The Cheney Observer
Seymour Hersh and Scott Ritter on Iraq, WMDs and the Role of the Clinton Administration in the 1990s
Democracy Now!
October 21, 2005
Scott Ritter, the former chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq, and Pulitzer prize-winning investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh discuss the role of the Democrats and the Clinton administration in Iraq during the 1990s. [includes rush transcript]
Former chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq, Scott Ritter, and investigative journalist Seymour Hersh had a public discussion Octiber 19th, in New York City titled "Iraq Confidential: How We Got Into Iraq and How to Get Out." Hersh is the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist for the New Yorker who first exposed the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq and is author of the book "Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib."
We play an excerpt of the discussion between Ritter and Hersh focusing on the role of the Democrats and the Clinton administration in Iraq during the 1990s.
Scott Ritter, was the United Nations' top weapons inspector in Iraq between 1991 and 1998. He is author of "Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein." Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer prize-winning investigative journalist for The New Yorker.
AMY GOODMAN: Scott Ritter, you participated with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, who also wrote the introduction to Iraq Confidential, your book, at an event on Wednesday night here in New York City at The Ethical Culture Society, called "Iraq Confidential: How We Got Into Iraq and How We Get Out." I wanted to play an excerpt of that conversation between you and Seymour Hersh.
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m16971&l=i&size=1&hd=0
Cheney the star at Santorum fundraiser
BY TIM GULLAAND TOM LONG Staff Writers 10/22/2005 Email to a friend Printer-friendly JACKSON TOWNSHIP — Vehicles under $40,000 were in short supply on Sutton Road in Jackson Township, Luzerne County, on Friday.
BMWs, big model Mercedes and even a Bentley were common sights in the upscale neighborhood that played host to a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum.
While the day was meant for Mr. Santorum, it belonged to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who came to the Back Mountain community as a drawing card for the event.
The fundraiser netted about $300,000 for Mr. Santorum’s campaign chest, and more than $200,000 for a statewide Republican election fund, said John Brabender, the senator’s media consultant.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15434498&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=416046&rfi=6
Expert View: Cheney has chance to pour oil on troubled waters
The current economic situation presents a perfect opportunity to solve most of America's problems all at once. In one move the US government could act to slow wasteful energy consumption; encourage development of alternative energy sources; improve the budget deficit; and - ultimately - reduce the trade deficit. What's more, it could seriously reduce the perceived geopolitical risk to the US economy by removing its dependency on Middle Eastern oil, and reduce the diplomatic strains due to emerge as a result of competing with China for energy in Russia, Africa and South America.
The move? An oil import tax. If the US government were to move now and lock in current crude prices as a minimum, then while the US consumer would forgo a windfall from lower oil prices going forward, the US producer would gain sufficient confidence to invest in the more expensive developments such as tar sands and oil shale. With no prospect of gasoline going below $2 (£1.25) a gallon, the US consumer would increasingly adopt more fuel-efficient cars (appealing to the environmentalists), as well as more alternative sources of energy.
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/comment/article321525.ece
In the Spotlight And on the SpotScooter Libby, Backstage No More
By Mark Leibovich
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 23, 2005; Page A01
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is known for his sarcastic, world-weary and at times dark sense of humor. He once quipped to an aide that he planned to stay as Vice President Cheney's top adviser until "I get indicted or something."
That was during President Bush's first term, brighter days for the administration and, more to the point, before a special prosecutor was investigating Libby's possible role in disclosing the identity of a covert CIA officer, Valerie Plame. The joke -- recounted by the aide, who no longer works in the administration -- sounded absurd at the time, given Libby's renown for canniness and prudence. He adheres to a favorite Cheney maxim that the vice president credits to the late Sam Rayburn, a longtime House speaker: "You never get in trouble for something you don't say."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/22/AR2005102201439.html
If Rove is forced to depart ...
THE WASHINGTON POST
October 22, 2005
WASHINGTON - At 7:30 each morning, President George W. Bush's senior staff gathers to discuss important issues of the day - Middle East peace, the Harriet Miers nomination, the latest hurricane. Everything, that is, except the issue on everyone's mind.
With Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald driving his CIA leak investigation toward an apparent conclusion, the White House now confronts the looming prospect that no one in the building wants to address: A Bush presidency without Karl Rove.
Several scenarios have begun to emerge if Rove or vice presidential chief of staff Lewis Libby is indicted and forced to leave.
Senior GOP officials are developing a public relations strategy to shield Bush from further damage, say Republicans familiar with the plans. And to steady a shaken White House, they say, the president might bring in trusted advisers such as budget director Joshua Bolten, lobbyist Ed Gillespie or party chairman Ken Mehlman.
