake of years of study, interviews and analysis I have come to my own personal conclusions:
-As an academic exercise, and objective evaluation of the facts in evidence, the Tax Freedom crowd is mostly right.
-However, as a practical reality check, and ‘The Golden Rule’ (those with the gold make the rules), when contemporary ‘Davids’ square off with the federal government’s ‘Goliath,’ right is NOT might.
-Those who take on “The G” can and will be eviscerated by bureaucratic ‘shock and awe’ that has and will ruin lives.
...
One of the most heroic crusaders cast in the role of ‘David’ is Joseph R. (Joe) Banister. Joe is a CPA and former IRS Criminal Investigation Division special agent [www.freedomabovefortune.com]. He is a good guy with a fascinating story and about to become another victim of abuse of power under the color of authority.
...
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Demonstrators gathered outside Fort Benning to protest a military school were hit with a sonic barrage Saturday: patriotic music Army officials had blaring from the main gate.
A crowd estimated by Columbus police at 8,000 gathered to protest the school once known as the School of the Americas, which they blame for Latin American human rights abuses. It appeared to be the largest first-day gathering in the 14-year history of the protest.
The Army's loudspeakers, playing "The Army Song" and "God Bless the U.S.A.," were 50 yards away from where protesters were speaking to the crowd.
...
November 27, 2003
Kidd: This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
By Devvy Kidd
November 22, 2003
Millions of Americans have read the Joseph Banister story. For those who may not know of this courageous individual, a short refresher is in order. Joseph was an IRS CID agent (Criminal Investigation Division) for a little over five years. In late 1996, he happened to hear some information about the nature of the income tax on a radio show. After two years of trying to prove the so-called "tax protesters" wrong regarding their beliefs, he finally concluded that the "tax honesty" individuals were indeed correct in their analysis of the income tax and its voluntary nature.
Joseph had no choice but to resign his job, which at that time paid $80,000 per year. You see, this remarkable young man could no longer perform his duties as a CID agent after he discovered the truth. He could not look in the mirror every morning knowing that it was the IRS, his employer, who was breaking the law and committing fraud against the American people. How many people do you know would give up their $80,000 a year job for something called integrity?
With no paycheck coming in, times got tough for this young man; a husband and father of two young boys who attended private Catholic school. However, as a college graduate with a CPA license, Joseph began the process of building a clientele, appearing at numerous events throughout the country and in his soft spoken manner, he told his story and why he could no longer participate in this fraud against his fellow Americans.
As time has gone by, the IRS attempted to silence this courageous young man by making sure he knew a grand jury was sniffing around him. Then the IRS began contacting Joseph's clients and scaring them off so that his income began to once again dwindle. When that didn't work, suddenly the State of California took an interest in him. Stepping up this Nazi style persecution, the State of California is now attempting to take away his CPA license. Not because he has violated any law, but to shut up this courageous young man and deny him the right to work in his profession - all because he told a truth which threatens the powerful, global, banking cartel.
...
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 14, 2003
DownsizeDC.com Radio Ads: Scripts and MP3s
These ads are pretty cool. They're put out by the American Liberty Foundation, which is also quite cool.
Read the ads, listen to them if you can, and then donate some money to help keep them on the air. Three simple steps to becoming an instant freedom activist. Who would have believed it could be so easy?
- "We Believe..." Play
believe.mp3 (935k)
- "Talk Radio" Play
talk_radio.mp3 (935k)
- "Broken Promises" Play
promises.mp3 (935k)
- "Suzie and the Senator" Play
senator.mp3 (936k)
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R.5
Freedom Rating: 4.5
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 12, 2003
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Appeals court upholds rule requiring digital tuners by July 2007
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 Posted: 2:41 PM EST (1941 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a government rule requiring all but the smallest new televisions to have tuners that can receive digital TV signals by July 2007.
The makers of TVs, VCRs and DVD players tried to block the Federal Communications Commission rule, saying it would make sets more expensive and is unnecessary because cable and satellite viewers don't need the tuners.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the FCC, which said the requirement was needed because the industry was not moving quickly enough to make tuners available.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 55%
November 07, 2003
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
Saturday, November 01, 2003
By Eric Burns
We have come a long way.
Early in the 17th century in Jamestown, the first permanent British colony in the New World, cursing was considered a crime. For a first offense, a person was to suffer "severe punishment." For a second offense, he was to have "a bodkin [a small, pointed instrument used to make holes in cloth or leather] thrust through his tongue."
There would be no fourth offense; for the third, a curser would be put to death.
Now, early in the 21st century, the Federal Communications Commission has decided that the most common, if also most crude, four-letter synonym for the sex act may be uttered on television---if, that is, it is used "properly."
How do you say "f***" properly, you ask?
First, the background. On Jan. 19 of this year, on the nationally televised Golden Globes Awards program, the singer Bono, accepting an award, said either "this is really, really f***ing brilliant," or "this is f***ing great." As a result, 234 complaints were filed against the TV stations that carried the show, one of them from a watchdog group called the Parents' Television Council.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2.2
Learning Percentage: 35%
November 05, 2003
US raises spectre of conscription
US raises spectre of conscription
The American defence department has begun a recruitment drive for local draft boards, raising questions about a possible revival of conscription.
A notice on a department website invites United States citizens over the age of 18 to volunteer for the boards.
The board members will decide who can be exempted if a draft is needed.
The campaign comes as the US faces questions about the state of its armed forces at a time of costly operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There has been no draft in the US since it was ended by Congress in 1973, the year that US troops pulled out of Vietnam.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 20%
October 09, 2003
Dowd: Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 9, 2003
Excerpt:
The administration that never let you see it sweat is sweating, as two of its control freaks openly tug over control. The president's foreign policy duenna and his grumpy grampy over at the Pentagon are suddenly mud wrestling.
Women who are discouraged at the ascension of Conan the Barbarian in Cal-ee-fornia can take heart. In this delicious gender-bender, Condoleezza Rice triumphs as the macho infighter, driving Rummy into a diva-like meltdown.
The trigger was Monday's coverage of the Iraq Stabilization Group (a.k.a. Fat Chance Group); the group is a desperate bid to get a grip on Baghdad before the campaign starts by transferring power for postwar Iraq from the Pentagon to the national security adviser's office inside the White House.
Condi used a trick she learned from Rummy: pre-emption. She outflanked the famous Washington infighter by talking about the new alignment to The New York Times before he had a chance to object.
It was the first time the chesty defense czar — who had tried to freeze out the softies at State, which the Pentagon sneeringly refers to as "the Department of Nice" — had been downgraded by the president and outmaneuvered by a colleague.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: L3.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 25%
October 05, 2003
Ashcroft Linked to Rove
Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 2, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- Deep political ties between top White House aides and Attorney General John Ashcroft have put him into a delicate position as the Justice Department begins a full investigation into whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday.
Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Those connections led Democrats on Wednesday to assert that Mr. Rove's connections to Mr. Ashcroft amounted to a clear conflict of interest and undermined the integrity of the investigation. The disclosures have also emboldened Democrats who have called for the appointment of an outside counsel.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
October 01, 2003
Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
FOXNews.com - Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON — The story of America's heroes, accomplishments and ideals is getting surprisingly short shrift in a place of great influence: the nation's public schools.
That's the theme of a provocative report about U.S. civics and history education that is drawing praise from leaders and groups whose views span the ideological spectrum.
Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute and released Tuesday, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's grasp of its own past and present. Authors hope it will lead to curriculum changes and stir debate about social studies lessons as people reflect on the terrorist attacks of two years ago.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%
September 21, 2003
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
...
But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
September 04, 2003
Inside Karl Rove's Diary
This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.
Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
Dear Diary:
Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.
Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.
The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.
Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%
August 24, 2003
Ashcroft Criticized for "PATRIOT Act" promo tour
Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Attorney General John Ashcroft faced sharp criticism today from Democrats and others over his decision to give more than a dozen speeches around the country in defense of anti-terrorism legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 70%
August 17, 2003
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
August 16, 2003
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
US faces mounting international fury over Aristide's 'forced' exit
US faces mounting international fury over Aristide's 'forced' exit
(TruthOut permacopy)
White House Press Secretary Lashes Out at Reporter
Washingtonian: Washington BUZZ
White House Press Secretary Lashes Out at Reporter: “There’s a Difference Between Trashy Rumors and Journalism”
(TruthOut's archived copy of this has the transcript of the long exchange described in this article.
White House Press Secretary Lashes Out at Reporter
Washingtonian: Washington BUZZ
Washingtonian: Washington BUZZ
White House Press Secretary Lashes Out at Reporter: “There’s a Difference Between Trashy Rumors and Journalism”
(TruthOut's archived copy of this has the transcript of the long exchange described in this article.
February 20, 2004
64% Favor Smaller Government
Rassmussen Survey: 64% Favor Smaller Government
February 16, 2004--Sixty-four percent (64%) of American voters say that they prefer smaller government with fewer services and lower taxes. A Rasmussen Reports survey finds that just 22% would rather see a more active government with more services and higher taxes.
Scott Rasmussen notes that "This data helps explain the recent decline in George W. Bush's approval ratings and general election polls. Being seen as a big spender is dangerous for any candidate."
The President has been challenged on a number of budget items recently by both his opponents and supporters. In fact, voters early in the campaign say they trust Massachusetts Senator John Kerry more than President Bush when it comes to cutting government spending.
The Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll shows a race between Bush and Kerry is very close at this time. The tracking poll is updated daily by noon.
The national telephone survey of 1,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports February 13-15, 2004. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. (see Methodology)
Support for smaller government cuts across just about all demographic lines. It is the preference for 67% of men and 62% of women; 52% of those under 30 and 70% of those over 65; 79% of Republicans, 59% of unaffiliateds, and 53% of Democrats; 61% of white voters and 52% of non-white voters.
The only exception to this pattern is voters who identify themselves as very liberal. Among this group, 49% say they want a more active government with more services and higher taxes. Just 40% prefer smaller government.
Rasmussen Reports provides a comprehensive Election 2004 polling service including daily updates of the Presidential Race and economic confidence.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
February 06, 2004
February 02, 2004
January 18, 2004
Voters to be asked about registering for the draft
Voters to be asked about registering for the draft
Enough signatures have been collected so that voters in April will be asked whether Anchorage men should be excused from registering for the military draft.
Scott Kohlhaas, Alaska Libertarian Party chairman, and supporters collected about 10,000 petition signatures to get the question on the April 6 ballot. The minimum necessary was 6,352.
...
Petition drive opposes military draft
WorldNetDaily: Petition drive opposes military draft
A Libertarian candidate for president is spearheading a petition drive on his website to put a stop to legislation that would re-institute the draft in the U.S. – for both men and women.
Aaron Russo began his effort against S.89 and H.R.163 last month. The petition – addressed to President Bush, Vice President Cheney and members of the House and Senate – states: "We, the undersigned, being citizens of the United States, protest against this infringement upon our personal freedoms and reject this idea of a new draft."
...
January 08, 2004
Still No Vetoes From President Bush
This is not a healthy thing.
FOXNews.com - Politics - Still No Vetoes From President Bush
January 01, 2004
IRS to Step Up Audits and Collections
The Heartland Institute - IRS to Step Up Audits and Collections - by Daniel J. Pilla
December 28, 2003
NY Times Delusion: A Campaign Finance Triumph
t r u t h o u t - New York Times | A Campaign Finance Triumph
December 24, 2003
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
Published: December 23, 2003
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 — As a special envoy for the Reagan administration in 1984, Donald H. Rumsfeld, now the defense secretary, traveled to Iraq to persuade officials there that the United States was eager to improve ties with President Saddam Hussein despite his use of chemical weapons, newly declassified documents show.
Mr. Rumsfeld, who ran a pharmaceutical company at the time, was tapped by Secretary of State George P. Shultz to reinforce a message that a recent move to condemn Iraq's use of chemical weapons was strictly in principle and that America's priority was to prevent an Iranian victory in the Iran-Iraq war and to improve bilateral ties.
During that war, the United States secretly provided Iraq with combat planning assistance, even after Mr. Hussein's use of chemical weapons was widely known. The highly classified program involved more than 60 officers of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who shared intelligence on Iranian deployments, bomb-damage assessments and other crucial information with Iraq.
The disclosures round out a picture of American outreach to the Iraqi government, even as the United States professed to be neutral in the eight-year war, and suggests a private nonchalance toward Mr. Hussein's use of chemicals in warfare. Mr. Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials have cited Iraq's use of poisonous gas as a main reason for ousting Mr. Hussein.
The documents, which were released as part of a declassification project by the National Security Archive, and are available on the Web at www.nsarchive.org, provide details of the instructions given to Mr. Rumsfeld on his second trip to Iraq in four months. The notes of Mr. Rumsfeld's encounter with Tariq Aziz, the foreign minister, remain classified, but officials acknowledged that it would be unusual if Mr. Rumsfeld did not carry out the instructions.
Since the release of the documents, he has told members of his inner circle at the Pentagon that he does not recall whether he had read, or even had received, the State Department memo, Defense Department officials said.
One official noted that the documents reflected the State Department's thinking on Iraq, but did not indicate Mr. Rumsfeld's planning for his meeting with Mr. Hussein nor his comments on the meeting after its conclusion.
Mr. Rumsfeld's trip was his second visit to Iraq. On his first visit, in late December 1983, he had a cordial meeting with Mr. Hussein, and photographs and a report of that encounter have been widely published.
In a follow-up memo, the chief of the American interests section reported that Mr. Aziz had conveyed Mr. Hussein's satisfaction with the meeting. "The Iraqi leadership was extremely pleased with Amb. Rumsfeld's visit," the memo said. "Tariq Aziz had gone out of his way to praise Rumsfeld as a person."
When news emerged last year of the December trip, Mr. Rumsfeld told CNN that he had "cautioned" Mr. Hussein to forgo chemical weapons. But when presented with declassified notes of their meeting that made no mention of that, a spokesman for Mr. Rumsfeld said he had raised the issue in a meeting with Mr. Aziz.
Lawrence Di Rita, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said on Friday that there was no inconsistency between Mr. Rumsfeld's previous comments on his missions to Iraq and the State Department documents.
By early 1984, events threatened to upset the American-Iraqi relationship. After pleading for a year for international action against the chemical warfare, Iran had finally persuaded the United Nations to criticize the use of chemical weapons, albeit in vague terms.
Pressure mounted on the Reagan administration, which had already verified Iraq's "almost daily" use of the weapons against Iran and against Kurdish rebels, documents show. In February, Iraq warned Iranian "invaders" that "for every harmful insect there is an insecticide capable of annihilating it." Within weeks, the American authorities intercepted precursor chemicals that were bound for Iraq. Finally, on March 5, the United States issued a public condemnation of Iraq.
But days later, Mr. Shultz and his deputy met with an Iraqi diplomat, Ismet Kittani, to soften the blow. The American relationship with Iraq was too important — involving business interests, Middle East diplomacy and a shared determination to thwart Iran — to sacrifice. Mr. Kittani left the meeting "unpersuaded," documents show.
Mr. Shultz then turned to Mr. Rumsfeld. In a March 24 briefing document, Mr. Rumsfeld was asked to present America's bottom line. At first, the memo recapitulated Mr. Shultz's message to Mr. Kittani, saying it "clarified that our CW [chemical weapons] condemnation was made strictly out of our strong opposition to the use of lethal and incapacitating CW, wherever it occurs." The American officials had "emphasized that our interests in 1) preventing an Iranian victory and 2) continuing to improve bilateral relations with Iraq, at a pace of Iraq's choosing, remain undiminished," it said.
