Wednesday, September 29, 2004
U.S. District Judge Victor Marreo, in the first decision against a surveillance portion of the act, ruled for the American Civil Liberties Union in its challenge against what it called "unchecked power" by the FBI to demand confidential customer records from communication companies, such as Internet service providers or telephone companies.
Marrero, stating that "democracy abhors undue secrecy," found that the law violates constitutional prohibitions against unreasonable searches. He said it also violated free speech rights by barring those who received FBI demands from disclosing they had to turn over records.
Because of this gag order, the ACLU initially had to file its suit against the Department of Justice under seal to avoid penalties for violation of the surveillance laws.
Although the ACLU's suit was filed on behalf of an Internet access firm, the ruling could apply to other entities that have received FBI secretive subpoenas, known as national security letters.
The ACLU said that the Patriot Act provision was worded so broadly that it could effectively be used to obtain the names of customers of Web sites such as Amazon.com or eBay, or a political organization's membership list, or even the names of sources that a journalist has contacted by e-mail.
"This is a landmark victory against the Ashcroft Justice Department's misguided attempt to intrude into the lives of innocent Americans in the name of national security," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero.
"Even now, some in Congress are trying to pass additional intrusive law enforcement powers. This decision should put a halt to those efforts," he said.
PATRIOT ACT
He said the suit was one of the ACLU's legal battles to block certain sections of the Patriot Act that went "too far, too fast."
The FBI has had power to issue national security letters demanding customers records from communication companies since 1986. These letters do not require court supervision, but the FBI could at first only seek such private information if the subject was suspected of being a foreign spy. Continued ...
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A Day before John Kerry and George W Bush square off in Thursday's debate in Miami, fifteen rappers from across the country will be competing in a mock debate against President Bush. The event is called SlamBush and is aimed at getting the Hip Hop generation to vote in the November election. We speak with Wordsworth, a hip hop artist and one of the event's organizers. [includes rush transcript]
Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry and President George W Bush are in the midst of their final preparations ahead of Thursday's debate in Miami. Though, with the rules agreed to for the debate, it is turning out to be more like a bipartisan press conference. Tonight in Miami, President Bush will be taking place in another debate in Miami.
Well, not exactly. Fifteen rappers from across the country will be competing in a mock debate against President Bush. The event is called SlamBush and is aimed at getting the Hip Hop generation to vote in the November election. Regional competitions were held in dozens of cities and on the internet. Tonight, the 15 winners will duke it out at a concert of the Grammy-Award winning hip hop group The Roots. In a moment, we are going to be joined on the line from Miami by Brooklyn rapper, Wordsworth-he is one of the organizers of SlamBush and will be a judge at tonight's contest. But first, here is Wordsworth's own lyrical debate with President Bush.
Watch rapper Wordsworth take out suck'a MC Dubya Bush here.
His daughter may be paying the price.
 |
| Guardsman Gerard Darren Matthew, sent home from Iraq with mysterious illnesses, holds baby daughter, Victoria, who has deformed hand. He has tested positive for uranium contamination. |
One side of Matthew's face would swell up each morning. He had constant migraine headaches, blurred vision, blackouts and a burning sensation whenever he urinated.
The Army transferred him to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington for further tests, but doctors there could not explain what was wrong.
Shortly after his return, his wife, Janice, became pregnant. On June 29, she gave birth to a baby girl, Victoria Claudette.
The baby was missing three fingers and most of her right hand.
Matthew and his wife believe Victoria's shocking deformity has something to do with her father's illness and the war - especially since there is no history of birth defects in either of their families.
They have seen photos of Iraqi babies born with deformities that are eerily similar.
In June, Matthew contacted the Daily News and asked us to arrange independent laboratory screening for his urine. This was after The News had reported that four of seven soldiers from another National Guard unit, the 442nd Military Police, had tested positive for depleted uranium (DU).
The independent test of Matthew's urine found him positive for DU - low-level radioactive waste produced in nuclear plants during the enrichment of natural uranium.
Because it is twice as heavy as lead, DU has been used by the Pentagon since the Persian Gulf War in certain types of "tank-buster" shells, as well as for armor-plating in Abrams tanks.
Exposure to radioactivity has been associated in some studies with birth defects in the children of exposed parents.
"My husband went to Iraq to fight for his country," Janice Matthew said. "I feel the Army should take responsibility for what's happened."
The couple first learned of the baby's missing fingers during a routine sonogram of the fetus last April at Lenox Hill Hospital.
Matthew was a truck driver in Iraq with the 719th transport unit from Harlem. His unit moved supplies from Army bases in Kuwait to the front lines and as far as Baghdad. On several occasions, he says, he carried shot-up tanks and destroyed vehicle parts on his flat-bed back to Kuwait.
After he learned of his unborn child's deformity, Matthew immediately asked the Army to test his urine for DU. In April, he provided a 24-hour urine sample to doctors at Fort Dix, N.J., where he was waiting to be deactivated.
In May, the Army granted him a 40% disability pension for his migraine headaches and for a condition called idiopathic angioedema - unexplained chronic swelling.