These tentative discussions come as White House senior officials explore staff changes to address structural problems that have bedeviled Bush's second term, say Republicans who asked not to be named.
"People are very demoralized and unhappy," said a former administration official. ". . . It's just been a rough year."
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usrove224480026oct22,0,6222613.story?coll=ny-uspolitics-headlines
Guarding the 'I' in I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby Day to Day,
October 19, 2005 · Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, has emerged as a central character in the controversy surrounding the leak of the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame. Mike Pesca takes a closer look at one of the more baffling mysteries: Libby's reluctance to discuss what the "I" stands for in his name.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4965501
While gun control passes in the House, SDGO expresses a big THANK YOUto all of its members and activists who waged a lone battle of opposition -- And you can be encouraged that your calls made a HUGE difference in one area
South Dakota Gun Owners E-mail Alert PO Box 3845, Rapid City, SD 57709 (605) 737-5583
LibertyTeeth@sdgo.org http://www.SDGO.org
An alert from Gun Owners of America - http://www.gunowners.org
Saturday, October 22, 2005
"The anti-gun provisions in S. 397 would probably be stripped out in the House if all the gun groups were working together with GOA."
Rep. Ron Paul, Sept. 15, 2005
It's a shame really.
Rep. Ron Paul is totally correct. Working united, we could have encouraged the House leadership to bring up a CLEAN bill.
H.R. 800, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, garnered well over 250 cosponsors and would have passed the House easily if the leadership had brought up this bill rather than its Senate counterpart, S. 397.
Unfortunately, GOA was the ONLY national group calling for the passage of the clean House bill instead of the Senate bill, which contained new gun control. SDGO and several other no-compromise state level groups joined with them.
On Thursday, the House passed S. 397 and sent it to the President. Because he has promised to sign this legislation, it is all the more tragic that House and Senate leaders refused to send him a clean bill.
FIRST, HERE'S THE BAD NEWS...
As we have mentioned before, S. 397 imposes a mandatory "gun tax" by forcing every gun buyer to purchase a trigger lock and takes us to the verge of mandatory trigger lock usage.
The bill provides immunity (from lawsuits) for those who use trigger locks, but there is no such immunity for gun owners who keep a firearm available for self-defense WITHOUT a trigger lock. This may establish an implicit cause of action against any gun owner who chooses not to use the lock he has been forced to buy. While it does contain language that is supposed to prohibit civil liability, gun law experts believe that this could easily be side-stepped in state court, and that gun owners who fail to lock-up their handguns could still be tried for negligence.
Unfortunately, S. 397 was passed on the argument that it does not create any liability for gun owners. However, this line of reasoning fails to explain why gun owners would want to support a law which says that gun owners are liable, but then says that they aren't.
http://www.dakotavoice.com/200510/20051022_6.html
Suspected Illegal Workers Found at Halliburton Job Site
By Griff WitteWashington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 22, 2005; Page A09
Federal agents have identified 10 suspected illegal immigrants working at a naval base near New Orleans where the Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root is leading hurricane reconstruction, according to a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A spokesman for the base said last night that 13 workers were barred from the base this week for lack of proper work papers, and that they were employees of Texas-based BMS Catastrophe. Officials of the company could not be reached yesterday for comment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/21/AR2005102101972.html
Halliburton contractor denies hiring illigal immigrants
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Halliburton subcontractor is denying that immigration agents are detaining a large number of illegal immigrants it hired to do Hurricane Katrina recovery work.
Sen. Mary Landrieu's office said today that there may be more than 100 workers involved. They were detained yesterday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. They had been setting up a tent city at a Navy base just outside New Orleans.
The Birmingham, Alabama-based subcontractor, B.E. & K, was awarded the work by Halliburton, which won contracts after Katrina to repair several military bases in the Gulf Coast region.
http://bizneworleans.com/109+M5ad59701f26.html
TRY THE WORD NO !!!!!
DeLay lawyers want judge taken off case
By APRIL CASTROASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
AUSTIN, Texas -- State District Judge Bob Perkins took a long vacation before settling in to oversee criminal proceedings that could bring down one of the Republican Party's biggest players - U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay.
When he returned to a media frenzy, he joked that he should have stayed in Italy.
"Judges tend to be hesitant about taking real high-publicity cases," he said. "It definitely complicates your life."
It got more complicated Friday, when DeLay appeared in court on conspiracy and money laundering charges. DeLay's legal team filed motions asking the judge to recuse himself because of his multiple donations to Democratic candidates and organizations, including 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry and Moveon.org, a liberal interest group waging a "Fire Tom DeLay" campaign through radio ads.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_DeLay_Judge.html
Why is Tom DeLay smiling?
October 22, 2005
BY LAURIE KELLMAN
WASHINGTON -- Why is Tom DeLay smiling? He has been indicted. Forced out of his job as House majority leader. And called into court for fingerprinting and a mug shot like a common criminal.
