___DEMOCRATS.COM____The Aggressive Progressives__________________
Democrats.com is the largest independent community of Democrats.
We publish the only Democratic daily news service - and it's free!
Our members make it possible through generous contributions.
Please help by clicking below!
http://democrats.com/donate
___.COMPOSITION______In This Issue_______________________________
Top 10 Reasons Why Al Gore Would Be a Better Wartime President Than George W. Bush
Tell Gail Norton To Resign! Sign The Petition!
How About Displaying The Bill Of Rights In Car Windows?
How to Be Patriotic Without Worshiping Bush
The Media Cover-Up Of The Gore Victory Part Three: Hitting The Jackpot
London Telegraph: Gore Won Florida, But Definitive Florida Recount Results Being
Suppressed
Coming To A Theater Near You: 'The Hunting Of The President' -- The Story Of Richard
Mellon Scaife, Ken Starr And The Arkansas Project
Finally, The Backlash Begins Against The Right-Wing Nuts Who Claim Clinton Is To Blame
For The 9/11 attacks
Bush v. Children: Bush's Fund For Afghan Children Raises Serious Questions About
Accountability And Feasibility�And Safety
Bush v. UN: UN Begs US to Stop Bombing to Permit Food Delivery
Pentagon Hires PR Firm To Sell Message To World
Bush v. Pentagon: Bureaucracy Stops Pilots from Hitting Targets
Bush v. Pakistan: US Worries About Pakistan's Nukes Falling Into Bin Laden's Hands
Bush v. Reagan-Bush: U.S. Soldiers Face Missiles the Reagan-Bush CIA Sent To Mujahadeen
Bush Signs Executive Order For The CIA To Do 'Whatever It Takes'
Will The War On Terrorism Serve As A Cover For The Directorate of Operations To Return
To It's Own Terrorizing Activities?
If The CIA Had Butted Out...
Bush v. Saudi Arabia: Bush Refuses to Press Saudis on their Support for Al Qaeda
Who needs ANWR and MidEast Oil When We Have Vast Offshore Wind Energy?
__Top 10 Reasons Why Al Gore Would Be a Better Wartime President Than George W. Bush
On Saturday, the NY Times declared that Congressional Democrats were thrilled to have
George W. Bush leading America's War Against Terrorism. "Bush Winning Gore Backers'
High Praises," announced the story by Richard Berke. He writes, "Many Democrats who
once dismissed Mr. Bush as too na�ve and too dependent on advisers to steer the United
States through an international crisis are now praising his and his advisers'
performance. Some are even privately expressing satisfaction that Mr. Gore, who tried
to make his foreign affairs expertise an issue in the campaign, did not win." My
response can be summarized in one simple expletive: bull.
http://www.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=4957
__Tell Gail Norton To Resign! Sign The Petition!
"At best, information you have provided to Congress about the effects of drilling on
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was riddled with careless errors. At worst, the
data you presented has, as some Fish and Wildlife officials have charged, been
cherry-picked and distorted to support a pro-drilling stance. You have either
irreparably erred, which shows a failure on your part to place enough importance on
this matter to get the facts right, or you deliberately distorted the facts to
egregiously cater to pro-drilling interests. In either case, you have failed to
provide a balanced view on this issue and have seriously reneged upon your repeated
promises during Senate confirmation to 'provide [Congress] the best scientific
evaluation of the environmental consequences..[of] any exploration and production' in
the Refuge. This is a clear violation of the public trust. Therefore, we call upon you
to resign from your post as Secretary of the Interior."