But Matthew never got the results of his Army test for DU. When he called Fort Dix last week, five months after he was tested, he was told there was no record of any urine specimen from him.
Thankfully, Matthew did not rely solely on the Army bureaucracy - he went to The News.
Earlier this year, The News submitted urine samples from Guardsmen of the 442nd to former Army doctor Asaf Durakovic and Axel Gerdes, a geologist at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. The German lab specializes in testing for minute quantities of uranium, a complicated procedure that costs up to $1,000 per test.
The lab is one of approximately 50 in the world that can detect quantities as tiny as fentograms - one part per quadrillionth.
A few months ago, The News submitted a 24-hour urine sample from Matthew to Gerdes. As a control, we also gave the lab 24-hour urine samples from two Daily News reporters.
The three specimens were marked only with the letters A, B and C, so the lab could not know which sample belonged to the soldier.
After analyzing all three, Gerdes reported that only sample A - Matthew's urine - showed clear signs of DU. It contained a total uranium concentration that was "4 to 8 times higher" than specimens B and C, Gerdes reported.
"Those levels indicate pretty definitively that he's been exposed to the DU," said Leonard Dietz, a retired scientist who invented one of the instruments for measuring uranium isotopes.
According to Army guidelines, the total uranium concentration Gerdes found in Matthew is within acceptable standards for most Americans.
But Gerdes questioned the Army's standards, noting that even minute levels of DU are cause for concern.
"While the levels of DU in Matthew's urine are low," Gerdes said, "the DU we see in his urine could be 1,000 times higher in concentration in the lungs."
DU is not like natural uranium, which occurs in the environment. Natural uranium can be ingested in food and drink but gets expelled from the body within 24 hours.
DU-contaminated dust, however, is typically breathed into the lungs and can remain there for years, emitting constant low-level radiation.
"I'm upset and confused," Matthew said. "I just want answers. Are they [the Army] going to take care of my baby?"
Families of Victims Bring Their Passion and Grief to Partisan Fray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 29, 2004; Page A20
On Tuesday, the 33-year-old New Jersey widow was stumping in swing states with Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards for the second day in a row. It's here that Breitweiser's fresh face and emotional story are becoming an integral part of an effort to convince "security moms" that the Democratic ticket of Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and Edwards can make them safer and that four more years with President Bush is dangerous.
Jesse Jackson Joins Kerry Campaign
Civil Rights Leader Joins to Avoid Slip in African American Support
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 29, 2004; 11:21 AM
Democratic groups have aired campaign ads criticizing Republican efforts to woo black voters.
Doubts Increase Within U.S. Security Agencies
By Dana Priest and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
A growing number of career professionals within national security agencies believe that the situation in Iraq is much worse, and the path to success much more tenuous, than is being expressed in public by top Bush administration officials, according to former and current government officials and assessments over the past year by intelligence officials at the CIA and the departments of State and Defense.
People at the CIA "are mad at the policy in Iraq because it's a disaster, and they're digging the hole deeper and deeper and deeper," said one former intelligence officer who maintains contact with CIA officials. "There's no obvious way to fix it. The best we can hope for is a semi-failed state hobbling along with terrorists and a succession of weak governments."
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Analysis
The Politics of Fear
John F. Kerry and his supporters are adopting President Bush's strategy of playing on the public's security concerns while voters are getting a heavier-than-ever dose of speeches and television ads from both candidates designed to convince them the other ticket would make the world more dangerous.
Sep. 28, 2004 Sam Penrod Reporting Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore started his national speaking tour last night, the same tour that will bring him to UVSC next month. And he's calling his speaking campaign, the 'Slacker Uprising Tour.'
In his home state of Michigan, Michael Moore has begun the Slacker Uprising tour. Sixty cities in 20 states, all before Election Day. One of Moore's stops will be at UVSC on October 20th. From his own website, Moore says his mission is, "a coast-to-coast effort to bring the non-voting majority out of hibernation and kick some political butt." Moore's goal is for 56 percent of all eligible voters to go to the polls on November 2nd. Michael Moore makes no secret of his wish to see President Bush voted out of office, but it's the way he is doing it that has many Republicans outraged. Moore writes on his webpage, "I am calling for a non-voter uprising, led by thousands of campus slackers who proudly sleep 'til noon and who believe papers are for rolling, not reading." That comment is an apparent reference to smoking marijuana. Moore says he hopes his speeches will, "convince the fed-up, the burned-out, and the Nader-impaired to leave the house for just a half-hour on November 2nd and mark an "X" in a box so that America and the world can be saved." Moore calls himself the original slacker and gives one last encouraging word for the youth of America to vote. He says, "I want everyone in their teens and twenties who exist from one packet of Ramen noodles to the next bag of Tostitos to take your fully-justified cynicism and toss it like a Molotov right into the middle of this election." Michael Moore's speech at UVSC is now sold out. As for the appearance a week before from radio talk show host Sean Hannity, which is supposed to offer some political balance, a few tickets still remain. | |||||||
By Jon Sarche
Associated Press
DENVER â A Colorado congresswoman called Monday for an investigation into allegations that Iraqi war veterans near the end of their duty were given a choice between re-enlisting or being sent back to Iraq.
