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___.COMPOSITION______In This Issue_______________________________
Greg Palast Tour Hits New York City and Washington DC
Progressive Web Makes 'Stupid White Men' #1 Bestseller
Anti-Bush Protests
Here Is ANOTHER Huge Bush Scandal - TAIWANGATE!
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) Demands Accountability from Bush for 9-11 Failures
The 'Bush Doctrine' for Global Domination Was Written by Cheney in 1992
Lindsey Graham Predicts Iraq Invasion Before Election Day
Berlusconi Joins Forces with Bush to Spread 'Reign of Vague Terror' Abroad
Franks 'Forgets' to Mention This Little Detail on 3/29: U.S. Troops Conduct 3/28 Raid
Inside Pakistan Under Direction of FBI
Bush Continues to Appoint Wolves to Guard the Sheep's Den
The 'Vast Right Wing Conspiracy' Is Real - And STILL Needs to be Exposed!
US Nuclear Reactors Face Shutdown for Shockingly Rapid Corrosion That Could Cause a
Catastrophic Meltdown
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Admits NOT ONE of America's 103 Nuke Plants Could
Withstand Impact of a Commercial Airplane
Even CBS Marketwatch Recognizes that Enron Is Not Just a Business Scandal!
'I Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry'
Bush Declares, 'There Needs to be a Focused Coalition Effort in the Region Against
Peace'
BP Proves Bush Wrong on Global Warming
Jeb's Privatization Abuses Florida's Children
Jeb Spams Florida Democrats
Now It's VirginiaGate: Top Virginia Republican Wiretapped Democratic Call
__Greg Palast Tour Hits New York City and Washington DC
Investigative reporter Greg Palast had a hugely successful tour through the West
Coast, and is now on the East Coast. On Monday, April 1, Greg will speak along with
MediaChannel.org's Danny Schechter at 56 Walker Street in Tribeca at 7 pm, sponsored
by Voter March and Democrats.com. On Wednesday, April 3, Greg will be featured live on
C-Span's Washington Journal from 7:45-8:30 am. Then Greg will speak at the
Communications Workers of America, 501 3rd St. NW (3rd and E), at 12 noon. Then Greg
will speak at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, 901 G Street NW, from 6-8 pm,
co-sponsored by Democrats.com. On Thursday April 4, Greg speaks at the University of
Iowa, 100 Phillips Hall. On Friday April 5, Greg speaks in Chicago at 3111 North
Ashland Ave. at 3 pm, then at the Jung Institute, 1567 Maple Avenue Evanston, IL at 7
pm, both sponsored by Buy Back our Government.
http://www.votermarch.org/Palast.htm
__Progressive Web Makes 'Stupid White Men' #1 Bestseller
In the Seattle Times, Paul Andrews writes, "In three months, 'Stupid White Men and
Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation' has gone from a potential date with
the shredder to 15 printings and the top of The NY Times' bestseller listings. What
makes 'Stupid's' ascension remarkable is that it was accomplished almost entirely
outside the publicity mill of mainstream media. [Michael] Moore's book may be the
first Internet-enabled No. 1 bestseller... Moore may have capitalized on a new modus:
Word of Web. Since the mid-1990s, the Web's force as a marketing tool has been touted
by public-relations types and celebrated in books like 'The Cluetrain Manifesto.'
Still, the Web always has been assumed second fiddle... Moore's campaign may be the
most dramatic evidence so far that the Web in and of itself can spawn a No. 1
bestseller" - thanks to Democrats.com and the ever-growing progressive web!
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/134425409_paul25.html
__Anti-Bush Protests
On Tuesday 4/2, protest Bush in Philadelphia. On Wednesday 4/3, protest Cheney in
Denver. On 4/20, participate in major demonstrations against Bush's War in DC and SF.
http://legitgov.org/action.html
__Here Is ANOTHER Huge Bush Scandal - TAIWANGATE!
In the past week, Taiwan has been rocked by the revelation that ex-president Lee
Teng-hui operated a $100 million slush fund to buy influence overseas. Part of this
money was used to buy influence in the US through two people NOW IN TOP POSITIONS IN
THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION. Carl Ford was a lobbyist for Taiwan at Cassidy and
Associates, which was reportedly paid $1.5 million from the slush fund to gain
influence with Bush, and reportedly gave $1-$1.75 million to Bush and the Republicans
in 1999 and 2000. Ford's reward was being appointed Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Research, where he engineered Bush's sale of
$4 billion in high-tech weapons to Taiwan last year. The sale included submarines
built by General Dynamics - ANOTHER client of Ford's. James Kelly ran the
Scaife-funded Pacific Forum (connected to CSIS), which received $100,000 from the
slush fund. Kelly is now Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia. This scandal has
received NO coverage in the US!