Answer: A photo of DeLay grinning from ear to ear doesn't pack the punch in a Democratic attack ad as one that looks more like the mug shot of, say, actor Hugh Grant.
DeLay looks in the photo like a proud member of Congress who might just have won the lottery, not one indicted on charges of money laundering. The photo looks like it could have been taken anywhere. That was just the point.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-delay22.html
More temporary housing set up in Miss.
JACKSON, Miss., Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Bechtel National Inc. has begun developing some of the 50 planned sites in Mississippi to provide temporary group housing for hurricane victims.
The first group site, in Long Beach, Miss., will contain 99 temporary housing units, including travel trailers. Manufactured homes will provide shelter to more than 270 people displaced by the hurricane.
It's part of a new, accelerated phase of Katrina relief work, Bechtel said in a statement.
"Our scope is to assess, design, develop and construct the sites including pads and roads, and to provide power, water, and sanitary sewer services," said Andy Phelps, Bechtel's program manager. "We are working in close coordination with FEMA and state and local officials on all aspects of these sites. They are intended to provide Mississippians an alternative housing option for up to 18 months."
Thousands of Demolitions Near, New Orleans Braces for New Pain
By ADAM NOSSITERPublished:
October 23, 2005NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 22 - As crews begin inspecting thousands of rotting houses and preservationists begin efforts to save them, city and federal officials say that 30,000 to 50,000 of the city's houses will probably have to be demolished.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/national/nationalspecial/23demolish.html
He has a future in metalsMuffler man in New Orleans mines catalytic converters
By ADAM GELLERAssociated Press
NEW ORLEANS - A silver lining in the plight of this stricken city? No. But platinum? Maybe. Mark Brink is counting on it.
In a neighborhood layered with dried mud, where thousands of homes sit buckled, broken and beyond saving, his is the lone business on St. Claude Avenue to show a pulse.
But ask Brink, owner of Mark's Muffler Shop for 21 years, whether his business can recover and the answer may surprise you.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3407967
New Orleans district attorney running out of money
NEW ORLEANS -- The chief state prosecutor in New Orleans says he needs $842,000 by January _ or his office will close with more than 3,000 criminal cases pending.
After laying off 57 nonessential staff members, Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan said Friday that he has 11 staff members and 79 prosecutors remaining _ but quickly is running out of money to keep his agency running.
"If we want to bring those people to justice, we have to have a district attorney's office," Jordan said by telephone on a radio call-in program to the United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans, a coalition of stations carrying hurricane recovery information.
Jordan said his first priority is dealing with looters.
http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=4014128
New Orleans looks forward to Mardi Gras
NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- New Orleans' mayor and Louisiana's governor hope to have the Big Easy back in business for Mardi Gras. Gov. Kathleen Blanco went to the city this week for a meeting with Mayor Ray Nagin, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu and members of the New Orleans Hospitality Commission, the Baton Route Advocate reported.
They discussed the logistics of reopening hotels, including finding housing for employees.
Nagin said 10,000 to 12,000 hotel rooms are available now in New Orleans and Jefferson parishes, and Blanco expects that number almost to double by the end of the month.
The French Quarter, New Orleans' major tourist attraction, suffered comparatively little damage after Katrina. But areas of the city where many service workers live were devastated.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20051022-00335300-bc-us-neworleans-mardigras.xml
Qinetiq near to £1bn float
By : by Tracey Boles October 23, 2005 PLANS for a £1bn (E1.5bn, $1.8bn) flotation of Qinetiq, the former government def-ence research agency which is a third owned by US private-equity firm Carlyle Group, are at an advanced stage, The Business can reveal.
Qinetiq could go to market as early as November, though no final decision on the timing of a flotation has been taken. The keenly awaited and controversial initial public offering (IPO) – which will net a tidy profit for the government and Carlyle Group – could slip to the new year.
A flotation is expected to value Qinetiq, which made an operating profit of £70m on a turnover of £872.4m last year, at more than £1bn. At that value, it would be the biggest float of a technology company on the London Stock Exchange since the bubble burst in 2000. The equity offering is expected to be £400m to £500m.
http://www.thebusinessonline.com/Stories.aspx?Qinetiq%20near%20to%20%C2%A31bn%20float%20&StoryID=7A4CE8E8-64D4-4D61-A1F0-68BCE7F184B8&SectionID=F3B76EF0-7991-4389-B72E-D07EB5AA1CEE
Britvic could make tasty target for private equity investors
By : Adam Durchslag October 23, 2005
Intercontinental Hotels Group may no longer be a takeover target, but its stake in Britvic, the soft drinks giant which includes Tango and the UK franchise for 7UP, is up for grabs.