Then came the instructions for Mr. Rumsfeld: "This message bears reinforcing during your discussions."
The American relationship with Iraq during its crippling war with Iran was rife with such ambiguities. Though the United States was outwardly neutral, it tilted toward Iraq and even monitored talks toward the sale of military equipment by private American contractors.
Tom Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive, said: "Saddam had chemical weapons in the 1980's, and it didn't make any difference to U.S. policy."
Mr. Blanton suggested that the United States was now paying the price for earlier indulgence. "The embrace of Saddam in the 1980's and what it emboldened him to do should caution us as Americans that we have to look closely at all our murky alliances," he said. "Shaking hands with dictators today can turn them into Saddams tomorrow."
Thom Shanker contributed reporting for this article.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
December 16, 2003
Pork Spending in the 2004 Budget
From the Heritage Foundation: Another Omnibus Spending Bill Loaded with Pork
Bob Smith turns it into a call for action:
Save this list. During the 2004 campaign, pick any one of these organizations, and try to get a chance to ask your incumbent politician about it.
Ask him where it is.
Ask him what it does.
Ask him to explain it's value to us.
Ask him why it wasn't funded by the people who will use it.
Ask him why he wanted to spend your money on it.
If you're feeling bold, and he's still paying attention, ask him what HE got out of it.
Scarmig: How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
This is the story of how I successfully refused to accept a Social Security Number for my child.
I simply said “no.”
Really. That’s how easy it was. I just said no, again, and again.
...
December 10, 2003
Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling
This statement from the president of Common Cause is one of the most delusional claims I've heard from a public figure in a while.
"The toxic link between donors who write six-figure checks and people in power at the highest levels of government has been severed for good," said Chellie Pingree, the group's president, in a statement.
It's almost as funny as "The era of big government is over" was. Oh, yeah, folks....this time they've got it all worked out. Sure.
CNN.com - Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling - Dec. 10, 2003
Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban
CNN.com - Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban - Dec. 10, 2003
December 01, 2003
Geoff Metcalf: Under the Color of Authority
IRS: Abuse of Power
Under the Color of Authority
Geoff Metcalf
Monday, Nov. 24, 2003
Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. – Frederick Douglass
For over a decade I have been interviewing and reporting on what has been called The "Tax Honesty Movement." Some people call these folks “tax protesters," others call them wackos. To a growing many, they are patriots committed to redressing what they perceive as a grievous wrong.
In the wake of years of study, interviews and analysis I have come to my own personal conclusions:
-As an academic exercise, and objective evaluation of the facts in evidence, the Tax Freedom crowd is mostly right.
-However, as a practical reality check, and ‘The Golden Rule’ (those with the gold make the rules), when contemporary ‘Davids’ square off with the federal government’s ‘Goliath,’ right is NOT might.
-Those who take on “The G” can and will be eviscerated by bureaucratic ‘shock and awe’ that has and will ruin lives.
...
One of the most heroic crusaders cast in the role of ‘David’ is Joseph R. (Joe) Banister. Joe is a CPA and former IRS Criminal Investigation Division special agent [www.freedomabovefortune.com]. He is a good guy with a fascinating story and about to become another victim of abuse of power under the color of authority.
...
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Demonstrators gathered outside Fort Benning to protest a military school were hit with a sonic barrage Saturday: patriotic music Army officials had blaring from the main gate.
A crowd estimated by Columbus police at 8,000 gathered to protest the school once known as the School of the Americas, which they blame for Latin American human rights abuses. It appeared to be the largest first-day gathering in the 14-year history of the protest.
The Army's loudspeakers, playing "The Army Song" and "God Bless the U.S.A.," were 50 yards away from where protesters were speaking to the crowd.
...
November 27, 2003
Kidd: This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
By Devvy Kidd
November 22, 2003
Millions of Americans have read the Joseph Banister story. For those who may not know of this courageous individual, a short refresher is in order. Joseph was an IRS CID agent (Criminal Investigation Division) for a little over five years. In late 1996, he happened to hear some information about the nature of the income tax on a radio show. After two years of trying to prove the so-called "tax protesters" wrong regarding their beliefs, he finally concluded that the "tax honesty" individuals were indeed correct in their analysis of the income tax and its voluntary nature.
Joseph had no choice but to resign his job, which at that time paid $80,000 per year. You see, this remarkable young man could no longer perform his duties as a CID agent after he discovered the truth. He could not look in the mirror every morning knowing that it was the IRS, his employer, who was breaking the law and committing fraud against the American people. How many people do you know would give up their $80,000 a year job for something called integrity?
With no paycheck coming in, times got tough for this young man; a husband and father of two young boys who attended private Catholic school. However, as a college graduate with a CPA license, Joseph began the process of building a clientele, appearing at numerous events throughout the country and in his soft spoken manner, he told his story and why he could no longer participate in this fraud against his fellow Americans.
As time has gone by, the IRS attempted to silence this courageous young man by making sure he knew a grand jury was sniffing around him. Then the IRS began contacting Joseph's clients and scaring them off so that his income began to once again dwindle. When that didn't work, suddenly the State of California took an interest in him. Stepping up this Nazi style persecution, the State of California is now attempting to take away his CPA license. Not because he has violated any law, but to shut up this courageous young man and deny him the right to work in his profession - all because he told a truth which threatens the powerful, global, banking cartel.
...
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 14, 2003
DownsizeDC.com Radio Ads: Scripts and MP3s
These ads are pretty cool. They're put out by the American Liberty Foundation, which is also quite cool.
Read the ads, listen to them if you can, and then donate some money to help keep them on the air. Three simple steps to becoming an instant freedom activist. Who would have believed it could be so easy?
- "We Believe..." Play
believe.mp3 (935k)
- "Talk Radio" Play
talk_radio.mp3 (935k)
- "Broken Promises" Play
promises.mp3 (935k)
- "Suzie and the Senator" Play
senator.mp3 (936k)
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R.5
Freedom Rating: 4.5
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 12, 2003
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Appeals court upholds rule requiring digital tuners by July 2007
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 Posted: 2:41 PM EST (1941 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a government rule requiring all but the smallest new televisions to have tuners that can receive digital TV signals by July 2007.
The makers of TVs, VCRs and DVD players tried to block the Federal Communications Commission rule, saying it would make sets more expensive and is unnecessary because cable and satellite viewers don't need the tuners.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the FCC, which said the requirement was needed because the industry was not moving quickly enough to make tuners available.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 55%
November 07, 2003
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
Saturday, November 01, 2003
By Eric Burns
We have come a long way.
Early in the 17th century in Jamestown, the first permanent British colony in the New World, cursing was considered a crime. For a first offense, a person was to suffer "severe punishment." For a second offense, he was to have "a bodkin [a small, pointed instrument used to make holes in cloth or leather] thrust through his tongue."
There would be no fourth offense; for the third, a curser would be put to death.
Now, early in the 21st century, the Federal Communications Commission has decided that the most common, if also most crude, four-letter synonym for the sex act may be uttered on television---if, that is, it is used "properly."
How do you say "f***" properly, you ask?
First, the background. On Jan. 19 of this year, on the nationally televised Golden Globes Awards program, the singer Bono, accepting an award, said either "this is really, really f***ing brilliant," or "this is f***ing great." As a result, 234 complaints were filed against the TV stations that carried the show, one of them from a watchdog group called the Parents' Television Council.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2.2
Learning Percentage: 35%
November 05, 2003
US raises spectre of conscription
US raises spectre of conscription
The American defence department has begun a recruitment drive for local draft boards, raising questions about a possible revival of conscription.
A notice on a department website invites United States citizens over the age of 18 to volunteer for the boards.
The board members will decide who can be exempted if a draft is needed.
The campaign comes as the US faces questions about the state of its armed forces at a time of costly operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There has been no draft in the US since it was ended by Congress in 1973, the year that US troops pulled out of Vietnam.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 20%
October 09, 2003
Dowd: Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 9, 2003
Excerpt:
The administration that never let you see it sweat is sweating, as two of its control freaks openly tug over control. The president's foreign policy duenna and his grumpy grampy over at the Pentagon are suddenly mud wrestling.
Women who are discouraged at the ascension of Conan the Barbarian in Cal-ee-fornia can take heart. In this delicious gender-bender, Condoleezza Rice triumphs as the macho infighter, driving Rummy into a diva-like meltdown.
The trigger was Monday's coverage of the Iraq Stabilization Group (a.k.a. Fat Chance Group); the group is a desperate bid to get a grip on Baghdad before the campaign starts by transferring power for postwar Iraq from the Pentagon to the national security adviser's office inside the White House.
Condi used a trick she learned from Rummy: pre-emption. She outflanked the famous Washington infighter by talking about the new alignment to The New York Times before he had a chance to object.
It was the first time the chesty defense czar — who had tried to freeze out the softies at State, which the Pentagon sneeringly refers to as "the Department of Nice" — had been downgraded by the president and outmaneuvered by a colleague.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: L3.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 25%
October 05, 2003
Ashcroft Linked to Rove
Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 2, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- Deep political ties between top White House aides and Attorney General John Ashcroft have put him into a delicate position as the Justice Department begins a full investigation into whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday.
Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Those connections led Democrats on Wednesday to assert that Mr. Rove's connections to Mr. Ashcroft amounted to a clear conflict of interest and undermined the integrity of the investigation. The disclosures have also emboldened Democrats who have called for the appointment of an outside counsel.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
October 01, 2003
Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
FOXNews.com - Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON — The story of America's heroes, accomplishments and ideals is getting surprisingly short shrift in a place of great influence: the nation's public schools.
That's the theme of a provocative report about U.S. civics and history education that is drawing praise from leaders and groups whose views span the ideological spectrum.
Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute and released Tuesday, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's grasp of its own past and present. Authors hope it will lead to curriculum changes and stir debate about social studies lessons as people reflect on the terrorist attacks of two years ago.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%
September 21, 2003
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
...
But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
September 04, 2003
Inside Karl Rove's Diary
This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.
Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
Dear Diary:
Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.
Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.
The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.
Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%
August 24, 2003
Ashcroft Criticized for "PATRIOT Act" promo tour
Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Attorney General John Ashcroft faced sharp criticism today from Democrats and others over his decision to give more than a dozen speeches around the country in defense of anti-terrorism legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 70%
August 17, 2003
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
August 16, 2003
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
64% Favor Smaller Government
Rassmussen Survey: 64% Favor Smaller Government
February 16, 2004--Sixty-four percent (64%) of American voters say that they prefer smaller government with fewer services and lower taxes. A Rasmussen Reports survey finds that just 22% would rather see a more active government with more services and higher taxes.
Scott Rasmussen notes that "This data helps explain the recent decline in George W. Bush's approval ratings and general election polls. Being seen as a big spender is dangerous for any candidate."
The President has been challenged on a number of budget items recently by both his opponents and supporters. In fact, voters early in the campaign say they trust Massachusetts Senator John Kerry more than President Bush when it comes to cutting government spending.
The Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll shows a race between Bush and Kerry is very close at this time. The tracking poll is updated daily by noon.
The national telephone survey of 1,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports February 13-15, 2004. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. (see Methodology)
Support for smaller government cuts across just about all demographic lines. It is the preference for 67% of men and 62% of women; 52% of those under 30 and 70% of those over 65; 79% of Republicans, 59% of unaffiliateds, and 53% of Democrats; 61% of white voters and 52% of non-white voters.
The only exception to this pattern is voters who identify themselves as very liberal. Among this group, 49% say they want a more active government with more services and higher taxes. Just 40% prefer smaller government.
Rasmussen Reports provides a comprehensive Election 2004 polling service including daily updates of the Presidential Race and economic confidence.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
February 02, 2004
January 18, 2004
Voters to be asked about registering for the draft
Voters to be asked about registering for the draft
Enough signatures have been collected so that voters in April will be asked whether Anchorage men should be excused from registering for the military draft.
Scott Kohlhaas, Alaska Libertarian Party chairman, and supporters collected about 10,000 petition signatures to get the question on the April 6 ballot. The minimum necessary was 6,352.
...
Petition drive opposes military draft
WorldNetDaily: Petition drive opposes military draft
A Libertarian candidate for president is spearheading a petition drive on his website to put a stop to legislation that would re-institute the draft in the U.S. – for both men and women.
Aaron Russo began his effort against S.89 and H.R.163 last month. The petition – addressed to President Bush, Vice President Cheney and members of the House and Senate – states: "We, the undersigned, being citizens of the United States, protest against this infringement upon our personal freedoms and reject this idea of a new draft."
...
January 08, 2004
Still No Vetoes From President Bush
This is not a healthy thing.
FOXNews.com - Politics - Still No Vetoes From President Bush
January 01, 2004
IRS to Step Up Audits and Collections
The Heartland Institute - IRS to Step Up Audits and Collections - by Daniel J. Pilla
December 28, 2003
NY Times Delusion: A Campaign Finance Triumph
t r u t h o u t - New York Times | A Campaign Finance Triumph
December 24, 2003
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
Published: December 23, 2003
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 — As a special envoy for the Reagan administration in 1984, Donald H. Rumsfeld, now the defense secretary, traveled to Iraq to persuade officials there that the United States was eager to improve ties with President Saddam Hussein despite his use of chemical weapons, newly declassified documents show.
Mr. Rumsfeld, who ran a pharmaceutical company at the time, was tapped by Secretary of State George P. Shultz to reinforce a message that a recent move to condemn Iraq's use of chemical weapons was strictly in principle and that America's priority was to prevent an Iranian victory in the Iran-Iraq war and to improve bilateral ties.
During that war, the United States secretly provided Iraq with combat planning assistance, even after Mr. Hussein's use of chemical weapons was widely known. The highly classified program involved more than 60 officers of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who shared intelligence on Iranian deployments, bomb-damage assessments and other crucial information with Iraq.
The disclosures round out a picture of American outreach to the Iraqi government, even as the United States professed to be neutral in the eight-year war, and suggests a private nonchalance toward Mr. Hussein's use of chemicals in warfare. Mr. Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials have cited Iraq's use of poisonous gas as a main reason for ousting Mr. Hussein.
The documents, which were released as part of a declassification project by the National Security Archive, and are available on the Web at www.nsarchive.org, provide details of the instructions given to Mr. Rumsfeld on his second trip to Iraq in four months. The notes of Mr. Rumsfeld's encounter with Tariq Aziz, the foreign minister, remain classified, but officials acknowledged that it would be unusual if Mr. Rumsfeld did not carry out the instructions.
Since the release of the documents, he has told members of his inner circle at the Pentagon that he does not recall whether he had read, or even had received, the State Department memo, Defense Department officials said.
One official noted that the documents reflected the State Department's thinking on Iraq, but did not indicate Mr. Rumsfeld's planning for his meeting with Mr. Hussein nor his comments on the meeting after its conclusion.
Mr. Rumsfeld's trip was his second visit to Iraq. On his first visit, in late December 1983, he had a cordial meeting with Mr. Hussein, and photographs and a report of that encounter have been widely published.
In a follow-up memo, the chief of the American interests section reported that Mr. Aziz had conveyed Mr. Hussein's satisfaction with the meeting. "The Iraqi leadership was extremely pleased with Amb. Rumsfeld's visit," the memo said. "Tariq Aziz had gone out of his way to praise Rumsfeld as a person."
When news emerged last year of the December trip, Mr. Rumsfeld told CNN that he had "cautioned" Mr. Hussein to forgo chemical weapons. But when presented with declassified notes of their meeting that made no mention of that, a spokesman for Mr. Rumsfeld said he had raised the issue in a meeting with Mr. Aziz.