Democratic Rep. Diana Degette, in a letter to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, a Republican, asked him to look into whether the âWhite House or civilian Pentagon officials are pressuring the military to use coercive tactics to get soldiers to re-enlist in order to maintain the force levels necessary to fight the war in Iraq and war on terror.â
DeGette, at a news conference in Denver, cited reports in two Denver newspapers and calls she has received from several soldiers at Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs.
âThey canât meet re-enlistment goals, so theyâre putting this hammer over their head, which is just wrong,â DeGette said. âIn the long term, the integrity of our military is going to suffer.â
According to reports in the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post, soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team were told they faced reassignment to units expected to be deployed to Iraq or Korea if they did not either re-enlist by the end of the month or extend their duty until the end of 2007. Those who re-enlisted or extended would stay with the 3rd Brigade, which already was deployed for a year in Iraq.
Pentagon officials deferred comment to Fort Carson, which denied any effort to coerce soldiers into re-enlisting.
Fort Carson spokesman Lt. Justin Journeay said soldiers recently were given a form with three options; the third â neither extending nor re-enlisting â came with the understanding they could be reassigned.
Fort Carson officials said soldiers are being asked to record their choices so the Army can determine the strength of the force. The Armyâs goal is to have units that stick together for several years with little turnover, Journeay said. He said Fort Carson was exceeding re-enlistment goals.
The adequacy of military manpower has become a volatile political issue. Democrats say the Bush administration, to satisfy personnel needs in Iraq and Afghanistan, is delaying troop rotations unwisely and making extensive use of Reserve and National Guard troops.
Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry recently said President George W. Bush has a secret plan to call up more National Guard and Reserve troops immediately after the election. The presidentâs campaign called that allegation âfalse and ridiculous.â
Guard recruiting mission falls short of goal
Downturn blamed on war, stop-loss
By Jane McHugh and Sean Naylor
Times staff writers
Officials blamed the downturn on an apparent growing reluctance of full-time Regular Army soldiers to switch to part-time Guard service after completing active-duty service.
Such atypical behavior is war-related, said Col. Kelly McKeague, executive officer to Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau.
The stop-loss policy, which prevents eligible soldiers from leaving the active ranks, has the trickle-down effect of keeping them from joining the Guard when they leave the Regular Army, McKeague said.
And the war itself is a turn-off to soldiers â especially Middle East veterans â considering going from full-time to part-time soldiering, he said. âThey think, âI just got out of the Army and was deployed. Why should I join the National Guard and get deployed again?ââ he said.
âIf you want to get away from active duty and you donât want to take a chance that youâre going to deploy that quickly again, then you probably are going to make a clean break for a while and not join the Guard or Reserve, and so we are suffering,â Blum told the Associated Press.
And that could be a real fear.
On Sept. 21, Gen. Dan McNeill, the head of U.S. Army Forces Command, recommended that another four National Guard brigades be mobilized and deployed as part of the war on terrorism. He made the announcement in a speech to the annual Infantry Conference at Fort Benning, Ga.
McNeill declined to name the brigades or say where the brigades would be sent. âLetâs just say weâd use them for the fight against terrorists,â he said, adding that his intent was not for the brigades to be mobilized before the end of the year.
McKeague said the National Guard has no plans to mobilize brigades at present.
But three Guard brigade combat teams (units of action) and one Guard division headquarters unit are mobilized and training to fill a rotation in Operation Iraqi Freedom that starts next spring. Those units are the 116th Cavalry from Idaho; the 278th, from Tennessee; and the 256th Armored Brigade, from Louisiana. The headquarters unit in training is the 42nd Infantry Division of New York.
McKeague said the Guard is in the process of sourcing an additional four brigade combat teams for OIF IV in the spring of 2006.
But the four brigades recommended by McNeill would be in addition to the brigades currently training for deployment. Beyond that, McNeill wasnât giving much away. He did not say whether his recommendation had been accepted.
But Blum told the Associated Press that the 86th Brigade of the Vermont Army National Guard has been added to the list of Guard units told to deploy to Iraq for the next troop rotation. That unit is likely to go early next year, another official said.
Writing on the wall
Guard officials saw the problems with the recruiting mission coming, McKeague said.
In fact, the shortfall was supposed to be bigger. Blum told Army Times last month that he expected to be 6,000 short of mission.
To make up for the loss, the Guardâs strategy in 2006 and beyond will be to focus on retention â keeping its current force happy and satisfied so fewer new soldiers have to be recruited, Blum and other officials have said. This can be achieved in part through bonuses and benefits that are on par with those Regular Army soldiers get, Blum said.
Former U.S. Soldiers Balk at New Iraq, Afghan Duty
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Thirty percent of former U.S. soldiers who have been called back to duty involuntarily to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan have failed to report on time, and eight have been declared AWOL, the Army said on Tuesday.
The Army's problem with mobilizing soldiers from the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), a seldom-tapped personnel pool, is another sign of the difficulty the Pentagon is encountering in maintaining troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So far, the Army has mobilized 3,664 people from the IRR to active duty, but 1,085 have not reported on time to the Army post to which they were assigned, said Julia Collins, a spokeswoman for the Army Human Resources Command.