Britvic shareholders – Intercontinental, Whitbread, Pernod Ricard and Pepsi – decided 18 months ago to float the business within the next four years. Despite this, Britvic is still seen as a potential private equity takeover target. KKR, the US private equity firm, is understood to have taken a look at the business, but a more likely candidate could be the Carlyle Group.
Three weeks ago, Carlyle hired Andrew Burgess from Bridgepoint to find consumer goods companies that it could buy. Carlyle has decided not to bid for the European soft drinks arm of Cadbury Schweppes, currently up for auction at an estimated £1bn (E1.48bn, $1.77bn), so it may decide to try to swallow Britivic instead.
http://www.thebusinessonline.com/Stories.aspx?Britvic%20could%20make%20tasty%20target%20for%20private%20equity%20investors&StoryID=DF22B191-3A76-43D7-9273-619F5A86F911&SectionID=8099C021-87B0-48CA-A5F1-6335FDE21694
Former Powell Aide Says Bush Policy Is Run by 'Cabal'
By BRIAN KNOWLTONWASHINGTON,
Oct. 20 - Secretary of State Colin Powell's former chief of staff has offered a remarkably blunt criticism of the administration he served, saying that foreign policy had been usurped by a "Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal," and that President Bush has made the country more vulnerable, not less, to future crises.
The comments came in a speech Wednesday by Lawrence Wilkerson, who worked for Mr. Powell at the State Department from 2001 to early 2005. Speaking to the New America Foundation, an independent public-policy institute in Washington, Mr. Wilkerson suggested that secrecy, arrogance and internal feuding had taken a heavy toll in the Bush administration, skewing its policies and undercutting its ability to handle crises.
"I would say that we have courted disaster, in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran, generally with regard to domestic crises like Katrina, Rita - and I could go on back," he said. "We haven't done very well on anything like that in a long time."
Mr. Wilkerson suggested that the dysfunction within the administration was so grave that "if something comes along that is truly serious, truly serious, something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major American city, or something like a major pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence."
Mr. Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel and former director of the Marine Corps War College, said that in his years in or close to government, he had seen its national security apparatus twisted in many ways. But what he saw in Mr. Bush's first term "was a case that I have never seen in my studies of aberration, bastardizations" and "perturbations."
"What I saw was a cabal between the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues," he said.
The former aide referred to Mr. Bush as someone who "is not versed in international relations, and not too much interested in them, either." He was far more admiring of the president's father, whom he called "one of the finest presidents we've ever had."
Mr. Wilkerson has long been considered a close confidant of Mr. Powell, but their relationship has apparently grown strained at times - including over the question of unconventional weapons in Iraq - and the former colonel said Mr. Powell did not approve of his latest public criticisms.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/21/politics/21wilkerson.html?emc=eta1&pagewanted=print
For Blacks, a Dream in Decline
By LOUIS UCHITELLETHE
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. set forth the goal. Civil rights and union membership were to be intertwined. The labor movement, Dr. King wrote in 1958, "must concentrate its powerful forces on bringing economic emancipation to white and Negro by organizing them together in social equality."
That happened in the 1960's and 1970's. But then unions lost bargaining power and members. And while labor leaders called attention to the overall decline, few took notice that blacks were losing much more ground than whites.
In the last five years, that trend accelerated. Despite a growing economy, the number of African-Americans in unions has fallen by 14.4 percent since 2000, while white membership is down 5.4 percent.
For a while in the 1980's, one out of every four black workers was a union member; now it is closer to one in seven. This loss of better-paying jobs helps to explain why blacks are doing worse than any other group in the current recovery. Labor leaders have acknowledged the disproportionate damage to African-Americans, but they decline to make special efforts to organize blacks and offset the decrease, saying that all groups need help. That lack of priority angers one prominent black scholar.
"The future of black workers is very bleak indeed if they lose their place in the union movement," said William Julius Wilson, a professor of sociology and social policy at Harvard. "I would hope there would be an effort on the part of union leaders, white and black, to address this very important issue. They haven't done so as yet."
The decline was particularly sharp last year. Overall union membership fell by 304,000, and blacks accounted for 55 percent of that drop, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, even though whites outnumber blacks six to one in unions (12.4 million to 2.1 million). The trend seems likely to continue and perhaps accelerate as General Motors and its principal parts supplier, Delphi, cut costs in their struggle to be profitable.
"We have lost 20,000 members since the end of 2000 in Detroit and its suburbs alone," said Linda Ewing, director of research for the United Auto Workers, "and a large number of the workers in the auto and parts plants in this area are black."