Lawrence Di Rita, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said on Friday that there was no inconsistency between Mr. Rumsfeld's previous comments on his missions to Iraq and the State Department documents.
By early 1984, events threatened to upset the American-Iraqi relationship. After pleading for a year for international action against the chemical warfare, Iran had finally persuaded the United Nations to criticize the use of chemical weapons, albeit in vague terms.
Pressure mounted on the Reagan administration, which had already verified Iraq's "almost daily" use of the weapons against Iran and against Kurdish rebels, documents show. In February, Iraq warned Iranian "invaders" that "for every harmful insect there is an insecticide capable of annihilating it." Within weeks, the American authorities intercepted precursor chemicals that were bound for Iraq. Finally, on March 5, the United States issued a public condemnation of Iraq.
But days later, Mr. Shultz and his deputy met with an Iraqi diplomat, Ismet Kittani, to soften the blow. The American relationship with Iraq was too important — involving business interests, Middle East diplomacy and a shared determination to thwart Iran — to sacrifice. Mr. Kittani left the meeting "unpersuaded," documents show.
Mr. Shultz then turned to Mr. Rumsfeld. In a March 24 briefing document, Mr. Rumsfeld was asked to present America's bottom line. At first, the memo recapitulated Mr. Shultz's message to Mr. Kittani, saying it "clarified that our CW [chemical weapons] condemnation was made strictly out of our strong opposition to the use of lethal and incapacitating CW, wherever it occurs." The American officials had "emphasized that our interests in 1) preventing an Iranian victory and 2) continuing to improve bilateral relations with Iraq, at a pace of Iraq's choosing, remain undiminished," it said.
Then came the instructions for Mr. Rumsfeld: "This message bears reinforcing during your discussions."
The American relationship with Iraq during its crippling war with Iran was rife with such ambiguities. Though the United States was outwardly neutral, it tilted toward Iraq and even monitored talks toward the sale of military equipment by private American contractors.
Tom Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive, said: "Saddam had chemical weapons in the 1980's, and it didn't make any difference to U.S. policy."
Mr. Blanton suggested that the United States was now paying the price for earlier indulgence. "The embrace of Saddam in the 1980's and what it emboldened him to do should caution us as Americans that we have to look closely at all our murky alliances," he said. "Shaking hands with dictators today can turn them into Saddams tomorrow."
Thom Shanker contributed reporting for this article.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
December 16, 2003
Pork Spending in the 2004 Budget
From the Heritage Foundation: Another Omnibus Spending Bill Loaded with Pork
Bob Smith turns it into a call for action:
Save this list. During the 2004 campaign, pick any one of these organizations, and try to get a chance to ask your incumbent politician about it.
Ask him where it is.
Ask him what it does.
Ask him to explain it's value to us.
Ask him why it wasn't funded by the people who will use it.
Ask him why he wanted to spend your money on it.
If you're feeling bold, and he's still paying attention, ask him what HE got out of it.
Scarmig: How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
This is the story of how I successfully refused to accept a Social Security Number for my child.
I simply said “no.”
Really. That’s how easy it was. I just said no, again, and again.
...
December 10, 2003
Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling
This statement from the president of Common Cause is one of the most delusional claims I've heard from a public figure in a while.
"The toxic link between donors who write six-figure checks and people in power at the highest levels of government has been severed for good," said Chellie Pingree, the group's president, in a statement.
It's almost as funny as "The era of big government is over" was. Oh, yeah, folks....this time they've got it all worked out. Sure.
CNN.com - Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling - Dec. 10, 2003
Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban
CNN.com - Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban - Dec. 10, 2003
December 01, 2003
Geoff Metcalf: Under the Color of Authority
IRS: Abuse of Power
Under the Color of Authority
Geoff Metcalf
Monday, Nov. 24, 2003
Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. – Frederick Douglass
For over a decade I have been interviewing and reporting on what has been called The "Tax Honesty Movement." Some people call these folks “tax protesters," others call them wackos. To a growing many, they are patriots committed to redressing what they perceive as a grievous wrong.
In the wake of years of study, interviews and analysis I have come to my own personal conclusions:
-As an academic exercise, and objective evaluation of the facts in evidence, the Tax Freedom crowd is mostly right.
-However, as a practical reality check, and ‘The Golden Rule’ (those with the gold make the rules), when contemporary ‘Davids’ square off with the federal government’s ‘Goliath,’ right is NOT might.
-Those who take on “The G” can and will be eviscerated by bureaucratic ‘shock and awe’ that has and will ruin lives.
...
One of the most heroic crusaders cast in the role of ‘David’ is Joseph R. (Joe) Banister. Joe is a CPA and former IRS Criminal Investigation Division special agent [www.freedomabovefortune.com]. He is a good guy with a fascinating story and about to become another victim of abuse of power under the color of authority.
...
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Demonstrators gathered outside Fort Benning to protest a military school were hit with a sonic barrage Saturday: patriotic music Army officials had blaring from the main gate.
A crowd estimated by Columbus police at 8,000 gathered to protest the school once known as the School of the Americas, which they blame for Latin American human rights abuses. It appeared to be the largest first-day gathering in the 14-year history of the protest.
The Army's loudspeakers, playing "The Army Song" and "God Bless the U.S.A.," were 50 yards away from where protesters were speaking to the crowd.
...
November 27, 2003
Kidd: This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
By Devvy Kidd
November 22, 2003
Millions of Americans have read the Joseph Banister story. For those who may not know of this courageous individual, a short refresher is in order. Joseph was an IRS CID agent (Criminal Investigation Division) for a little over five years. In late 1996, he happened to hear some information about the nature of the income tax on a radio show. After two years of trying to prove the so-called "tax protesters" wrong regarding their beliefs, he finally concluded that the "tax honesty" individuals were indeed correct in their analysis of the income tax and its voluntary nature.
Joseph had no choice but to resign his job, which at that time paid $80,000 per year. You see, this remarkable young man could no longer perform his duties as a CID agent after he discovered the truth. He could not look in the mirror every morning knowing that it was the IRS, his employer, who was breaking the law and committing fraud against the American people. How many people do you know would give up their $80,000 a year job for something called integrity?
With no paycheck coming in, times got tough for this young man; a husband and father of two young boys who attended private Catholic school. However, as a college graduate with a CPA license, Joseph began the process of building a clientele, appearing at numerous events throughout the country and in his soft spoken manner, he told his story and why he could no longer participate in this fraud against his fellow Americans.
As time has gone by, the IRS attempted to silence this courageous young man by making sure he knew a grand jury was sniffing around him. Then the IRS began contacting Joseph's clients and scaring them off so that his income began to once again dwindle. When that didn't work, suddenly the State of California took an interest in him. Stepping up this Nazi style persecution, the State of California is now attempting to take away his CPA license. Not because he has violated any law, but to shut up this courageous young man and deny him the right to work in his profession - all because he told a truth which threatens the powerful, global, banking cartel.
...
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 14, 2003
DownsizeDC.com Radio Ads: Scripts and MP3s
These ads are pretty cool. They're put out by the American Liberty Foundation, which is also quite cool.
Read the ads, listen to them if you can, and then donate some money to help keep them on the air. Three simple steps to becoming an instant freedom activist. Who would have believed it could be so easy?
- "We Believe..." Play
believe.mp3 (935k)
- "Talk Radio" Play
talk_radio.mp3 (935k)
- "Broken Promises" Play
promises.mp3 (935k)
- "Suzie and the Senator" Play
senator.mp3 (936k)
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R.5
Freedom Rating: 4.5
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 12, 2003
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Appeals court upholds rule requiring digital tuners by July 2007
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 Posted: 2:41 PM EST (1941 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a government rule requiring all but the smallest new televisions to have tuners that can receive digital TV signals by July 2007.
The makers of TVs, VCRs and DVD players tried to block the Federal Communications Commission rule, saying it would make sets more expensive and is unnecessary because cable and satellite viewers don't need the tuners.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the FCC, which said the requirement was needed because the industry was not moving quickly enough to make tuners available.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 55%
November 07, 2003
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
Saturday, November 01, 2003
By Eric Burns
We have come a long way.
Early in the 17th century in Jamestown, the first permanent British colony in the New World, cursing was considered a crime. For a first offense, a person was to suffer "severe punishment." For a second offense, he was to have "a bodkin [a small, pointed instrument used to make holes in cloth or leather] thrust through his tongue."
There would be no fourth offense; for the third, a curser would be put to death.
Now, early in the 21st century, the Federal Communications Commission has decided that the most common, if also most crude, four-letter synonym for the sex act may be uttered on television---if, that is, it is used "properly."
How do you say "f***" properly, you ask?
First, the background. On Jan. 19 of this year, on the nationally televised Golden Globes Awards program, the singer Bono, accepting an award, said either "this is really, really f***ing brilliant," or "this is f***ing great." As a result, 234 complaints were filed against the TV stations that carried the show, one of them from a watchdog group called the Parents' Television Council.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2.2
Learning Percentage: 35%
November 05, 2003
US raises spectre of conscription
US raises spectre of conscription
The American defence department has begun a recruitment drive for local draft boards, raising questions about a possible revival of conscription.
A notice on a department website invites United States citizens over the age of 18 to volunteer for the boards.
The board members will decide who can be exempted if a draft is needed.
The campaign comes as the US faces questions about the state of its armed forces at a time of costly operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There has been no draft in the US since it was ended by Congress in 1973, the year that US troops pulled out of Vietnam.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 20%
October 09, 2003
Dowd: Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 9, 2003
Excerpt:
The administration that never let you see it sweat is sweating, as two of its control freaks openly tug over control. The president's foreign policy duenna and his grumpy grampy over at the Pentagon are suddenly mud wrestling.
Women who are discouraged at the ascension of Conan the Barbarian in Cal-ee-fornia can take heart. In this delicious gender-bender, Condoleezza Rice triumphs as the macho infighter, driving Rummy into a diva-like meltdown.
The trigger was Monday's coverage of the Iraq Stabilization Group (a.k.a. Fat Chance Group); the group is a desperate bid to get a grip on Baghdad before the campaign starts by transferring power for postwar Iraq from the Pentagon to the national security adviser's office inside the White House.
Condi used a trick she learned from Rummy: pre-emption. She outflanked the famous Washington infighter by talking about the new alignment to The New York Times before he had a chance to object.
It was the first time the chesty defense czar — who had tried to freeze out the softies at State, which the Pentagon sneeringly refers to as "the Department of Nice" — had been downgraded by the president and outmaneuvered by a colleague.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: L3.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 25%
October 05, 2003
Ashcroft Linked to Rove
Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 2, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- Deep political ties between top White House aides and Attorney General John Ashcroft have put him into a delicate position as the Justice Department begins a full investigation into whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday.
Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Those connections led Democrats on Wednesday to assert that Mr. Rove's connections to Mr. Ashcroft amounted to a clear conflict of interest and undermined the integrity of the investigation. The disclosures have also emboldened Democrats who have called for the appointment of an outside counsel.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
October 01, 2003
Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
FOXNews.com - Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON — The story of America's heroes, accomplishments and ideals is getting surprisingly short shrift in a place of great influence: the nation's public schools.
That's the theme of a provocative report about U.S. civics and history education that is drawing praise from leaders and groups whose views span the ideological spectrum.
Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute and released Tuesday, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's grasp of its own past and present. Authors hope it will lead to curriculum changes and stir debate about social studies lessons as people reflect on the terrorist attacks of two years ago.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%
September 21, 2003
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
...
But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
September 04, 2003
Inside Karl Rove's Diary
This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.
Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
Dear Diary:
Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.
Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.
The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.
Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%
August 24, 2003
Ashcroft Criticized for "PATRIOT Act" promo tour
Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Attorney General John Ashcroft faced sharp criticism today from Democrats and others over his decision to give more than a dozen speeches around the country in defense of anti-terrorism legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 70%
August 17, 2003
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
August 16, 2003
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
Voters to be asked about registering for the draft
Voters to be asked about registering for the draft
Enough signatures have been collected so that voters in April will be asked whether Anchorage men should be excused from registering for the military draft.
Scott Kohlhaas, Alaska Libertarian Party chairman, and supporters collected about 10,000 petition signatures to get the question on the April 6 ballot. The minimum necessary was 6,352.
...
Petition drive opposes military draft
WorldNetDaily: Petition drive opposes military draft
A Libertarian candidate for president is spearheading a petition drive on his website to put a stop to legislation that would re-institute the draft in the U.S. – for both men and women.
Aaron Russo began his effort against S.89 and H.R.163 last month. The petition – addressed to President Bush, Vice President Cheney and members of the House and Senate – states: "We, the undersigned, being citizens of the United States, protest against this infringement upon our personal freedoms and reject this idea of a new draft."
...
January 08, 2004
Still No Vetoes From President Bush
This is not a healthy thing.
FOXNews.com - Politics - Still No Vetoes From President Bush
January 01, 2004
IRS to Step Up Audits and Collections
The Heartland Institute - IRS to Step Up Audits and Collections - by Daniel J. Pilla
December 28, 2003
NY Times Delusion: A Campaign Finance Triumph
t r u t h o u t - New York Times | A Campaign Finance Triumph
December 24, 2003
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
Published: December 23, 2003
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 — As a special envoy for the Reagan administration in 1984, Donald H. Rumsfeld, now the defense secretary, traveled to Iraq to persuade officials there that the United States was eager to improve ties with President Saddam Hussein despite his use of chemical weapons, newly declassified documents show.
Mr. Rumsfeld, who ran a pharmaceutical company at the time, was tapped by Secretary of State George P. Shultz to reinforce a message that a recent move to condemn Iraq's use of chemical weapons was strictly in principle and that America's priority was to prevent an Iranian victory in the Iran-Iraq war and to improve bilateral ties.
During that war, the United States secretly provided Iraq with combat planning assistance, even after Mr. Hussein's use of chemical weapons was widely known. The highly classified program involved more than 60 officers of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who shared intelligence on Iranian deployments, bomb-damage assessments and other crucial information with Iraq.
The disclosures round out a picture of American outreach to the Iraqi government, even as the United States professed to be neutral in the eight-year war, and suggests a private nonchalance toward Mr. Hussein's use of chemicals in warfare. Mr. Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials have cited Iraq's use of poisonous gas as a main reason for ousting Mr. Hussein.
The documents, which were released as part of a declassification project by the National Security Archive, and are available on the Web at www.nsarchive.org, provide details of the instructions given to Mr. Rumsfeld on his second trip to Iraq in four months. The notes of Mr. Rumsfeld's encounter with Tariq Aziz, the foreign minister, remain classified, but officials acknowledged that it would be unusual if Mr. Rumsfeld did not carry out the instructions.
Since the release of the documents, he has told members of his inner circle at the Pentagon that he does not recall whether he had read, or even had received, the State Department memo, Defense Department officials said.
One official noted that the documents reflected the State Department's thinking on Iraq, but did not indicate Mr. Rumsfeld's planning for his meeting with Mr. Hussein nor his comments on the meeting after its conclusion.
Mr. Rumsfeld's trip was his second visit to Iraq. On his first visit, in late December 1983, he had a cordial meeting with Mr. Hussein, and photographs and a report of that encounter have been widely published.
In a follow-up memo, the chief of the American interests section reported that Mr. Aziz had conveyed Mr. Hussein's satisfaction with the meeting. "The Iraqi leadership was extremely pleased with Amb. Rumsfeld's visit," the memo said. "Tariq Aziz had gone out of his way to praise Rumsfeld as a person."