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/gnresign/petition.html
__How About Displaying The Bill Of Rights In Car Windows?
"I am very uncomfortable and worried when so many people claim such reverence for our
flag and all it represents, while they at the same time seem willing to casually
accept the chipping away at one of our most important natural treasures, the Bill of
Rights�President Bush blasts the terrorists of Sept. 11 for trying to destroy our
democracy. As horrible as these acts were, it is not only attacks from fanatics from
outside our country that we must fear. There are those within our own government who
would use the current state of affairs to pass laws that infringe upon our long
cherished civil liberties...I have a dream: I see a sports stadium filled to the last
seat, a sea of fans waving not the red, white and blue of the U. S. flag, but the Bill
of Rights. I see copies of the Bill of Rights being displayed on passing cars, in
front of homes and businesses, on people's lapels." So writes Russ Childers for the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer. http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/opinion/43498_soap20.shtml
__How to Be Patriotic Without Worshiping Bush
"There is more than one way to respond to the horror of Sept. 11. And there is more
than one kind of patriotism. We forget this. You do not have to rally around Bush and
tolerate Cheney's chthonic creepiness and wave a frantic flag and believe every
scripted half-truth that drizzles out of the Pentagon, applaud the nonstop attacks on
an already demolished nation. Pro-America does not mean pro-war. Or pro-Bush. Or
anti-Afghanistan. Or pro-little-flags-on-SUV-antennas. It means thinking independently
and getting better informed and filtering your news very carefully and realizing that
just because one version of the American aggro attitude is currently being ramrodded
down society's throat doesn't mean you have to swallow." So writes SF Gate Columnist
Mark Morford. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2001/10/19/notes101901.DTL
__The Media Cover-Up Of The Gore Victory Part Three: Hitting The Jackpot
"The media conglomerates chose sides in the 2000 election based on the one and only
thing that matters to multinational corporations - profit. They accurately determined
that George W. Bush was the candidate who would best allow them to maximize that
profit. They have a huge financial stake in the political well being of Bush. And now,
they have the results of a ballot study in Florida that unexpectedly shows a decisive
victory for Al Gore. Journalistic integrity dictates that they release the accurate
results of that study to the public. Financial self-interest dictates that they do
not. Unless public pressure causes the media elite to decide that failing to release
the accurate results of the ballot study would do them more harm than good, it is
likely that financial self interest will trump journalistic integrity. As usual." So
write Carolyn Kay and David Podvin in Makethemaccountable.com.
http://makethemaccountable.com/coverup/Part_03.htm
__London Telegraph: Gore Won Florida, But Definitive Florida Recount Results Being
Suppressed
The failure of the U.S. media organizations to complete the definitive study of
uncounted ballots from the Florida presidential election is due to a misplaced
politics of patriotism, observed the London Telegraph on October 21st. The results of
an examination of 170,000 ballots that were rejected by machines as uncountable are
now being suppressed by the American media organizations who sponsored the study. An
apparent Gore victory, says the Observer, "appears to have been sacrificed on the
altar of patriotism and a perception that America needs to be led into war by a strong
president." Apparently, our supposedly independent news media believe we can't handle
the truth.
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F10%2F21%2Fwgore21.xml
__Coming To A Theater Near You: 'The Hunting Of The President' -- The Story Of Richard
Mellon Scaife, Ken Starr And The Arkansas Project
"The presidency of William Jefferson Clinton may be history, but his longtime
supporters, producer Harry Thomason and his wife, producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason,
are preparing a final defense on his behalf. Along with filmmaker Adam Friedman, the
Thomasons are set to begin filming a theatrical documentary based on Joe Conason and
Gene Lyons' nonfiction book 'The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to
Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton,' which documents efforts to discredit the couple
from the time of Bill Clinton's governorship in Arkansas through the 1998 presidential
impeachment trial. Thomason, Bloodworth-Thomason and Friedman will produce the
project, with Friedman and Thomason sharing directing duties." Meanwhile, Jeffrey
Toobin's 'A Vast Conspiracy' (which is somewhat of a companion piece to the 'The
Hunting of the President') is under development by HBO Films.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/bpihw/20011021/en/thomasons_prep_pro-clinton_docu_1.html
__Finally, The Backlash Begins Against The Right-Wing Nuts Who Claim Clinton Is To
Blame For The 9/11 attacks
Bill Press, the co-host of CNN's "Crossfire," takes the right-wing zealots to task for
(incredibly) blaming former President Clinton for the terrorist attacks of 9/11. He
calls Rohrbacher, Limbaugh, and Gingrich "dead wrong" in their cynical and
hyper-partisan manipulations.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/10/18/column.billpress/index.html
__Bush v. Children: Bush's Fund For Afghan Children Raises Serious Questions About
Accountability And Feasibility�And Safety
"It should be bad politics for the Republican Party to encourage a cash fund set up in
the White House... [But] even if the Red Cross and the White House are able to
convince the public that their new fund [for Afghan Children] is accountable and
trustworthy, the public should have questions about its effectiveness... Millions more
envelopes will arrive at the White House in the coming days and weeks. Staffers and
interns will have to open the envelopes and count the money that arrives. Terrorists
have already mailed anthrax spores to the House or Representatives, to the Senate, and
to several media outlets... Even if the fund overcomes logistical problems in the
White House, it will still find logistical problems in Afghanistan... In touting its
dubious virtues, the President used not only American schoolchildren, but also
starving children overseas, for his own political gain." So writes Tim Francis-Wright
in Bear Left. http://www.bear-left.com/original/2001/1021dollar.html
__Bush v. UN: UN Begs US to Stop Bombing to Permit Food Delivery
The UN "is set to issue an unprecedented appeal to the United States and its coalition
allies to halt the war on Afghanistan and allow time for a huge relief operation. UN
sources in Pakistan said growing concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation
in the country - in part, they say, caused by the relentless bombing campaign - has
forced them to take the radical step. Aid officials estimate that up to 7.5 million
Afghans might be threatened with starvation... The World Food Programme has calculated
that 52,000 tonnes of wheat must be distributed in Afghanistan each month to stave off
mass starvation. Since the aid programme was restarted - on 25 September - only 20,000
tonnes have been supplied and 15,000 distributed... the WFP operation was hampered by
a lack of truck drivers willing to carry food... because of the bombing raids, high
fuel prices and communication difficulties. The Taliban have also caused problems for
aid agencies." http://www.observer.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1501,578103,00.html
__Pentagon Hires PR Firm To Sell Message To World
"The Pentagon has hired a well-known Washington public-relations firm to help it
explain U.S. military strikes in Afghanistan to global audiences�It's part of a
broader Bush administration campaign to try to reverse a rising tide of opposition in
the Islamic world. The firm, the Rendon Group, has worked in the past for U.S.