Unions, like other institutions in the post-World War II economy, were slow to admit African-Americans to the club, and there is still resistance today in some of the higher-paying skilled trades. Yet blacks came to rely on unions even more than working class whites did to gain entry into the middle class, through jobs that gave them annual wage increases and company-paid health insurance and pensions. Even now, the percentage of black workers who are in unions is slightly greater than the percentage of unionized white workers: 15.1 versus 12.2. "Every survey shows that blacks are the group that most wants to be unionized," said Richard Freeman, a Harvard labor economist.
Immigration, retirement, automation, the shifting of work overseas, low seniority and privatization have all played a role in the lopsided decline of unionized jobs held by African-Americans. That decline is especially noticeable in manufacturing and the federal government, two strongholds of black employment that have gone through cutbacks in union workers in recent years.
The cutbacks are particularly severe in the auto industry. In addition to the latest problems at G.M., Ford Motor said Thursday that it would soon announce "significant plant closings."
The impact on blacks has gradually drawn the attention of labor leaders, including John J. Sweeney, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. "The percentage of black workers who have been knocked out of union jobs is one of the little-known tragedies of the last five years," he said.
Despite this damage, the federation is not making a special effort to sign up more African-Americans in other industries, Mr. Sweeney said. "We are going to be organizing more blacks," he explained, "but we are also going to be organizing more Latinos and more women."
Mr. Sweeney's reluctance to single out blacks has its counterpart in the breakaway union movement, Change to Win, which promises more aggressive organizing. Rather than focus on any particular group of workers, said Edgar Romney, secretary-treasurer of the new coalition, "we are targeting industries and communities in our organizing effort."
Blue-collar workers earn high pay in manufacturing jobs, and the sharp decline in black union membership in that sector has helped to pull down the median weekly wage of all black workers, union and nonunion alike. Thus far this year, the median weekly wage earned by blacks fell by 5 percent, to $523, adjusted for inflation, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Whites as a group are also experiencing a drop in their median weekly wage, but for them the decline this year is less than 1 percent, to $677, adjusted for inflation.
Some labor economists bridle at such comparisons. Robert Topel of the University of Chicago argues that for many years the wage gap between whites and blacks either shrank or remained stable, after adjusting for differences in education, experience and other factors. This occurred even as union power declined, he said.
"If you ask me for a list of things that would be more important in understanding racial disparities and economic success, unionism would not be high on the list," Mr. Topel said. "Education, development of skills and family environment all play much bigger roles than collective bargaining power."
The decline in black union membership is not simply the result of the erosion of employment in manufacturing. The Service Employees International Union, for example, represented for years large numbers of African-Americans employed in food service, janitorial work and nursing home care. Many were women. As they retired, Hispanics and Asians replaced them, in the jobs and as union members, said Patricia Ford, a former executive vice president of the S.E.I.U.
"You can see the change from what was traditionally African-American to Hispanic," Ms. Ford said. "That is the most striking."
Union membership among Hispanics, in fact, has risen gradually in this decade, to 1.7 million last year. That is partly a result of special efforts to organize Hispanics in service industries, Mr. Romney said.
On another front, privatization and outsourcing have eaten away at federal employment of black workers represented by the American Federation of Government Employees, which says that nearly 25 percent of its 211,000 members are black.
African-Americans make up an even higher percentage of the union's members at the operations that the Bush administration is turning over to private contractors. These include laundries at veterans' hospitals, ground maintenance and food service at government installations and security guards at numerous federal buildings - much of it work that paid only $15,000 to $20,000 a year, but that came with pensions and health insurance.
The union's leaders resist viewing what is happening in racial terms. "We see it as a class issue rather than a race issue," said Sharon Pinnock, the A.F.G.E.'s director for membership and organization. "It is impacting all workers, black and white."
Automation at the Postal Service, mainly in the form of sorting machines that require many fewer workers, has cut into the ranks of the National Association of Letter Carriers and the American Postal Workers Union, both with high percentages of blacks among their members.
And then there is the tendency of many corporations to move operations to suburbs from downtown locations. In the process, unionized African-American workers are often replaced by nonunion workers, in many cases white.
The Communications Workers of America makes that complaint, citing customer service call center operations as one example. "They gradually move to the suburbs, eliminating African-American union members in the city," said George Kohl, the union's senior director of collective bargaining.
Mr. Sweeney said such stories anger him. "We have learned a lot from the civil rights movement; it is important that we highlight the most egregious offenses," he said. "But we have to focus on all the workers who are getting hurt."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/weekinreview/23uchi.html?emc=eta1&pagewanted=print
U.P. honors President Bush with locomotive 10/20/2005
UP 4141 has been custom-painted to honor the first President George Bush. Its number honors the nation’s 41st president. OMAHA - A custom-painted Union Pacific locomotive will pay tribute to President George Herbert Walker Bush. /p>The new locomotive carries the number 4141 in honor of Bush, the nation's 41st president, and incorporates colors and elements of the Air Force One used during his presidency.