When news emerged last year of the December trip, Mr. Rumsfeld told CNN that he had "cautioned" Mr. Hussein to forgo chemical weapons. But when presented with declassified notes of their meeting that made no mention of that, a spokesman for Mr. Rumsfeld said he had raised the issue in a meeting with Mr. Aziz.
Lawrence Di Rita, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said on Friday that there was no inconsistency between Mr. Rumsfeld's previous comments on his missions to Iraq and the State Department documents.
By early 1984, events threatened to upset the American-Iraqi relationship. After pleading for a year for international action against the chemical warfare, Iran had finally persuaded the United Nations to criticize the use of chemical weapons, albeit in vague terms.
Pressure mounted on the Reagan administration, which had already verified Iraq's "almost daily" use of the weapons against Iran and against Kurdish rebels, documents show. In February, Iraq warned Iranian "invaders" that "for every harmful insect there is an insecticide capable of annihilating it." Within weeks, the American authorities intercepted precursor chemicals that were bound for Iraq. Finally, on March 5, the United States issued a public condemnation of Iraq.
But days later, Mr. Shultz and his deputy met with an Iraqi diplomat, Ismet Kittani, to soften the blow. The American relationship with Iraq was too important — involving business interests, Middle East diplomacy and a shared determination to thwart Iran — to sacrifice. Mr. Kittani left the meeting "unpersuaded," documents show.
Mr. Shultz then turned to Mr. Rumsfeld. In a March 24 briefing document, Mr. Rumsfeld was asked to present America's bottom line. At first, the memo recapitulated Mr. Shultz's message to Mr. Kittani, saying it "clarified that our CW [chemical weapons] condemnation was made strictly out of our strong opposition to the use of lethal and incapacitating CW, wherever it occurs." The American officials had "emphasized that our interests in 1) preventing an Iranian victory and 2) continuing to improve bilateral relations with Iraq, at a pace of Iraq's choosing, remain undiminished," it said.
Then came the instructions for Mr. Rumsfeld: "This message bears reinforcing during your discussions."
The American relationship with Iraq during its crippling war with Iran was rife with such ambiguities. Though the United States was outwardly neutral, it tilted toward Iraq and even monitored talks toward the sale of military equipment by private American contractors.
Tom Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive, said: "Saddam had chemical weapons in the 1980's, and it didn't make any difference to U.S. policy."
Mr. Blanton suggested that the United States was now paying the price for earlier indulgence. "The embrace of Saddam in the 1980's and what it emboldened him to do should caution us as Americans that we have to look closely at all our murky alliances," he said. "Shaking hands with dictators today can turn them into Saddams tomorrow."
Thom Shanker contributed reporting for this article.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
December 16, 2003
Pork Spending in the 2004 Budget
From the Heritage Foundation: Another Omnibus Spending Bill Loaded with Pork
Bob Smith turns it into a call for action:
Save this list. During the 2004 campaign, pick any one of these organizations, and try to get a chance to ask your incumbent politician about it.
Ask him where it is.
Ask him what it does.
Ask him to explain it's value to us.
Ask him why it wasn't funded by the people who will use it.
Ask him why he wanted to spend your money on it.
If you're feeling bold, and he's still paying attention, ask him what HE got out of it.
Scarmig: How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
This is the story of how I successfully refused to accept a Social Security Number for my child.
I simply said “no.”
Really. That’s how easy it was. I just said no, again, and again.
...
December 10, 2003
Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling
This statement from the president of Common Cause is one of the most delusional claims I've heard from a public figure in a while.
"The toxic link between donors who write six-figure checks and people in power at the highest levels of government has been severed for good," said Chellie Pingree, the group's president, in a statement.
It's almost as funny as "The era of big government is over" was. Oh, yeah, folks....this time they've got it all worked out. Sure.
CNN.com - Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling - Dec. 10, 2003
Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban
CNN.com - Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban - Dec. 10, 2003
December 01, 2003
Geoff Metcalf: Under the Color of Authority
IRS: Abuse of Power
Under the Color of Authority
Geoff Metcalf
Monday, Nov. 24, 2003
Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. – Frederick Douglass
For over a decade I have been interviewing and reporting on what has been called The "Tax Honesty Movement." Some people call these folks “tax protesters," others call them wackos. To a growing many, they are patriots committed to redressing what they perceive as a grievous wrong.
In the wake of years of study, interviews and analysis I have come to my own personal conclusions:
-As an academic exercise, and objective evaluation of the facts in evidence, the Tax Freedom crowd is mostly right.
-However, as a practical reality check, and ‘The Golden Rule’ (those with the gold make the rules), when contemporary ‘Davids’ square off with the federal government’s ‘Goliath,’ right is NOT might.
-Those who take on “The G” can and will be eviscerated by bureaucratic ‘shock and awe’ that has and will ruin lives.
...
One of the most heroic crusaders cast in the role of ‘David’ is Joseph R. (Joe) Banister. Joe is a CPA and former IRS Criminal Investigation Division special agent [www.freedomabovefortune.com]. He is a good guy with a fascinating story and about to become another victim of abuse of power under the color of authority.
...
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Demonstrators gathered outside Fort Benning to protest a military school were hit with a sonic barrage Saturday: patriotic music Army officials had blaring from the main gate.
A crowd estimated by Columbus police at 8,000 gathered to protest the school once known as the School of the Americas, which they blame for Latin American human rights abuses. It appeared to be the largest first-day gathering in the 14-year history of the protest.
The Army's loudspeakers, playing "The Army Song" and "God Bless the U.S.A.," were 50 yards away from where protesters were speaking to the crowd.
...
November 27, 2003
Kidd: This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
By Devvy Kidd
November 22, 2003
Millions of Americans have read the Joseph Banister story. For those who may not know of this courageous individual, a short refresher is in order. Joseph was an IRS CID agent (Criminal Investigation Division) for a little over five years. In late 1996, he happened to hear some information about the nature of the income tax on a radio show. After two years of trying to prove the so-called "tax protesters" wrong regarding their beliefs, he finally concluded that the "tax honesty" individuals were indeed correct in their analysis of the income tax and its voluntary nature.
Joseph had no choice but to resign his job, which at that time paid $80,000 per year. You see, this remarkable young man could no longer perform his duties as a CID agent after he discovered the truth. He could not look in the mirror every morning knowing that it was the IRS, his employer, who was breaking the law and committing fraud against the American people. How many people do you know would give up their $80,000 a year job for something called integrity?
With no paycheck coming in, times got tough for this young man; a husband and father of two young boys who attended private Catholic school. However, as a college graduate with a CPA license, Joseph began the process of building a clientele, appearing at numerous events throughout the country and in his soft spoken manner, he told his story and why he could no longer participate in this fraud against his fellow Americans.
As time has gone by, the IRS attempted to silence this courageous young man by making sure he knew a grand jury was sniffing around him. Then the IRS began contacting Joseph's clients and scaring them off so that his income began to once again dwindle. When that didn't work, suddenly the State of California took an interest in him. Stepping up this Nazi style persecution, the State of California is now attempting to take away his CPA license. Not because he has violated any law, but to shut up this courageous young man and deny him the right to work in his profession - all because he told a truth which threatens the powerful, global, banking cartel.
...
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 14, 2003
DownsizeDC.com Radio Ads: Scripts and MP3s
These ads are pretty cool. They're put out by the American Liberty Foundation, which is also quite cool.
Read the ads, listen to them if you can, and then donate some money to help keep them on the air. Three simple steps to becoming an instant freedom activist. Who would have believed it could be so easy?
- "We Believe..." Play
believe.mp3 (935k)
- "Talk Radio" Play
talk_radio.mp3 (935k)
- "Broken Promises" Play
promises.mp3 (935k)
- "Suzie and the Senator" Play
senator.mp3 (936k)
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R.5
Freedom Rating: 4.5
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 12, 2003
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Appeals court upholds rule requiring digital tuners by July 2007
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 Posted: 2:41 PM EST (1941 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a government rule requiring all but the smallest new televisions to have tuners that can receive digital TV signals by July 2007.
The makers of TVs, VCRs and DVD players tried to block the Federal Communications Commission rule, saying it would make sets more expensive and is unnecessary because cable and satellite viewers don't need the tuners.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the FCC, which said the requirement was needed because the industry was not moving quickly enough to make tuners available.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 55%
November 07, 2003
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
Saturday, November 01, 2003
By Eric Burns
We have come a long way.
Early in the 17th century in Jamestown, the first permanent British colony in the New World, cursing was considered a crime. For a first offense, a person was to suffer "severe punishment." For a second offense, he was to have "a bodkin [a small, pointed instrument used to make holes in cloth or leather] thrust through his tongue."
There would be no fourth offense; for the third, a curser would be put to death.
Now, early in the 21st century, the Federal Communications Commission has decided that the most common, if also most crude, four-letter synonym for the sex act may be uttered on television---if, that is, it is used "properly."
How do you say "f***" properly, you ask?
First, the background. On Jan. 19 of this year, on the nationally televised Golden Globes Awards program, the singer Bono, accepting an award, said either "this is really, really f***ing brilliant," or "this is f***ing great." As a result, 234 complaints were filed against the TV stations that carried the show, one of them from a watchdog group called the Parents' Television Council.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2.2
Learning Percentage: 35%
November 05, 2003
US raises spectre of conscription
US raises spectre of conscription
The American defence department has begun a recruitment drive for local draft boards, raising questions about a possible revival of conscription.
A notice on a department website invites United States citizens over the age of 18 to volunteer for the boards.
The board members will decide who can be exempted if a draft is needed.
The campaign comes as the US faces questions about the state of its armed forces at a time of costly operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There has been no draft in the US since it was ended by Congress in 1973, the year that US troops pulled out of Vietnam.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 20%
October 09, 2003
Dowd: Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 9, 2003
Excerpt:
The administration that never let you see it sweat is sweating, as two of its control freaks openly tug over control. The president's foreign policy duenna and his grumpy grampy over at the Pentagon are suddenly mud wrestling.
Women who are discouraged at the ascension of Conan the Barbarian in Cal-ee-fornia can take heart. In this delicious gender-bender, Condoleezza Rice triumphs as the macho infighter, driving Rummy into a diva-like meltdown.
The trigger was Monday's coverage of the Iraq Stabilization Group (a.k.a. Fat Chance Group); the group is a desperate bid to get a grip on Baghdad before the campaign starts by transferring power for postwar Iraq from the Pentagon to the national security adviser's office inside the White House.
Condi used a trick she learned from Rummy: pre-emption. She outflanked the famous Washington infighter by talking about the new alignment to The New York Times before he had a chance to object.
It was the first time the chesty defense czar — who had tried to freeze out the softies at State, which the Pentagon sneeringly refers to as "the Department of Nice" — had been downgraded by the president and outmaneuvered by a colleague.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: L3.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 25%
October 05, 2003
Ashcroft Linked to Rove
Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 2, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- Deep political ties between top White House aides and Attorney General John Ashcroft have put him into a delicate position as the Justice Department begins a full investigation into whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday.
Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Those connections led Democrats on Wednesday to assert that Mr. Rove's connections to Mr. Ashcroft amounted to a clear conflict of interest and undermined the integrity of the investigation. The disclosures have also emboldened Democrats who have called for the appointment of an outside counsel.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
October 01, 2003
Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
FOXNews.com - Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON — The story of America's heroes, accomplishments and ideals is getting surprisingly short shrift in a place of great influence: the nation's public schools.
That's the theme of a provocative report about U.S. civics and history education that is drawing praise from leaders and groups whose views span the ideological spectrum.
Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute and released Tuesday, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's grasp of its own past and present. Authors hope it will lead to curriculum changes and stir debate about social studies lessons as people reflect on the terrorist attacks of two years ago.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%
September 21, 2003
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
...
But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
September 04, 2003
Inside Karl Rove's Diary
This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.
Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
Dear Diary:
Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.
Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.
The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.
Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%
August 24, 2003
Ashcroft Criticized for "PATRIOT Act" promo tour
Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Attorney General John Ashcroft faced sharp criticism today from Democrats and others over his decision to give more than a dozen speeches around the country in defense of anti-terrorism legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 70%
August 17, 2003
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
August 16, 2003
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
Still No Vetoes From President Bush
This is not a healthy thing.
FOXNews.com - Politics - Still No Vetoes From President Bush
IRS to Step Up Audits and Collections
The Heartland Institute - IRS to Step Up Audits and Collections - by Daniel J. Pilla
December 28, 2003
NY Times Delusion: A Campaign Finance Triumph
t r u t h o u t - New York Times | A Campaign Finance Triumph
December 24, 2003
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
Published: December 23, 2003
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 — As a special envoy for the Reagan administration in 1984, Donald H. Rumsfeld, now the defense secretary, traveled to Iraq to persuade officials there that the United States was eager to improve ties with President Saddam Hussein despite his use of chemical weapons, newly declassified documents show.
Mr. Rumsfeld, who ran a pharmaceutical company at the time, was tapped by Secretary of State George P. Shultz to reinforce a message that a recent move to condemn Iraq's use of chemical weapons was strictly in principle and that America's priority was to prevent an Iranian victory in the Iran-Iraq war and to improve bilateral ties.
During that war, the United States secretly provided Iraq with combat planning assistance, even after Mr. Hussein's use of chemical weapons was widely known. The highly classified program involved more than 60 officers of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who shared intelligence on Iranian deployments, bomb-damage assessments and other crucial information with Iraq.
The disclosures round out a picture of American outreach to the Iraqi government, even as the United States professed to be neutral in the eight-year war, and suggests a private nonchalance toward Mr. Hussein's use of chemicals in warfare. Mr. Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials have cited Iraq's use of poisonous gas as a main reason for ousting Mr. Hussein.
The documents, which were released as part of a declassification project by the National Security Archive, and are available on the Web at www.nsarchive.org, provide details of the instructions given to Mr. Rumsfeld on his second trip to Iraq in four months. The notes of Mr. Rumsfeld's encounter with Tariq Aziz, the foreign minister, remain classified, but officials acknowledged that it would be unusual if Mr. Rumsfeld did not carry out the instructions.
Since the release of the documents, he has told members of his inner circle at the Pentagon that he does not recall whether he had read, or even had received, the State Department memo, Defense Department officials said.
One official noted that the documents reflected the State Department's thinking on Iraq, but did not indicate Mr. Rumsfeld's planning for his meeting with Mr. Hussein nor his comments on the meeting after its conclusion.
Mr. Rumsfeld's trip was his second visit to Iraq. On his first visit, in late December 1983, he had a cordial meeting with Mr. Hussein, and photographs and a report of that encounter have been widely published.
In a follow-up memo, the chief of the American interests section reported that Mr. Aziz had conveyed Mr. Hussein's satisfaction with the meeting. "The Iraqi leadership was extremely pleased with Amb. Rumsfeld's visit," the memo said. "Tariq Aziz had gone out of his way to praise Rumsfeld as a person."
When news emerged last year of the December trip, Mr. Rumsfeld told CNN that he had "cautioned" Mr. Hussein to forgo chemical weapons. But when presented with declassified notes of their meeting that made no mention of that, a spokesman for Mr. Rumsfeld said he had raised the issue in a meeting with Mr. Aziz.
Lawrence Di Rita, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said on Friday that there was no inconsistency between Mr. Rumsfeld's previous comments on his missions to Iraq and the State Department documents.
By early 1984, events threatened to upset the American-Iraqi relationship. After pleading for a year for international action against the chemical warfare, Iran had finally persuaded the United Nations to criticize the use of chemical weapons, albeit in vague terms.
