The Khan Artist
by Maureen Dowd
I think President Bush has cleared up everything now.The U.S. invaded Iraq, which turned out not to have what our pals in Pakistan did have and were giving out willy-nilly to all the bad guys except Iraq, which wouldn't take it.Bush officials thought they knew what was going on inside our enemy's country: that Iraq had W.M.D. and might sell them on the black market. But they were wrong. |
The New American Century
by Arundhati Roy
In January 2003 thousands of us from across the world gathered in Porto Alegre in Brazil and declared--reiterated--that "Another World Is Possible." A few thousand miles north, in Washington, George W. Bush and his aides were thinking the same thing.Our project was the World Social Forum. Theirs--to further what many call the Project for the New American Century. |
Advocate Calls Bishop a ‘Liar’ - Asks Catholics to forgo donations to diocese
by Rita Ciolli
Bishop William Murphy lied when he denied any direct involvement in the cover-up of priest abuse scandal in Boston and shouldn't be trusted to protect the children in the church's care on Long Island, a local child abuse advocate said today.Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan's law, said her review of thousands of documents of abusive priests which are on file in a Boston court reveal that Murphy was an active participant in the cover-up. |
Criminal Dissent
by Bill Berkowitz
In the early 1970s, Guy Goodwin, a special prosecutor working for U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell—who was soon to become a star player in President Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal—convened grand juries across the country to target radicals, anti-war activists, unions and others. Goodwin, characterized by the Center for Constitutional Rights as the "grand inquisitor of the politically motivated grand jury," was a man on a mission. |
The Call Of The Mild
by Arianna Huffington
The most intriguing passion in play these days is not whether Mel Gibson’s controversial "The Passion of the Christ" will do miraculously at the box office when it opens on Ash Wednesday (My prophecy: It will). No, the real wild card is what is going to happen to "The Passion of the Deaniacs" once their leader’s campaign closes. |
W as in AWOL: Case Not Closed
by David Corn
George W. Bush is lucky that Scott McClellan is not his lawyer and that the White House press briefing room is not a courtroom.On February 10, the Bush White House tried to rid itself of the allegation that Bush ducked out of his Air National Guard Service from May 1972 to May 1973. Two days earlier on Meet the Press, Bush maintained, "I did report, otherwise I wouldn't have been honorably discharged." But he offered no details. He did not describe what drills he did; he did not mention anyone with whom he served during the time in question. When host Tim Russert asked if he would open up his "entire" file and release "everything to settle this," Bush said, "Yeah. Absolutely." |
New York to grant same-sex unemployment benefits - Reversal of position
by The Associated Press
Under pressure from a gay-rights group and then by Gov. Pataki, the state has reversed itself and will pay unemployment benefits to gays and lesbians who quit their jobs to follow their partners taking new jobs out of state.The ruling, which outraged the state’s top conservative leader, would also apply to unmarried heterosexuals. |
Garcia shrugs off rumors about being gay - 49ers quarterback says he is straight but success makes him a target
by Matt Maiocco
Just like every other player who came to the 49ers after 1979, quarterback Jeff Garcia heard the rumors about trainer Lindsy McLean early in his tenure.But Garcia knew enough not to place too much credence in rumors. After all, he said he has been the subject of inaccurate speculation for years. |
Northwestern escapes DOJ subpoena - Judge denies Ashcroft's request for patient medical records
by Mark Taylor
A move by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to subpoena the medical records of 40 patients who received so-called partial-birth abortions at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago was halted—at least temporarily—when a Chicago federal judge quashed the information request. |
Setting the record straight - Time to draw a line against the rewriting of history
by Molly Ivins
Just for the record, since the record is in considerable peril. These are Orwellian days, my friends, as the Bush administration attempts to either shove the history of the second Gulf War down the memory hole or to rewrite it entirely. Keeping a firm grip on actual historical fact, all of it easily within our imperfect memories, is not that easy amid the swirling storms of misinformation, misremembering and misstatement. But since the war itself stands as a monument to what happens when we let ourselves get stampeded by a chorus of disinformation, let's draw the line right now. |
See What Happens When You Don’t Read?