The Individual Ready Reserve is made up of 111,000 people who have completed their voluntary Army service commitments and have returned to civilian life but remain eligible to be mobilized in a national emergency. Many have been out of the active-duty military for years.
Eight of those recently ordered back to active duty have been listed as absent without leave, or AWOL, and could face military criminal charges as deserters, Collins said. All eight have been notified they are being classified as AWOL and still refused to report for duty, Collins added.
In addition, their names will be entered into a national criminal investigation database, and they could be arrested if, for example, they are stopped by a police officer for a routine traffic violation, Collins said.
Six others had been listed as AWOL but have agreed to report after being contacted by the Army, Collins said.
EXEMPTION REQUESTS
About 85 percent of those who did not show up on time have formally requested that the Army exempt them from duty due to health issues or some other hardship, Collins said. Most of the others have requested a delay in their reporting date.
Most exemption requests are likely to be rejected, Collins said.
"I expect a small percent to be approved for exemption," Collins said. "The cases are so varied. You've got medical. You've got financial hardship. You've got sole caretaker for children or parents." Continued ...
Last minute changes water down admission over Iraq
Michael White, political editor
Wednesday September 29, 2004
The Guardian
Tony Blair yesterday offered critics of his Iraq war strategy his most contrite justification for the conflict so far but stopped short of an outright apology, removing the word "sorry" from the text of his speech to Labour's Brighton conference in frantic last-minute rewriting.
"I know this issue has divided the country. I entirely understand why many disagree," he told the conference. Journalists had been briefed that he would say "I am genuinely sorry about that" between the two sentences, but it was removed.
Mr Blair's attempt to assuage party members over Iraq was combined with a bullish blueprint for a 21st century "opportunity society" which won him a five-minute standing ovation from wary delegates.
Mr Blair boasted that Labour would deliver equality of choice to all. "Choice is not a Tory word," he said.
The prime minister made clear his determination to drive Labour towards a third lease on political power, swatting aside the double interruption of pro-hunting and anti-Iraq protesters in the hall.
Unless tomorrow's Hartlepool byelection proves disastrous, the speech should give him a political breathing space. But the prime minister's justification for Iraq failed to impress his toughest critics, particularly after it emerged that he had watered down his language.
In the crucial passage, heard in attentive silence, he admitted that his prediction on weapons of mass destruction "has turned out to be wrong, I acknowledge and accept that." But he insisted he could not apologise for removing Saddam Hussein from power. "The world is a better place with Saddam in prison," he said.
Where his speech differed from past attempts to resolve the controversy came in the conversational way he voiced people's fears that he was dis tracted from home affairs, "just pandering to George Bush", or had made the world a more dangerous place.
"Do I know I'm right? Judgments aren't the same as facts. Instinct is not science. I'm like any other human being, as fallible and as capable of being wrong. I only know what I believe," he said. There were ripples of applause from some.
Mr Blair insisted there were only two ways of viewing the terrorist threat since 9/11, either as "isolated individual extremists" as have always existed, or as "a wholly new phenomenon, worldwide global terrorism" based on a perversion of Islam - its Saudi roots deep in many countries.
Those who took the first view would say of the terror in Iraq: "Look what you have stirred up; now stop provoking them." Whereas his own view required the west to confront and remove this threat "root and branch".
The main aim of the speech, as Downing Street gears up for a general election which may come as early as May 5 next year was to flag up 10 campaign themes centred on the public services.
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
MUSIC: Punk Punk rock and political dissidence is as classic a combination as right-wingers and defense spending. Better than a concert series or a mix CD, Rock Against Bush is the latest chapter in the book on rebellious youth. Fat Mike, lead singer for NOFX and owner of Fat Wreck Chords, and PunkVoter have assembled an impressive coalition of the willing, including Strike Anywhere, Anti-Flag, Tom Morello, and Mike "Bruce Lee" Park of Skankin' Pickle fame, to name a few. Sure, they're preaching to the choir, but it's a choir that can vote, with the right prodding. (JCF) |
Monday, September 20, 2004
Toronto International Film Festival
Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry
Programme: Real to Reel
Director: George T. Butler
Country: USA
Year: 2004
Language: English
Time: 90 minutes
Film Types: Colour and Black and White/Digital Betacam
Production Company: Swiftboat Films LLC
Executive Producer: William Samuels, Vin Roberti, Marc Abrams, Russell Abrams, Michael R. Klein
Producer: George T. Butler
Screenplay: Joe Dorman
Cinematography: Sandi Sissel
Editor: Melody London, Tim Squyres
Sound: C5
Music: Philip Glass
Filmmaker George T. Butler has a keen eye for political talent. In 1972, he began photographing a rising star on the bodybuilding scene named Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding," the resulting book - and later, documentary - helped to establish now-Governor Schwarzenegger's film career, and then his ascension to Governator. Just two years earlier, Butler had handled media duties for a young congressional hopeful: John Kerry.
Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry is the culmination of a forty-year friendship between Kerry and Butler. They first met in 1964 and published a book together ("The New Soldier," about Vietnam vets) in 1971. Butler has documented Kerry's political career with thousands of photographs; Kerry is godfather to one of Butler's sons. This film, then, has a mission: it hopes to be a profile of the next President of the United States.
Yet, while hardly non-partisan, Going Upriver is neither callow hagiography nor rote campaign film. Kerry, as you may have heard, was a naval officer in the Vietnam War, where he captained a "swift boat" on dangerous river patrols. Having served with distinction, Kerry returned home and led a soldiers' peace movement, the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Going Upriver focuses specifically on this period in Kerry's march toward Washington, melding an array of stellar period footage and interviews with contemporaries of the presidential candidate.
The notions of consciousness-raising and dissent among soldiers seems particularly relevant - if impossible - today and the striking portrait of the VVAW movement offered here is truly revelatory. As this is Kerry's defining moment to date, it is clear why Butler would choose to focus his attention on what this film convinces us was "one of the most astonishing feats of public leadership." It may be easy to be cynical about this film's purpose, but in an era in which votes are forged from sound bites, a full, nuanced account of Kerry's Vietnam service and activism is as welcome as it is necessary.
- Sean Farnel
George T. Butler was born in Chester, England and studied at the University of North Carolina and at Hollins College in Virginia. He began his career as a reporter and photographer before co-editing the book "The New Soldier" in 1971. In 1974, he published the best-selling book "Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding;" he filmed the documentary adaptation, Pumping Iron, in 1977. His subsequent films include Pumping Iron II: The Women (85), In the Blood (89), which played at the Festival in 1989, The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition (00) and Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry (04).
Editorial Cartoons from Slate.com
Clay Bennett, The Christian Science Monitor, Boston
Visit Clay's site. E-Mail Clay.
Ann Telnaes, Tribune Media Services,
See the cartoons that won the 2001 Pulitzer Prixe for Ann. Visit Ann's site.
Mike Keefe, The Denver Post -- Mike's award winning work has appeared in the Post for more than 20 years --
visit Mike's web site. E-Mail Mike.
Bruce Plante, Chattanooga, TN, Chattanooga Times Free Press
E-mail Bruce.
Excerpt from an email I recieved from the Kerry Edwards Campaign
...
National security is a central issue in this campaign. We owe it to the American people to have a real debate about the choices President Bush has made and the choices I would make to fight and win the war on terror.
That means we must have a great honest national debate on Iraq. The president claims it is the centerpiece of his war on terror. In fact, Iraq was a profound diversion from that war and the battle against our greatest enemy, Osama bin Laden and the terrorists. Invading Iraq has created a crisis of historic proportions and, if we do not change course, there is the prospect of a war with no end in sight.
This month, we passed a cruel milestone: more than 1,000 Americans lost in Iraq. Their sacrifice reminds us that Iraq remains, overwhelmingly, an American burden. Nearly 90 percent of the troops -- and nearly 90 percent of the casualties -- are American. Despite the president's claims, this is not a grand coalition.
Our troops have served with extraordinary bravery, skill and resolve. Their service humbles all of us. When I speak to them when I look into the eyes of their families, I know this: we owe them the truth about what we have asked them to do and what is still to be done.
In June, the president declared, "The Iraqi people have their country back." Just last week, he told us: "This country is headed toward democracy. Freedom is on the march."
But the administration's own official intelligence estimate, given to the president last July, tells a very different story.
According to press reports, the intelligence estimate totally contradicts what the president is saying to the American people.
So do the facts on the ground.
Security is deteriorating, for us and for the Iraqis.
42 Americans died in Iraq in June -- the month before the handover. But 54 died in July -- 66 in August and already 54 halfway through September.
And more than 1,100 Americans were wounded in August -- more than in any other month since the invasion.
We are fighting a growing insurgency in an ever widening war-zone. In March, insurgents attacked our forces 700 times. In August, they attacked 2,700 times -- a 400% increase.
Falluja, Ramadi, Samarra, even parts of Baghdad -- are now "no go zones" -- breeding grounds for terrorists who are free to plot and launch attacks against our soldiers. The radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, who is accused of complicity in the murder of Americans, holds more sway in the suburbs of Baghdad.
Violence against Iraqis from bombings to kidnappings to intimidation is on the rise.
Basic living conditions are also deteriorating.
Residents of Baghdad are suffering electricity blackouts lasting up to 14 hours a day.
Raw sewage fills the streets, rising above the hubcaps of our Humvees. Children wade through garbage on their way to school.
Unemployment is over 50 percent. Insurgents are able to find plenty of people willing to take $150 for tossing grenades at passing U.S. convoys.
Yes, there has been some progress, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our soldiers and civilians in Iraq. Schools, shops and hospitals have been opened. In parts of Iraq, normalcy actually prevails.
But most Iraqis have lost faith in our ability to deliver meaningful improvements to their lives. So they're sitting on the fence instead of siding with us against the insurgents.
That is the truth -- the truth that the commander in chief owes to our troops and the American people.