Pressure mounted on the Reagan administration, which had already verified Iraq's "almost daily" use of the weapons against Iran and against Kurdish rebels, documents show. In February, Iraq warned Iranian "invaders" that "for every harmful insect there is an insecticide capable of annihilating it." Within weeks, the American authorities intercepted precursor chemicals that were bound for Iraq. Finally, on March 5, the United States issued a public condemnation of Iraq.
But days later, Mr. Shultz and his deputy met with an Iraqi diplomat, Ismet Kittani, to soften the blow. The American relationship with Iraq was too important — involving business interests, Middle East diplomacy and a shared determination to thwart Iran — to sacrifice. Mr. Kittani left the meeting "unpersuaded," documents show.
Mr. Shultz then turned to Mr. Rumsfeld. In a March 24 briefing document, Mr. Rumsfeld was asked to present America's bottom line. At first, the memo recapitulated Mr. Shultz's message to Mr. Kittani, saying it "clarified that our CW [chemical weapons] condemnation was made strictly out of our strong opposition to the use of lethal and incapacitating CW, wherever it occurs." The American officials had "emphasized that our interests in 1) preventing an Iranian victory and 2) continuing to improve bilateral relations with Iraq, at a pace of Iraq's choosing, remain undiminished," it said.
Then came the instructions for Mr. Rumsfeld: "This message bears reinforcing during your discussions."
The American relationship with Iraq during its crippling war with Iran was rife with such ambiguities. Though the United States was outwardly neutral, it tilted toward Iraq and even monitored talks toward the sale of military equipment by private American contractors.
Tom Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive, said: "Saddam had chemical weapons in the 1980's, and it didn't make any difference to U.S. policy."
Mr. Blanton suggested that the United States was now paying the price for earlier indulgence. "The embrace of Saddam in the 1980's and what it emboldened him to do should caution us as Americans that we have to look closely at all our murky alliances," he said. "Shaking hands with dictators today can turn them into Saddams tomorrow."
Thom Shanker contributed reporting for this article.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
December 16, 2003
Pork Spending in the 2004 Budget
From the Heritage Foundation: Another Omnibus Spending Bill Loaded with Pork
Bob Smith turns it into a call for action:
Save this list. During the 2004 campaign, pick any one of these organizations, and try to get a chance to ask your incumbent politician about it.
Ask him where it is.
Ask him what it does.
Ask him to explain it's value to us.
Ask him why it wasn't funded by the people who will use it.
Ask him why he wanted to spend your money on it.
If you're feeling bold, and he's still paying attention, ask him what HE got out of it.
Scarmig: How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
This is the story of how I successfully refused to accept a Social Security Number for my child.
I simply said “no.”
Really. That’s how easy it was. I just said no, again, and again.
...
December 10, 2003
Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling
This statement from the president of Common Cause is one of the most delusional claims I've heard from a public figure in a while.
"The toxic link between donors who write six-figure checks and people in power at the highest levels of government has been severed for good," said Chellie Pingree, the group's president, in a statement.
It's almost as funny as "The era of big government is over" was. Oh, yeah, folks....this time they've got it all worked out. Sure.
CNN.com - Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling - Dec. 10, 2003
Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban
CNN.com - Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban - Dec. 10, 2003
December 01, 2003
Geoff Metcalf: Under the Color of Authority
IRS: Abuse of Power
Under the Color of Authority
Geoff Metcalf
Monday, Nov. 24, 2003
Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. – Frederick Douglass
For over a decade I have been interviewing and reporting on what has been called The "Tax Honesty Movement." Some people call these folks “tax protesters," others call them wackos. To a growing many, they are patriots committed to redressing what they perceive as a grievous wrong.
In the wake of years of study, interviews and analysis I have come to my own personal conclusions:
-As an academic exercise, and objective evaluation of the facts in evidence, the Tax Freedom crowd is mostly right.
-However, as a practical reality check, and ‘The Golden Rule’ (those with the gold make the rules), when contemporary ‘Davids’ square off with the federal government’s ‘Goliath,’ right is NOT might.
-Those who take on “The G” can and will be eviscerated by bureaucratic ‘shock and awe’ that has and will ruin lives.
...
One of the most heroic crusaders cast in the role of ‘David’ is Joseph R. (Joe) Banister. Joe is a CPA and former IRS Criminal Investigation Division special agent [www.freedomabovefortune.com]. He is a good guy with a fascinating story and about to become another victim of abuse of power under the color of authority.
...
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Demonstrators gathered outside Fort Benning to protest a military school were hit with a sonic barrage Saturday: patriotic music Army officials had blaring from the main gate.
A crowd estimated by Columbus police at 8,000 gathered to protest the school once known as the School of the Americas, which they blame for Latin American human rights abuses. It appeared to be the largest first-day gathering in the 14-year history of the protest.
The Army's loudspeakers, playing "The Army Song" and "God Bless the U.S.A.," were 50 yards away from where protesters were speaking to the crowd.
...
November 27, 2003
Kidd: This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
By Devvy Kidd
November 22, 2003
Millions of Americans have read the Joseph Banister story. For those who may not know of this courageous individual, a short refresher is in order. Joseph was an IRS CID agent (Criminal Investigation Division) for a little over five years. In late 1996, he happened to hear some information about the nature of the income tax on a radio show. After two years of trying to prove the so-called "tax protesters" wrong regarding their beliefs, he finally concluded that the "tax honesty" individuals were indeed correct in their analysis of the income tax and its voluntary nature.
Joseph had no choice but to resign his job, which at that time paid $80,000 per year. You see, this remarkable young man could no longer perform his duties as a CID agent after he discovered the truth. He could not look in the mirror every morning knowing that it was the IRS, his employer, who was breaking the law and committing fraud against the American people. How many people do you know would give up their $80,000 a year job for something called integrity?
With no paycheck coming in, times got tough for this young man; a husband and father of two young boys who attended private Catholic school. However, as a college graduate with a CPA license, Joseph began the process of building a clientele, appearing at numerous events throughout the country and in his soft spoken manner, he told his story and why he could no longer participate in this fraud against his fellow Americans.
As time has gone by, the IRS attempted to silence this courageous young man by making sure he knew a grand jury was sniffing around him. Then the IRS began contacting Joseph's clients and scaring them off so that his income began to once again dwindle. When that didn't work, suddenly the State of California took an interest in him. Stepping up this Nazi style persecution, the State of California is now attempting to take away his CPA license. Not because he has violated any law, but to shut up this courageous young man and deny him the right to work in his profession - all because he told a truth which threatens the powerful, global, banking cartel.
...
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 14, 2003
DownsizeDC.com Radio Ads: Scripts and MP3s
These ads are pretty cool. They're put out by the American Liberty Foundation, which is also quite cool.
Read the ads, listen to them if you can, and then donate some money to help keep them on the air. Three simple steps to becoming an instant freedom activist. Who would have believed it could be so easy?
- "We Believe..." Play
believe.mp3 (935k)
- "Talk Radio" Play
talk_radio.mp3 (935k)
- "Broken Promises" Play
promises.mp3 (935k)
- "Suzie and the Senator" Play
senator.mp3 (936k)
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R.5
Freedom Rating: 4.5
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 12, 2003
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Appeals court upholds rule requiring digital tuners by July 2007
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 Posted: 2:41 PM EST (1941 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a government rule requiring all but the smallest new televisions to have tuners that can receive digital TV signals by July 2007.
The makers of TVs, VCRs and DVD players tried to block the Federal Communications Commission rule, saying it would make sets more expensive and is unnecessary because cable and satellite viewers don't need the tuners.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the FCC, which said the requirement was needed because the industry was not moving quickly enough to make tuners available.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 55%
November 07, 2003
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
Saturday, November 01, 2003
By Eric Burns
We have come a long way.
Early in the 17th century in Jamestown, the first permanent British colony in the New World, cursing was considered a crime. For a first offense, a person was to suffer "severe punishment." For a second offense, he was to have "a bodkin [a small, pointed instrument used to make holes in cloth or leather] thrust through his tongue."
There would be no fourth offense; for the third, a curser would be put to death.
Now, early in the 21st century, the Federal Communications Commission has decided that the most common, if also most crude, four-letter synonym for the sex act may be uttered on television---if, that is, it is used "properly."
How do you say "f***" properly, you ask?
First, the background. On Jan. 19 of this year, on the nationally televised Golden Globes Awards program, the singer Bono, accepting an award, said either "this is really, really f***ing brilliant," or "this is f***ing great." As a result, 234 complaints were filed against the TV stations that carried the show, one of them from a watchdog group called the Parents' Television Council.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2.2
Learning Percentage: 35%
November 05, 2003
US raises spectre of conscription
US raises spectre of conscription
The American defence department has begun a recruitment drive for local draft boards, raising questions about a possible revival of conscription.
A notice on a department website invites United States citizens over the age of 18 to volunteer for the boards.
The board members will decide who can be exempted if a draft is needed.
The campaign comes as the US faces questions about the state of its armed forces at a time of costly operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There has been no draft in the US since it was ended by Congress in 1973, the year that US troops pulled out of Vietnam.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 20%
October 09, 2003
Dowd: Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 9, 2003
Excerpt:
The administration that never let you see it sweat is sweating, as two of its control freaks openly tug over control. The president's foreign policy duenna and his grumpy grampy over at the Pentagon are suddenly mud wrestling.
Women who are discouraged at the ascension of Conan the Barbarian in Cal-ee-fornia can take heart. In this delicious gender-bender, Condoleezza Rice triumphs as the macho infighter, driving Rummy into a diva-like meltdown.
The trigger was Monday's coverage of the Iraq Stabilization Group (a.k.a. Fat Chance Group); the group is a desperate bid to get a grip on Baghdad before the campaign starts by transferring power for postwar Iraq from the Pentagon to the national security adviser's office inside the White House.
Condi used a trick she learned from Rummy: pre-emption. She outflanked the famous Washington infighter by talking about the new alignment to The New York Times before he had a chance to object.
It was the first time the chesty defense czar — who had tried to freeze out the softies at State, which the Pentagon sneeringly refers to as "the Department of Nice" — had been downgraded by the president and outmaneuvered by a colleague.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: L3.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 25%
October 05, 2003
Ashcroft Linked to Rove
Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 2, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- Deep political ties between top White House aides and Attorney General John Ashcroft have put him into a delicate position as the Justice Department begins a full investigation into whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday.
Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Those connections led Democrats on Wednesday to assert that Mr. Rove's connections to Mr. Ashcroft amounted to a clear conflict of interest and undermined the integrity of the investigation. The disclosures have also emboldened Democrats who have called for the appointment of an outside counsel.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
October 01, 2003
Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
FOXNews.com - Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON — The story of America's heroes, accomplishments and ideals is getting surprisingly short shrift in a place of great influence: the nation's public schools.
That's the theme of a provocative report about U.S. civics and history education that is drawing praise from leaders and groups whose views span the ideological spectrum.
Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute and released Tuesday, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's grasp of its own past and present. Authors hope it will lead to curriculum changes and stir debate about social studies lessons as people reflect on the terrorist attacks of two years ago.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%
September 21, 2003
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
...
But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
September 04, 2003
Inside Karl Rove's Diary
This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.
Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
Dear Diary:
Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.
Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.
The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.
Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%
August 24, 2003
Ashcroft Criticized for "PATRIOT Act" promo tour
Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Attorney General John Ashcroft faced sharp criticism today from Democrats and others over his decision to give more than a dozen speeches around the country in defense of anti-terrorism legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 70%
August 17, 2003
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
August 16, 2003
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
NY Times Delusion: A Campaign Finance Triumph
t r u t h o u t - New York Times | A Campaign Finance Triumph
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
Rumsfeld Made Iraq Overture in '84 Despite Chemical Raids
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
Published: December 23, 2003
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 — As a special envoy for the Reagan administration in 1984, Donald H. Rumsfeld, now the defense secretary, traveled to Iraq to persuade officials there that the United States was eager to improve ties with President Saddam Hussein despite his use of chemical weapons, newly declassified documents show.
Mr. Rumsfeld, who ran a pharmaceutical company at the time, was tapped by Secretary of State George P. Shultz to reinforce a message that a recent move to condemn Iraq's use of chemical weapons was strictly in principle and that America's priority was to prevent an Iranian victory in the Iran-Iraq war and to improve bilateral ties.
During that war, the United States secretly provided Iraq with combat planning assistance, even after Mr. Hussein's use of chemical weapons was widely known. The highly classified program involved more than 60 officers of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who shared intelligence on Iranian deployments, bomb-damage assessments and other crucial information with Iraq.
The disclosures round out a picture of American outreach to the Iraqi government, even as the United States professed to be neutral in the eight-year war, and suggests a private nonchalance toward Mr. Hussein's use of chemicals in warfare. Mr. Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials have cited Iraq's use of poisonous gas as a main reason for ousting Mr. Hussein.
The documents, which were released as part of a declassification project by the National Security Archive, and are available on the Web at www.nsarchive.org, provide details of the instructions given to Mr. Rumsfeld on his second trip to Iraq in four months. The notes of Mr. Rumsfeld's encounter with Tariq Aziz, the foreign minister, remain classified, but officials acknowledged that it would be unusual if Mr. Rumsfeld did not carry out the instructions.
Since the release of the documents, he has told members of his inner circle at the Pentagon that he does not recall whether he had read, or even had received, the State Department memo, Defense Department officials said.
One official noted that the documents reflected the State Department's thinking on Iraq, but did not indicate Mr. Rumsfeld's planning for his meeting with Mr. Hussein nor his comments on the meeting after its conclusion.
Mr. Rumsfeld's trip was his second visit to Iraq. On his first visit, in late December 1983, he had a cordial meeting with Mr. Hussein, and photographs and a report of that encounter have been widely published.
In a follow-up memo, the chief of the American interests section reported that Mr. Aziz had conveyed Mr. Hussein's satisfaction with the meeting. "The Iraqi leadership was extremely pleased with Amb. Rumsfeld's visit," the memo said. "Tariq Aziz had gone out of his way to praise Rumsfeld as a person."
When news emerged last year of the December trip, Mr. Rumsfeld told CNN that he had "cautioned" Mr. Hussein to forgo chemical weapons. But when presented with declassified notes of their meeting that made no mention of that, a spokesman for Mr. Rumsfeld said he had raised the issue in a meeting with Mr. Aziz.
Lawrence Di Rita, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said on Friday that there was no inconsistency between Mr. Rumsfeld's previous comments on his missions to Iraq and the State Department documents.
By early 1984, events threatened to upset the American-Iraqi relationship. After pleading for a year for international action against the chemical warfare, Iran had finally persuaded the United Nations to criticize the use of chemical weapons, albeit in vague terms.
Pressure mounted on the Reagan administration, which had already verified Iraq's "almost daily" use of the weapons against Iran and against Kurdish rebels, documents show. In February, Iraq warned Iranian "invaders" that "for every harmful insect there is an insecticide capable of annihilating it." Within weeks, the American authorities intercepted precursor chemicals that were bound for Iraq. Finally, on March 5, the United States issued a public condemnation of Iraq.
But days later, Mr. Shultz and his deputy met with an Iraqi diplomat, Ismet Kittani, to soften the blow. The American relationship with Iraq was too important — involving business interests, Middle East diplomacy and a shared determination to thwart Iran — to sacrifice. Mr. Kittani left the meeting "unpersuaded," documents show.
