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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (59896)	10/12/2004 6:37:41 AM
From: Crimson Ghost	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Kerry is 'Bush lite' but still hazardous to your health By Omar Barghouti Special to The Daily Star Tuesday, October 12, 2004 Noam Chomsky has correctly and perceptively argued that although the difference between U.S. President George W. Bush and his Democratic challenger John Kerry is small - thus the "Bush-lite" label given to the latter by many - in a "system of immense power," a small improvement over Bush could "translate into large outcomes" in several vital areas, including health care and education domestically, and world peace and the environment globally. Even fractional changes could make life more tolerable to millions in the U.S. and the world. Bush-lite, Chomsky concluded, was therefore a cut above Bush-regular. The view from Palestine may be at variance with this logic. Palestinians are not betting their lives on the prospects for progress under Kerry. After all, he has already come out to express unqualified support for Israel's apartheid wall, settlements in the Occupied Territories and other grave Israeli violations of international law. Even under an analytical microscope, one would be hard pressed to identify the "lite" part when it comes to Israel. And this comes as no surprise. Israel has effectively secured a position of unparalleled influence over the American administration, especially as far as foreign policy toward the Middle East is concerned. This is now a built-in feature of the system that will take far more than a mere change in presidency to alter. Moreover, Kerry, unlike Bush, may actually be able to win considerable European and international backing for essentially the same biased policy, and that would make him worse, in fact. Lite is not always bright, it seems. Take cigarettes, for instance. For many years now, people around the world have been naively duped into thinking that cigarettes labeled "light" somehow posed a lesser risk of serious disease. Through extensive, relentless and quite ingenious public relations campaigns, bogus research and political muscle, the mighty tobacco industry has effectively succeeded in circumventing the robust results of age-long research, which has proven beyond doubt the causal effect between smoking and several chronic illnesses. The "lights" were a smoker's dream come true: all the addictive fun with no harm done. Smokers wanted to believe; that was the secret behind the staggering success of the ruse. To the detriment of the tobacco industry, however, scientific evidence has consistently shown that the lower nicotine and tar levels have hardly resulted in an alleviation of the disastrous health impact of smoking. Quite the opposite, they had an adverse effect as smokers put off plans to quit and felt more at ease smoking lights around children or other passive smokers. A supposedly noticeable change for the better has therefore turned out to be for the worse. Little wonder then that even the U.S. Justice Department is pushing for a ban on descriptions of "light" cigarettes. The same goes for Bush and his low-tar Massachusetts competitor. For sure, a Kerry presidency may bring in some tangible change that bodes well to many, not least those who have suffered the brunt of the neoconservatives' designs and policies in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and elsewhere. In all likelihood, a President Kerry would set a not-too-far deadline for pulling U.S. troops out and officially ending the occupation of Iraq. Multilateralism may be given a terribly needed boost. The UN may finally breathe a bit easier. But would those changes be better or worse in view of the fundamental opposition between empire on the one hand and peace, justice and balanced human development on the other? A watered down version of empire is still empire. Worse yet, it is more nicely packaged, and as such has an appeal that may assure its longevity. A considerable - some say unprecedented - wave of protest against the current crude ways of empire has emerged from diverse American industries, power houses, diplomats and former political and military leaders, who have become acutely concerned about where the neocon path is leading. What is common to all of the critics perhaps is the belief that prolonging American economic and military dominance in the world will require softer, silk-gloved tactics that can cement alliances, secure allegiances and pacify resistance. Hence Kerry. Like low-nicotine tobacco, a more diplomatically astute "emperor" perpetuates dependency and a false feeling of contentment, while still pursuing the same objective of world domination, faced with less opposition from a mollified world. Democrats have been disingenuously shouting: "A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush." Well, a vote for Kerry is a vote for Bush lite. Just like tobacco lights, which may well turn out to be worse for the world's health in the long run, Americans would do well for themselves and the world by seeking or creating a better alternative to Bush or Bush lite. Omar Barghouti is an Palestinian political analyst. He wrote this commentary for