government agencies, including the CIA, which paid it to boost the image of the Iraqi
National Congress, a U.S.-backed group of Iraqis opposed to the rule of President
Saddam Hussein. That effort in the mid-'90s ended with an investigation by the CIA's
inspector general over how a reported $23 million was spent on behalf of the Iraqi
National Congress and its leader, Ahmed Chalabi, current and former intelligence
officials said." Prior to the Gulf War, Citizens for a Free Kuwait hired the US PR
firm Hill and Knowlton to push the fake story that Iraqi soldiers had pulled Kuwaiti
babies out of incubators and left them to die.
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/nation/docs/pr19.htm
__Bush v. Pentagon: Bureaucracy Stops Pilots from Hitting Targets
In Afghanistan, US bombers are attacking targets on lists prepared each day by the
U.S. Central Command - half a world away in Tampa, FL. Unfortunately, this delay means
a lot of targets escape in the meantime. In Kosovo, allied planes flew 37,465 sorties
and dropped 78,000 bombs and missiles. The Pentagon claimed to have hit 122 tanks, 222
personnel carriers, and 454 artillery tubes; but only found 14, 14, and 6. US pilots
want to strike targets they see in real time, but Pentagon bureaucrats say no -
probably because hitting the wrong targets (like schools and hospitals) would be a
public relations nightmare.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/front_page/100349258821905338.xml
__Bush v. Pakistan: US Worries About Pakistan's Nukes Falling Into Bin Laden's Hands
According to the Times of India, "Proliferation experts within and outside the
administration are increasingly invoking the nightmare scenario of the nuclear weapons
falling into the hands of a fundamentalist jehadi regime that could overthrow the
Musharraf rule...
The fears have been aggravated by the unending street protests now roiling Pakistan
and polls showing that contrary to Musharraf's claim that 80 per cent of the people
back him, 80 per cent actually oppose his support to the US... Some experts are now
pushing for a back-up plan that includes deployment of US forces to remove Pakistan's
nuclear weapons should a jehadi regime take over."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=1048949448
__Bush v. Reagan-Bush: U.S. Soldiers Face Missiles the Reagan-Bush CIA Sent To
Mujahadeen
"As the military campaign in Afghanistan shifts to lower- and slower-flying warplanes,
Pentagon officials worry increasingly about the threat posed by U.S.-made Stinger
missiles. Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters could have as many as 300 of the
shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles that the CIA sent to Afghanistan in the 1980s to
help mujahedeen in their war against the Soviet Union... The CIA eventually became
sufficiently concerned about the Stingers that it instituted a buyback program in the
1990s. That only succeeded in driving up the black-market price of the weapon to
$100,000, some three times the original cost. The agency, which provided the
mujahedeen at least 1,000 and possibly as many as 4,000 weapons, was able to recover
only 70 Stingers. CIA officials declined to comment." In the past, when black market
arms dealers profited, some of the proceeds were laundered through CIA-linked banks
such as BCCI. Who shared in the profits?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0110210065oct21.story
__Bush Signs Executive Order For The CIA To Do 'Whatever It Takes'
"Bush last month signed an intelligence order directing the CIA to undertake its most
sweeping and lethal covert action since the founding of the agency in 1947, explicitly
calling for the destruction of Osama bin Laden and his worldwide al Qaeda network."