by Joe Conason
"Is he out of his mind?"Does he have the faintest idea what he’s talking about?"So wondered Andrew Sullivan, formerly among George W. Bush’s most voluble admirers, after the President’s jarring Oval Office interview with Tim Russert last Sunday. The conservative columnist referred specifically to Mr. Bush’s strange assertions about federal spending, but the same goggling unreality pervaded his other remarks. |
AOL Removes Bush From 'Miserable Failure' Search Results
by Brian Morrissey
The "Google bomb" of President Bush ran into a roadblock recently when AOL removed a link to his biography that appears on Google searches for "miserable failure." AOL did not remove links to the Web sites of prominent Democrats such as filmmaker Michael Moore, Sen. Hillary Clinton and former President Jimmy Carter that also appear on searches. |
Bush's National Guard Pay Records Are Released
by Elisabeth Bumiller
The White House released 18 months of President Bush's National Guard payroll records on Tuesday showing what administration officials asserted was proof that Mr. Bush had fully completed his service in the Guard during the Vietnam War.But the records, which the White House obtained from blurry 30-year-old microfiche files in Colorado, show only the specific days in 1972 and 1973, 82 in all, that Mr. Bush was paid for his service. |
U.S. Iraq Policy Uncovered
by Ivan Eland
Only in the U.S. can the halftime show at the Super Bowl cause more public outrage than a president’s floundering attempts to justify getting more than 500 American soldiers killed and more than 3,000 wounded in an unnecessary invasion and occupation on the other side of the globe. If the American people actually were to pay attention to the President’s remarks on this week’s Meet the Press show, the naked truth about the Bush administration’s Iraq policy could become more exposed than Janet Jackson. |
Bible Lessons These Clergy Forgot
by Derrick Z. Jackson
Boston archbishop Sean O'Malley has called the decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to legalize same-sex marriage "a tragedy" and part of the "madness around us." Catholic bishops in the United States voted to declare homosexual acts "immoral." Many prominent black ministers have condemned the SJC's ruling. |
The Honeymoon is Over, Mr. Bush
by Robert Kuttner
Last week I suggested that President Bush had reached a tipping point in his credibility with the broad public and the press. I speculated that we would soon see newsmagazine covers depicting Bush in trouble. Well, Time magazine obliged. Its new cover depicts a two-faced Bush and asks: "Does Bush Have a Credibility Gap?" |
Bush's Budgets Make us the Irresponsible Generation
by Holly Sklar
If President Bush's new budget passes, we won't need a special commission to uncover its faulty intelligence. The budgetary weapons of destruction are real, homemade and visible.While the ricin found in the Senate crystallizes the bioterror threat evident since the deadly anthrax mailings, Bush's budget excluded funding requested by the Postal Service for biodetection technology. It also cuts Centers for Disease Control programs and aid to hospitals to prepare for bioterror attacks. |
Unions, Ex-Senator Torricelli Financed Anti-Dean Ads
by Sharon Theimer
Labor unions, former Democratic Sen. Bob Torricelli and one of presidential hopeful Howard Dean's own donors were among big givers to a group that ran ads criticizing Dean in three early voting states.Americans for Jobs, Healthcare and Progressive Values raised $663,000 last year and spent $626,840 of it, a finance report provided to The Associated Press on Tuesday showed. |
Investigating the 9/11 Investigation
by Morton Mintz
Editorial writers have rightly slammed the White House for stonewalling two key requests by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks. One was for essential information on the lead-up to 9-11. The other was for an extension of the May 27 deadline for completing its investigation. |
Pentagon Eager to Wash Hands of Iraq Mess It Created
by Joseph L. Galloway
What a difference a year can make. If you don't believe it, ask Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.A year ago, testifying before Congress, Wolfowitz predicted that securing postwar Iraq would be an easier job than the United States and its allies faced in Bosnia or Afghanistan. After all, the deputy secretary said, there's no ethnic tension in Iraq. |
This war is Not Yet Over - The Consequences of Iraq Could still Break Blair and Bush, and Change Forever the Way our World is Ordered
by Jonathan Freedland
It's the Alan Clark maneuver. When the old Tory reptile found himself assailed by a tricky argument, he would fire back with his most lethal weapon. "This is boring," he would say airily. "You are being the most frightful bore." Clark used the word often, keenly aware of its peculiarly English power to devastate. |
Cyber-Campaign Demands Congress Censure Bush
by Jim Lobe
The two groups ran a full-page ad (.pdf) in the Washington Post on Tuesday that accused Bush of running ''a campaign of misinformation, of cherry-picking and distorting intelligence, of hype and hysteria that led America into an unnecessary war''.''There must be consequences when a president misleads the American people, and the Congress, with such disastrous results'', said the ad, which featured a photograph of a pensive Bush with the caption, ”He knew''. |
U.S. Officials Drop Activist Subpoenas - Judge lifts Drake gag order in probe of anti-war protest
by Jeff Eckhoff and Mark Siebert
Federal authorities retreated Tuesday in their investigation of an Iowa anti-war demonstration, withdrawing grand jury subpoenas delivered last week to four peace activists and Drake University.The shift came as the investigation drew nationwide condemnation from civil liberties advocates, politicians and peace activists. |
Justice Scalia Defends Hunting Trip With Cheney
by Gina Holland
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia strongly indicated he will ignore calls to recuse himself from a court case involving his friend and hunting partner, Vice President Dick Cheney.Scalia told a gathering at Amherst College on Tuesday night there was nothing improper about his accompanying Cheney to Louisiana last month to hunt ducks. The trip came three weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Bush administration's appeal in a case involving private meetings of Cheney's energy task force. |
Congress, FCC Focus on Pay Television Indecency
by Jeremy Pelofsky and Susan Cornwell
Outraged by how salacious programs on radio and network television have become in recent months, lawmakers vowed on Wednesday to look at indecent shows on cable and satellite channels.Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain urged cable and satellite companies to offer parents the ability to pick and choose what channels they get so they can protect their children from violence, sex and profanity, an idea that resonated with other lawmakers and regulators. |
Trust Busting
by Ruy Teixeira
It's A Trust ThingCan Bush be trusted? American voters, especially swing voters, are starting to wonder. If that sense of trust continues to deteriorate, Bush's political vulnerabilities will increase considerably, since he has relied on the public's trust to insulate himself politically from poor policy results, such as continued violence in Iraq, a jobless recovery and a skyrocketing budget deficit. |
Sending Censure
by Jim Lobe
The grassroots cyber-movement, MoveOn.org, which claims more than two million U.S. members, has launched a major campaign demanding that Congress formally censure President George W. Bush for lying to it about the threat posed by ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. |
