A SAUDI prince lavished nearly $130,000 in fine jewelry on George W. Bush, his wife, children and top aides in 2003, but the weightiest gift for the first family last year was kilos of raw meat. Presented to Bush during an official visit to Washington in July, during which Mr Kirchner secured US support for a new international loan program, the lamb was transferred to the General Services Administration, presumably for distribution to government cafeterias or charity. The Bushes have been lavished with more gifts of a personal (and thus more bribery-like) nature by their most dubious allies - including Silvio Berlusconi. The only appropriate presidential present in the list in this article was presented by Vladimir Putin (who did not apparently feel the need to curry personal favor) -- a handsomely bound portfolio of 43 US presidential portraits.

Bush has named 20 largely rightwing Bushie loyalists to key federal posts during the Congressional recess. Posts included a new chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, a manufacturing czar, three ambassadors, deputy administrator of the EPA, and chief financial officer of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The pattern is very clear: Bush is rewarding "by state" this time, with 3/4 of all appointments concentrated in the handful of states whose governors and/or senators Bush views as most loyal to his cause: 4 from Texas (thanks to Tom Delay), 3 from Maryland (thanks to Bob Ehrlich), 4 from Virginia (thanks to John Warner), 4 from Florida (thanks brother Jeb).

When Dr. Al Brandenstein, Director of the Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center of ONDCP (at least until recently) was asked to illegally hand over a $1.5 million contract to Bush's pals without the required bidding process, he said NO. In response, in a shocking Mafia-style move, the ONDCP chief of staff attempted to extort compliance from Brandenstein by withholding $400,000 in legally won funds for other projects. A May 15 memo assures Brandenstein that as soon as he coughed up the cash for Bush's pals, he'd get the $400,000. Brandenstein, a true American hero, refused, was demoted. He retired in protest on March 28. Former White House drug spokesman Bob Weiner is furious and has called for an independent investigation. For more background see http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=103-04262004

Julian Coman writes, "John Dean has accused the Bush administration of trumping even the Nixon regime in secrecy, deception and political cynicism. In the latest book to attack the conduct of the current United States administration, Mr Dean says that it has created potentially the most corrupt, unethical and undemocratic White House in history. His Worse than Watergate, the Secret Presidency of George W. Bush is published this week by Little Brown. Bush and [Vice-President Richard] Cheney are a throwback to the Nixon time," Mr Dean, 65, told The Telegraph last night. "All government business is filtered through a political process at this White House, which is the most secretive ever to run the United States. 'This is not in the public's interest. It's in the White House's interest, and the interest of Bush's re-election. The White House is being run like a private business, with the difference that it is not accountable to the shareholders - in this case the voters.' "

Just as the Bush energy bill is being debated, Energy undersecretary Robert Card is resigning, effective 4/18. Why? First, there's an ongoing conflict of interest question that could give Bush's nuke-pandering energy bill a big black eye: "Before joining Bush, Card was senior VP of CH2M Hill and pres. and CEO of Kaiser-Hill, a joint venture between Kaiser Group Holdings and CH2M Hill that held a multibillion-dollar contract to clean up Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver. Critics have complained that Card has conflicts as a top DOE official now overseeing the Rocky Flats project and cleanup at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in WA, where CH2M Hill holds a government contract." Worse yet, Card oversaw the $74 million fund that was supposed to compensate contaminated nuke workers, many from Rocky Flats - it was revealed this week that only ONE worker has been helped. http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2002/Jun-04-Tue-2002/news/18893463.html

"The administration that began by neglecting George Bush's popular-vote deficit in the 2000 and claiming a mandate for radical change has been consistent in nothing so much as its refusal to accept unpleasant realities. Bush and his aides always refuse to take responsibility for anything that goes wrong. As such, they are always pointing fingers of blame at others. September 11? Blame evil or Bill Clinton -- pretty much the same thing in the Bush administration's collective mind. False information about Iraq's supposed WMD program gets into the SOTU? Blame the CIA or someone, anyone, in Europe. Economic downturn? Blame Democrats for not backing bigger tax cuts for corporations and more-of-the-same trade policies. False figures on the cost of Medicare reform go to Congress? Blame, well, er, gee, gay marriage? No matter what goes wrong, the ironclad rule of the Bush administration has been to find someone outside the administration -- preferably a Democrat or a foreigner -- to blame."

Tom Englehardt writes,"What else would proliferate in a second Bush administration? Our black hole of injustice, our mini-gulag of camps, prisons, and guest lodgings in assorted foreign countries, stretching from Afghanistan to Cuba, would certainly expand, as undoubtedly would the use of various forms of torture globally in an all-against-all world... Military basing policies will undoubtedly continue to expand in the 'arc of instability' and environs, with ever more 'forward basing' in what used to be called the Third World and now should simply be thought of as the oil lands of our planet. The Pentagon will continue to grow, of course, and increasingly its influence will creep into other areas including perhaps the policing of 'the homeland.' ... [Bush's] basic policies, whether toward the world or the 'homeland,' have remained remarkably consistent and remarkably assaultive. Our country, not to speak of the world, simply can't afford four more years of this."

George Bush's Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, accused America's teachers of belonging to a "terrorist organization" because they told the truth: the Bush team has failed on education. "We, the undersigned, demand that you fire your Secretary of Education, Rod Paige. Teachers aren't terrorists. Teachers and state legislators across the country are right to speak up about how your broken promises are hurting our schools. Your Education, Secretary needs to listen to America's teachers, not label them enemies. Paige must go. It's time for a change." Sign the petition!

Tom Engelhardt describes the horror film we're living through: "Imagine, now, that the title flashes on screen -- Justice a l'Orange it's probably called -- followed by a wall-to-wall cast of characters. Far too many to absorb in a split second including our President, vice president, CIA officials, a supreme court justice, spooks and unnamed sources galore, FBI agents, prosecutors, military men, congressional representatives and their committees, grand juries, fuming columnists, an ex-ambassador, journalists and bloggers, sundry politicians, rafts of neocons, Vietnam-era National Guardsmen, oil tycoons, and of course assorted wild fowl (this being the Bush administration). If the director were Oliver Stone, it might immediately be retitled: 'The Bush Follies.' With Anthony Hopkins, fresh from his flop in The Human Stain, playing the president."

"Jack Spadaro has been outspoken about the problems with Bush's mining policy. Now he may be fired. Pedaro, a member of the team investigating a huge spill of coal sludge in Kentucky, criticized the Administration for 'cutting the investigation short, playing down the coal company's culpability and not holding federal regulators accountable for weak oversight'... Spadaro also 'raised questions about no-bid contracts...awarded to friends and former business associates of the Asst Sec of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, and other senior mine safety officials.' Among the factors cited in the initiation of disciplinary action, which could lead to Spadaro's dismissal after 26 years with the agency, was costing the government '$22.60 in bank fees'... Follow the Money: Massey Energy Corporation, the company responsible for the spill, is a major contributor to Sen. McConnell (R-KY), whose wife, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, oversees Spadaro and the mine safety agency."

Jim Lobe reports, "Wurmser was the main author of a 1996 report by a task force convened by the IASPS and headed by Perle... The paper, called 'A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm', was directed to incoming Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. It featured a series of recommendations designed to end the process of Israel trading 'land for peace' by transforming the 'balance of power' in the Middle East in favour of an axis consisting of Israel, Turkey and Jordan. To do so, it called for ousting Saddam Hussein and installing a Hashemite leader in Baghdad. From that point, the strategy would be largely focused on Syria and, at the least, to reducing its influence in Lebanon. Among other steps, the report called for Israeli sponsorship of attacks on Syrian territory by 'Israeli proxy forces' based in Lebanon and 'striking Syrian military targets in Lebanon, and should that prove insufficient, striking at select targets in Syria proper'."

"David Wurmser joined Cheney's staff under its powerful national security director, I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, in mid-September, according to Cheney's office. The move is significant, not only because Cheney is seen increasingly as the dominant foreign-policy influence on Resident Bush, but also because it adds to the notion that neo-conservatives remain a formidable force under Bush despite the sharp plunge in public confidence in Bush's handling of post-war Iraq resulting from the faulty assumptions propagated by the 'neo-cons' before the war. Given the recent intensification of tensions between Washington and Damascus - touched off by this month's U.S. veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution deploring an Israeli air attack on an alleged Palestinian camp outside Damascus - Wurmser's rise takes on added significance. The move also follows House of Representatives' approval of a bill that would impose new economic and diplomatic sanctions against Syria."

"After nearly three years in office, Bush's dream team is beset by infighting, back stabbing and maneuvering on major foreign policy issues involving North Korea, Syria, Iran and postwar Iraq. The result has been paralysis, inconsistency and a zigzagging U.S. policy that confuses lawmakers on Capitol Hill and disturbs America's friends, allies and would-be partners. The infighting has hampered U.S. policies in the Middle East, where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to rage; caused anxiety in Asia, where the administration's refusal to deal directly with North Korea has dismayed allies; and has soured relations with some North Atlantic Treaty Organization members, say U.S. and foreign officials. One U.S. diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, recalled Chinese officials' exasperation over the administration's stance on North Korea. 'We actually don't care what your point of view is. Just have one,' he quoted his Chinese counterparts as saying."

"'The president has to be the president,' Lugar told Tim Russert yesterday on Meet the Press. 'That means the president over the vice president and over these secretaries. And Dr. Rice cannot carry that burden alone.' Nor is Lugar the only one making this point. Last week Bill Kristol noted the foreign policy 'disarray within his administration' and said the 'administration [was] at war with itself.' Clearly, Kristol doesn't agree with Lugar about a lot, and even less with me... But the objective reality of disarray at the highest levels is impossible to miss or ignore. Rumsfeld is on the retreat on every front in the administration's internecine battles. Powell lacks the clout to fully assert himself - he remains fundamentally isolated. Cheney is a power unto himself. And Rice has largely abdicated the principal role of the National Security Advisor: to discipline and ride herd over competing institutional and ideological factions within the national security bureaucracy."

"Federal investigators have concluded Resident Bush's former telecommunications policy chief committed three ethics violations by allowing industry lobbyists to throw her a party. The Justice Department, however, is declining to prosecute her. The previously confidential findings by the Commerce Department's inspector general came in late June, two weeks before Nancy Victory announced her resignation as assistant secretary for telecommunications and information." Hey, since the Busheviks and Ashcroft have no integrity within the Executive Branch, and since they also control all three branches of government -- this is going to be the least prosecuted administration in history. That doesn't take away from the fact that the Bush administration is the most corrupt in history. It's worse than Nixon's -- worse than Reagan's (over a hundred indictments and nearly thirty felony convictions for Ron's crew). But that was back when Dems could seek justice with their majority power in Congress.