Mr. Shultz then turned to Mr. Rumsfeld. In a March 24 briefing document, Mr. Rumsfeld was asked to present America's bottom line. At first, the memo recapitulated Mr. Shultz's message to Mr. Kittani, saying it "clarified that our CW [chemical weapons] condemnation was made strictly out of our strong opposition to the use of lethal and incapacitating CW, wherever it occurs." The American officials had "emphasized that our interests in 1) preventing an Iranian victory and 2) continuing to improve bilateral relations with Iraq, at a pace of Iraq's choosing, remain undiminished," it said.
Then came the instructions for Mr. Rumsfeld: "This message bears reinforcing during your discussions."
The American relationship with Iraq during its crippling war with Iran was rife with such ambiguities. Though the United States was outwardly neutral, it tilted toward Iraq and even monitored talks toward the sale of military equipment by private American contractors.
Tom Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive, said: "Saddam had chemical weapons in the 1980's, and it didn't make any difference to U.S. policy."
Mr. Blanton suggested that the United States was now paying the price for earlier indulgence. "The embrace of Saddam in the 1980's and what it emboldened him to do should caution us as Americans that we have to look closely at all our murky alliances," he said. "Shaking hands with dictators today can turn them into Saddams tomorrow."
Thom Shanker contributed reporting for this article.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
December 16, 2003
Pork Spending in the 2004 Budget
From the Heritage Foundation: Another Omnibus Spending Bill Loaded with Pork
Bob Smith turns it into a call for action:
Save this list. During the 2004 campaign, pick any one of these organizations, and try to get a chance to ask your incumbent politician about it.
Ask him where it is.
Ask him what it does.
Ask him to explain it's value to us.
Ask him why it wasn't funded by the people who will use it.
Ask him why he wanted to spend your money on it.
If you're feeling bold, and he's still paying attention, ask him what HE got out of it.
Scarmig: How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
This is the story of how I successfully refused to accept a Social Security Number for my child.
I simply said “no.”
Really. That’s how easy it was. I just said no, again, and again.
...
December 10, 2003
Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling
This statement from the president of Common Cause is one of the most delusional claims I've heard from a public figure in a while.
"The toxic link between donors who write six-figure checks and people in power at the highest levels of government has been severed for good," said Chellie Pingree, the group's president, in a statement.
It's almost as funny as "The era of big government is over" was. Oh, yeah, folks....this time they've got it all worked out. Sure.
CNN.com - Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling - Dec. 10, 2003
Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban
CNN.com - Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban - Dec. 10, 2003
December 01, 2003
Geoff Metcalf: Under the Color of Authority
IRS: Abuse of Power
Under the Color of Authority
Geoff Metcalf
Monday, Nov. 24, 2003
Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. – Frederick Douglass
For over a decade I have been interviewing and reporting on what has been called The "Tax Honesty Movement." Some people call these folks “tax protesters," others call them wackos. To a growing many, they are patriots committed to redressing what they perceive as a grievous wrong.
In the wake of years of study, interviews and analysis I have come to my own personal conclusions:
-As an academic exercise, and objective evaluation of the facts in evidence, the Tax Freedom crowd is mostly right.
-However, as a practical reality check, and ‘The Golden Rule’ (those with the gold make the rules), when contemporary ‘Davids’ square off with the federal government’s ‘Goliath,’ right is NOT might.
-Those who take on “The G” can and will be eviscerated by bureaucratic ‘shock and awe’ that has and will ruin lives.
...
One of the most heroic crusaders cast in the role of ‘David’ is Joseph R. (Joe) Banister. Joe is a CPA and former IRS Criminal Investigation Division special agent [www.freedomabovefortune.com]. He is a good guy with a fascinating story and about to become another victim of abuse of power under the color of authority.
...
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Demonstrators gathered outside Fort Benning to protest a military school were hit with a sonic barrage Saturday: patriotic music Army officials had blaring from the main gate.
A crowd estimated by Columbus police at 8,000 gathered to protest the school once known as the School of the Americas, which they blame for Latin American human rights abuses. It appeared to be the largest first-day gathering in the 14-year history of the protest.
The Army's loudspeakers, playing "The Army Song" and "God Bless the U.S.A.," were 50 yards away from where protesters were speaking to the crowd.
...
November 27, 2003
Kidd: This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
By Devvy Kidd
November 22, 2003
Millions of Americans have read the Joseph Banister story. For those who may not know of this courageous individual, a short refresher is in order. Joseph was an IRS CID agent (Criminal Investigation Division) for a little over five years. In late 1996, he happened to hear some information about the nature of the income tax on a radio show. After two years of trying to prove the so-called "tax protesters" wrong regarding their beliefs, he finally concluded that the "tax honesty" individuals were indeed correct in their analysis of the income tax and its voluntary nature.
Joseph had no choice but to resign his job, which at that time paid $80,000 per year. You see, this remarkable young man could no longer perform his duties as a CID agent after he discovered the truth. He could not look in the mirror every morning knowing that it was the IRS, his employer, who was breaking the law and committing fraud against the American people. How many people do you know would give up their $80,000 a year job for something called integrity?
With no paycheck coming in, times got tough for this young man; a husband and father of two young boys who attended private Catholic school. However, as a college graduate with a CPA license, Joseph began the process of building a clientele, appearing at numerous events throughout the country and in his soft spoken manner, he told his story and why he could no longer participate in this fraud against his fellow Americans.
As time has gone by, the IRS attempted to silence this courageous young man by making sure he knew a grand jury was sniffing around him. Then the IRS began contacting Joseph's clients and scaring them off so that his income began to once again dwindle. When that didn't work, suddenly the State of California took an interest in him. Stepping up this Nazi style persecution, the State of California is now attempting to take away his CPA license. Not because he has violated any law, but to shut up this courageous young man and deny him the right to work in his profession - all because he told a truth which threatens the powerful, global, banking cartel.
...
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 14, 2003
DownsizeDC.com Radio Ads: Scripts and MP3s
These ads are pretty cool. They're put out by the American Liberty Foundation, which is also quite cool.
Read the ads, listen to them if you can, and then donate some money to help keep them on the air. Three simple steps to becoming an instant freedom activist. Who would have believed it could be so easy?
- "We Believe..." Play
believe.mp3 (935k)
- "Talk Radio" Play
talk_radio.mp3 (935k)
- "Broken Promises" Play
promises.mp3 (935k)
- "Suzie and the Senator" Play
senator.mp3 (936k)
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R.5
Freedom Rating: 4.5
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 12, 2003
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Appeals court upholds rule requiring digital tuners by July 2007
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 Posted: 2:41 PM EST (1941 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a government rule requiring all but the smallest new televisions to have tuners that can receive digital TV signals by July 2007.
The makers of TVs, VCRs and DVD players tried to block the Federal Communications Commission rule, saying it would make sets more expensive and is unnecessary because cable and satellite viewers don't need the tuners.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the FCC, which said the requirement was needed because the industry was not moving quickly enough to make tuners available.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 55%
November 07, 2003
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
Saturday, November 01, 2003
By Eric Burns
We have come a long way.
Early in the 17th century in Jamestown, the first permanent British colony in the New World, cursing was considered a crime. For a first offense, a person was to suffer "severe punishment." For a second offense, he was to have "a bodkin [a small, pointed instrument used to make holes in cloth or leather] thrust through his tongue."
There would be no fourth offense; for the third, a curser would be put to death.
Now, early in the 21st century, the Federal Communications Commission has decided that the most common, if also most crude, four-letter synonym for the sex act may be uttered on television---if, that is, it is used "properly."
How do you say "f***" properly, you ask?
First, the background. On Jan. 19 of this year, on the nationally televised Golden Globes Awards program, the singer Bono, accepting an award, said either "this is really, really f***ing brilliant," or "this is f***ing great." As a result, 234 complaints were filed against the TV stations that carried the show, one of them from a watchdog group called the Parents' Television Council.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2.2
Learning Percentage: 35%
November 05, 2003
US raises spectre of conscription
US raises spectre of conscription
The American defence department has begun a recruitment drive for local draft boards, raising questions about a possible revival of conscription.
A notice on a department website invites United States citizens over the age of 18 to volunteer for the boards.
The board members will decide who can be exempted if a draft is needed.
The campaign comes as the US faces questions about the state of its armed forces at a time of costly operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There has been no draft in the US since it was ended by Congress in 1973, the year that US troops pulled out of Vietnam.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 20%
October 09, 2003
Dowd: Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 9, 2003
Excerpt:
The administration that never let you see it sweat is sweating, as two of its control freaks openly tug over control. The president's foreign policy duenna and his grumpy grampy over at the Pentagon are suddenly mud wrestling.
Women who are discouraged at the ascension of Conan the Barbarian in Cal-ee-fornia can take heart. In this delicious gender-bender, Condoleezza Rice triumphs as the macho infighter, driving Rummy into a diva-like meltdown.
The trigger was Monday's coverage of the Iraq Stabilization Group (a.k.a. Fat Chance Group); the group is a desperate bid to get a grip on Baghdad before the campaign starts by transferring power for postwar Iraq from the Pentagon to the national security adviser's office inside the White House.
Condi used a trick she learned from Rummy: pre-emption. She outflanked the famous Washington infighter by talking about the new alignment to The New York Times before he had a chance to object.
It was the first time the chesty defense czar — who had tried to freeze out the softies at State, which the Pentagon sneeringly refers to as "the Department of Nice" — had been downgraded by the president and outmaneuvered by a colleague.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: L3.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 25%
October 05, 2003
Ashcroft Linked to Rove
Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 2, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- Deep political ties between top White House aides and Attorney General John Ashcroft have put him into a delicate position as the Justice Department begins a full investigation into whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday.
Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Those connections led Democrats on Wednesday to assert that Mr. Rove's connections to Mr. Ashcroft amounted to a clear conflict of interest and undermined the integrity of the investigation. The disclosures have also emboldened Democrats who have called for the appointment of an outside counsel.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
October 01, 2003
Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
FOXNews.com - Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON — The story of America's heroes, accomplishments and ideals is getting surprisingly short shrift in a place of great influence: the nation's public schools.
That's the theme of a provocative report about U.S. civics and history education that is drawing praise from leaders and groups whose views span the ideological spectrum.
Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute and released Tuesday, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's grasp of its own past and present. Authors hope it will lead to curriculum changes and stir debate about social studies lessons as people reflect on the terrorist attacks of two years ago.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%
September 21, 2003
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
...
But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
September 04, 2003
Inside Karl Rove's Diary
This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.
Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
Dear Diary:
Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.
Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.
The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.
Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%
August 24, 2003
Ashcroft Criticized for "PATRIOT Act" promo tour
Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Attorney General John Ashcroft faced sharp criticism today from Democrats and others over his decision to give more than a dozen speeches around the country in defense of anti-terrorism legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 70%
August 17, 2003
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
August 16, 2003
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
Pork Spending in the 2004 Budget
From the Heritage Foundation: Another Omnibus Spending Bill Loaded with Pork
Bob Smith turns it into a call for action:
Save this list. During the 2004 campaign, pick any one of these organizations, and try to get a chance to ask your incumbent politician about it.
Ask him where it is.
Ask him what it does.
Ask him to explain it's value to us.
Ask him why it wasn't funded by the people who will use it.
Ask him why he wanted to spend your money on it.
If you're feeling bold, and he's still paying attention, ask him what HE got out of it.
Scarmig: How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
How I Said No to the Automatic Social Security Number
This is the story of how I successfully refused to accept a Social Security Number for my child.
I simply said “no.”
Really. That’s how easy it was. I just said no, again, and again.
...
Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling
This statement from the president of Common Cause is one of the most delusional claims I've heard from a public figure in a while.
"The toxic link between donors who write six-figure checks and people in power at the highest levels of government has been severed for good," said Chellie Pingree, the group's president, in a statement.
It's almost as funny as "The era of big government is over" was. Oh, yeah, folks....this time they've got it all worked out. Sure.
CNN.com - Campaign finance supporters praise Supreme Court ruling - Dec. 10, 2003
Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban
CNN.com - Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban - Dec. 10, 2003
December 01, 2003
Geoff Metcalf: Under the Color of Authority
IRS: Abuse of Power
Under the Color of Authority
Geoff Metcalf
Monday, Nov. 24, 2003
Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. – Frederick Douglass
For over a decade I have been interviewing and reporting on what has been called The "Tax Honesty Movement." Some people call these folks “tax protesters," others call them wackos. To a growing many, they are patriots committed to redressing what they perceive as a grievous wrong.
In the wake of years of study, interviews and analysis I have come to my own personal conclusions:
-As an academic exercise, and objective evaluation of the facts in evidence, the Tax Freedom crowd is mostly right.
-However, as a practical reality check, and ‘The Golden Rule’ (those with the gold make the rules), when contemporary ‘Davids’ square off with the federal government’s ‘Goliath,’ right is NOT might.
-Those who take on “The G” can and will be eviscerated by bureaucratic ‘shock and awe’ that has and will ruin lives.
...
One of the most heroic crusaders cast in the role of ‘David’ is Joseph R. (Joe) Banister. Joe is a CPA and former IRS Criminal Investigation Division special agent [www.freedomabovefortune.com]. He is a good guy with a fascinating story and about to become another victim of abuse of power under the color of authority.
...
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Demonstrators gathered outside Fort Benning to protest a military school were hit with a sonic barrage Saturday: patriotic music Army officials had blaring from the main gate.
A crowd estimated by Columbus police at 8,000 gathered to protest the school once known as the School of the Americas, which they blame for Latin American human rights abuses. It appeared to be the largest first-day gathering in the 14-year history of the protest.
The Army's loudspeakers, playing "The Army Song" and "God Bless the U.S.A.," were 50 yards away from where protesters were speaking to the crowd.
...
November 27, 2003
Kidd: This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
By Devvy Kidd
November 22, 2003
Millions of Americans have read the Joseph Banister story. For those who may not know of this courageous individual, a short refresher is in order. Joseph was an IRS CID agent (Criminal Investigation Division) for a little over five years. In late 1996, he happened to hear some information about the nature of the income tax on a radio show. After two years of trying to prove the so-called "tax protesters" wrong regarding their beliefs, he finally concluded that the "tax honesty" individuals were indeed correct in their analysis of the income tax and its voluntary nature.
Joseph had no choice but to resign his job, which at that time paid $80,000 per year. You see, this remarkable young man could no longer perform his duties as a CID agent after he discovered the truth. He could not look in the mirror every morning knowing that it was the IRS, his employer, who was breaking the law and committing fraud against the American people. How many people do you know would give up their $80,000 a year job for something called integrity?
With no paycheck coming in, times got tough for this young man; a husband and father of two young boys who attended private Catholic school. However, as a college graduate with a CPA license, Joseph began the process of building a clientele, appearing at numerous events throughout the country and in his soft spoken manner, he told his story and why he could no longer participate in this fraud against his fellow Americans.
As time has gone by, the IRS attempted to silence this courageous young man by making sure he knew a grand jury was sniffing around him. Then the IRS began contacting Joseph's clients and scaring them off so that his income began to once again dwindle. When that didn't work, suddenly the State of California took an interest in him. Stepping up this Nazi style persecution, the State of California is now attempting to take away his CPA license. Not because he has violated any law, but to shut up this courageous young man and deny him the right to work in his profession - all because he told a truth which threatens the powerful, global, banking cartel.
...
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 14, 2003
DownsizeDC.com Radio Ads: Scripts and MP3s
These ads are pretty cool. They're put out by the American Liberty Foundation, which is also quite cool.
Read the ads, listen to them if you can, and then donate some money to help keep them on the air. Three simple steps to becoming an instant freedom activist. Who would have believed it could be so easy?