Sunday, September 19, 2004
By Hugh McManners
18 September 2004
The ever-ingenious inventors at Israel's weapons research and development directorate have created a schoolboy's dream: the ultimate stink bomb, with a disgusting smell that lingers in its victim's clothing for up to five years.
The foul-smelling liquid squirted by angry or frightened skunks at their victims was analysed by Israeli defence scientists and a synthetic version created for use in a weapon they call the "skunk bomb". Fired with great care, and from a respectable range, it is designed to force civilian protesters to disperse. Security forces would not be keen to arrest the victims, and they would be equally unwelcome at home.
When soldiers try to control crowds, or take action against guerrillas hiding in urban areas, there is a high risk of damage to property and people near by. Military weapons are designed to kill, and are often too powerful to use under these circumstances, as Israel Defence Forces have discovered in their clashes with Palestinian crowds. After years of using rubber bullets and tear gas, plus small arms, Israeli forces have been under pressure to create less-than-lethal weapons with which to target Palestinians. The skunk bomb is one example.
By Nick Meo in Kabul and Robert Fox
19 September 2004
Britain and the US are both set to step up their troop presence in Afghanistan, which faces a presidential election next month and a fraught parliamentary election early next year, that could see a confrontation with the country's powerful warlords.
The US has confirmed it will send up to 1,100 extra troops in time for the 9 October presidential vote, amid increasingly urgent pleas by the interim President, Hamid Karzai, for greater security and a warning by the American ambassador to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad, of a possible "Tet offensive" by militants in Afghan cities, echoing the uprising that hastened the departure of American forces from Vietnam.
A far bigger British deployment is being mooted, meanwhile, to take place early in 2005, a critical time when a series of dangerous security problems are expected to converge. The Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Mike Jackson, says plans have been made to send a headquarters staff and a brigade-sized force of around 8,000 peacekeeping soldiers to Afghanistan.
Early next year Mr Karzai, who is widely expected to be re-elected, will be under intense pressure to deal with warlords who have failed to disarm. A major crackdown on the booming narcotics trade is also expected, possibly provoking rural resistance, and parliamentary elections planned for April are predicted to be much more violent than the presidential vote, because local strongmen will almost certainly fight each other for power.
48-hour ultimatum to UK. Chilling video shows captives. Blair warned of Iraq 'chaos'
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad and Raymond Whitaker
19 September 2004
A 62-year-old British engineer was last night less than 48 hours from death at the hands of his kidnappers in Iraq, intensifying the atmosphere of crisis at today's meeting between Tony Blair and the Iraqi interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi.
In footage issued by his captors, Kenneth Bigley and two American colleagues seized with him, Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong, were shown kneeling and blindfolded, with a hooded gunman pointing his weapon at the head of one of the men. A terrorist from the group, one of the most ruthless fighting the US-led occupation of Iraq, said their throats would be cut unless Muslim women prisoners were released from Abu Ghraib and Umm Qasr prisons. The Ministry of Defence and the US military both insisted last night that no women were held at either jail.
The threat to the three hostages came on another day of extreme violence across Iraq, the worst incident being an attack by a suicide bomber on a National Guard headquarters in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, which killed 23 people and wounded 53 mostly teenagers queuing up for jobs in the military.
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
20 September 2004
Germany's Neo-Nazi National Democratic Party made sweeping gains in important elections in the eastern state of Saxony yesterday after a shock protest vote that reflected the widespread unpopularity of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's economic reform programme.
In the conservative-controlled state, the National Democrats (NPD) won seats in a regional state parliament for the first time in 36 years after the first exit-poll results showed that the party had won 9 per cent of the vote.
The extreme-right Deutsche Volks Union also retained seats in Brandenburg state elections. However Mr Schröder's Social Democrats remained the strongest party in the state despite substantial gains by the reformed-communist Party for Democratic Socialism (PDS.)
Friday, September 17, 2004
The Nation Magazine: 9/27/04 Cover
Cover art and design by Gene Case & Stephen Kling/Avenging Angels
Agreement on Presidential Debates Seen Soon
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With less than two weeks to go until the first scheduled debate, the campaigns of President Bush and Democrat John Kerry have yet to seal an agreement on the number and terms of presidential debates.
Frank Fahrenkopf, a co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which recommended three presidential debates and one vice presidential one, said on Thursday he was hopeful of an agreement soon.
The Kerry campaign wants the recommended three debates but the Bush campaign would like to limit them to two.
"We should hear from them shortly," he said, a day after the commission wrote the two campaigns a letter urging an agreement by Monday to allow for proper preparations.
Negotiations over the debates have largely been handled by Bush's lead representative, former Secretary of State James Baker, and Kerry's top debate negotiator, Washington lawyer Vernon Jordan.
The commission scheduled the first 90-minute debate on Sept. 30 in Coral Gables, Florida, with a second one set for Oct. 8 in St. Louis and a third Oct. 13 in Tempe, Arizona.
A vice presidential debate between incumbent Dick Cheney and Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, was set for Oct. 5 in Cleveland.
Monday, September 13, 2004
.com
Sundance for Republicans
Welcome to the nation's first conservative film festival.