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (59896)	10/13/2004 3:40:36 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Rove's Dirty Tricksters SHOULD BE PROSECUTED...fyi... October 13, 2004 -- 03:21 PM EDT Fascinating. Employees of Voters Outreach of America, a GOP-funded voter registration outfit operating in Nevada, say they personally witnessed company employees shredding hundreds or even thousands of Democratic registrations. Now the same company (VOA) is being accused of Democratic registration forms in Oregon. The head of VOA is Nathan Sproul, a Republican political consultant who used to be the executive director of the Arizona state Republican party. In gaining access to venues to register voters, he has apparently been claiming that his group is part of America Votes, a voter education and registration groups put together by a consortium of Democrat-leaning groups like the AFL-CIO, Emily's List, the Sierra Club and others. -- Josh Marshall This document is available online at: talkingpointsmemo.com

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (59896)	10/14/2004 8:14:14 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Carlyle caught in Iraq spotlight _________________________________ by Vyvyan Tenorio TheDeal.com Posted 05:04 EST, 13, Oct 2004 Less than a month after Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein told a New York audience that his Washington buyout firm would rely less on politically connected executives in the future, those renowned connections have once again brought the firm unwanted attention. In the November issue of The Nation, contributor Naomi Klein charged that former Secretary of State James Baker III's duties as a special envoy lobbying for forgiveness of Iraq's debts conflict with his position as a partner and senior counsel at Carlyle. Klein reported that the firm is part of a consortium secretly negotiating with the Kuwaiti government to help recover $27 billion in unpaid reparations from Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait — a collection effort that would be at odds with Baker's diplomatic mission. The Guardian in Britain also published an abridged version of the story this week. Both Carlyle and Kuwait's ambassador to the U.S. said that the proposal to have Carlyle aid Kuwait is dead. But the press reports have nonetheless unearthed confidential documents that speak volumes about the type of glad-handing Rubenstein recently sought to downplay. President Bush appointed Baker as an unpaid special envoy in December 2003, calling the job "a noble mission." At the time, the story said, there was widespread concern that Baker's business dealings in the Middle East would compromise the mission. The article cited a confidential 65-page proposal as evidence of Baker's divided loyalties. It said the consortium proposed a complex transfer of as much as $57 billion in unpaid Iraqi debts, including reparations. The consortium would offer a roster of former top-ranking U.S. and European politicians who have "personal rapport with the stakeholders in the anticipated negotiations" and who could persuade world leaders that Iraq must "maximize" its debt payments to Kuwait, the report said. That proposal, submitted in January and resubmitted in August, is directly at odds with the stated U.S. foreign policy goal of paring down Iraq's debt burden, it said. According to letters published online by The Guardian, the consortium also includes Albright Group LLC, led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; international law firm Coudert Brothers LLP; Emerging Markets Partnership, an affiliate of American International Group Inc. led by Moeen Qureshi, former prime minister of Pakistan; France's BNP Paribas SA; and Nexgen Financial Solutions Ltd., an investment firm owned by the French and Singapore governments. But Carlyle spokesman Christopher Ullman said emphatically Wednesday, Oct. 13, that his firm is not part of the consortium. "When James Baker was named special envoy in December 2003, Carlyle withdrew from those discussions and did not join this consortium," he said. "However, we had indicated to them that if the Kuwaitis wanted to invest any of that money, we would be happy to manage it for them, as we already do for the Kuwaitis." The Kuwaiti Investment Authority is an investor in Carlyle funds. Ullman said the consortium presented its proposal without Carlyle's knowledge and without anyone at Carlyle seeing the document. "We disavow any connection to that document," he said. As for Kuwait, Salem Abdullah al-Jaber al-Sabah, its ambassador to the U.S., said Wednesday that "as far as I know, my government is not entertaining or considering this proposal or any other proposal." He said he had told Klein that Tuesday. A State Department spokesman could not be reached for comment.