- "We Believe..." Play
believe.mp3 (935k)
- "Talk Radio" Play
talk_radio.mp3 (935k)
- "Broken Promises" Play
promises.mp3 (935k)
- "Suzie and the Senator" Play
senator.mp3 (936k)
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R.5
Freedom Rating: 4.5
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 12, 2003
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Appeals court upholds rule requiring digital tuners by July 2007
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 Posted: 2:41 PM EST (1941 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a government rule requiring all but the smallest new televisions to have tuners that can receive digital TV signals by July 2007.
The makers of TVs, VCRs and DVD players tried to block the Federal Communications Commission rule, saying it would make sets more expensive and is unnecessary because cable and satellite viewers don't need the tuners.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the FCC, which said the requirement was needed because the industry was not moving quickly enough to make tuners available.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 55%
November 07, 2003
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
Saturday, November 01, 2003
By Eric Burns
We have come a long way.
Early in the 17th century in Jamestown, the first permanent British colony in the New World, cursing was considered a crime. For a first offense, a person was to suffer "severe punishment." For a second offense, he was to have "a bodkin [a small, pointed instrument used to make holes in cloth or leather] thrust through his tongue."
There would be no fourth offense; for the third, a curser would be put to death.
Now, early in the 21st century, the Federal Communications Commission has decided that the most common, if also most crude, four-letter synonym for the sex act may be uttered on television---if, that is, it is used "properly."
How do you say "f***" properly, you ask?
First, the background. On Jan. 19 of this year, on the nationally televised Golden Globes Awards program, the singer Bono, accepting an award, said either "this is really, really f***ing brilliant," or "this is f***ing great." As a result, 234 complaints were filed against the TV stations that carried the show, one of them from a watchdog group called the Parents' Television Council.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2.2
Learning Percentage: 35%
November 05, 2003
US raises spectre of conscription
US raises spectre of conscription
The American defence department has begun a recruitment drive for local draft boards, raising questions about a possible revival of conscription.
A notice on a department website invites United States citizens over the age of 18 to volunteer for the boards.
The board members will decide who can be exempted if a draft is needed.
The campaign comes as the US faces questions about the state of its armed forces at a time of costly operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There has been no draft in the US since it was ended by Congress in 1973, the year that US troops pulled out of Vietnam.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 20%
October 09, 2003
Dowd: Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 9, 2003
Excerpt:
The administration that never let you see it sweat is sweating, as two of its control freaks openly tug over control. The president's foreign policy duenna and his grumpy grampy over at the Pentagon are suddenly mud wrestling.
Women who are discouraged at the ascension of Conan the Barbarian in Cal-ee-fornia can take heart. In this delicious gender-bender, Condoleezza Rice triumphs as the macho infighter, driving Rummy into a diva-like meltdown.
The trigger was Monday's coverage of the Iraq Stabilization Group (a.k.a. Fat Chance Group); the group is a desperate bid to get a grip on Baghdad before the campaign starts by transferring power for postwar Iraq from the Pentagon to the national security adviser's office inside the White House.
Condi used a trick she learned from Rummy: pre-emption. She outflanked the famous Washington infighter by talking about the new alignment to The New York Times before he had a chance to object.
It was the first time the chesty defense czar — who had tried to freeze out the softies at State, which the Pentagon sneeringly refers to as "the Department of Nice" — had been downgraded by the president and outmaneuvered by a colleague.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: L3.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 25%
October 05, 2003
Ashcroft Linked to Rove
Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 2, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- Deep political ties between top White House aides and Attorney General John Ashcroft have put him into a delicate position as the Justice Department begins a full investigation into whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday.
Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Those connections led Democrats on Wednesday to assert that Mr. Rove's connections to Mr. Ashcroft amounted to a clear conflict of interest and undermined the integrity of the investigation. The disclosures have also emboldened Democrats who have called for the appointment of an outside counsel.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
October 01, 2003
Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
FOXNews.com - Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON — The story of America's heroes, accomplishments and ideals is getting surprisingly short shrift in a place of great influence: the nation's public schools.
That's the theme of a provocative report about U.S. civics and history education that is drawing praise from leaders and groups whose views span the ideological spectrum.
Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute and released Tuesday, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's grasp of its own past and present. Authors hope it will lead to curriculum changes and stir debate about social studies lessons as people reflect on the terrorist attacks of two years ago.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%
September 21, 2003
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
...
But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
September 04, 2003
Inside Karl Rove's Diary
This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.
Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
Dear Diary:
Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.
Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.
The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.
Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%
August 24, 2003
Ashcroft Criticized for "PATRIOT Act" promo tour
Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Attorney General John Ashcroft faced sharp criticism today from Democrats and others over his decision to give more than a dozen speeches around the country in defense of anti-terrorism legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 70%
August 17, 2003
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
August 16, 2003
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
Geoff Metcalf: Under the Color of Authority
IRS: Abuse of Power
Under the Color of Authority
Geoff Metcalf
Monday, Nov. 24, 2003
Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. – Frederick Douglass
For over a decade I have been interviewing and reporting on what has been called The "Tax Honesty Movement." Some people call these folks “tax protesters," others call them wackos. To a growing many, they are patriots committed to redressing what they perceive as a grievous wrong.
In the wake of years of study, interviews and analysis I have come to my own personal conclusions:
-As an academic exercise, and objective evaluation of the facts in evidence, the Tax Freedom crowd is mostly right.
-However, as a practical reality check, and ‘The Golden Rule’ (those with the gold make the rules), when contemporary ‘Davids’ square off with the federal government’s ‘Goliath,’ right is NOT might.
-Those who take on “The G” can and will be eviscerated by bureaucratic ‘shock and awe’ that has and will ruin lives.
...
One of the most heroic crusaders cast in the role of ‘David’ is Joseph R. (Joe) Banister. Joe is a CPA and former IRS Criminal Investigation Division special agent [www.freedomabovefortune.com]. He is a good guy with a fascinating story and about to become another victim of abuse of power under the color of authority.
...
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
Big Crowd at Military School Protest Gets Earful of Patriotic Music From Army
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Demonstrators gathered outside Fort Benning to protest a military school were hit with a sonic barrage Saturday: patriotic music Army officials had blaring from the main gate.
A crowd estimated by Columbus police at 8,000 gathered to protest the school once known as the School of the Americas, which they blame for Latin American human rights abuses. It appeared to be the largest first-day gathering in the 14-year history of the protest.
The Army's loudspeakers, playing "The Army Song" and "God Bless the U.S.A.," were 50 yards away from where protesters were speaking to the crowd.
...
Kidd: This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
This is What Your FEAR is Protecting
By Devvy Kidd
November 22, 2003
Millions of Americans have read the Joseph Banister story. For those who may not know of this courageous individual, a short refresher is in order. Joseph was an IRS CID agent (Criminal Investigation Division) for a little over five years. In late 1996, he happened to hear some information about the nature of the income tax on a radio show. After two years of trying to prove the so-called "tax protesters" wrong regarding their beliefs, he finally concluded that the "tax honesty" individuals were indeed correct in their analysis of the income tax and its voluntary nature.
Joseph had no choice but to resign his job, which at that time paid $80,000 per year. You see, this remarkable young man could no longer perform his duties as a CID agent after he discovered the truth. He could not look in the mirror every morning knowing that it was the IRS, his employer, who was breaking the law and committing fraud against the American people. How many people do you know would give up their $80,000 a year job for something called integrity?
With no paycheck coming in, times got tough for this young man; a husband and father of two young boys who attended private Catholic school. However, as a college graduate with a CPA license, Joseph began the process of building a clientele, appearing at numerous events throughout the country and in his soft spoken manner, he told his story and why he could no longer participate in this fraud against his fellow Americans.
As time has gone by, the IRS attempted to silence this courageous young man by making sure he knew a grand jury was sniffing around him. Then the IRS began contacting Joseph's clients and scaring them off so that his income began to once again dwindle. When that didn't work, suddenly the State of California took an interest in him. Stepping up this Nazi style persecution, the State of California is now attempting to take away his CPA license. Not because he has violated any law, but to shut up this courageous young man and deny him the right to work in his profession - all because he told a truth which threatens the powerful, global, banking cartel.
...
Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 14, 2003
DownsizeDC.com Radio Ads: Scripts and MP3s
These ads are pretty cool. They're put out by the American Liberty Foundation, which is also quite cool.
Read the ads, listen to them if you can, and then donate some money to help keep them on the air. Three simple steps to becoming an instant freedom activist. Who would have believed it could be so easy?
- "We Believe..." Play
believe.mp3 (935k)
- "Talk Radio" Play
talk_radio.mp3 (935k)
- "Broken Promises" Play
promises.mp3 (935k)
- "Suzie and the Senator" Play
senator.mp3 (936k)
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R.5
Freedom Rating: 4.5
Learning Percentage: 20%
November 12, 2003
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Appeals court upholds rule requiring digital tuners by July 2007
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 Posted: 2:41 PM EST (1941 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a government rule requiring all but the smallest new televisions to have tuners that can receive digital TV signals by July 2007.
The makers of TVs, VCRs and DVD players tried to block the Federal Communications Commission rule, saying it would make sets more expensive and is unnecessary because cable and satellite viewers don't need the tuners.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the FCC, which said the requirement was needed because the industry was not moving quickly enough to make tuners available.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 55%
November 07, 2003
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
Saturday, November 01, 2003
By Eric Burns
We have come a long way.
Early in the 17th century in Jamestown, the first permanent British colony in the New World, cursing was considered a crime. For a first offense, a person was to suffer "severe punishment." For a second offense, he was to have "a bodkin [a small, pointed instrument used to make holes in cloth or leather] thrust through his tongue."
There would be no fourth offense; for the third, a curser would be put to death.
Now, early in the 21st century, the Federal Communications Commission has decided that the most common, if also most crude, four-letter synonym for the sex act may be uttered on television---if, that is, it is used "properly."
How do you say "f***" properly, you ask?
First, the background. On Jan. 19 of this year, on the nationally televised Golden Globes Awards program, the singer Bono, accepting an award, said either "this is really, really f***ing brilliant," or "this is f***ing great." As a result, 234 complaints were filed against the TV stations that carried the show, one of them from a watchdog group called the Parents' Television Council.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2.2
Learning Percentage: 35%
November 05, 2003
US raises spectre of conscription
US raises spectre of conscription
The American defence department has begun a recruitment drive for local draft boards, raising questions about a possible revival of conscription.
A notice on a department website invites United States citizens over the age of 18 to volunteer for the boards.
The board members will decide who can be exempted if a draft is needed.
The campaign comes as the US faces questions about the state of its armed forces at a time of costly operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There has been no draft in the US since it was ended by Congress in 1973, the year that US troops pulled out of Vietnam.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 20%
October 09, 2003
Dowd: Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 9, 2003
Excerpt:
The administration that never let you see it sweat is sweating, as two of its control freaks openly tug over control. The president's foreign policy duenna and his grumpy grampy over at the Pentagon are suddenly mud wrestling.
Women who are discouraged at the ascension of Conan the Barbarian in Cal-ee-fornia can take heart. In this delicious gender-bender, Condoleezza Rice triumphs as the macho infighter, driving Rummy into a diva-like meltdown.
The trigger was Monday's coverage of the Iraq Stabilization Group (a.k.a. Fat Chance Group); the group is a desperate bid to get a grip on Baghdad before the campaign starts by transferring power for postwar Iraq from the Pentagon to the national security adviser's office inside the White House.
Condi used a trick she learned from Rummy: pre-emption. She outflanked the famous Washington infighter by talking about the new alignment to The New York Times before he had a chance to object.
It was the first time the chesty defense czar — who had tried to freeze out the softies at State, which the Pentagon sneeringly refers to as "the Department of Nice" — had been downgraded by the president and outmaneuvered by a colleague.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: L3.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 25%
October 05, 2003
Ashcroft Linked to Rove
Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 2, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- Deep political ties between top White House aides and Attorney General John Ashcroft have put him into a delicate position as the Justice Department begins a full investigation into whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday.
Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Those connections led Democrats on Wednesday to assert that Mr. Rove's connections to Mr. Ashcroft amounted to a clear conflict of interest and undermined the integrity of the investigation. The disclosures have also emboldened Democrats who have called for the appointment of an outside counsel.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
October 01, 2003
Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
FOXNews.com - Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON — The story of America's heroes, accomplishments and ideals is getting surprisingly short shrift in a place of great influence: the nation's public schools.
That's the theme of a provocative report about U.S. civics and history education that is drawing praise from leaders and groups whose views span the ideological spectrum.
Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute and released Tuesday, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's grasp of its own past and present. Authors hope it will lead to curriculum changes and stir debate about social studies lessons as people reflect on the terrorist attacks of two years ago.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%
September 21, 2003
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
...
But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
September 04, 2003
Inside Karl Rove's Diary
This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.
Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
Dear Diary:
Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.
Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.
The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.
Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%
August 24, 2003
Ashcroft Criticized for "PATRIOT Act" promo tour
Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Attorney General John Ashcroft faced sharp criticism today from Democrats and others over his decision to give more than a dozen speeches around the country in defense of anti-terrorism legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 70%
August 17, 2003
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
August 16, 2003
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
DownsizeDC.com Radio Ads: Scripts and MP3s
These ads are pretty cool. They're put out by the American Liberty Foundation, which is also quite cool.
Read the ads, listen to them if you can, and then donate some money to help keep them on the air. Three simple steps to becoming an instant freedom activist. Who would have believed it could be so easy?
- "We Believe..." Play believe.mp3 (935k)
- "Talk Radio" Play talk_radio.mp3 (935k)
- "Broken Promises" Play promises.mp3 (935k)
- "Suzie and the Senator" Play senator.mp3 (936k)
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R.5
Freedom Rating: 4.5
Learning Percentage: 20%
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Court OKs death for analog TVs
Appeals court upholds rule requiring digital tuners by July 2007
Tuesday, October 28, 2003 Posted: 2:41 PM EST (1941 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a government rule requiring all but the smallest new televisions to have tuners that can receive digital TV signals by July 2007.
The makers of TVs, VCRs and DVD players tried to block the Federal Communications Commission rule, saying it would make sets more expensive and is unnecessary because cable and satellite viewers don't need the tuners.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the FCC, which said the requirement was needed because the industry was not moving quickly enough to make tuners available.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 55%
November 07, 2003
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
Saturday, November 01, 2003
By Eric Burns
We have come a long way.
Early in the 17th century in Jamestown, the first permanent British colony in the New World, cursing was considered a crime. For a first offense, a person was to suffer "severe punishment." For a second offense, he was to have "a bodkin [a small, pointed instrument used to make holes in cloth or leather] thrust through his tongue."
There would be no fourth offense; for the third, a curser would be put to death.
Now, early in the 21st century, the Federal Communications Commission has decided that the most common, if also most crude, four-letter synonym for the sex act may be uttered on television---if, that is, it is used "properly."
How do you say "f***" properly, you ask?
First, the background. On Jan. 19 of this year, on the nationally televised Golden Globes Awards program, the singer Bono, accepting an award, said either "this is really, really f***ing brilliant," or "this is f***ing great." As a result, 234 complaints were filed against the TV stations that carried the show, one of them from a watchdog group called the Parents' Television Council.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2.2
Learning Percentage: 35%
November 05, 2003
US raises spectre of conscription
US raises spectre of conscription
The American defence department has begun a recruitment drive for local draft boards, raising questions about a possible revival of conscription.
A notice on a department website invites United States citizens over the age of 18 to volunteer for the boards.
The board members will decide who can be exempted if a draft is needed.
