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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ManyMoose who wrote (344939)	1/19/2003 4:27:29 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

you go facist boy, mob behavior? keep the lies comin', that's what this administration is all about..... CC

To: ManyMoose who wrote (344939)	1/19/2003 4:28:22 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Published on Sunday, January 19, 2003 by the Baltimore Sun The USA Patriot Act: What Are You Reading? by Bernie Sanders A HALF a century ago, George Orwell used the famous phrase "Big Brother is watching you" in his novel 1984. Today, under the provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, Big Brother will indeed be watching us every time we use a public library. Or buy a book. President Bush signed the legislation into law more than a year ago in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. There is no doubt that we must be diligent in protecting our citizens from another terrorist attack. But the threat of terrorism should not be used as an excuse for the government to intrude on our most cherished constitutional and civil rights. Proposed remedies should not be more dangerous to our social fabric than the problem they are supposed to protect us against. The word "patriot" in the PATRIOT Act is an acronym that spells out as "Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism." Libraries and bookstores have always been a source of knowledge and information in this country. The right to read without the fear of government surveillance is a cornerstone of our democracy. Freedom of the press means nothing without a corresponding freedom to read. Open and democratic debate is impossible without free and open access to diverse views and a broad array of information. The PATRIOT Act expanded police monitoring and investigation of our libraries and booksellers, greatly increasing the reach of federal authorities. Under the act, investigators are authorized to seek a search warrant for "any tangible things" in a library or bookstore, a category that easily includes book circulation or purchase records, library papers, floppy disks and computer hard drives. This legislation also enables the FBI to require libraries to turn over library circulation records, patron registration information and Internet use records. In the past, librarians and booksellers have always been willing to assist law enforcement officials when the courts deemed their assistance necessary. But until recently, the government could not go on fishing expeditions by sifting through the borrowing records of libraries. Formerly, an FBI agent was required to provide specific evidence to show "probable cause" in justifying why a search warrant was needed for a criminal investigation. Under the PATRIOT Act, an agent must explain only why he or she believes that the records "may" be related to an ongoing terrorism or intelligence investigation before being allowed to get a search warrant. This significantly curtails privacy protections, for it dramatically lowers the threshold, from requiring evidence to merely stating a personal belief. Internet access and e-mail, which in our age are so central to communication, are also affected by the new law. After obtaining a warrant, federal authorities will be able to track all the Web sites people visit from library computers and obtain their e-mail addresses and the addresses of all with whom they communicate. The authorities can monitor e-mail correspondence as well - all this without a library being able to inform its patrons that such surveillance is taking place. Even individuals not under suspicion could have their activities tracked if they use a library computer that is monitored. The PATRIOT Act also exacerbates the threat to individual liberty and privacy and should be of special concern to librarians. Under this legislation, librarians will be under a "gag order," punishable by law, that will prevent them from informing library patrons that their records were turned over to the FBI or are subject to ongoing monitoring. Members of Congress of all political persuasions have asked the Justice Department to show how it is using its new powers. But the response has frightening: Most of the information regarding libraries and bookstores has been deemed "confidential" and has not been supplied to Congress. Nor have national organizations filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act been able to obtain statistical information regarding how many times the government has used its expanded wiretap authorities under the PATRIOT Act. (An informal survey done by the University of Illinois found that 83 libraries across the county have been visited by authorities since the Sept. 11 attacks.) Libraries serve many people, both those who cannot afford to buy books and those for whom shared community resources make it possible to do serious research or expand their intellectual horizons. For those who do not have a computer or cannot afford the cost of Internet access at home - from $250 to $600 a year - libraries are critical to their access to electronic information and communications. Today, many librarians fear that their patrons have already begun to self-censor their library use due to fear of government surveillance. In Congress, working with other concerned members, I will introduce legislation that will exempt libraries and booksellers from those parts of the PATRIOT Act that infringe on our constitutional rights. At the same time, we will propose strengthening Congress' oversight role over the PATRIOT Act to ensure that those who use libraries remain free from all unnecessary government surveillance into their personal lives and reading habits. Bernie Sanders represents Vermont as an independent in the U.S. House of Representatives. CC

To: ManyMoose who wrote (344939)	1/19/2003 4:29:22 PM
From: Skywatcher	Respond to of 769670