OneWorld: "Amid growing concerns that hawks in the Bush administration may have misled the U.S. public about the war in Iraq , a prominent U.S. arms-control group has called for Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and his chief deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, to be 'summarily fired.' The Washington-based Council for a Livable World, which has long charged that administration officials exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq to the US and its allies, said the Pentagon's senior leadership had also failed to anticipate and plan adequately for post-war Iraq and the problems faced by U.S. troops there. 'Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz should be summarily fired,' the group said Thursday. 'The Bush admininstration needs to be held accountable for its mistakes.'"

Carol Cantor: "The investigation of L Jean Lewis' Whitewater-related ravings is 'replete with signs of the kinds of things that caused feeding frenzies when they were alleged of the Clinton White House - politicization of investigative agencies, abuse of power, 'improper contacts,' the possibility of lying under oath, even concealed documents and balky responses to subpoenas. It looks more like Whitewater than Whitewater does.' Orcinus adds: 'How exactly did L. Jean Lewis rise suddenly from the ranks of minor RTC investigator to the overseer of a massive Defense Dept. bureau? What exactly were her qualifications? The ones she put on display for the RTC: Namely, ginning up scandals against Dems, and covering up scandals against Republicans. Where there is smoke, there is fire. If I were a Beltway reporter, I know I would be immediately sniffing around Lewis' department to figure just what kind of fraud vis a vis corporate dealings in Iraq she may now be in charge of covering up."

Newsweek: "The Bush Administration has quietly installed a surprising figure in a high-level Pentagon post: L. Jean Lewis.... Although there's been no public announcement of her return to government, Lewis [will serve] as chief of staff in the traditionally nonpartisan Defense Dept's inspector general office.... [T]his office is the largest of its kind in the government. It investigates fraud and audits Pentagon contracts, including the billions being awarded in Iraq to companies like Halliburton and Bechtel.... Lewis drafted a criminal referral alleging illegal Whitewater dealings that eventually became the basis for Ken Starr's probe. Republicans praised Lewis as a whistle-blower; Democrats blasted her as a partisan. (In a private letter on her computer, she once called Bill Clinton a 'lying bastard.')... Although [administration officials] were aware of her background, she says, 'I would prefer to think it was my ability and skills they were interested in.'"

Rob Kall writes: "Our government is being corrupted. Our resources are being prostituted for politics. The far right chants its 'get rid of government' mantra and at the same time is not only starving it with federal tax cuts, but is also sordidly turning our government resources into gutted, empty, characterless, integrityless bastions of policy promotion, just like CATO, HERITAGE, AEI, PNAC, Hudson, etc... Paul Krugman talks about how the treasury department has become a marketing arm of the Bush administration, just like the CIA, the EPA and the national institutes of health. Not only have the neocons taken over government, but they are in the process of converting the government to extensions of the neocon think tank empire."

AP reports: "Bush is expected to bypass the Senate and appoint an outspoken Middle East scholar to a federal think tank over objections of Democrats and others who say he is anti-Muslim... sources close to the matter say Bush intends to appoint Daniel Pipes, director of the Philly-based Middle East Forum, to the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace. The move would come just weeks after Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee raised strong objections to Pipes' nomination, forcing the panel to postpone a vote... Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., in a statement issued Tuesday. 'His record and experience do not reflect a commitment to bridging differences and preventing conflict. Surely the administration can find someone better to serve on the Board of the United States Institute of Peace.'... Pipes is a Harvard-trained scholar who, as head of the Middle East Forum, has called for a war on Islamic extremism, 'What we need to do is inspire fear, not affection.'"

"One of Bush's nominees to the U.S. Tax Court amended his tax returns for three years to eliminate improper deductions for entertainment, gifts and meals, the Senate Finance Committee disclosed Wednesday. Glen Bower, a former director of the Illinois Department of Revenue, filed amended returns for 1999, 2000 and 2001 after the committee brought the deductions to his attention while reviewing his nomination. The committee's top Democrat said Bower should not be confirmed. 'Mr. Bower was given a fair opportunity to clean up his tax returns,' said Democrat Max Baucus of Montana. 'After repeated attempts to get it right, he came up short - woefully short' ...Baucus said the improper deductions raise questions about Bower's 'suitability to be a competent U.S. Tax Court judge.'"

"Soon after joining the Federal Communications Commission, Michael Powell said one of his mottos would be: 'Fight with ideas and not emotion.' His efforts to ease rules governing media ownership are prompting plenty of emotional debate -- and lots of criticism of Powell. So much that Powell met with top aides after returning from vacation Monday and assured them he won't quit... 'He's in trouble,' said Gene Kimmelman, public policy director for Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. 'He's demonstrated he doesn't have a clear sense of the politics on Capitol Hill'... The House dealt Powell a surprising setback last month when it passed a spending bill that included a provision preventing a single company from owning enough television stations to reach more than 35 percent of the nation's viewers. Before the vote, the White House threatened to veto any final bill that contains language rolling back the TV ownership cap from the 45 percent level set by the FCC."

AP reports: "The death of Colin McMillan, an oilman awaiting Senate confirmation as Navy secretary, today was ruled a suicide by gunshot. McMillan, 67, was found dead Thursday at his 55,000-acre ranch in southern New Mexico, near the White Sands Missile Range... In Alamogordo, Otero County District Attorney Scot D. Key would not say whether McMillan left a suicide note. Key said a handgun was found with the body. McMillan 'had a recurrence of cancer,' but 'everybody thought he was recovered, recuperating quite well,' Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) said. President Bush nominated McMillan in May for the Navy post, which had been vacant since Gordon R. England left in January to become deputy secretary of the new Homeland Security Department... McMillan ran Permian Exploration Corp. in Roswell. He was a member of the New Mexico House from 1971 to 1982 and ran for U.S. Senate in 1994, losing to Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D) in a bitter and costly campaign."

Ed Weathers writes, "The Bush Administration prefers to work under cover of darkness. They don't want you to see what they are doing. American history is full of presidential administrations, both Democratic and Republican, that hid their machinations behind the curtain of executive privilege and so-called national security. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon jump immediately to mind. But when it comes to concealing what it does, the administration of George W. Bush beats them all. Like insects and rodents, the Bushes and Cheneys, the Ashcrofts and Rumsfelds scuttle across their marble floors, squeaking the magic words 'national security!' as they run, and then hide behind their office doors to do their business, away from the light of public attention. When, occasionally, someone does turn the light on them--a congressional committee, for example, or a member of the press, or a court--they quiver and quail and sputter until they can again find safety in their cellars and dens."

Geov Parrish writes, "For years, the adults around Junior and his little pals have been making excuses for their behavior. All kids are above average. It was a misunderstanding. He didn't mean to break it. He's really not that dumb, he just learns differently. Isn't he cute? The parents are rich, so teachers are circumspect, even when the extra lessons they give don't stick or he makes Family Circus-style mispronouncements. But the behavior coming out of Washington these days has become too destructive, too aberrant to ignore, as it sometimes does when spoiled kids are never reigned in from their excesses. These kids are very spoiled, and their excesses are scaring all the adults in the neighborhood, if not the world. Frankly, it would be a huge improvement if this batch got old enough to discover girls. But that's a long way away... Many, many people could die before Junior and his friends get old enough that they start to learn right from wrong."

The Stamford Advocate reports: "Despite his demanding job, Fleischer maintains a close relationship with his parents, who have lived in New Canaan since 1997. They moved to town after selling their house in Pound Ridge, N.Y., where they lived for 30 years and raised their three sons -- Ari, Peter and Michael -- as Democrats. 'If they wanted to eat, they had to be Democrats,' joked Alan Fleischer, a retired executive search recruiter. 'I guess if Ari had to rebel, being a Republican is better than being on drugs, but not by much.'"

"This is the most arrogant administration in memory. Every day brings another issue where a careful observer of the political scene cannot believe what's happening. [Karl Rove, the grand wizard of spin, knows that the American public is disengaged from politics. That's the reality that makes voters susceptible to deceptive spin.] Most Americans have no idea who the Democratic candidates are, and Bush's fund-raising blitz is designed to envelop his re-election in an aura of inevitability... If by Labor Day, U.S. inspection teams haven't found WMD and Iraq is looking like a quagmire, then the public might wake up and credibility could become a serious issue for Bush. As insurance against that outcome, Bush is shifting the political conversation to a looming confrontation with Iran, which will keep war alive as an issue for 2004. An uninformed public disengaged from politics and an administration that knows no shame are the ideal conditions for Bush to win a second term."

Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke, the U.S. Defense Department's most visible woman, is leaving her post at the end of the week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced Monday... Before becoming assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, Clarke was the general manager of the Washington office of Hill & Knowlton, a global public relations and marketing firm. Her career as a political spokeswoman began when she graduated from George Washington University with a bachelor's degree and became a press assistant to then-Vice President George Bush in 1982. Clarke was a press secretary for U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, an assistant U.S. trade representative and press secretary for the re-election campaign of President Bush in 1992." Hill and Knowlton was the PR firm hired by the Kuwaiti government to push the fake Iraqi-soldiers-pulled-Kuwaiti-babies-from-their-incubators story -- in the propaganda campaign for the First Gulf War.

The NY Times reports: "In two years as inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, Janet Rehnquist undermined the independence of the office, showed poor judgment and created 'an atmosphere of anxiety and distrust,' Congressional investigators say in a new report to be issued this month... Ms. Rehnquist, the daughter of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, was appointed by Resident Bush [who was appointed by her father] in August 2001 and stepped down on Sunday, after Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, and other members of Congress complained about her management of the office. The main job of the inspector general is to ferret out fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid, the giant health programs on which the federal government spends more than $400 billion a year. The accounting office said Ms. Rehnquist appeared to be 'unduly influenced' by the officials who run those programs."

AP reports: "Environmental and other advocacy groups asked the Justice Department on Tuesday to have a special prosecutor investigate the No. 2 official at the Interior Department, a former lobbyist, to determine if he violated conflict of interest laws or lied to Congress. A former independent counsel called for a criminal investigation. The groups also sued the Bush administration for withholding records about more than $1 million being paid to the official, J. Steven Griles, by his former lobbying firm over a four-year span. The organizations want to know whether Griles made decisions at the Interior Department that helped his former lobbying clients."

WashPost reports: "A cycle of disgrace and redemption has brought one of Washington's most accomplished -- and controversial -- bureaucratic infighters back to the center of U.S. foreign policy decision-making. When Elliott Abrams stood in front of a federal judge in October 1991 and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress, few imagined he would ever return to government. At age 43, he had become one of the casualties of the Iran-contra scandal, detested by Democrats for his combative political style and mistrusted by human rights activists for playing down the crimes of right-wing dictatorships in Central America. Twelve years later, Abrams is helping to shape White House policies toward many of the world's trouble spots. Appointed in December as President [sic] Bush's senior adviser on the Middle East, his responsibilities extend from Algeria to Iran. But nowhere is his influence more evident than on the Arab-Israeli peace process."