The campaign comes as the US faces questions about the state of its armed forces at a time of costly operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There has been no draft in the US since it was ended by Congress in 1973, the year that US troops pulled out of Vietnam.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 20%
October 09, 2003
Dowd: Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 9, 2003
Excerpt:
The administration that never let you see it sweat is sweating, as two of its control freaks openly tug over control. The president's foreign policy duenna and his grumpy grampy over at the Pentagon are suddenly mud wrestling.
Women who are discouraged at the ascension of Conan the Barbarian in Cal-ee-fornia can take heart. In this delicious gender-bender, Condoleezza Rice triumphs as the macho infighter, driving Rummy into a diva-like meltdown.
The trigger was Monday's coverage of the Iraq Stabilization Group (a.k.a. Fat Chance Group); the group is a desperate bid to get a grip on Baghdad before the campaign starts by transferring power for postwar Iraq from the Pentagon to the national security adviser's office inside the White House.
Condi used a trick she learned from Rummy: pre-emption. She outflanked the famous Washington infighter by talking about the new alignment to The New York Times before he had a chance to object.
It was the first time the chesty defense czar — who had tried to freeze out the softies at State, which the Pentagon sneeringly refers to as "the Department of Nice" — had been downgraded by the president and outmaneuvered by a colleague.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: L3.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 25%
October 05, 2003
Ashcroft Linked to Rove
Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 2, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- Deep political ties between top White House aides and Attorney General John Ashcroft have put him into a delicate position as the Justice Department begins a full investigation into whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday.
Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Those connections led Democrats on Wednesday to assert that Mr. Rove's connections to Mr. Ashcroft amounted to a clear conflict of interest and undermined the integrity of the investigation. The disclosures have also emboldened Democrats who have called for the appointment of an outside counsel.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
October 01, 2003
Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
FOXNews.com - Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON — The story of America's heroes, accomplishments and ideals is getting surprisingly short shrift in a place of great influence: the nation's public schools.
That's the theme of a provocative report about U.S. civics and history education that is drawing praise from leaders and groups whose views span the ideological spectrum.
Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute and released Tuesday, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's grasp of its own past and present. Authors hope it will lead to curriculum changes and stir debate about social studies lessons as people reflect on the terrorist attacks of two years ago.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%
September 21, 2003
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
...
But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
September 04, 2003
Inside Karl Rove's Diary
This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.
Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
Dear Diary:
Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.
Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.
The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.
Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%
August 24, 2003
Ashcroft Criticized for "PATRIOT Act" promo tour
Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Attorney General John Ashcroft faced sharp criticism today from Democrats and others over his decision to give more than a dozen speeches around the country in defense of anti-terrorism legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 70%
August 17, 2003
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
August 16, 2003
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
FCC: You Can Say That on Television
Saturday, November 01, 2003
By Eric Burns
We have come a long way.
Early in the 17th century in Jamestown, the first permanent British colony in the New World, cursing was considered a crime. For a first offense, a person was to suffer "severe punishment." For a second offense, he was to have "a bodkin [a small, pointed instrument used to make holes in cloth or leather] thrust through his tongue."
There would be no fourth offense; for the third, a curser would be put to death.
Now, early in the 21st century, the Federal Communications Commission has decided that the most common, if also most crude, four-letter synonym for the sex act may be uttered on television---if, that is, it is used "properly."
How do you say "f***" properly, you ask?
First, the background. On Jan. 19 of this year, on the nationally televised Golden Globes Awards program, the singer Bono, accepting an award, said either "this is really, really f***ing brilliant," or "this is f***ing great." As a result, 234 complaints were filed against the TV stations that carried the show, one of them from a watchdog group called the Parents' Television Council.
...
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2.2
Learning Percentage: 35%
US raises spectre of conscription
US raises spectre of conscription
The American defence department has begun a recruitment drive for local draft boards, raising questions about a possible revival of conscription.
A notice on a department website invites United States citizens over the age of 18 to volunteer for the boards.
The board members will decide who can be exempted if a draft is needed.
The campaign comes as the US faces questions about the state of its armed forces at a time of costly operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There has been no draft in the US since it was ended by Congress in 1973, the year that US troops pulled out of Vietnam.
Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 20%
October 09, 2003
Dowd: Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 9, 2003
Excerpt:
The administration that never let you see it sweat is sweating, as two of its control freaks openly tug over control. The president's foreign policy duenna and his grumpy grampy over at the Pentagon are suddenly mud wrestling.
Women who are discouraged at the ascension of Conan the Barbarian in Cal-ee-fornia can take heart. In this delicious gender-bender, Condoleezza Rice triumphs as the macho infighter, driving Rummy into a diva-like meltdown.
The trigger was Monday's coverage of the Iraq Stabilization Group (a.k.a. Fat Chance Group); the group is a desperate bid to get a grip on Baghdad before the campaign starts by transferring power for postwar Iraq from the Pentagon to the national security adviser's office inside the White House.
Condi used a trick she learned from Rummy: pre-emption. She outflanked the famous Washington infighter by talking about the new alignment to The New York Times before he had a chance to object.
It was the first time the chesty defense czar — who had tried to freeze out the softies at State, which the Pentagon sneeringly refers to as "the Department of Nice" — had been downgraded by the president and outmaneuvered by a colleague.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: L3.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 25%
October 05, 2003
Ashcroft Linked to Rove
Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 2, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- Deep political ties between top White House aides and Attorney General John Ashcroft have put him into a delicate position as the Justice Department begins a full investigation into whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday.
Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Those connections led Democrats on Wednesday to assert that Mr. Rove's connections to Mr. Ashcroft amounted to a clear conflict of interest and undermined the integrity of the investigation. The disclosures have also emboldened Democrats who have called for the appointment of an outside counsel.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
October 01, 2003
Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
FOXNews.com - Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON — The story of America's heroes, accomplishments and ideals is getting surprisingly short shrift in a place of great influence: the nation's public schools.
That's the theme of a provocative report about U.S. civics and history education that is drawing praise from leaders and groups whose views span the ideological spectrum.
Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute and released Tuesday, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's grasp of its own past and present. Authors hope it will lead to curriculum changes and stir debate about social studies lessons as people reflect on the terrorist attacks of two years ago.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%
September 21, 2003
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
...
But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
September 04, 2003
Inside Karl Rove's Diary
This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.
Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
Dear Diary:
Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.
Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.
The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.
Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%
August 24, 2003
Ashcroft Criticized for "PATRIOT Act" promo tour
Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Attorney General John Ashcroft faced sharp criticism today from Democrats and others over his decision to give more than a dozen speeches around the country in defense of anti-terrorism legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 70%
August 17, 2003
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
August 16, 2003
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
Dowd: Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
Is Condi Gaslighting Rummy?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 9, 2003
Excerpt:
The administration that never let you see it sweat is sweating, as two of its control freaks openly tug over control. The president's foreign policy duenna and his grumpy grampy over at the Pentagon are suddenly mud wrestling.
Women who are discouraged at the ascension of Conan the Barbarian in Cal-ee-fornia can take heart. In this delicious gender-bender, Condoleezza Rice triumphs as the macho infighter, driving Rummy into a diva-like meltdown.
The trigger was Monday's coverage of the Iraq Stabilization Group (a.k.a. Fat Chance Group); the group is a desperate bid to get a grip on Baghdad before the campaign starts by transferring power for postwar Iraq from the Pentagon to the national security adviser's office inside the White House.
Condi used a trick she learned from Rummy: pre-emption. She outflanked the famous Washington infighter by talking about the new alignment to The New York Times before he had a chance to object.
It was the first time the chesty defense czar — who had tried to freeze out the softies at State, which the Pentagon sneeringly refers to as "the Department of Nice" — had been downgraded by the president and outmaneuvered by a colleague.
Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: L3.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 25%
Ashcroft Linked to Rove
Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 2, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- Deep political ties between top White House aides and Attorney General John Ashcroft have put him into a delicate position as the Justice Department begins a full investigation into whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday.
Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff.
Those connections led Democrats on Wednesday to assert that Mr. Rove's connections to Mr. Ashcroft amounted to a clear conflict of interest and undermined the integrity of the investigation. The disclosures have also emboldened Democrats who have called for the appointment of an outside counsel.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%
October 01, 2003
Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
FOXNews.com - Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON — The story of America's heroes, accomplishments and ideals is getting surprisingly short shrift in a place of great influence: the nation's public schools.
That's the theme of a provocative report about U.S. civics and history education that is drawing praise from leaders and groups whose views span the ideological spectrum.
Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute and released Tuesday, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's grasp of its own past and present. Authors hope it will lead to curriculum changes and stir debate about social studies lessons as people reflect on the terrorist attacks of two years ago.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%
September 21, 2003
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
...
But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
September 04, 2003
Inside Karl Rove's Diary
This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.
Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
Dear Diary:
Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.
Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.
The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.
Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%
August 24, 2003
Ashcroft Criticized for "PATRIOT Act" promo tour
Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Attorney General John Ashcroft faced sharp criticism today from Democrats and others over his decision to give more than a dozen speeches around the country in defense of anti-terrorism legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 70%
August 17, 2003
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
August 16, 2003
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
FOXNews.com - Public Schools Fail to Teach History, Study Charges
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON — The story of America's heroes, accomplishments and ideals is getting surprisingly short shrift in a place of great influence: the nation's public schools.
That's the theme of a provocative report about U.S. civics and history education that is drawing praise from leaders and groups whose views span the ideological spectrum.
Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute and released Tuesday, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's grasp of its own past and present. Authors hope it will lead to curriculum changes and stir debate about social studies lessons as people reflect on the terrorist attacks of two years ago.
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%
The liars who control the White House and our government
The liars who control the White House and our government
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23
Time to stop pussyfooting around.
George W. Bush is a liar.
Many in his administration are liars as well.
They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.
For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
...
But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.
According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.
At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
...
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%
September 04, 2003
Inside Karl Rove's Diary
This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.
Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
Dear Diary:
Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.
Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.
The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.
Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%
August 24, 2003
Ashcroft Criticized for "PATRIOT Act" promo tour
Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Attorney General John Ashcroft faced sharp criticism today from Democrats and others over his decision to give more than a dozen speeches around the country in defense of anti-terrorism legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 70%
August 17, 2003
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
August 16, 2003
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
Inside Karl Rove's Diary
This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.
Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
Dear Diary:
Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.
Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.
The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.
Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%
Ashcroft Criticized for "PATRIOT Act" promo tour
Ashcroft Criticized for Talks on Terror
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 — Attorney General John Ashcroft faced sharp criticism today from Democrats and others over his decision to give more than a dozen speeches around the country in defense of anti-terrorism legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.
Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 70%
August 17, 2003
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
August 16, 2003
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
Donald Worster: The Heavy Cost of Empire
In Pursuit of Global Supremacy, We Have Polluted Every Part of Our Nation
By DONALD WORSTER
After much denial, Americans are finally beginning to admit that we are indeed an imperial nation. What Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers openly dreamed about two centuries ago has become reality, and the United States has taken Britain's place as the seat of empire, dominating the globe.
What does an empire cost and is that cost worth paying?
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%
Read His Lips
Opinion of the New York Times
After presiding over a two-year binge of tax cuts, a rocketing federal deficit and job losses that recall the Herbert Hoover era, President Bush appears ready to step away from the supply-side gaming table, at least for a while. Mr. Bush announced Wednesday that he sensed enough of an economic upturn to reject any immediate plans for yet another tax cut. He estimates that the effects of two years of giddy revenue-slashing — geared heavily toward the wealthiest Americans — are looking "robust enough" to hold off on more cuts.
We accept the respite as an act of fiscal mercy rather than a cause for economic celebration. The Republicans' chokehold on the nation's revenue flow is doing far more to create debt and deficits than to create jobs, but it is a relief to know that Mr. Bush is not planning to do any more major damage in the immediate future.
Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 20%
Vernice Kuglin found not guilty of tax evasion
IRS vs. KUGLIN - Sierra Times.com
By Carl F. Worden
Forget the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and our excellent adventure in Liberia. Forget about Kobe, Arnold, Arriana, Scott and Laci. The biggest news of the entire week is that on August 8, 2003, the IRS was unable to convince a jury in Memphis, Tennessee that the Federal Tax Code requires the citizens to pay individual income taxes. I kid you not.
NOTE: I have no idea how credible this story is, but I'm familiar with the movement -- so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out it's true.
(Googles "Vernice Kuglin")
Well, it's true that she didn't pay her taxes and didn't get convicted of a crime for it. Here's the transcript from a FoxNews interview with Kuglin and her lawyer.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 3.5
Learning Percentage: 25%
August 03, 2003
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 31, 2003
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
Force of July
ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY OC Weekly: News: Force Of July
Vol. 8 No. 42 June 20 - 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a busy man. Running the Department of Defense in jacked-up times. Ramrodding past Secretary of State Colin Powell a new American foreign policy, Diplomacy Through Bombsight. Reinventing the nation’s entire military structure, where he encounters resistance every step of the way from older brass. Conducting a tireless round of press conferences so lively that you scarcely miss the nominal president of the United States.
...
...The same flair for micromanaging and knowing what’s best for those in uniform is now being shared with the rest of us, here in Everytown, USA. His staffers have been phoning city officials, including some in Orange County, and strongly urging them to structure Fourth of July celebrations around the war in Iraq.
"I got the impression that they had a list of every city in the nation that had applied for a pyrotechnics permit, and were calling them to persuade them to be part of the program," said one OC city official.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: .6
Learning Percentage: 50%
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
t r u t h o u t - Poindexter To Resign Over Terror Bets Plan
Thursday 31 July 2003
WASHINGTON - John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
...
``Everybody certainly recognizes Admiral Poindexter's background. And in the context of that background, it became in some ways very difficult for him to receive an objective reading of work that he was doing on behalf of finding terrorists," the official said.
Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Learning Percentage: 60%
Pentagon kills Poindexter's terrorism futures market
This kind of stuff just goes to show that if people get enough power, they will eventually do themselves in, due to hubris, cracked ethics, and a level of distance from reality that borders on delusion.
Just as long as he's not allowed to control anything that fires live rounds, I say let Admiral Poindexter get as wild as he wants with his crazy computer projects. Ultimately he's making a mockery of himself, and maybe at some point it will all add up to enough to wake up the general public before it's too late.
CNN.com - Amid furor, Pentagon kills terrorism futures market - Jul. 30, 2003
Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 11, 2003
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
July 09, 2003
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
This is a TuthOut double-story, but the first one is the more pertinent one. It's a New York Times editorial concerning the issues that were recently raised by the two men who are heading the 9/11 investigation commission.
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11
The New York Times | Editorial
Wednesday 09 July 2003
The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: ?
Freedom Rating: ?
Learning Percentage: 40%
U.S. report on 9/11 to be 'explosive'
t r u t h o u t - U.S. Report On 9/11 To Be 'Explosive'
Government errors, Saudi ties to terrorists among highlights
By Frank Davies
The Miami Herald
Thursday 10 July 2003
WASHINGTON - A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.
Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 60%
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever
2002 Federal Register Is Longest Ever (washingtonpost.com)
Page Count of Regulations Grows Under GOP, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A15
The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year, according to a study to be released today by the Cato Institute.
The libertarian think tank found that the Federal Register boasted 75,606 pages of federal regulations in 2002, up from a high of 74,528 pages in 2000, when President Bill Clinton was still in office....
Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 70%
July 06, 2003
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind
By Michelle Delio
02:00 AM Jul. 04, 2003 PT
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest," according to the architect of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Given that sentiment, it's tempting to think Jefferson would have approved of a new Web-based repository intended to close what the site's developers describe as an ever-widening gap between citizens' ability to monitor the government and the government's ability to monitor its citizens.
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and num