The special locomotive was revealed to the former president during a ceremony near the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station, Texas.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15423122&BRD=2703&PAG=461&dept_id=555107&rfi=6
THIS IS A PRELUDE TO WAR.
Cuba, U.S. rules hurt families, group says
A new study by a human rights group blasts both Havana and Washington for travel policies that force families apart.
By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com. Posted on Thu, Oct. 20, 2005.
Washington and Havana rip apart Cuban families with travel policies that violate civil rights, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday in a report that marks the first time the group investigates two countries in the same study.
Cuban-American families can't care for dying relatives because travel restrictions tightened last year by the Bush administration limit trips to the island to once every three years. And Cuba takes revenge on defectors by holding their kids ''hostage,'' the study said.
Families separated by distance and law shoulder the burden of decades of diplomatic tensions, Human Rights Watch said.
''What I see is a lot more people in pain,'' said Marisela Romero, whose case was one of those mentioned in the report.
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y05/oct05/21e8.htm
Top CIA leak investigation falsehoods
As U.S. attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald's two-year investigation into the CIA leak case reportedly draws to a close, the long-standing debate over the origins of the scandal, the merits of the federal investigation, and the legal authority of the prosecutor has intensified greatly. At issue is the disclosure to the press of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, which first appeared in syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak's July 14, 2003, column. Bush administration officials allegedly leaked her identity in order to discredit her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, a vocal critic of the White House's decision to go to war with Iraq.
In this rhetorical environment characterized by limited information and boundless speculation, those defending the officials at the center of Fitzgerald's probe have advanced numerous falsehoods and distortions. As Media Matters for America documents below, the media have not only failed to challenge many of these claims, but also repeated them.
Falsehood: It is legally significant whether the leakers disclosed Plame's name in their conversations with reporters
http://mediamatters.org/items/200510210008
Latvia denies Russian pressure over Berezovsky
Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis denied allegations that the decision to bar Russian-wanted tycoon Boris Berezovsky from entry into the Baltic republic was taken under Russian pressure.
"It would be wrong to believe that Latvia takes decisions according to any Russian demand," he told the LTV1 TV channel late on Thursday.
Kalvitis also said he personally "encountered no Russian pressure" over the recent visit of Berezovsky to Latvia.
The decision to put Berezovsky on a "black list" appeared after special services said his visits to Latvia have political, rather than business purposes, according to the prime minister.
Self-exiled Berezovsky, who has a foreign travel passport for the name of Platon Yelenin, visited Riga on September 21 together with Neil Bush, younger brother of the US President, and spent two days in the city. Officially he represented the Bush-created Ignite! Company engaged in children's education software. Berezovsky also visited Riga in February.
Both times Russian prosecutors demanded to extradite Berezovsky, who they accuse of major fraud, and both times Latvia refused.
Latvian observers believe Berezovsky's visits, which strained relations with Russia, were the reason for the resignation of Interior Minister Eriks Jekabsons, who maintained contacts with Berezovsky. However Jekabsons denied the claims saying he resigned because of contradictions over the 2006 budget.
Source: Agencies http://english.people.com.cn/200510/21/eng20051021_215784.html
Florida mixes up MedicaidDavid Lazarus
Friday, October 21, 2005
The ailing U.S. health care system is struggling for life. But those responsible for its well-being seem determined to kill it off.
In the latest blow, the Bush administration has given its blessing for Florida to radically alter its Medicaid program, limiting health care funds for thousands of low-income beneficiaries and placing them at the mercy of for-profit health maintenance organizations.
If the Florida experiment succeeds in cutting costs for the state, health officials nationwide are expected to consider similar moves for their own Medicaid plans.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/21/BUGE3FBIH31.DTL
Saturday, October 22, 2005
‘Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal hijacked US foreign policy’
WASHINGTON: Former secretary of state Colin Powell’s top aide has accused Vice President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of creating a “cabal” that has hijacked US foreign policy.
Retired colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who was Powell’s right-hand man for 16 years in the public and private sectors, also skewered President George W Bush, saying the US leader was “not versed in international relations and not too much interested in them either”.“I would say that we have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran,” Wilkerson, who was Powell’s chief of staff at the State Department, said Wednesday at a policy forum at the New America Foundation. “The case that I saw for four-plus years was a case that I have never seen in my studies of aberrations, bastardizations, perturbations, changes to the national security decision-making process,” he said. “What I saw was a cabal between the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made,” he said.
The Bush administration “made decisions in secret, and now I think it is paying the consequences of having made those decisions in secret. But far more telling to me is America is paying the consequences,” Wilkerson said. “You and I and every other citizen like us is paying the consequences, whether it is a response to (Hurricane) Katrina that was less than adequate certainly, or whether it is the situation in Iraq, which still goes unexplained.”