Note how Bob Woodward (a former intelligence officer at the ONI) adroitly lays the
blame for Iran-Contra on deceased CIA director William Casey, without mentioning any
living participants. We now know that Bush Sr. was 'in the loop', if not playing a
lead role. As for exposing the CIA's earlier covert history, we have the heroic Pike
and Church committees to thank. Naturally, right-wing pundits and the freepers have
been demonizing Sen. Frank Church for 'hamstringing the CIA' by uncovering this
corrupt, bloody history. The freepers seem to think the CIA should be free to
overthrow democracies, support death squads, perform drug experiments on unsuspecting
civilians and infiltrate the Media.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27452-2001Oct20.html
__Will The War On Terrorism Serve As A Cover For The Directorate of Operations To
Return To It's Own Terrorizing Activities?
Since Bush has authorized the CIA's Directorate of Operations to do whatever it takes
in the War on Terrorism, it is important to review the (known) history of the D.O.'s
activities in the past. While it is a righteous cause to bring Osama bin Laden to
justice � and destroy the Al-Qaeda network � these restored powers of the D.O. are
ripe for abuse. The D.O. has acted as a private army for the elite, especially under
the direction of George Bush Sr. This was the case not only during his time as CIA
Director � but likely during other periods as well � such as the Reagan-Bush
Iran-Contra and Iraqgate schemes. Advocates for the CIA working with 'unsavory
characters' confuse the need for spies to infiltrate groups with outright support of
'counter-insurgents' and right-wing dictators. Here is a timeline of CIA atrocities
based on William Blum's definitive work, "Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA
Interventions since World War II." Are we to repeat this cycle?
http://www.korpios.org/resurgent/CIAtimeline.html
__If The CIA Had Butted Out...
"Imagine if Operation Ajax, coordinated by the British MI6 and the American CIA, which
toppled the flourishing democracy in Iran of Mohammed Mossadeq [in 1953], had never
left the drawing board...Had the coup never taken place, Iran probably would have gone
on to build a sturdy, inclusive democracy that would have brought about a far more
durable stability than what the shah--forever tainted in the eyes of his people as a
weak, easily manipulated Western puppet--ever managed to deliver...Imagine a new era
of foreign policy--an era in which international law is taken seriously, respected, in
which sovereign democracies are encouraged, nurtured, applauded, rather than fought
against, stifled and killed. Imagine if we abandoned, once and for all the poisonous
doctrines of 'Iron Chancellor' Bismarck and Henry Kissinger and instead subscribed to
those of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch." So writes Ahmed Bouzid.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-000083832oct21.story
__Bush v. Saudi Arabia: Bush Refuses to Press Saudis on their Support for Al Qaeda
NY Times analyst Neela Banerjee writes, "The Bush administration has refrained from
criticizing Saudi silence over the American-led counterattacks against Osama bin Laden
and the Taliban, nor has it spoken out about evidence that Saudi citizens finance
Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network and other radical Islamic organizations. Moreover,
although the [FBI] identified most of the hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks as Saudis,
Saudi Arabia has refused to provide passenger lists of flights to the United States,
an act the Bush administration has been unwilling to criticize. 'The stark truth is
that we're dependent on this country that directly or indirectly finances people who
are a direct threat to you and me as individuals,' said [former Reagan official]
Edward L. Morse. 'They won't give us information, won't help track people down, and
won't let us use our bases that are there to protect them,' Mr. Morse added."
http://nytimes.com/2001/10/21/weekinreview/21BANE.html
__Who needs ANWR and MidEast Oil When We Have Vast Offshore Wind Energy?
"In Europe, offshore wind power is the Next Big Thing in energy production. This
summer, Germany announced it would phase out nuclear power and replace it with
offshore wind. Nearly simultaneously, the [UK] announced that it would aggressively
push offshore wind development, adding that, if all potential sites were developed,
offshore wind would produce 300 percent of that island's current electricity
needs�Offshore wind energy in the United States has a potential so large that, in
combination with serious national conservation measures, it could - just possibly -
replace the 6 million barrels of oil imported into the United States every day...
Entrepreneurs are pushing for two U.S. offshore wind proposals now" - off Cape Cod
(420 megawatts, about 1/2 of a nuke), and Long Island. Wind energy production costs
for onshore systems are down to $.04/Kwh and dropping, making it competitive with
fossil fuels and nukes.
http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2001/10/williams-we-10-18.html
Copyright (c) 2001 Democrats.com and/or its suppliers. All rights
reserved.
Democrats.com is a member-supported online community. If you appreciate the news,
commentary, activist alerts, cartoons, discussions and other features we offer, please
show your support by making contribution at http://democrats.com/donate. Help keep
our community growing, expanding and fighting back at every opportunity!
To subscribe, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To switch to the weekly edition, unsubscribe from this list and send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To switch to the occasional activist alerts, unsubscribe from this list and send an
email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
