F A C I N G S O U T H A progressive Southern news report August 28, 2003 * Issue 60
Published by the Institute for Southern Studies and Southern Exposure magazine. To join the Institute and get a year's worth of Southern Exposure and Facing South, visit www.southernstudies.org/support.asp INSTITUTE INDEX * The Color of Money Percent of North Carolina contributors to presidential campaigns that are men: 67 Percent that are white: 96 Number of North Carolina contributors to George Bush's campaign that are African American: 0 Amount of N.C. contributions to John Edwards' campaign from people of color: $45,725 Amount from white Republicans: $85,870 Sources on file at the Institute for Southern Studies. _____ DATELINE: THE SOUTH * News Around the Region SOUTHERNERS HAVING SECOND THOUGHTS ABOUT IRAQ WAR Southern support for Operation Iraqi Freedom is eroding, according to a new Scripps Howard poll. Forty-two percent of Southerners now question the administration's decision to commit troops; last May, less than one-third were uncertain about the war. (Birmingham Post-Herald, 8/15) http://www.postherald.com/me081403.shtml TX REPUBLICAN REDISTRICTING BID FAILS AGAIN After 11 Democratic lawmakers fled to New Mexico, preventing the Texas House for reaching quorum, a Republican-led effort to favorably redraw political lines failed for a second time. (Associated Press, 8/26) http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/National/AP.V8417.AP-Texas-Redistric.html EX-NATIONAL PARK EMPLOYEES RIP BUSH POLICIES Over 120 former National Park Service employees, such as Bill Wade of Virginia's Shenendoah National Park, charge that the Bush administration has sacrificed preservation for profit in its policies on park maintenance, air pollution enforcement, road development and snowmobile use on federal lands. (Washington Post, 8/25) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39945-2003Aug24.html HALLIBURTON DEALS LARGER THAN ORIGINALLY THOUGHT Halliburton, the Texas company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, has won contracts worth more than $1.7 billion under Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, more than the Bush Administration had originally disclosed. (Washington Post, 8/28) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56429-2003Aug27.html WHISTLEBLOWER BOOTED FROM GEORGIA LOCKHEED FACTORY Armed guards at a Lockheed Martin Corp. factory in Marietta, GA, escorted a senior government fraud-hunter out the door after he accused the giant defense contractor of trying to bill the Pentagon for huge overcharges for military airplanes. The government employee, who is guaranteed access to the facility under federal law, had accused Lockheed of billing the Air Force $714 for a rivet and $5,217 for a one-inch-long bracket. The aircraft require hundreds of the items; the government-recommended price for the rivet is $53 and $258 for the bracket. (Hearst Newspapers, 8/16) http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/mcherald/news/local/6548047.htm NC AND VA BOTH STILL ENFORCING ANTI-SODOMY LAWS Despite a Supreme Court decision last June striking down an anti-sodomy law in Texas, Virginia and North Carolina have both recently carried out sting operations and other measures invoking anti-sodomy statutes still on the books in those states. In Virginia, these have targeted gay citizens. (DataLounge, 8/20 and Associated Press, 8/25) http://www.datalounge.com/datalounge/news/record.html?record=20931 http://rdu.news14.com/content/headlines/?ArID=34639&SecID=2 GAO: CORPORATIONS SHAPED ENERGY POLICY; ADMINISTRATION STONEWALLED INVESTIGATION The White House collaborated heavily with corporations in developing President Bush's energy policy but repeatedly refused to give congressional investigators details of the meetings, according to a report issued by the General Accounting Office this week. (Washington Post, 8/26) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44891-2003Aug25.html COLORADO SHIPS NUCLEAR WASTE TO SOUTH CAROLINA Federal officials announced this week that a Colorado nuclear weapons site is free of plutonium -- though the department would not confirm whether that plutonium was simply moved to Aiken, South Carolina's Savannah River Site. A Department of Energy spokesman would only confirm that "The Savannah River Site is playing a very helpful role in ensuring Rocky Flats is cleaned up on time and according to our cleanup program." (Greenville News, 8/19) http://www.greenvilleonline.com/news/2003/08/19/2003081912413.htm