By Bryan Curtis
Posted Monday, Sept. 13, 2004, at 3:02 PM PT
DALLAS - The opening night of the American Film Renaissance, the nation's "first and only" conservative film festival, featured an African-American pianist sitting in a ballroom of Dallas' InterContinental Hotel and playing "As Time Goes By." On Saturday and Sunday, aspiring right-wing auteurs suggested that if we could just get back to the values of Casablanca - you know, Nazism, adultery, casino gaming - the studios would make movies worth watching again. "We're seeing the rise of conservative film," said Alan Lipton, the co-director of a short called Operation Eagle Strike. "We're so pro-Israel that I'm sure we'll have plenty of friends in Hollywood."
MTV gives you the chance to hear her long awaited new album, first!
Medulla, Bjork's sixth studio album, hits these shores on August 30 2004, and reinforces the Icelandic singer's continuing innovation and worldwide appeal. Constructed predominantly from the sound of Bjork's own voice, Medulla was recorded in 18 different locations including New York, Iceland, Venice and The Canary Islands. Once again throwing the rule book brashly aside, Iceland's greatest export worked with long time recording partners Mark Bell and Mark 'Spike' Stent, and the album features collaborations with Faith No More singer Mike Patton and The Roots' Rahzel.
On the recording process, Bjork says:"It wasn't working, and I was trying to figure out why; wondering, 'Where are the songs in all this mess?' Then I sat down at the mixing-desk and started muting the instruments, and it was like, 'Oh! There they are.'"
Just when you think 'Medulla' is seeing Bjork disappear into traditional a capella territory, along come the sort of perfect IDM/pop moments we've come to expect from the diminutive diva. 'Who Is It...' and 'Desired Constellation' resonate with the kind of ephereal beauty so perfected on 'Post' and 'Homogenic', and some say was missing on the colder 'Vespertine'. The gorgeous 'Oceania' flutters like a butterfly, while album closer 'Triumph of a Heart' marries her unique voice with a thousand beatbox rhythms.
Listen and enjoy.
indian.co.uk
bjork.com
Friday, September 10, 2004
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Michael Moore's Patriot Act
How a blue-collar screw-up became the White House's nightmare
Mike's USA TODAY dispatches from inside the Republican Convention
Why Democrats shouldn't be scared, 9/3/04
Don't send more kids to die, 9/2/04
The Ebert and McCain show, 9/1/04
The GOP doesn't reflect America, 8/31/04
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(I'm giving it up in the hopes more voters can see "Fahrenheit 9/11")
9/6/04
Dear Friends,
I had dinner recently with a well-known pollster who had often worked for Republicans. He told me that when he went to see "Fahrenheit 9/11" he got so distraught he twice had to go out in the lobby and pace during the movie.
"The Bush White House left open a huge void when it came to explaining the war to the American people," he told me. "And your film has filled that void -- and now there is no way to defeat it. It is the atomic bomb of this campaign."
He told me how he had conducted an informal poll with "Fahrenheit 9/11" audiences in three different cities and the results were all the same. "Essentially, 80% of the people going IN to see your movie are already likely Kerry voters and the movie has galvanized them in a way you rarely see Democrats galvanized.
"But, here's the bad news for Bush..."
Click here to continue...
Dear Working Families e-Activist:
We won a big one!
Americaâs working families had a huge victory Thursday when the U.S. House of Representatives heard our demands and voted to stop President George W. Bushâs outrageous overtime pay cut. Democrats fought for and passed, with bipartisan support, an amendment to restore overtime pay rights for some 6 million workers while leaving in place the one change that expands overtime coverage to 384,000 low-income workers. Thatâs a win-win situation for working families.
Take a minute to congratulate yourselfâthen get back to work to stop this continued assault on working families, because the fight is far from over. President Bush, amazingly, has threatened to veto this action by Congress. Take action now by clicking on the link below, or keep reading:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bush_NO_VETO/e5u7gn9zkkx8x
You and other working family activists have sent more than 1.6 million letters, e-mails and faxes protesting the overtime pay take-away, and you have been heard. This is the fifth time Congress has voted to stop the Bush administration from slashing overtime paychecks for working families.
But President Bush refuses to give up the fight. He is defying the wishes of the public and Congress by threatening to veto important legislation in order to keep his massive pay cut for working families in place. Please click on the link below to tell Bush to back off his veto threat, or keep reading:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bush_NO_VETO/e5u7gn9zkkx8x
One thing is clear--the Bush administration is determined to strip workers of their overtime pay. While Bush keeps fighting for his corporate allies, we need to keep fighting for hard-working families who depend on overtime pay to help make ends meet.
We need you to help keep the heat on President Bush. Our efforts have paid off but our fight continues. Tell Bush âNOâ on his overtime pay veto threat. Please act today by sending a letter to President Bush. We'll deliver your letter via fax with a copy to your U.S. senators, who are about to take up this important legislation.
Please click on the link below to tell Bush to withdraw his overtime pay veto threat and do the right thing for working families.
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bush_NO_VETO/e5u7gn9zkkx8x
Thanks for all you do.