http://www.politicalamazon.com/bush-chinese.html
__Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) Demands Accountability from Bush for 9-11 Failures
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) has always been an outspoken fighter for truth and
justice. Now she is bravely going where no other politicians dare to go - denouncing
the Stolen Election of 2000 and asking hard questions about 9-11. "Now is the time for
our elected officials to be held accountable. Now is the time for the media to be held
accountable. Why aren't the hard questions being asked? We know there were numerous
warnings of the events to come on September 11. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia,
delivered one such warning. Those engaged in unusual stock trades immediately before
September 11 knew enough to make millions of dollars from United and American
airlines, certain insurance and brokerage firms' stocks. What did this Administration
know, and when did it know it about the events of September 11? Who else knew and why
did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered?" Read
this powerful statement!
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29G.McKinney.War.htm
__The 'Bush Doctrine' for Global Domination Was Written by Cheney in 1992
Bush's deployment of US troops all around the world, and his shredding of every
important treaty, follows the plan for US global domination written in 1992 by top
aides to Bush Sr.'s Defense Secretary, Dick Cheney. The secret document, known as the
"Defense Policy Guidance," was written by Paul Wolfowitz, now deputy secretary of
defense, and 'Scooter' Libby, now Cheney's powerful chief of staff. "In 1992, The New
York Times was the first to obtain the draft Pentagon paper and break the story...
setting off a storm of controversy in Washington... Indeed, under the new world order
envisaged by Wolfowitz and Libby a decade ago, American military intervention around
the world would come to be seen 'as a constant feature'... [Now] the terrorist attacks
against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon seem to have provided the pretext for
Wolfowitz, Libby, and like-minded officials to use a war against terror to reintroduce
their 10-year-old ambitions." So writes Jim Lobe in TomPaine.com.
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5345
__Lindsey Graham Predicts Iraq Invasion Before Election Day
Strom Thurmond will not run for re-election in the fall, and House Impeachment Manager
Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wants his seat. And Bush has come up with an evil plan to help
Graham - by invading Iraq before Election Day. Just before Bush arrived in SC to raise
money for Graham, Graham gave away this secret to the Chamber of Commerce: "Before the
end of summer or fall we'll be in a major engagement with Iraq. We're looking at going
after Saddam Hussein -- not to contain him, but to replace him." Graham says he wasn't
explicitly told this by Bush, but based his "prediction" on "intelligence briefings,
contact with the Bush administration and his attendance at a recent international
conference in Germany." Here's evidence Graham is right - Bush is moving the Air Force
out of Saudi Arabia, which isn't too pleased about Bush's invasion plans, into Qatar,
which will do whatever Bush wants. If you oppose Bush's invasion of Iraq, join the
protests in DC and SF on April 20!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33897-2002Mar28.html
__Berlusconi Joins Forces with Bush to Spread 'Reign of Vague Terror' Abroad
Isn't it just a tad odd that one of the current "all points" (and we do mean all
points, as there is no actual focal point) terrorism activity warnings is focused in
Italy, of all EU nations? We don't. That's because Bush's only real European
supporter, Blair, is under fire and the American Press is finally becoming a little
less quick to trumpet vague threats across page one. So that leaves Italy, whose
president Berlusconi is a Rupert Murdoch-type character after Bush's own heart. Better
yet, Berlusconi, who has expressed support of Bush, exercises iron control over the
Italian Press - a perfect formula for carrying the "vague threat" campaign abroad.
These attacks on citizens in Italy are not going to be suicide missions, but might
just be attacks with regular weapons, according to "sources." Hmm, that ought to help
Bush's "terror campaign," since this means any crime committed with a handgun can be
declared an "international terrorist attack."
http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2002/03/29/FFXA0UF9OUC.html
__Franks 'Forgets' to Mention This Little Detail on 3/29: U.S. Troops Conduct 3/28
Raid Inside Pakistan Under Direction of FBI
We guess aging "warrior" Tommy Franks is a bit distracted by all the college coeds on
Spring break basking on the beach at his "rugged" Tampa "command post." For some
reason, he just didn't mention this little tidbit at his Friday press conference: On
Thursday, U.S. troops stormed houses in Pakistan alleged to be hiding al-Qaeda
militants. According to the Times of India, two Arab nationals were killed in the
commando-style raid, while 50 others, including 42 Arabs and five Afghans and some
Pakistanis belonging to the banned Jaish-e-Muhammad and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, were
arrested. Several people were seriously injured in the raid, including two local
policemen. FBI, US Marines, Pakistan police commandos, and officials from various
intelligence agencies apparently participated. So what happened to the vow not to
carry the war onto Pakistani soil? Maybe Franks and Rumsfeld could tear themselves
away from the cocktail party circuit long enough to tell us.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_Id=5249073
__Bush Continues to Appoint Wolves to Guard the Sheep's Den
Bush sneakily made 2 recess appointments on Friday while Congress was on break to
avoid Senate confirmation, and both fell into Shrub's pattern of appointing
reactionary conservatives who basically oppose the very laws they're supposed to
enforce. First, Shrub appointed an opponent of campaign finance laws who also happens
to be the Republican National Committee's top lawyer to the Federal Election
Commission, a six-member panel that enforces campaign finance laws. Next, he
appointed a critic of affirmative action laws as assistant secretary of education for
civil rights. What next? Appointing Peter Mokaba (the member of South Africa's
Parliament who denies that HIV exists) as head of AIDS policy?