"The federal government's top two whistleblower protectors announced their resignations Monday. Special Counsel Elaine Kaplan and her deputy, Timothy Hannapel, announced they would leave their positions at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel in June. Kaplan served a five-year term as head of the office, which investigates federal whistleblowers' allegations of wrongdoing... Bush did not ask Kaplan to stay on for a second term... But advocates also said that whistleblowers have increasingly seen their protections whittled away by Federal Circuit Court of Appeals decisions that have strictly interpreted whistleblower protection laws and by Bush administration efforts to reform civil service law. The Bush administration 'has been very hostile' to whistleblowers, said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a Washington-based group. 'We're wondering whether what we've just had is the golden age of whistleblowing and we just didn't know it.'"

"Ari Fleischer announced that he will resign as press secretary to p-Resident Bush effective in July. Ari says he has spent 21 years in government, he never intended to spend the rest of his life in government, he's recently married and wants to spend some time with his wife, he wants to do some speaking and writing and take it a little easier. But we wanted to know from Ari, concerned as we are for him as a conscientious human being, whether there was anything about p-Resident Bush that rubbed him the wrong way. This is how it went: Ari, one of your predecessors, Jerald terHorst, resigned as President Ford's press secretary, he said, as a matter of conscience -- because he couldn't defend President Ford's pardon of President Nixon. Is there anything p-Resident Bush has done as p-Resident, that made you think, even for a moment, that you would resign as a matter of conscience? Ari Fleischer: No. Question: Not for a moment. Fleischer: Not for a moment. Why should there be?"

"On Monday morning, ...Ari Fleischer revealed... that he is heading out the door, seeking employment in the private sector. When he told his boss the news on Friday, the conversation ended with [The King] 'kissing me on the head,' Fleischer said... Little such admiration awaited Fleischer, 42, in the White House briefing room where the bald, bespectacled Bush-backer has been a controversial figure; by one account, the applause greeting Fleischer at his morning gaggle with reporters fit the very definition of 'smattering.' Some were sympathetic. Said one White House reporter, 'Ari had an impossible job. He was supposed to talk to the press in a White House that does not talk to the press.' A senior Republican congressional aide pointed to one of Fleischer's higher-ups as the reason so many reporters found Fleischer wanting. 'All [Bush senior aide Karl] Rove wants is just a P.A. system,' the aide said. 'It's not really a job with a lot of art to it in this administration."

Al Kamen writes for the WashPost: "The White House made a number of recess appointments last week as Congress fled for spring break. One was April H. Foley, a 'homemaker,' according to campaign contribution disclosure documents, from South Salem, N.Y. She was named to the board of directors of the Export-Import Bank. The appointment is good until Congress adjourns next year. So why a homemaker for this job? Well, 'early in her career,' the White House announcement says, she was director of business planning for corporate strategy with PepsiCo Inc. and director of strategy for Reader's Digest Association. More recently, she was president of the United Way of Northern Westchester County, N.Y. Not all of it, just the northern part. Still not locked in on the merits? Did we mention she used to date George W. Bush when both were at Harvard Business School and has remained friends with him?"

"Bush has named controversial Middle East commentator Daniel Pipes to the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace to the dismay of a major American Muslim organization, which described Pipes on Monday as a 'Muslim-basher' with bigoted views. Institute spokesman John Brinkley said on Monday that Bush had nominated Pipes to replace Zalmay Khalilzad, who left the institute in 2001 to work in the White House. The nomination needs confirmation by the U.S. Senate because the institute, a Washington think tank set up to promote peace, relies on federal government funds. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, said it asked Bush to withdraw the nomination and the institute to reject it because Pipes was an 'inappropriate choice.'" Yet again, Bush is waging W-ar against Peace...

Multi-billion-dollar back room deals for Bush administration donors and cronies? Gutting the programs that the poor and the middle class depend on while lavishing still more tax cuts on the ultra-wealthy? A neo- conservative plan to overthrow the entire post-World War II structure of treaties and alliances, including NATO and the United Nations? An ever more secretive, unaccountable, and repressive government trampling on the rights of citizens and non- citizens alike? Yes, all that and more is being hidden from view in the "fog of war." This page is an effort keep track of what the Republicans and the Bush administration are doing while the nation's attention is being diverted to the battlefields of Iraq. Bookmark it, add your own discoveries to it, and check back often. Because you never know what they'll try to sneak by us next, but it's a pretty sure bet you won't like it.

On the Sunday, March 9th CNN Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, W-ar architect Richard Perle accused New Yorker Magazine investigative reporter Seymour Hersh of being a terrorist. Perle: "Look, Sy Hersh is the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist, frankly. [Why?] Because he sets out to do damage and he will do it by whatever innuendo, whatever distortion he can - look, he hasn't written a serious piece since My Lai." As chair of Bush's Defense Policy Board, Perle is a senior government official. It is UNACCEPTABLE for a US government official to call any American citizen - let alone a journalist - a "terrorist." We DEMAND that Bush fire Perle from his government appointment. Perle should have been cut loose from the Bush team long ago. Back in 2000, he was caught trying to undermine the Camp David Peace Talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Perle did this to rob Gore of any momentum he might gain from a Clinton success. (Enter 'Perle' in our site's search engine).

"Some strategists within the Bush Administration are urging the President to look for an 'exit strategy' on Iraq, warning the tough stance on war with the Arab country has left the country in a 'no win' situation. 'At this point, the US and Britain does not have the support for passage of a second UN resolution,' admits a White House aide. In addition, Republican leaders in both the House and Senate are telling the Resident privately that he is losing support in Congress for a 'go it alone war' against Iraq. 'The Resident's war plans are in trouble, there's no doubt about that,' says an advisor to House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert. 'Some Republican members want a vote on military action and some of those say they would, at this point, vote against such action.' Some White House advisors are urging the President to consider complying with the UN position or to look for other 'face saving' ways to avoid war with Iraq."

Even as pieces of the Columbia were falling from the sky, NASA and Congress were racing to start an investigation. "We're going to find out what led to this, retrace all the events... and leave absolutely no stone unturned," said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. Yet nearly 18 months after 9-11, the families of the 3,000 victims are still waiting for answers to dozens of unanswered questions (www.unansweredquestions.org). And John Ashcroft's promise to investigate the Stolen Election of 2000 remains a long-forgotten joke. Impeach Bush Now!

Asst. Commerce Sec. Nancy Victory "Allowed wireless phone company lobbyists to help pay for a private reception at her home, and then 10 days later urged a policy change that benefited their industry... She did not report the October 2001 party as a gift... Ethics experts said the arrangement... may have run afoul of federal ethics standards. Ten days after the catered reception at Victory's million-dollar home in Great Falls, Va., she asked the FCC to immediately repeal restrictions that Cingular, SBC and other major cellular companies had long complained about. The FCC voted two weeks later to phase out by Jan. 1, 2003, the limits on how much of the spectrum individual carriers could own in a geographic area. The agency had put the limits in place in the early 1990s to promote competition... Critics said the change would squeeze out smaller competitors and drive up rates." When your cellular rates go up, you can blame the Bush-Victory Cellular Tax. Where is the outrage???

Mother Jones reports: "Yesterday, the White House shuffled Otto Reich, a controversial right-wing Cold Warrior [an Iran-Contra criminal and Venezuela Coup Attempt accomplice], off to a low-profile desk job instead of risking another fight over his confirmation. Immediately, some wondered: might this signal a newfound desire to play nice with Democrats rather than run roughshod over them? Not likely. Bush may have backed off on Reich's appointment, but he renominated two equally polarizing figures for federal judgeships: Charles Pickering and Priscilla Owen. Pickering's Trent Lott-style pining for Jim Crow and Owen's vehement opposition to abortion provoked animosity last year, but, as Dale McFeatters notes in Capitol Blue, the White House has decided to push ahead, never mind the controversy." Maybe at his desk job, Reich will run another ministry of propaganda like the Office of Public Diplomacy he ran for Reagan?

In 1996, Newsweek discovered that Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jeremy "Mike" Boorda wore two combat "V" decorations he had not earned. Newsweek's dogged pursuit of the scandal drove Boorda to suicide. So when Bush's new Marine Corps' commandant, Lt. Gen. Michael Hagee, was found wearing 3 ribbons he didn't earn, what happened? Hagee is blaming the Pentagon for not recording the awards that he insists he received. "While Hagee acknowledged in a news conference Tuesday that the wearing of unauthorized medals might violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice, he said that each incident must be considered on a case-by-case basis and that he believes he earned the awards and simply cannot find the supporting paperwork." Stay tuned...

"The General Accounting Office (GAO) began an investigation in October into charges that she has mismanaged the office [of the HHS Inspector General]. Among the allegations: that she forced out a number of senior career staff members, improperly kept a gun in her office and ran up questionable travel bills. She is also under fire for delaying an audit of a Florida pension fund at the request of a top aide to Governor Jeb Bush. Now, sources tell TIME, GAO investigators have discovered that documents potentially important to the inquiry have been shredded. The investigators are focusing on the possible destruction of notes, e-mails and memos written by top officials in Rehnquist's office. Rehnquist has denied that anything of significance was shredded, but the discovery prompted Rehnquist's general counsel to pen a Thanksgiving-week e-mail urging HHS staff to stop shredding."

Prof. John Dilulio at UPenn stated recently: "There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one. What you've got is everything, and I mean everything, being run by the political arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis." Now, under obvious pressure from Bush, UPenn (NOT Dilulio himself), has issued the followed Red China-style apology (you know, the ones they always issued after five days of "reeducation"): "John DiIulio agrees that his criticisms were groundless and baseless due to poorly chosen words and examples. He sincerely apologizes and is deeply remorseful." Yet another head swivels to protect the Emperor from the news that he's naked.

Paul Krugman points out that the real motivation behind Bush's determination to privatize 850,000 federal jobs is not cost savings (such jobs are barely 2% of the budget) but money shuffling. Instead, it's a transparent effort to make it look as if the budget deficit is being addressed - all while benefiting Bush's corporate pals. "A few months ago Mr. Rove compared his boss to Andrew Jackson. As some of us noted at the time, one of Jackson's key legacies was the 'spoils system,' under which federal jobs were reserved for political supporters. The federal civil service, with its careful protection of workers from political pressure, was created specifically to bring the spoils system to an end; but now the administration has found a way around those constraints."

Cheryl Seal writes, "By 2011, we will be confronted with the staggering bill for cleaning up air that has become 35% more polluted, water that has accumulated another decade's worth of petroleum-based pollutants or mercury from power plants, and the inevitable oil spills, floods from strip coal-mining operations, and refinery fires. We will be trying to address the worsened epidemic of asthma among our children, the rampant death and disability from coronary and pulmonary disease, and the disastrously altered weather patterns that come with fossil-fuel burning.. We will be desperately trying to slow the death of highland forests from the acid rain generated by our 1,900 new coal-burning power plants. The most bitter feelings of all may come from looking back at 2002 and realizing that when we were presented with a fork in the road to the future, we allowed two selfish, greed-driven men to drive our entire nation down a dead end."