He added: “So you’ve got this collegiality there between the secretary of Defence and the vice president, and you’ve got a president who is not versed in international relations and not too much interested in them either. “And so it’s not too difficult to make decisions in this what I call Oval Office cabal, and decisions often that are the opposite of what you’d thought were made in the formal process.” afp
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005%5C10%5C22%5Cstory_22-10-2005_pg4_9
White House Watch: Cheney resignation rumors fly
Charlie Archambault for USN&WR
Posted 10/18/05By Paul Bedard
Sparked by today's Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney's office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"It's certainly an interesting but I still think highly doubtful scenario," said a Bush insider. "And if that should happen," added the official, "there will undoubtedly be those who believe the whole thing was orchestrated – another brilliant Machiavellian move by the VP."
Said another Bush associate of the rumor, "Yes. This is not good." The rumor spread so fast that some Republicans by late morning were already drawing up reasons why Rice couldn't get the job or run for president in 2008.
"Isn't she pro-choice?" asked a key Senate Republican aide. Many White House insiders, however, said the Post story and reports that the investigation was coming to a close had officials instead more focused on who would be dragged into the affair and if top aides would be indicted and forced to resign.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/051018/18whwatch.htm?track=rss
Cheney speaks at Jim Talent fundraiser
CHRISTOPHER LEONARDAssociated Press
FRONTENAC, Mo. - Vice President Dick Cheney told a group of Republican donors Friday that Missouri Republican Jim Talent could help the Bush administration cement its legacy if he is re-elected to the U.S. Senate in November.
Cheney spoke at a fundraising dinner that garnered at least $375,000 for Talent's 2006 Senate campaign, according to organizers. Attendees paid $1,000 a plate to hear Cheney speak along with Missouri Republicans like Talent and Sen. Kit Bond.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/12966375.htm
VIDEO - Tom Delay's First Day in Court
Combined video feeds from CNN, MSNBC and FOX News...Guest blogged by David Edwards Streaming Video in Real Media format... Video in Windows Media format... Just as he did for his mugshot yesterday, Rep. Tom DeLay continued to smile...
Guest blogged by David Edwards
Streaming Video in Real Media format...Video in Windows Media format...
Just as he did for his mugshot yesterday, Rep. Tom DeLay continued to smile throughout his first day of court today.
In a statement to the media, DeLay said, "You may be surprised to hear this from me today but I find this is a very good day." We are pleased that DeLay appreciates spending time in court and sincerely hope that he continues to enjoy much more of the same.
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001943.htm
CBS Uses Long-Time DeLay Foe to Suggest He Lacks Support From Republicans
Posted by Noel Sheppard on October 21, 2005 - 23:22.
Lee Cowan did a report on the "CBS Evening News" tonight concerning Rep. Tom DeLay’s (R-Tex) first day in court. To demonstrate that even people on the right don’t like the embattled congressman, Cowan interviewed Beverly Carter, the Republican precinct chairwoman of Fort Bend County, Texas:
“I've not heard of any Republicans that are supporting Tom at this point win, lose or draw. Whether he's guilty or not guilty, they've kind of had it with him. Pigs get fatter but hogs get slaughtered, and Tom has been a hog.”
http://newsbusters.org/node/2422
Goodlatte won’t blame DeLay for bill kill
By David Royer/staff droyer@newsleader.com
Congressman Bob Goodlatte said he was disappointed to learn this week that a high-priority bill he sponsored in 2000 sank in the Senate because of lobbying by an aide of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, now under indictment for alleged ethics violations.
But Goodlatte, who represents Virginia’s 6th District in the House, stopped short of implicating DeLay in the incident, pinning the blame squarely on the actions of staff members and lobbyists.
Conservative groups were stunned in 2000 when Goodlatte’s Internet Gambling Prohibition bill, which passed easily through the House with strong Republican support, unexpectedly stalled in the Senate.
http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051021/NEWS01/51021001
More people recognize Frist — but fewer approve, according to poll
By JENNIFER BROOKSGannett News Service
WASHINGTON — The good news for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in the latest national poll is that more Americans know who he is.
The bad news is that a growing number of them don't like what they've heard.
Frist's approval rating sank to 24% in the latest USA Today-CNN-Gallup poll, while his disapproval rating shot up by 6 percentage points to 30%.
"A scandal and a starring role in a Jay Leno monologue," said Jennifer Duffy, a political analyst for the Cook Political Report, diagnosing Frist's woes. "An SEC investigation? That never looks good."
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the Tennessee Republican's decision to sell off his holdings in HCA Inc., his family's hospital chain, in July, shortly before the company's stock dropped 9% on weak second-quarter earnings.