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/089/nation/Bush_names_critic_of_campaign_:.shtml
__The 'Vast Right Wing Conspiracy' Is Real - And STILL Needs to be Exposed!
NY Times columnist Paul Krugman says the important message of Brock's "Blinded by the
Right" is "the 'vast right-wing conspiracy' is not an overheated metaphor but a
straightforward reality... The scandal machine that employed Mr. Brock was, in effect,
a special-interest group financed by a handful of wealthy fanatics - men like the Rev.
Sun Myung Moon, whose cultlike Unification Church owns The Washington Times, and
Richard Mellon Scaife, who bankrolled the scandal-mongering American Spectator and
many other right-wing enterprises. It was effective because the typical news consumer
didn't realize what was going on... There is a level of anger and hatred on the right
that has at best a faint echo in the anti-globalization left, and none at all in
mainstream liberalism.... An appallingly well-financed hard right is still in the
business of smearing anyone who disagrees with its agenda, and too many journalists
still allow themselves to be used." So expose those journalists, Paul!
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/29/opinion/29KRUG.html
__US Nuclear Reactors Face Shutdown for Shockingly Rapid Corrosion That Could Cause a
Catastrophic Meltdown
According to the NY Times, the NRC has discovered "that acid in cooling water had
eaten a hole nearly all the way through the six-inch-thick lid of a reactor at a plant
in Ohio. The corrosion left only a stainless-steel liner less than a half-inch thick
to hold in cooling water under more than 2,200 pounds of pressure per square inch. At
the 25-year-old Ohio plant, Davis-Besse, near Toledo, the stainless steel was bent by
the pressure and would have broken if corrosion had continued [and caused a
meltdown!], according to the [NRC], where officials were surprised by the discovery.
They said they had never seen so much corrosion in a reactor vessel. The [NRC] has
ordered all 68 other plants of similar design - pressurized-water reactors - to check
their lids. The commission is particularly worried about a dozen of the oldest plants
and ordered them to report by early April whether they were safe enough to keep in
service." Stay tuned for a possible nuclear industry meltdown...
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/26/national/26NUKE.html
__Nuclear Regulatory Commission Admits NOT ONE of America's 103 Nuke Plants Could
Withstand Impact of a Commercial Airplane
>From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Government regulators have acknowledged for
>the first time that none of the 103 operating nuclear reactors in the United States
>could withstand the impact of an airliner like those that crashed into the World
>Trade Center and Pentagon. The agency acknowledged that critical systems that provide
>cooling, electricity and storage of spent nuclear fuel are mostly in nonhardened
>buildings that could not withstand a Sept. 11-type attack. The revelations were
>included in a report made available by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), based on
>responses to his queries from NRC Chairman Richard Meserve. Markey, a frequent critic
>of the NRC, said the agency's acknowledgement shows that additional steps need to be
>taken to improve nuclear plant safety." Since 9/11 Bush has failed, despite repeated
>requests, to provide ANY addition security to nuke plants - yet he claims U.S. safety
>motivates all his moves. Yeah, right!
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/friday/news_c34a9056f57040071082.html
__Even CBS Marketwatch Recognizes that Enron Is Not Just a Business Scandal!
CBS Marketwatch's David Galloway wonders what the administration is hiding in its
heavily edited energy task force papers but recognizes that the administration's
secretiveness is "part of a pattern of holding back information that not only taints
the administration with Enron, but leads to skepticism about any of its other motives,
such as its messing with the Clean Air Act or its developing a shadow government in
case of attacks on Washington." Unlike much of the mainstream media, which prefers to
position the Enron debacle as a "business scandal" to protect Bush, Gallaway tells it
like it is: "From the very beginning, the Enron story has been much more than a
business story about a failed company. It has been a story of greed and corruption on
such a scale that both Washington and Wall Street have had to make changes to the way
they operate that would have been unthinkable a year ago." Yeah, but unfortunately,
there haven't been enough changes: Shrub hasn't been impeached yet!