Joel C. Rosenberg writes: "Karen Hughes will earn more than $1 million from Viking Penguin to write a West Wing memoir of her years as the president's top message adviser. After joining George W. Bush in 1994, Mrs. Hughes ghost-wrote Mr. Bush's campaign book, A Charge To Keep, and managed a 45-person White House staff that included press secretary Ari Fleischer. Although Mrs. Hughes left the White House in July to spend more time with her family in Texas, she is now a paid adviser to the Republican National Committee and says she'll be actively involved in the president's reelection campaign. So when's her book due out? 2004."

The imperialists in the White House (and their co-conspirator Tony Blair) are not the misguided leaders of yore, says John Pilger, "They are simply pirates. Yes, there are fundamentalists, Christian fundamentalists, who appear to be in charge of the White House at the moment, but they are very different from the Christian gentlemen who ran the British Empire and believed they were doing good works around the world. These days it's about naked power. The attack on Iraq has been long planned. There just hasn't been an excuse for it. Since George H.W. Bush didn't unseat Saddam in 1991, there's been a longing among the extreme right in the United States to finish the job. The war on terrorism has given them that opportunity. Even though the logic is convoluted and fraudulent, it appears they are going to go ahead and finish the job." - The Progressive

National Marine Fisheries Service biologist Michael Kelly led the team responsible for assessing the effects of diverting water from the Klamath River to irrigate farmland. The team recommended against the diversion. Bush appointees overrode the recommendations; the water level was decreased so much by the irrigation that 33,000 salmon died, nearly one quarter of the entire salmon run. John Ashcroft's Justice Department overruled this scientific decision. That's right: the Justice Department now has power over scientific decisions. Do we need any further evidence that Bush has politicized the federal government from top to bottom? Impeach Bush Now!

Mary McGrory writes, "Is the presidency of the United States a part-time job? You might think so, given the hours George W Bush has been putting in. [During the campaign he has insisted on being the central figure] who is endlessly helpful to his party. His policies, however, have given the world a different image of his country. With him at the wheel, Uncle Sam has become thought of as the SUV of nations: It hogs the road and guzzles the gas and periodically has to run over something -- such as another country -- to get to its Middle Eastern filling station... Bush rather glories in the antagonisms he arouses... His intentions toward Iraq will increase tensions with the Muslim world, a factor he does not seem to have taken into consideration... Maybe when Bush makes one of his excursions to Washington, he might take a walk through Arlington National Cemetery and see that it is running out of space for those little white slabs, which give the heartbreakingly short span of many lives."

Veteran journalist and national treasure Helen Thomas clearly sees that putting Harvey Pitt in charge of the SEC is a class case of putting the fox in charge of the hen house. Since his appointment, he has repeatedly consorted with the people he's supposed to be regulating, and he has allowed pro-industry interests to overrule the selection of effective regulators. The White House has responded to criticism of Pitt by sending one of its PR flacks to the SEC to whiten the sepulcher. But Ms. Thomas says the only real solution to the problem of Pitt is to let him return to lobbying on Wall Street, instead of letting him continue to lobby from the SEC office.

Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), the courageous statesman who led the opposition to Congress' abrogation of the Constitution by its vote supporting Bush's "aggressive war policy" against Iraq, was attacked stealthily by the White House. "A White House intern 'mistakenly' forwarded to dozens of Hispanic leaders an e-mail that described the Senate's senior Democrat as 'doddering old Bob Byrd, the senile senator from West Virginia'...The e-mail, which was also highly critical of the Hispanic members of Congress who voted against the Iraq war resolution, was written by 'an activist.' The message...also took to task Democratic Hispanic members of the House who voted against the resolution...'If they have a defense for their actions, they should deliver it to the kids in uniform that could one day have their --- shot off to protect these ninnies!' the e-mail said." Call White House (202-456-1414) to express your opposition to Bush's W-ar and demand an apology to Senator Byrd!

Time Magazine describes George W. Bush's nominee to head an influential FDA panel on women's health policy as "a scantily credentialed doctor [who] recommends specific Scripture readings and prayers for such ailments as headaches and premenstrual syndrome....In his private practice, two sources familiar with it say, Hager refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women." Once again Bush reveals his hostility toward science and his determination to convert (no pun intended) the United States into a theocracy.

Appointing Steven Griles as Gale "Corporate Pal" Norton's second in command was like turning a fly loose in an outhouse and not expecting it to go straight for the you-know-what. Giles is a "former" (wink! wink!) coal/oil/gas baron and lobbyist whose chief role whilst at the Interior Dept. appears to have been acting as personal deal broker to greedy coal barons seeking federal handouts. Several environmental groups have documented Griles unscrupulous dealings. Of which, says Doyle Coakley -- Chairman of the Citizens Coal Council -- amounts to "thumbing his nose at the public trust We deserve honest government, not government by and for the big energy companies." But Griles is just part of the dirt ya find clinging to the roots when you pull up a Bush.

"Bush's right-hand men and women are anything but lacking in personal wealth. The Washington Post reports that, based on their financial disclosure forms, one-third of the 15 statutory members of Mr. Bush's Cabinet are worth over $10 million, while an additional third are worth somewhere between $1 million and $5 million. The forms require that an individual state a range of how much their assets are worth, as opposed to giving specific valuations for their holdings. At the top of the list is Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who is worth between $67 million and $253 million. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld trails closely behind, after reporting between $62.1 million and $115.8 million in assets... In order to avoid conflicts of interest, Secretaries O'Neill, Rumsfeld and other administration officials, have taken money out of directly owned stocks and put them into mutual or other types of funds, or into government notes." See the ranges of cabinet wealth.

Protecting our health is not a priority, compared with protecting corporate interests and the rightwing ideology. The Busheviki are hard at work replacing scientists in Health and Human Services research committees with people who will tell Bush exactly what he wants to hear. It's just one more step on the road to American Theocracy.

Remember John Poindexter? He was Ronald Reagan's National Security Advisor from 1985-86, until a dirty little secret was exposed about a Secret Government that Poindexter was running with criminals like Oliver North and Elliot Abrams. Poindexter was convicted of five felonies involving conspiracy, obstruction of Congress, and perjury (omigod!), but his conviction was overturned by Reagan-appointed judicial thugs Lawrence Silberman and David Sentelle. Since the Shrub Administration is comprised entirely of criminals, it was only natural that Poindexter would get a plum job - head of Bush's new Office of Information Awareness. Poindexter's mission is fascinating, but here's the one we like best: "Story telling, change detection, and truth maintenance." What is "truth maintenance," you ask? Here's a clue: read Poindexter's bio (http://www.darpa.mil/iao/PoindexterBio.pdf) and see if you can find the words "convict", "felon," or "Iran-contra." No luck? Gee, isn't "truth maintenance" fun?

Mike Hersh writes, "In some ways, I am awestruck by their audacity and aplomb. Bush ran promising to 'trust the people,' but when the people elected Al Gore, Bush's people sued the people. He lost, because we have laws that say votes not judges decide elections. [But] because Sandra O'Connor wants to retire while a Republican occupies the Oval Office and Anthony Kennedy wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, Bush won in the courts what he lost at the ballot box in Florida and nationwide. It didn't matter that five 'Justices' shamelessly violated their oath to uphold the Constitution - which makes no provision for a court blocking a vote count. They embraced Scalia, Rehnquist and Thomas' extreme right wing partisan view... No less authority than Vincent Bugliosi called this treason. It clearly repudiated everything Bush said he stood for, but Bush got away with it. Presto! Chango! Counting votes is 'bad' for our republic - or is that bad for Republicans?"

There is no picture more comical in the media these days than those showing Bush driving around his phony ranch in his phony rancher truck wearing his phony white cowboy hat, vowing, newsbyte style, to clean up corporate America. But the humor in this sham wears pretty darn thin when you take a closer look inside the "Bush Barn." Here is a listing of a dozen or so Bush appointees whose conflict of interest and corporate collusions make Ken Lay look like an amateur. And these are just the SECONDARY PLAYERS - the higher in the cabinet you go, the worse it gets! Also check out http://www.opensecrets.org/bush/cabinet.asp

Writes Martha Brant in Newsweek: "Karen Hughes, the former 'Counselor to the President,' was at the White House Tuesday for the first time since she moved her family home to Austin last month…The security guards at the Northwest gate at 1600 Pennsylvania just waved her through yesterday without asking for ID…Hughes will be spending much of August at Bush's Crawford ranch during his month-long 'working vacation,' as the White House insists on calling it. They are sensitive to criticism that [Bush] takes too much vacation. The first time he took nearly a month off was after some six months in office and it fed into a perception that Bush didn't work that hard. The criticism was savage. 'Unwind? When the hell does this guy wind?' David Letterman joked…The White House went on the defensive...[Hughes] comes back every two weeks as a consultant starting this fall." Howler: Bush 'inherited' this economy! You mean, his Daddy's Midas-in-Reverse touch!

If you can imagine Defense Policy Board Chairman Tom Hayden inviting Louis Farrakhan to deliver a "lecture" on Israel to top US policymakers, then you can picture Richard Perle inviting Laurent Murawiec to "lecture" top officials on Saudi Arabia. After doing its homework, Slate asks: "Who is Laurent Murawiec, and where did he learn to write like this?" His publishing credits are practically non-existent, but in 1985 he was "the European Economics Editor of the New York-based Executive Intelligence Review weekly magazine [which,] as scholars of parapolitics know, is a publication of the political fantasist, convicted felon, and perpetual presidential candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr." Will Richard Perle explain his absurd selection? Don't hold your breath. But in the meantime, read Murawiec's now-famous Powerpoint slide show for yourself.

Bush claims to hate bureaucrats with a passion. But he has created one propaganda bureaucracy after another. The latest is called the "Office of Global Communications," and its job is to explain "what America is all about and why America does what it does." Gee, we thought that was the job of the President, the Vice President, and the Secretary of State, not to mention their various spokesborgs. But that's the problem - Bush is incurably incoherent, Cheney is serially sequestered, and Powell is continuously contradicted. No wonder Bush needs a massive bureaucracy to explain what the heck his administration is doing! Will Otto Reich, now assistant Secretary of State, help out with this outfit? After all, he ran Reagan's Office of Public Diplomacy to propagandize the media, especially in favor of the Contras. Will they bring back CIA propagandist Walter Raymond, the mastermind of the OPD? Look at all the Iran-Contra figures now under Bush: Reich, Abrams, Poindexter, Armitage and Powell.

Ed Vulliamy writes in the Observer UK, "The wind behind George Bush's continuing personal popularity remains the carnage of 11 September and the ensuing slipstream of national unity around the Chief Executive - this in addition to the underestimated, tactile skills of a 'Mr Nice Guy' politician. But behind the stage set a mesh of policy snags, befuddled contradictions and scandals threatens to ensnare a President whose shortcomings are not only being targeted by his opponents, but felt by many of those who serve under and stage-manage him. Although Bush's poll ratings remain good, there are signs that the Americans who propelled his candidature and elected him into office now worry about - and do not trust - their President [sic]. Almost daily, new facts emerge [of the warnings received about al Qaeda attacks - the latest is the NSA intercept] on 10 September, that 'the match is about to begin'."