Published on Saturday, January 18, 2003 by the lndependent/UK This Looming War Isn't About Chemical Warheads or Human Rights: It's About Oil Along with the concern for 'vital interests' in the Gulf, this war was concocted five years ago by oil men such as Dick Cheney by Robert Fisk I was sitting on the floor of an old concrete house in the suburbs of Amman this week, stuffing into my mouth vast heaps of lamb and boiled rice soaked in melted butter. The elderly, bearded, robed men from Maan – the most Islamist and disobedient city in Jordan – sat around me, plunging their hands into the meat and soaked rice, urging me to eat more and more of the great pile until I felt constrained to point out that we Brits had eaten so much of the Middle East these past 100 years that we were no longer hungry. There was a muttering of prayers until an old man replied. "The Americans eat us now," he said. Through the open door, where rain splashed on the paving stones, a sharp east wind howled in from the east, from the Jordanian and Iraqi deserts. Every man in the room believed President Bush wanted Iraqi oil. Indeed, every Arab I've met in the past six months believes that this – and this alone – explains his enthusiasm for invading Iraq. Many Israelis think the same. So do I. Once an American regime is installed in Baghdad, our oil companies will have access to 112 billion barrels of oil. With unproven reserves, we might actually end up controlling almost a quarter of the world's total reserves. And this forthcoming war isn't about oil? The US Department of Energy announced at the beginning of this month that by 2025, US oil imports will account for perhaps 70 per cent of total US domestic demand. (It was 55 per cent two years ago.) As Michael Renner of the Worldwatch Institute put it bleakly this week, "US oil deposits are increasingly depleted, and many other non-Opec fields are beginning to run dry. The bulk of future supplies will have to come from the Gulf region." No wonder the whole Bush energy policy is based on the increasing consumption of oil. Some 70 per cent of the world's proven oil reserves are in the Middle East. And this forthcoming war isn't about oil? Take a look at the statistics on the ratio of reserve to oil production – the number of years that reserves of oil will last at current production rates – compiled by Jeremy Rifkin in Hydrogen Economy. In the US, where more than 60 per cent of the recoverable oil has already been produced, the ratio is just 10 years, as it is in Norway. In Canada, it is 8:1. In Iran, it is 53:1, in Saudi Arabia 55:1, in the United Arab Emirates 75:1. In Kuwait, it's 116:1. But in Iraq, it's 526:1. And this forthcoming war isn't about oil? Even if Donald Rumsfeld's hearty handshake with Saddam Hussein in 1983 – just after the Great Father Figure had started using gas against his opponents – didn't show how little the present master of the Pentagon cares about human rights or crimes against humanity, along comes Joost Hilterman's analysis of what was really going on in the Pentagon back in the late 1980s. Hilterman, who is preparing a devastating book on the US and Iraq, has dug through piles of declassified US government documents – only to discover that after Saddam gassed 6,800 Kurdish Iraqis at Halabja (that's well over twice the total of the World Trade Center dead of 11 September 2001) the Pentagon set out to defend Saddam by partially blaming Iran for the atrocity. A newly declassified State Department document proves that the idea was dreamed up by the Pentagon – who had all along backed Saddam – and states that US diplomats received instructions to push the line of Iran's culpability, but not to discuss details. No details, of course, because the story was a lie. This, remember, followed five years after US National Security Decision Directive 114 – concluded in 1983, the same year as Rumsfeld's friendly visit to Baghdad – gave formal sanction to billions of dollars in loan guarantees and other credits to Baghdad. And this forthcoming war is about human rights? Back in 1997, in the years of the Clinton administration, Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and a bunch of other right-wing men – most involved in the oil business – created the Project for the New American Century, a lobby group demanding "regime change" in Iraq. In a 1998 letter to President Clinton, they called for the removal of Saddam from power. In a letter to Newt Gingrich, who was then Speaker of the House, they wrote that "we should establish and maintain a strong US military presence in the region, and be prepared to use that force to protect our vital interests [sic] in the Gulf – and, if necessary, to help remove Saddam from power". The signatories of one or both letters included Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, now Rumsfeld's Pentagon deputy, John Bolton, now under-secretary of state for arms control, and Richard Armitage, Colin Powell's under-secretary at the State Department – who called last year for America to take up its "blood debt" with the Lebanese Hizbollah. They also included Richard Perle, a former assistant secretary of defense, currently chairman of the defense science board, and Zalmay Khalilzad, the former Unocal Corporation oil industry consultant who became US special envoy to Afghanistan – where Unocal tried to cut a deal with the Taliban for a gas pipeline across Afghan territory – and who now, miracle of miracles, has been appointed a special Bush official for – you guessed it – Iraq. The signatories also included our old friend Elliott Abrams, one of the most pro-Sharon of pro-Israeli US officials, who was convicted for his part in the Iran-Contra scandal. Abrams it was who compared Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon – held "personally responsible" by an Israeli commission for the slaughter of 1,700 Palestinian civilians in the 1982 Sabra and Chatila massacre – to (wait for it) Winston Churchill. So this forthcoming war – the whole shooting match, along with that concern for "vital interests" (i.e. oil) in the Gulf – was concocted five years ago, by men like Cheney and Khalilzad who were oil men to their manicured fingertips. In fact, I'm getting heartily sick of hearing the Second World War being dug up yet again to justify another killing field. It's not long ago that Bush was happy to be portrayed as Churchill standing up to the appeasement of the no-war-in Iraq brigade. In fact, Bush's whole strategy with the odious and Stalinist-style Korea regime – the "excellent" talks which US diplomats insist they are having with the Dear Leader's Korea which very definitely does have weapons of mass destruction – reeks of the worst kind of Chamberlain-like appeasement. Even though Saddam and Bush deserve each other, Saddam is not Hitler. And Bush is certainly no Churchill. But now we are told that the UN inspectors have found what might be the vital evidence to go to war: 11 empty chemical warheads that just may be 20 years old. The world went to war 88 years ago because an archduke was assassinated in Sarajevo. The world went to war 63 years ago because a Nazi dictator invaded Poland. But for 11 empty warheads? Give me oil any day. Even the old men sitting around the feast of mutton and rice would agree with that. © 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd CC