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B65BF6F42%2D75AA%2D4BE8%2DB544%2DFAFAC4EE9EE0%7D&siteid=mktw
__'I Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry'
"'...in order for people to give me sound advice, that information not oughta be
public.' - GWB in reference to GAO lawsuit, 3/1/02. George, are you out of your mind?
Did you hear what you said in Des Moines? Did you really mean that? George, I played
that line over and over in context to the question you were asked and no matter what
way I hear it, your response was still stupid. Did you hear yourself? '...in order for
people to give me sound advice, that information not oughta be public.' Okay, let me
make sure I understand. In order for you to get 'sound' advice the American people
need to butt out. In other words, no one can give you sound advice if they think we're
gonna find out about it. Is that right? Wait, let me go look this up just to be sure."
So writes W. David Jenkins III.
http://www.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=6401
__Bush Declares, 'There Needs to be a Focused Coalition Effort in the Region Against
Peace'
Violence is out of control in the Middle East because George W. Bush refuses to lift a
finger for peace, which requires honesty, integrity, commitment, and LEADERSHIP - all
qualities missing from Shrub's contemptible character. And now we know why Bush isn't
working for peace - he's not interested in peace, as Bush's own words make clear.
"Again, I repeat here, every leader I've talked to said, 'We need peace.' But there
needs to be a focused coalition effort in the region against peace," Bush said, until
he realized he had (as usual) inadvertently spoken the truth, and quickly scrubbed it.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/03/30/bush.mideast/index.html
__BP Proves Bush Wrong on Global Warming
"The Bush administration has made a mantra of the claim that mandatory greenhouse gas
reductions would be prohibitively expensive, costing millions of jobs, cutting into
gross domestic product, and harming U.S. competitiveness. The 'fatal flaw' of Bush's
argument (to borrow a favorite administration phrase about Kyoto) is that his
estimates are based on theoretical economic models that don't fully capture how
environmental policy affects technological change. As a graduate of Harvard Business
School, which pioneered the 'case study' method of examining real-world corporate
experiences, Bush should know better. In fact, I have a case study for him to read.
It's about a leading global energy company that is proving the President wrong.
Speaking at Stanford Business School... BP chief executive John Browne announced that
his company had met its self-imposed target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions --
nearly eight years ahead of schedule, and at no net cost to the company."
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5334
__Jeb's Privatization Abuses Florida's Children
Here is yet another Jeb Bush privatization scheme that has brought about disaster -
this time to abused kids. "Amid mounting allegations of shoddy work and falsified
records, the state Thursday canceled multimillion-dollar contracts with a Pinellas
Park company it hired to investigate child abuse cases. The move is a blow not only to
the nonprofit company, but also to state Department of Children and Families Secretary
Kathleen Kearney, who just last week proudly recounted in an interview how rapidly the
department had cut its backlog of abuse cases. The cancellations mean that already
overworked state and local investigators are likely to get even higher case loads as
the department severs ties with the company that had investigated more than 10,000
cases the department was too busy to manage." The Bushes think families can be
strengthened through empty rhetoric, rather than economic assistance and well-managed
public services. Where is the outrage???
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/03/08/State/State_dumps_abuse_inv.shtml
__Jeb Spams Florida Democrats
According to the Miami Herald, "Hundreds of Bill McBride supporters have been
'spammed.' The spam artist is none other than the e-governor himself -- or, rather,
his reelection campaign manager. In an e-mail sent to people who had signed up to
receive electronic updates from McBride, the Tampa lawyer who is seeking the
Democratic nomination for governor, Gov. Jeb Bush's campaign manager urges people to
consider voting for her boss. The spam was sent to some 300 users, much to the horror
of McBride strategists who were at a loss to explain how the Bush campaign obtained
their list. 'In e-mail etiquette, this is a no-no,' said Robin Rorapaugh, McBride's
campaign manager. 'I think this is dirty pool.'" Just one more reason Florida voters
should crush Jeb.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/2953239.htm
__Now It's VirginiaGate: Top Virginia Republican Wiretapped Democratic Call
A couple of years ago, House Republicans went "nukular" after Rep. Jim McDermott
(D-WA) was given transcripts of intercepted phone calls by Newt Gingrich. But now the
shoe is on the other foot, and Republicans are insisting everything is just peachy.
The Executive Director of the Virginia Republican Party, Ed Matricardi, spied on a
Democratic conference call involving Governor Mark Warner and 30 other Democratic
strategists. Matricardi recorded the call without consent and circulated a transcript
- breaking Virginia's wiretapping laws. But leave it to Republican lawyers to twist
the facts around so Matricardi avoids the jail time he so richly deserves.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38038-2002Mar29.html
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