Holly Rosenkrantz from Bloomberg.com writes, "Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, sold between $50,000 and $225,000 worth of energy company shares last year as the Bush administration drafted a plan to expand U.S. energy production, White House records show. Libby sold the shares in Enron Corp., Exelon Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Calpine Corp. between February and July, 2001, the records showed." We demand an investigation!

The Secret Service, which has been plagued by problems for several years, has done a nosedive under Bush. Insiders describe the en masse exodus of agents as "critical." In addition to huge losses through retirement (many of them early, we're told), the exit of young agents is accelerating. "Nearly 85 agents have retired or quit and nearly 20 have transferred to other agencies since January." Efforts by the Bush administration to cover this bleeding wound don't fool many. "It's all smoke and mirrors," says a plainclothes agent. "We are like a giant ship teetering on toothpicks, waiting to collapse." Says another: "Our protective mission is in crisis."

When you are spinning in smaller and smaller circles, things tend to fly off in all directions from the sheer centrifugal force. That must have been how a GOP strategy-containing computer disk ended up lying on a street corner suspiciously near the White House, where, of course such strategizing is NOT supposed to occur. Sounding like a character from an SNL skit, Ari "The Egg-with-Eyebrows" Fleischer spluttered, "I am shocked, shocked that the director of the White House office of political affairs would be concerned in any way with political affairs. That's a shocking development." Yeah, we just bet you're shocked Ari - but more because someone actually FOUND the evidence!

Harley Sorensen writes: Bush "keeps increasing his own power and the scope of the federal government… His technique for doing this is what I call The Outrage of the Week... Bush and his minions take advantage of the fact that there's only so much room on the front page. So what the Bush people do is telescope outrages, piling one on top of the other. Before we fully digest one outrage, our attention is diverted by the next. Suppose… Bush announces he's scrapping America's participation in the Kyoto Accords. To many of us, that's an outrage. But before we can fully digest it, the Bush people announce they now plan to eavesdrop on lawyer-client conversations, a new outrage. Most of us get so upset over this new outrage that we forget Kyoto. And then, before we get to digest the eavesdropping outrage, Bush announces he would consider using nuclear bombs as first-strike 'defensive' weapons. And so on. One outrage is stacked upon another with such speed that the public can't keep up."

An interview with White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card in Esquire has the White House in a tizzy because it portrays Card in a none-too-flattering light. Card comes off as a nervous nelly, pacing around like chicken little, worried about who will "chew Bush's food", as Slate puts it, now that Karen Hughes is gone. Since the White House can't honestly refute Card's idiotic quotes, they've resorted to bickering over picayune mistakes in the article like what color Card's office carpet is. The answer to Slate's question - is Andy Card an idiot - is an obvious YES! But what about the rest of the Bushie Bunch?

In 1992, Bill Clinton beat King George I on the slogan, "It's the economy, stupid." According to Democratic Underground's Caroline Spector, "It's time for a new slogan. Personally, I think 'It's the Stupidity, stupid' has a nice alliterative ring to it, but since that might sound like too much of an ad hominem attack ... perhaps we should go with 'It's the Incompetence, stupid.' Even the spokespeople for this administration keep telling us, there isn't anything they can do... We don't pay taxes to be told that there's nothing the administration can do. We don't give the lives of our men and women so that the Bush administration can be derelict in its duty to the citizens of this country... We should expect leadership. And we sure as hell need to point out that though they may claim the adults are in charge, the leader of this pact is an overgrown teenager who acts as if he's been given and exceptionally annoying chore to do. And the result has been nothing but incompetence."

Washington Post's Eric Pianin reports, "The Senate's second-ranking Democratic leader has called for an ethics investigation to determine whether Undersecretary of Energy Robert G. Card violated conflict-of-interest rules by acting to benefit two nuclear-waste companies where he once was a high-ranking official. Senate Majority Whip Harry M. Reid (Nev.) said in a letter to the Office of Government Ethics last week that Card's 'escalating public activities' affecting his former companies -- Kaiser-Hill Co. and CH2M Hill Cos. -- appear to violate the Bush administration's conflict-of-interest guidelines and a federal criminal statute... Reid, citing a Feb. 28 Wall Street Journal report, said Card was involved 'in numerous decisions relating to the CH2M Hill Hanford project, including the settlement of fines relating to prior poor performance under the contract." Yet ANOTHER scandal from the most corrupt administration in history!

The corporate media portrays FBI director Robert Mueller as The Man Who Will Protect America Against Terrorism. But what has he done until now? According to Al Martin, here is Mueller resume. In 1986, he was #3 at DoJ, and helped engineer the coverup of Iran-Contra for the Reagan-Bush regime. He helped Bush Sr. cover up his ties to Mansour Barbouti, illegally exported chemical weapons to Iraq and Iran. In 1992, he "shredded documents linking senior Reagan-Bush officials to illicit transactions involving BCCI and the personal profiteering of Republicans close to the Bush Regime in schemes financed by BCCI," including Top Sail Development. "As US Attorney, Northern District San Francisco, Mueller tried to distance senior Reagan-Bush era policymakers from certain CIA-connected narcotics trafficking cases in his jurisdiction... Mueller was also instrumental in the DoJ cover-up of the infamous Pan Am 103 Bombing case." Tell the media to investigate Mueller!

Under Bush, being a damn good investigator quickly became a liability, especially if your area of expertise happened to be Al Qaeda. In short, it was no longer what you knew, but WHO you knew - or to be more blunt- whose ass you were willing to kiss - that mattered. Though competitive maneuvering and office politics have always been unpleasant aspects of life at the FBI, as at any high-profile and/or federal agency, these issues seemed to take a back seat to the meaning of the job itself before Bush. A high percentage of the folks in the FBI are there truly for the job description. But after January 2001, at least in some highly critical areas of the bureau, politics began to muddy the waters like spring overturn in a pond.

Mike Allen writes in the Washington Post, "During a February trip to New York, where he raised $2 million at a pair of reelection receptions for Gov. George E. Pataki (R), President [sic] Bush stopped by the New York Police Department's command-and-control center for a brief tour and to give a 21-minute speech. That side trip added a patina of government officialdom to the day. It also allowed the White House to bill taxpayers for 54 percent of the hotel rooms, rental cars and other local expenses for setting up the visit. And because Bush is always the president [sic] - whether acting as commander in chief or head of the Republican Party -- taxpayers pay the full $57,000-an-hour cost of flying Air Force One regardless of the trip's purpose. The government also pays for most of his entourage and for the military and communications gear and evacuation helicopters that travel ahead of him."

Anthony York reports in Salon, "The cheap seats for the Republican National Committee 2002 Fundraising Gala started at $1,500, which helps explain Tuesday night's record-breaking haul [of more than $33 million.] Bush himself appeared on the dais, looking less than thrilled to be wearing a tuxedo, shaking hands with the big-time donors and GOP political leaders seated on the platform... Bush gave a 20-minute speech touching on his achievements as president [sic], saying his administration is 'focused on what's best for America.' He began with the tax cuts, a sure-fire crowd-pleaser among this group of about 2,500, most of whom, judging from the evening's price tag, are surely members of the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans who benefited the most from the $1.3 trillion tax cut." That says it all -- In Bush's America, the wealthiest 1% are the only people who matter.

"Is it not obvious that the cycle of Republican waste and their propensity for giving the nation's wealthiest the largest tax cuts and rewarding the corporate thieves with the keys to the castle has generally forced the next cycle of Democratic taxation to make up for the losses?… [Bush] has allowed himself to be molded into a specimen of the nastiest sort -- a person so disconnected from reality that his only reality is where to move the money that his family has drained from the coffers of the American taxpayer for the best economic return… Not one solitary soul had the courage of their convictions to say to these thieves and robber barons that this country was built upon a foundation that abhorred the ruling class… When will the citizenry realize that to fail to become involved every day in every way only allows this gross misconduct to continue?" So entreats Bridget Gibson in "Bi-PartisanSHIP of Fools."

In Federal Computer Week, Timothy J. Sprehe writes: Bush's "e-government strategy is an empty charade. It is time to say in public what everyone whispers in private — that this emperor wears no clothes. If it amounts to anything, e-government means that the federal government electronically provides information and services to citizens, business and other governments. I will leave to another column exploration of e-government information access. New curbs on the public's right to know amply contradict White House rhetoric about more and better e-government information access. New restrictions on the release of presidential records, for example, have nothing to do with terrorism. Looking just at government services, e-government means that the government will automate delivery of services now handled manually. The promise is that time-consuming face-to-face and paper-based transactions will become electronic, occurring at Internet speed." Of course, this will NOT happen under Bush.

Marcy Gordon of the Washington Post reports that Harvey Pitt "told lawmakers he did nothing improper in his private meeting with the chairman of a big accounting firm... Pitt says he did not discuss any enforcement matters in an April 26 meeting with Eugene O'Kelly, who days earlier had been named the new chairman and chief executive of KPMG. The SEC is investigating the audits of Xerox Corp. by KPMG – which Pitt represented as a private securities lawyer before President [sic] Bush named him to head the market watchdog agency. O'Kelly, in an e-mail sent last week to the accounting firm's employees, said he discussed with Pitt the agency's investigation of the Xerox audits and said he told the SEC chairman that the agency should not take any action. It would be very unusual, and generally considered improper, for an SEC chairman to discuss a pending investigation with an executive of the company involved." Either Pitt or O'Kelly is lying - we demand an investigation!

Jason Leopold writes in The Nation, "Army Secretary Thomas White appears to be inching closer to becoming the first Bush Administration casualty of the Enron scandal. California Senator Dianne Feinstein has asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to launch a criminal probe into Enron's role in manipulating California's electricity market, after Enron memos released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission showed how Enron boosted electricity prices in California and created shortages. People close to Feinstein and California Congressman Henry Waxman said the lawmakers will ask Ashcroft to direct that the criminal investigation include White and whether the unit he helped lead, Enron Energy Services, played a part in California's two-year energy crisis." But this investigation must also include Ken Lay and Dick Cheney, who conspired in April 2001 to block wholesale price controls in the midst of the California crisis. Once again, we demand a Special Prosecutor for Enrongate!

"All administrations want loyalty from party members. But by all accounts, the Bush administration is preoccupied with it. 'They have a view of politics as warfare greater than other administrations,' said one Republican strategist. 'So they don't tolerate it at all when conservatives criticize them'... Yet another GOP strategist said, 'They're terrible on this... [Bush political strategist Karl] Rove particularly--and the president [sic], really. If you are perceived as crossing them, they're very unpleasant... They've reached out more to liberals than to conservatives they feel have unduly debated with them.'" So will frustrated Republicans join Democrats in challenging the tyranny of the Bush dictatorship? If only!