To: ManyMoose who wrote (344939)	1/19/2003 4:30:55 PM
From: Skywatcher	Respond to of 769670

I'd like my tax dollars spent on Americans and infrastructure...not killing and redundant weapons systems Published on Friday, January 17, 2003 by CommonDreams.org "The Pentagon Connection" by Ralph Nader I wonder how Seymour Melman feels these days. For over half a century, this Columbia University industrial engineering professor (now emeritus) has been researching, writing and speaking about the massive overspending on the military portion of the federal budget and how this waste is de-industrializing America, costing millions of jobs and starving the investment in public works -- repairing the crucial physical capital of America. Recently, he prepared a memorandum called "The Pentagon Connection" where he recounted the massive redundancy and costliness of various weapons systems -- such as the next wave of fighter planes, missiles, submarines and aircraft carriers -- and the opportunity cost so adverse to the domestic needs of our country. Remember, the U.S. no longer has a major opponent that used to justify huge military budgets. Both Russia and China are converting quickly to the state capitalistic-oligarchic model and the Soviet Union is no more. First, Professor Melman cites the Report Card for America's Infrastructure that was issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers. (asce.org/reportcard). One and a third trillion dollars are estimated for the repair of twelve categories of public works, including schools, drinking water systems, sewage systems, airports, public transit, bridges and roads. The Engineering society found what any person who observes -- great needs coming from great disrepair and decay. Adding $618 billion for repair of U.S. housing and railroads brings the capital improvement needs to a $2.0 trillion market, he notes. Mr. Melman, whose knowledge of U.S. industry is legendary, adds:"Every manufacturing industry whose products are required for repairing and modernizing America's infrastructure is left out by the federal government's military plans." And expenditures. The military economy drains the civilian economy and this trend has been accelerating into what Melman called a "huge change" in the American economy. He writes: "This deindustrialization has happened so quickly that America's capacity to produce anything is seriously undermined. For example, last year the New York City government announced its plans to buy a new fleet of subway cars. Though this contract is worth $3-4 billion, not one U.S. firm responded. Of 100 products offered in this fall's L.L. Bean catalogue, 92 are imported and only 8 are made in the U.S.A." "Closing U.S. factories has not only left millions without work, but has also diminished the U.S. production capability required for repairing our broken infrastructure," Melman says. Melman doesn't mention it in his memo, but previous studies have demonstrated that a million dollars in civilian investment creates more jobs than a million dollars in military weapons systems. The states and cities are reporting deeper deficits. This year, the states will be over $60 billion in the red. Taxes and tolls are going up. Necessities are being cut -- outlays, Melman points out, for schools, libraries, fire and police departments, sanitation department, child welfare, health care and services for elderly people. But there are hundreds of billions for Soviet-era type weapons driven by the weapons corporations and their campaign cash for key members of Congress who decide the distortions of your tax dollars. Recently, Bob Herbert, a columnist for the New York Times, interviewed the well-known financier, Felix Rohatyn, who was involved in the response to the City's fiscal crisis in the 1970s. The current fiscal crisis ofthe states and cities is, to Mr. Rohatyn, very serious. Mr. Rohatyn told Mr. Herbert that he believes that a $75 billion-a-year program of federal assistance to state and local governments combined with a $75-billion-a-year tax cut for working people would provide a substantial boost to the economy, and over time would result in the creation of several million jobs. But, in spite of polls (as well opinions expressed by military experts, like retired General Anthony Zinni) showing that a large majority of the American people do not believe that President Bush has made the case that Iraq threatens the U.S. nor do they want him to commit our troops unilaterally, the White House chief is willing to spend at least $150 billion and incur casualties pursuing this obsession while ignoring life-saving needs in our country. CC