In solidarity,
Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO
Sept. 10, 2004
Saturday, September 04, 2004
 'BUSH LIES, PEOPLE DIE' CODEPINK's June Brashares, 40, is hustled off the convention floor by security. Associated Press photo by Ted S. Warren  'FIRE BUSH - WOMEN SAY BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW' Jodie Evans of CODEPINK is removed as President Bush accepts the party nomination at the Republican National Convention Thursday, Sept.2, 2004, in New York. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) |
But that happened Thursday night at the front of the California delegation section when -- in the middle of Bush's speech -- June Brashares, 40, of San Francisco, an activist with Code Pink, stood up on her chair and unfurled a banner that read, "Bush lies, people die.''
Just minutes before, the blue-suited Brashares had been in the crunch of delegates and press in the aisle when former Gov. Pete Wilson graciously offered his seat with a prime sight line to President Bush. Brashares was wearing an alternate delegate pass, and I stepped aside to let her sit down.
It was 50 feet from the president and three rows behind Gerald Parsky, the chairman of the California delegation and chairman of the UC Board of Regents.
Brashares looked grateful and said her feet were killing her. During the speech, she started to stand up on her seat numerous times, holding onto cardboard signs of support for the president. She waved a tiny American flag.
Just more than 40 minutes into Bush's speech of longer than an hour, Brashares jumped on the chair, yelling "Bush lies," and holding up her homemade banner.
Within seconds, she was overcome by half a dozen burly security men who wrestled her into the crowd as the crowd, sensing a disturbance, yelled "four more years" to drown her out. She sent me sprawling into KCBS radio reporter Doug Sovern. They hustled her out in a matter of moments.
The president paused, briefly looked confused by the cheering during a serious moment of his speech, then continued.
Later, another Code Pink activist, Jodie Evans, 49, of Los Angeles, stood up in a seat under the Fox News skybox and pulled off her dress, exposing her pink lingerie with a hand-written message: "Fire Bush - Women say bring the troops home now."
The crowd around her began the "four more years" chant and security dragged her out.
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, told The Chronicle later that she was elated with Brashares' success in getting a national platform, even for a few seconds.
"This is the third day in a row that Code Pink has penetrated the convention,'' she said. "My question to President Bush is, if he can't secure his own convention, how can they bring security to their own nation?''
Chronicle reporter Zachary Coile contributed to this report.
June Brashares, 40, is hustled off the convention floor by security.
New York -- It was more than a shock to end up on the floor of Madison Square Garden, five rows from the president, with a protester on top of me -- and security guards struggling to contain her.
But that happened Thursday night at the front of the California delegation section when -- in the middle of Bush's speech -- June Brashares, 40, of San Francisco, an activist with Code Pink, stood up on her chair and unfurled a banner that read, "Bush lies, people die.''
Just minutes before, the blue-suited Brashares had been in the crunch of delegates and press in the aisle when former Gov. Pete Wilson graciously offered his seat with a prime sight line to President Bush. Brashares was wearing an alternate delegate pass, and I stepped aside to let her sit down.
It was 50 feet from the president and three rows behind Gerald Parsky, the chairman of the California delegation and chairman of the UC Board of Regents.
Brashares looked grateful and said her feet were killing her. During the speech, she started to stand up on her seat numerous times, holding onto cardboard signs of support for the president. She waved a tiny American flag.
Just more than 40 minutes into Bush's speech of longer than an hour, Brashares jumped on the chair, yelling "Bush lies," and holding up her homemade banner.
Within seconds, she was overcome by half a dozen burly security men who wrestled her into the crowd as the crowd, sensing a disturbance, yelled "four more years" to drown her out. She sent me sprawling into KCBS radio reporter Doug Sovern. They hustled her out in a matter of moments.
The president paused, briefly looked confused by the cheering during a serious moment of his speech, then continued.
Later, another Code Pink activist, Jodie Evans, 49, of Los Angeles, stood up in a seat under the Fox News skybox and pulled off her dress, exposing her pink lingerie with a hand-written message: "Fire Bush - Women say bring the troops home now."
The crowd around her began the "four more years" chant and security dragged her out.
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, told The Chronicle later that she was elated with Brashares' success in getting a national platform, even for a few seconds.
"This is the third day in a row that Code Pink has penetrated the convention,'' she said. "My question to President Bush is, if he can't secure his own convention, how can they bring security to their own nation?''
George W. Bush's missing year The widow of a Bush family confidant says her husband gave the future president an Alabama Senate campaign job as a favor to his worried father. Did they see him do any National Guard service? "Good lord, no"
By Mary Jacoby
They fought the law and the law won Anti-Bush protesters were tough and resilient all week. But in the end it was the NYPD and City Hall with the upper hand
By Michelle Goldberg
Get well, Bill! The Democrats -- and the country -- need the ailing ex-president back on his feet soon
By Charles Taylor
War Room '04 Time magazine poll shows big Bush bounce. Clinton beats Bush -- again. How Code Pink drove the GOP convention to code red. Republican spinmeisters spin New York Times. Plus: Cashing in on the dead of 9/11