Ted Rall writes, "It is impossible to overstate the importance of tossing [out] George W. Bush... in 2004. His illegitimate presidency isn't even half-over, yet Bush's disreputable cabinet of tin-pot gangsters has already succeeded in causing irreparable harm to our great nation. This inferior man, a dimwitted former cheerleader... has presided over the greatest systemic dismantling of the American Dream since the disastrous reign of Herbert Hoover... George W. Bush trashed years of fiscal discipline in mere months -- all to line the pockets of his wealthy donors with extravagant tax cuts... As Generalissimo El Busho's approval rating plummets... it's clear that he won't be able to ride the destruction of the World Trade Center to victory... Given the extreme nature of Bush's right-wing power grab and the vile aftertaste of the 2000 judicial coup d'état, Democrats must forego their usual infighting in the interest of unity..."

Somebody ought to read Christie Todd Whitman a copy of her job description, because she obviously thinks the Environmental Protection Agency is a corporate protection racket, Jersey mob style (hey, maybe they're giving her lessons!). Her track record for selling out the environment to protect her rich pals is getting to be a sick joke. Here's an earlier case that slipped past the media (of course!) in which Whitman tipped off polluters to a possible ruling in their favor on a test case, urging them not to settle just yet and thereby costing us taxpayers millions. First of all, where does she get off aiding and abetting polluters? And second, why is she so sure the case will go in polluters' favor - unless she is helping to rig the results?

Chief White House pollster Bill McInturff says Dems are just being "mean and nasty" because they're fighting back against the GOP's systematic dismantling of America. But McInturff is a professional master of deceit. As partner and co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies, he's been willing to do and say anything for a price. Clients have included American Airlines, NBC, the Health Insurance Assoc. of America, the American Hospital Assoc. the Federation of American Health Systems, the tobacco lobby, anti-right to die groups, anti-abortion groups, the gay-bashing Salvation Army, groups pushing school vouchers, and a veritable zoo of corporate front groups, including Citizens for a Sound Economy and the insidious American Society of Association Executives. McInturff's partner Gene Ulm has worked for Exxon, Sprint, ALCAN and other corporations. In short, whenever McInturff opens his mouth, you just know he's getting paid by the word!

The press corps doesn't care about Bush's evil policies, but here's a story they might notice - infighting at the very top. According to the AP, Colin Powell is simmering with rage at Donald Rumsfeld and his cabal of Pentagon deathmongers, led by Paul Wolfowitz. Two weeks ago, Powell "traveled to the Middle East, hoping for a show of flexibility from Sharon. But Bush appeared to undercut Powell by calling Sharon a 'man of peace' despite Sharon's seeming disregard for the president's appeals. The secretary of state's frustration has reached a point where there are rumors - strongly denied by State Department officials - about a possible Powell resignation." Where would Bush and Rumsfeld be if Powell wasn't working full time to keep the world's anger at the US under control? It would certainly be a "lonely planet" for Bush!

Bill Davis writes in Common Dreams, "The expression - The fish rots from the head - has stunning applications to the emerging reality casting its shadow over the globe. If America is the only super power then our president has the role, at least psychologically, of emperor... The man the world now looks to as our president/emperor set a tone instantly. With Jesus in his vest pocket he, as governor, presided over and endorsed 152 executions (the number itself argues against the death penalty as a deterrent.) The cabal that secured the throne for him did it through racist, undemocratic means. To the world, at first blush, this new head had a stench... The question is not so much 'What is the world coming to?' The question is 'What is the world coming from?’ It’s coming - and rotting - from the head."

"Lefty" Lefkowitz? Sound like a Mafia thug? Close - he's a corporate lawyer whose relentless, underhanded tactics earned him the nickname "Viper." Yet this is the man who, as new head of the White House's Domestic Policy Council, is coordinating the G.lobal W.reckingball's policies on everything from cloning to conservation. As a corporate shark, Lefkowitz's specialty was helping family members drag other family members through the legal mire and tampering with the courts via "writs of mandamus," a form of lobbying in which lawyers pressure an apellate court into interfering with a lower court BEFORE a ruling can be made. Whose side do you think the Viper is going to be on? Hint: it won't be the American people.

"The White House is running the earliest, most elaborate political operation in 20 years, reaching deep into key campaigns across the country…Bush has headlined 23 fundraisers since taking office and collected $66.8 million for the GOP. At the same point in his presidency, Clinton had appeared at half as many… Regaining control of the Senate, where Democrats have a one-vote margin, is the first priority of the team. Maintaining the GOP's slim margin in the House is also a goal… White House power brokers have anointed candidates in GOP primaries, breaking the tradition of staying neutral until voters choose a nominee. Bush aides say their determination to win back the Senate made it worth the risk of annoying voters by interfering… Bush is unapologetic. 'You bet I'm going to campaign,' he said last month. 'I'm going to campaign for a party that holds the values that I hold dear to my heart,'" according to USAToday.

A recent directive issued to the press corps stipulates new guidelines that limit Bu$h administration accountability for statements by obscuring the identity of the speaker. This move doesn't do anything to "restore honor and dignity to the White House," but does go the extra mile to build in "deniability." The Washington Post reports: "Guess who's talking now. This White House press release went out Wednesday to hundreds of reporters under standard 'background' guidelines that all the quotes could be used as coming from a 'Senior Administration Official' but the official could not be otherwise identified." Is it merely coincidence that Karen Hughes resigned Tuesday and the new directive was issued Wednesday? Or is this a prelude to a whole new level of disinformation? What ever happened to the "traditional" value of the "Truth is the best policy?" - not to mention government OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people?

George W. Bush takes another loss for himself as one of his closest advisors is resigning due to supposed "Family Issues". Looks like your empire is crumbling even more King George!!! Maybe she couldn't take Carville's comment of "Dominatrix of the Press Corps!"

The Bush Regime is beginning to resemble the Soviet Union under Stalin - now it's time for purges. "The Pentagon has removed several prominent Democrats from prestigious advisory boards that traditionally have been bipartisan, sparking allegations that the Bush administration is seeking to pack the panels with experts who agree with its positions. Among the people who have been removed over the last year are former National Intelligence Council chairman Joseph S. Nye, former U.S. ambassador to NATO Robert Hunter, former Defense Department general counsel Judith Miller, former Pentagon policy official Ashton Carter and former Senate Democratic staffer Frank Sullivan... "'One of the first things they did when they came in was kick us off,' said Nye... who is now dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Hunter, who also was dropped from the policy board last year, said, 'It was a purge of Democrats.'" Will no one stand up to this tyrannical regime and say ENOUGH!???

The Louisville Courier-Journal penned a stinging anti-Bush editorial under the headline, "The Bush Plutocracy." "Remember the name Suboleski. It tells you a lot about what we got when the U.S. Supreme Court handed George W. Bush the key to the White House... Mr. Suboleski is a top executive of Massey Energy, whose environmental record ranks it near the combines of the great 19th Century robber barons. He has been named to the panel that is supposed to settle disputes between mine operators and government officials. It's as if Rockefeller, Carnegie and Jay Gould had been named to re-write federal anti-trust law. Massey... was responsible for a sludge pond breakout that dumped 300 million gallons of black goo into tributaries of the Big Sandy River in Eastern Kentucky, ruining homesteads, polluting water supplies and imposing a hugely expensive, years-long cleanup. And the company's first reaction was to claim that God was responsible." Send compliments to cjletter@courier-journal.com

April 15 is a good time to remember those less fortunate than the friends of the Bush administration - which includes just about everybody. The fact is, the "average American" is not doing that well. Over 35% of all workers between ages 16 and 65 now make between $5.25 per hour (min. wage) and $9.50 per hour. It is estimated that less than half have any kind of benefits, most have no job security, and a high percentage work two or more part-time jobs because they MUST in order to make ends almost meet. Meanwhile, Bush & Co. are too busy engineering failed coups and inflating the image of losers like Donald Rumsfeld (he's now being sold as a "battle-hardened maverick!" would you believe?) to notice the "common man." Check out the latest reflections on life in Bush World by Unknown News' Cheryl Seal.

"Now with Bill Moyers" is covering important stories that the corporate media won't touch. The April 5 show was called "Secret Government: Behind Closed Doors," and it challenged Bush's secrecy policy. "Not only has George W. Bush eviscerated the Presidential Records Act and FOIA, he has clamped a lid on public access across the board. It's not just historians and journalists he wants locked out; it's Congress... and it's you, the public and your representatives. We're told it's all about national security, but that's not so... Locking up the secrets of those meetings with energy executives is not about national security; it's about hiding the confidential memorandum sent to the White House by Exxon Mobil showing the influence of oil companies on the administration's policy on global warming. We only learned about that memo this week, by the way, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. May it rest in peace." Thank Bill Moyers at now@thirteen.org

During his 16 months as Commander-in-Thief, Bush has done everything possible to undermine peace and promote war - including letting Middle East violence spiral completely out of control through his malignant neglect. And there is plenty of reason to believe Shrub promotes war because Poppy Bush profits from his service to the Carlyle Group, the seventh largest defense contractor in the US. Now we have learned - thanks to the research of FailureIsImpossible.com - that "peacemaker" Gen. Anthony Zinni is himself in the arms business, through his service to the Veritas Group, which is a major owner of weapons makers like Raytheon Aerospace, Integrated Defense Technologies, PEI Electronics, Sierra Research, and a number of other companies. Is Anthony Zinni really interested in peace, or does he prefer war - which makes him richer? We demand an investigation!

Have you ever wondered why Bush emphasizes certain words in his sentences, like they were manufactured? Wonder no more - they were! "A Washington Monthly analysis of Republican National Committee disbursement filings revealed that Bush's principal pollsters received $346,000 in direct payments in 2001. Add to that the multiple boutique polling firms the administration regularly employs for specialized and targeted polls and the figure is closer to $1 million. That's about half the amount Clinton spent during his first year; but while Clinton used polling to craft popular policies, Bush uses polling to spin unpopular ones---arguably a much more cynical undertaking. Bush's principal pollster, Jan van Lohuizen, and his focus-group guru, Fred Steeper, are the best-kept secrets in Washington... They toil in the background, poll-testing the words and phrases the president uses to sell his policies to an often-skeptical public." When will the media expose Bush's poll-manufactured vocabulary?

Talk about "making friends and influencing people" - other than the campaign contributors his policies cater to, Bush doesn't seem to be pleasing anyone these days. From the European Union to the usually supportive, most right-leaning members of his own party, Bush is as popular as a bee at a picnic. Party stalwarts like Trent Lott have recently been openly critical of what he considers to be meddling in state primaries, and even mild-mannered Dennis Hastert was quoted in the NY Times as saying "One of the things the White House will find is that the nature of Congress is not to stand up and applaud every time the White House does something. Do we need to send a birthday card every time?" Ouch! You gotta love it when Bush can't even keep members of his own party in Congress happy.