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051021/NEWS02/510210407/1009/NEWS
THIS IS INCREDIBLE. THE SPIN IS THAT KARL ROVE IS BEING INDICTED TO SHOW HOW ISRAEL FORCED BUSH/CHENEY/POWELL/RUMSFELD INTO WAR IN IRAQ. RIGHT.
INDICTMENTS! KARL ROVE's and others' may expose fake war causes.by Clayton Hallmark Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005 at 9:56 PMThe Washington, DC, grand jury of US Attorney Fitzgerald will obtain indictments in the outing of CIA's Valerie Plame as early as next week, sources say, and one could be George Bush's closest advisor, Karl Rove. In Alexandria, VA, the grand jury of Paul McNulty, investigating Israeli espionage against the US, has indicted a neocon Pentagon analyst, Larry Franklin. With these and other probable indictments, there will be trials that will EXPOSE FIXED INTELLIGENCE and ISRAELI MANIPULATION that pushed us toward war. Also, Italian officials promise to request soon the extradition of CIA man Bob Lady, a key figure in the IRAQ BETRAYAL. See how these events are converging.
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/10/1776552.php
Dick Morris: "I love Karl Rove. ... He elected Bush"
On the October 20 edition of Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor, Dick Morris -- a political analyst and former adviser to President Bill Clinton -- professed his love for White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove. When host Bill O'Reilly asked Morris to predict the fate of Rove and vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in the grand jury investigation into the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, Morris said: "I love Karl Rove. He deserves better. He's magnificent. He elected Bush. The country owes him a debt."
http://mediamatters.org/comments/latest/200510210002
Waiting For The Valerie Plame Wilson Grand Jury: The Big Question Is Whether Dick Cheney Was a Target
By JOHN W. DEAN Friday, Oct. 21, 2005
Washington is truly abuzz with rumors about what Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald may, or may not do, as his grand jury comes to the close of its almost two-year investigation of the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's covert status at the CIA. As I write, it appears that Fitzgerald will act within the next few days.
Unidentified government officials, The New York Times reports, say that Fitzgerald "will not make up his mind about any charges until next week." With his grand jury expiring on October 28, 2005, he is down to only a few options:
First, he could close down his Washington office; return to his work in Chicago, where he serves as the U.S. Attorney; and simply issue a statement that his investigation has ended. (He has no authority to write a report, for the information he has obtained is subject to Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and thus is secret).
Second, he could extend the grand jury for whatever time he needs to complete his investigation. And third, he could issue one or more indictments.
Fitzgerald, and those who work for him, have acted throughout the investigation just as prosecutors should. Lips are zipped. Fitzgerald has held his information so close to his chest that, as one wag put it, he's got it in his underpants. Accordingly, Washington is filled with rumors.
The Best Information Available
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20051021.html
Carlyle Group may be in bidding to buy Dunkin' DonutsBarton Eckert Contributing
WriterBlackstone Group and The Carlyle Group reportedly made competing buyout offers this week for Dunkin' Donuts and two restaurant chains being sold by Pernod Ricard. Bloomberg News is reporting that Blackstone teamed with Texas Pacific Group, owner of the Burger King fast-food chain, and D.C.-based Carlyle joined with Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners.
Pernod Managing Director Richard Burrows said in July that the Paris-based company expects to raise about $2 billion from the sale.
http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2005/10/17/daily34.html?jst=b_ln_hl
Nagin decries slow pace of reliefHe lashes federal, state administrators
Friday, October 21, 2005
By Frank DonzeStaff writer
From trailers promised that never arrived, to money deposited that can't be spent, the federal government's red tape is severely retarding New Orleans' recovery from Hurricane Katrina's devastation, a frustrated but determined Mayor Ray Nagin said Thursday.
Nearly two months after the storm turned the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Orleanians upside down, Nagin said he remains confident that his crippled city eventually will return better than ever. But short of a wholesale change of attitude in Washington and Baton Rouge, he said, the rebirth is likely to be painfully slow.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1129877442123770.xml
Gulf Coast suffers record hurricane season10/22/2005, 8:37 p.m. CTBy DEBORAH HASTINGS The Associated Press
(AP) — Not in the last century, since it was decided that the dead and detritus of every hurricane should be recorded, has there been such a disastrous barrage of wind and rain and saltwater on the Gulf Coast.
Twenty-two tropical storms and hurricanes in the past five months, the most ever in a single season. A tropical storm that formed Saturday in the Caribbean was dubbed Alpha because the last letter left in the tempest alphabet went to Hurricane Wilma.
The World Meteorological Organization, a United Nations agency
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/national/index.ssf?/base/national-53/1130031849145470.xml&storylist=national