On March 18, a Fox News cameraman who videotaped a traffic stop while standing on Pentagon property was arrested. The cameraman was handcuffed outside the building while taping an event that was taking place on a nearby highway. Pentagon security guards confiscated his tape and ticketed him. A Fox spokeswoman stated, "The photographer had clearance to be on Pentagon property and all of this could have been cleared up without the tape being confiscated." In response to accusations of "Big Brother like conduct," Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke stated, "We need to figure out what policies need to be (in place) if news does break out in front of someone." Perish the thought! Apparently "news" should NEVER "break out" in front of the American public! Doesn't Bush already have an "Office of Disinformation" assigned to this task?

Have you noticed how the Bush administration keeps trying to silence internal dissenters and watchdogs by transferring them to other agencies to get them out of the way? Inevitably, they justify doing so under some paper-thin guise of "improving efficiency" or "increasing independence." Their latest targets, EPA ombudsmen Robert Martin and Hugh Kaufman, are fighting tooth and nail against the EPA's attempts to transfer them to the inspector general's office. Unfortunately, the fight is hampering their ability to do their jobs. Idaho state officials are eagerly awaiting the results of a report on a Superfund site from Martin and Kaufman, but the EPA has their hands are tied. As Kaufman states, "We have 26 cases and two people working on those cases. We have 10,000 people working against us."

On 2-25-02, Helen Thomas asked Ari about Poindexter. "Q Ari, why would this administration choose a man for couterterrorism who is so associated with the dark side of the Iran Contra scandal, Admiral Poindexter? ... ARI: Let me just say about Admiral Poindexter, Admiral Poindexter is somebody who this administration thinks is an outstanding American and an outstanding citizen who has done a very good job in what he has done for our country, serving in the military. Q How can you say that, when he told Colonel North to lie? ARI: Helen, I think your views on Iran Contra are well-known, but the President does believe that Admiral Poindexter served -- Q It isn't my view, this is the prosecutor for the United States. ARI: I understand. The President thinks that Admiral Poindexter has served our nation very well. Q Really? MR. FLEISCHER: That's the President's thoughts. Q Do you know his record? MR. FLEISCHER: I'm sure you will inform me. Q I don't have to, all you have to do is look it up."

The Reagan-Bush Iran-Contra scandal was the worst government scandal since Watergate - a secret government waging secret war with secret funds, including drug money. Didn't you think all of the perpetrators would spend the rest of their lives in jail? No way! They're more powerful than ever, thanks to George W. Bush. John Poindexter... Elliott Abrams... Otto Reich... Richard Armitage... John Negroponte... Mitch Daniels. (As well as Colin Powell who was never held accountable for his role). They're all baaaack! They have been rewarded by the Bushies for their 'loyalty' in protecting Reagan and the BushDaddy, who had Contra Supply Felix Rodriguez reporting to his office. There's only one Iran-Contra criminal missing - Ollie North. How dare they forget Ollie? We Want Ollie! We Want Ollie!! Oh please George give us Ollie, the Savior of our Nation!!! NOT!!!

"I firmly believe the entire case against Clinton was trumped up to promote the NeoNazi party (that currently call itself the 'Reformed Republicans'). The endless investigations and prosecution efforts were planned well in advance with cold malice aforethought to induce 'investigation fatigue' in the American public. By doing so, the rightwingnuts hoped not only get rid of Clinton, but to render Americans so burnt out on investigations and impeachment that they would be extremely reluctant to investigate or impeach another president. 'Investigation fatigue' in short would make it possible for these slime molds to get away with ANYTHING later! And, now that their boy is in office, it's working! Even with Enron, Congress is tiptoeing around like a bunch of ballerinas in pink tutus, while the public is willing to condone any outrage their new make-believe president perpetrates on the world just to avoid the hassle of a new impeachment process." So writes Cheryl Seal of Unknown News.

Martha Hahn, a 21-year veteran of the Bureau of Land Management, was considered a moderate who strived for balance between conservation and private interests. But Hahn was not nearly rightwing enough for Gail Norton, Bush, or Sen. Larry Craig, who has muscled into the BLM and is now trying to run it like his own personal pork barrel, dispensing choice slabs of Idaho's natural resource bacon to his buddies in the mining, ranching, and off-road vehicle industries. Now Hahn has been forced out of the BLM - a pattern that is occurring throughout the BLM, as moderates and progressives are shoved out and replaced with rightwing corporate toadies. America can kiss any efforts by the BLM at conservation - efforts encouraged by Clinton - goodbye, along with the last of its wildlands.

John MacArthur writes, "U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's abrupt abortion of the Office of Strategic Lying (a.k.a. the Office of Strategic Influence) -- in response to critics who feared for Washington's stellar reputation for honesty -- deserves to be ranked as one of the great propaganda coups of modern times…….. 'The office is done,' a seemingly hurt, aggrieved Mr. Rumsfeld told a press conference. 'It's over. What do you want, blood?'" No Mr. Rumsfeld, we do not want blood. We want the truth. We want the Bush administration to stop hiding behind the war on terrorism, we want to stop the secrecy and censorship, and we want the administration to accept the Freedom of Information Act - and the Constitution.

Democrats.com co-founder David Lytel writes: "Tom Daschle has been pilloried for his observation that Bush has put in place a 'shadow government' to rule in the event of a national emergency. But what Daschle is shining his light on is just the back-up secret government. In fact, we urgently need a shadow government. One that offers reasonable alternatives to the policies the current administration is pursuing -- if for no other reason than to find out precisely what it is that our secret government is up to and what it has to hide about the events leading up to September 11th."

When Bush drew up his list of potential countries to nuke, we hope that stupidity and ignorance - and a bizarre comic book fantasy perspective on life - is what made him even consider such a move. Because if he could truly understand the consequences of such an action, then to even contemplate it would place his name high on the list of Earth's evildoers. But it has become obvious that Bush rarely considers the consequences of his actions. He is a man who sits in the White House surrounded by sycophants who will never tell him the truth and who are more interested in filling their pockets than pondering the morality of their actions. Here is a reminder of what the REALITY of "nuking" another nation is truly all about. Any American with a conscience, a soul, and a true sense of patriotism will fight relentlessly against allowing our nation to ever be guilty of such a horror again.

According to the NY Times, Bush's "post-attack glow is fading." "The list of recent annoyances, compromises and minor battles lost is a bit startling. The economic stimulus package that Congress approved overwhelmingly this week is far closer to what Democrats proposed last year than to what Mr. Bush had in mind... His announcement on Wednesday that he would impose tariffs of up to 30% on imported steel in an effort to save a long-declining industry ... left the White House in the awkward position of explaining why Mr. Bush had turned on his free-trade principles and how much that reversal would cost Americans paying for cars, houses and washing machines... Mr. Bush's effort to elevate Judge Charles W. Pickering to a federal appeals court is virtually certain to be rebuffed by Senate Democrats, and the White House has all but given up efforts to put together the 60 votes needed to break a threatened Senate filibuster on [Bush's] proposal to drill for oil in the Alaska wildlife refuge.

It has now been revealed that G. W. Bush has directed the Pentagon to draw up contingency plans to drop nuclear bombs on seven countries! This is not hawkishness - this is rabid insanity! The corporate media's failure to tell America the truth along with its phony polls has created a monster who may well be America's destruction - if not the world's. NO WONDER Bush has put a bunker-bound rightwing shadow government in place - he plans to trigger Armageddon, but also intends to make sure he and his band of power-drunk despots survive. This man MUST be removed from office and he must be removed immediately! It is time to reactivate all earlier plans to institute an impeachment inquiry into the 2000 election (including the impeachment of the Supreme Court Five). Enough is enough!

The AP reports, "House lawmakers said Thursday their former colleague, Mike Parker, was fired as civilian head of the Army Corps of Engineers because of his honesty in predicting Congress would not allow the administration's proposed cuts in water project spending. Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor, a fellow Mississippian, said Parker simply told the truth: that the administration 'purposely low-balled the budget' knowing that Congress, a staunch supporter of Army Corps projects, would restore the money. Parker, an assistant secretary of the Army, was fired Wednesday, a week after he told the Senate Budget Committee that proposed cuts could hurt Corps efforts and that he expected that the final budget approved by Congress would be higher. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer on Thursday defended Parker's dismissal, saying that 'the president welcomes a diversity of views' while the budget is being put together, but that once that work is done 'the president does think it's appropriate for staff to support the administration's policy.'" You said it Ari -- it's either seig heil dubya, or you're outta here!

"Was he fired, or did he jump on his own? That was the White House mystery last week surrounding David Frum, George W. Bush's freshly departed speechwriter, who got entangled in a thicket of Washington suspicions over his role in the president's 'axis of evil' formulation. The intrigue was reinforced in midweek when the White House deflected questions about Mr. Frum's resignation, saying he was on a much-needed vacation with his wife and three children in Mexico and could not be reached….White House officials say, that Mr. Frum, a former Canadian journalist and a former editor on The Wall Street Journal's opinion page, came up with the term "axis of hatred" for Iran, Iraq and North Korea. The phrase was changed to 'axis of evil' by Mr. Gerson, White House officials say. As many apoplectic nations now know, Mr. Bush then uttered it in his State of the Union address on Jan. 29. "But initial reports were that Bush himself invented the inane 'Axis of Evil' phrase. (Iran and Iraq forming an axis? Get real!)

Philadelphia City Paper's Bruce Schimmel sums the allegedly defunct Office of Strategic Disinformation up nicely: "It was an idea so outrageous that only an administration drunk on arrogance would spawn it." After all, "Official lies fed the Killing Fields of Cambodia. CIA fictions, migrating back to U.S. publications, led to the Iran-Contra debacle." When met by public outrage, the White House spun backwards... "We'll tell the American people the truth," said Bush, simply. Yet still the truth is not being told. Because ... Rumsfeld now denies that they would have spread misinformation." In short, the White House is now lying about lying. But, concludes Schimmel, "These are the folks who still refuse to say who is in our prisons, the ones who are gutting the Freedom of Information Act, the people who are being taken to court by the GAO to get the real truth about Enron. These are the people who want a license to lie."

Ari Fleischer continued his unending attacks on Clinton, this time blaming Clinton for the current wave of Mideast violence. "You can make the case that in an attempt to shoot the moon and get nothing, more violence resulted; that as a result of an attempt to push the parties beyond where they were willing to go, that it led to expectations that were raised to such a high level that it turned into violence." When asked to clarify his remarks, Ari stuck to his attack. Clinton officials were outraged, and former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger complained to his successor, Condy Rice. Condy gave Ari and earful, forcing Ari to issue a written retraction. Ari, your uncontrollable hatred of Clinton disqualifies you for the job of White House spokesman. Give it up and get a real job!

"I listened to a White House 'press conference' held by Ari 'The Egg With Eyebrows' Fleischer on 2/12. Listening to 'X the Owl' interviewed by Henrietta Pussycat in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood would have offered more insights. THIS is the American press corps? But maybe I tuned in 2 minutes too late and somehow missed all the 'good questions' - you know, the sort that haven't already been answered by 10 carefully scripted press releases and 5 recent AP stories passed out (fries included ) to TV, radio and newspapers! What I heard were real zingers like 'Do you know where Osama Bin Laden is?' or 'Do you think maybe some time soon Homeland Security might be able to get just a bit more specific about their 'terrorist alerts'? Really sockin' it to em, eh?" So writes Cheryl Seal in Unknown News.

"Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. owes Jewish Americans a full explanation. If an offensive remark he made last Monday was directed at Jews, the White House budget director should either resign or find out why America is a Christian nation in numbers only. And President Bush ought to take responsibility for a series of episodes, mostly during his presidential campaign, replete with anti-Semitic implications. Such as when Bush bud Marvin Olasky, who gave him the term compassionate conservatism, suggested that three Jewish writers have holes in their souls and follow the religion of Zeus. Or when campaign workers for Bush reportedly called voters during the South Carolina primary to warn that John McCain's friend and active supporter, ex-Sen. Warren Rudman, is Jewish. Then in the midst of the Florida recount, Bush goons picked a Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, to protest in front of Sen. Joseph Lieberman's house in New Haven, Conn." So writes Bruce Ticker in the Bush Syndrome.

"Excuse me, but the Bush administration's 'internal contradictions,' as the communists used to say, are showing like a dirty slip. On Jan. 25, the administration ordered federal agencies to review their contracts with Arthur Andersen and Enron, saying the scandal swirling around the companies raise doubts about whether they should continue to receive taxpayer money. This would be well and good if the same administration had not, on Dec. 27, repealed a Clinton-era rule that prevents the government from awarding federal contracts to businesses that have broken environmental, labor, tax, civil rights or other laws. What we have here is not so much hypocrisy as complete incoherence. Shouldn't they have to wait at least a month before they contradict themselves? Or maybe the Bush doctrine is that you can give government contacts to chronic lawbreakers as long as they're not in the headlines." So writes columnist Molly Ivins.

"For the last year President Bush's White House has pursued what amounts to a two-tiered policy on executive privilege and prerogative: Nixonian secrecy when it comes to the records of his own administration, and a let-it-all-hang-out openness when it comes to those of his reviled predecessor. Even the Bush administration's inconsistency is inconsistent: Clinton-era records that tarnish the former president's reputation are offered up with alacrity, while those that might cast him in a better light are hoarded as executive-branch secrets." So writes Joshua Micah Marshall in Salon.com.

"How could the American people believe that the union has never been stronger? We have been murderously attacked by terrorists, are spending a billion dollars a month bombing Afghanistan into smaller pieces of rock, the stock market continues to lose ground, large companies are filing for bankruptcy, tens of thousands of jobs have been lost, tens of thousands of terrorists have scattered around the world with destructive plans for our monuments, nuclear reactors and theme parks, while millions of Americans are more depressed, worried and popping pills than ever before. The state of the union is in decline and we are being led downward with all due haste and blinders shielding our eyes from the truth." So writes Randy A. Fleischer.

"When George W. Bush took office in January 2001 he inherited record budget surpluses from the Clinton Administration. Over the course of his first year, Bush promised Americans that they could have it all: tax cuts, spending on key priorities, protecting Social Security and paying down the debt, all in the framework of a balanced budget, even if the economy weakened. However, this prediction, like many of Bush's promises, proved not to be true. The economy is in recession, the tax cut has depleted the federal surplus and the Bush administration is facing a return to deficit spending." Get the facts about the Bush economy, about the impact in your state, and how a year of the Bush Administration has hurt working families, women, minorities, and the environment.

Anyone with a brain knows fully well that Bush is just too dumb to run a government, and Dick Cheney is really in charge. (Remember who was in the White House making crisis decisions on 9-11, and who was obliviously reading stories to children.) Heck, Bush can't even remember to chew before swallowing! Even after a year of carefully staged photo ops and teleprompter-ed speeches, 42% of Americans still think "other people are really running the government most of the time," while a bare majority - 52% think "Bush is in charge of what goes on in his administration most of the time" (question 33).

"The average net worth of the Bush cabinet, including the President and Vice President, was between $9.3 and $27.3 million. That's nearly ten times the average net worth of the cabinet officials who were their immediate predecessors, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of executive branch personal financial disclosure forms...The financial disclosures show that 14 members of the Bush administration owned stock in embattled energy services firm Enron when they were nominated, worth-at the time of their filing-as much as $886,000. Enron and its executives and directors were Bush's most generous campaign contributors, the Center found in The Buying of the President 2000. Through 2001, they've given Bush $623,000. Among the largest Enron shareholders are Undersecretary of State Charlotte Beers and senior adviser to the President Karl Rove, who each held up to $250,000 in the company when their forms were filed."

"The Bush administration has revoked regulations that directed federal contracting officers to consider a company's record of compliance with labor, environmental, antitrust and consumer protection laws before awarding government contracts... Unions argued that the regulations were necessary to ensure that companies that break federal laws do not receive federal contracts. They pointed to General Accounting Office studies that showed that 261 companies that had been fined $15,000 or more for safety violations had received $38 billion in federal contracts in fiscal 1994, and that 80 companies that had violated the National Labor Relations Act had received $23 billion in federal contracts in fiscal 1993. 'By overturning these contractor responsibility rules, the Bush administration has made it easier for more corporate lawbreakers to rake in lucrative federal contracts in the future,' the AFL-CIO says." So reports the Sacramento Business Journal.

This last year has been indescribable. Chaos is the closest word I can use in reference to the nightmare that was 2001. Between the Supreme Court's selection of George W. to the events of September, the country has become a place few of us recognize. The folks who promised to "restore honor and dignity to the White House" have failed miserably. Problem is, not enough people know about it. And, of course, the "liberal media" sure as Trent Lott's fake hair isn't going to say anything about it.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) is on the cutting edge of exposing the Enron scandal, and Bush is out to get him. In the Washington Post, Waxman tells Bush to back off. "In response to my inquiries about contacts between administration officials and Enron executives, a senior White House official warned: 'Waxman risks transforming himself into the Dan Burton of the Democrats.' This unusual jab wasn't meant as friendly career advice." No, it sure wasn't! Waxman continues, "The Bush administration wants to wall off its relationship with Enron from congressional inquiry. In essence, it argues that the president has a constitutional right to block investigation into the influence of special interests on White House policy." That is the most complete form of corruption conceivable - that the President can not only rent the Lincoln Bedroom, but the entire West Wing, and Congress can't say boo. It's time to start impeachment proceedings against the most corrupt administration in history!

Otto Reich, a Cuban exile accused of having links to terrorists, was Bush's nominee for Under Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere. Like John Negroponte and Elliot Abrams, Reich was investigated in 1987 and found to be involved in criminal and covert activities in the name of the Nicaragua 'Contras'. El Pueblo, the first monthly political newsletter in Spanish on the Internet, gives you the scoop. Por favor, recomiende la página a sus amigos de habla hispana.

LA Times Columnist Robert Scheer is dead-on with his examination of Bush's expressed willingness to die to protect his wealthy friends. As Scheer points out, Bush is a person who has never known a moment's worth of economic anxiety and who doesn't have the intellectual honesty to admit that the recession began a half a year before the attacks on September 11th, or that it has been made worse by his own economic policies. As Scheer writes: "It is Bush and not Osama bin Laden who is responsible for subverting the fiscally conservative policies of the Clinton years. A true conservative would say that 'over my dead body' would the government siphon the surplus created by Social Security taxes to the pockets of the rich, putting the nation further into the red."

"It was a classic stealth maneuver -- and it worked. Two days after Christmas, with President [sic] Bush at his Texas ranch and most of official Washington on vacation, the White House announced the rejection of regulations that would have barred companies that repeatedly violate environmental and workplace standards from receiving government contracts. Few in the press noticed, and those papers that printed anything about the decision buried the stories on inside pages. But this was no trivial matter. A congressional report had found that in one recent year, the federal government had awarded $38 billion in contracts to at least 261 corporations operating unsafe or unhealthy work sites. The regulations Bush killed were designed to stop that. This is a classic example of the difference between the parties." So writes David Broder.

"Yesterday the White House changed its mind…again. After cutting the FY '02 funding for cooperative nuclear security programs with Russia and the other independent states of the former Soviet Union by 32%, the Bush Administration suddenly decided that allowing bad guys acquire nuclear material might not be a good thing after all. Of course, the move was overshadowed in the popular press by a defiant Bush vowing to capture Osama bin Laden again. So between that shocker of a headline and the funding change announcement coming smack in the middle of the holiday season, about four Americans will actually hear about the policy change…Well, George, as long you're pulling your head out of your backside long enough to correct two of your policy mistakes, here is The Angry Liberal's Top Ten Bush Policy Mistakes that you may wish to reconsider as well."

What if the coup did not take place and Al Gore was in his rightful home, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Rightwing critics are already assailing President Gore's "alleged" performance, like the bad boss who determines your performance raise for December in January. A few pundits have sliced through this bias, such as attorney/activist Mike Hersh: "...this is not about Bush or Al Gore--it concerns more than two people. This concerns more than two hundred million people. This is not about politics as usual. This is not even about the stolen election. As with Watergate, there is a cancer on the Presidency and the nation. A sickness has infected our body politic and now threatens our free society. This is about the heart and soul of the American republic itself."

While taxpayers tossed $68 million to investigate Bill Clinton's sex-life, the Rethuglican mayor of Waterbury, CT, Philip A. Giordano, was busy molesting children, sans media inquiries or Ken Starr. Currently, Giordano sits behind bars for molesting children, while still receiving half-salary from the city of Waterbury: a Faustian deal arranged by the city that was accepted to avoid the cost of litigation! Yes, hypocrisy runs deep; where are the "Condit-style Freeps" for Philip Giordano? "...Giordano's carousing was actually a perverse obsession with sex and a spiraling affinity for Waterbury's surreal street culture of hookers and hard drugs. Less than two years later [2001], the mayor would be charged with the most heinous of crimes - the repeated rape of the 9- and 11-year-old daughters of two drug-addicted prostitutes. One of the child victims is the older half-sister of a boy Giordano is accused of fathering in 1993."

"The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Bush has not made a final decision but is likely to issue recess appointments if the Senate doesn't act. [Otto] Reich, a former Reagan administration official, is the president's choice to be secretary of Western Hemisphere affairs. Scalia, son of the conservative Supreme Court justice, would be the Labor Department's top lawyer. The Democrats' concerns over Reich focus on his lobbying activities as well as his leadership of the State Department's one-time Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean. The office - which Reich led from its inception in June 1983 until January 1986 - was accused of running an illegal, covert domestic propaganda effort against Nicaragua's Sandinista government and in favor of the Contra rebels." Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has said that there are not enough votes to confirm Scalia.

"A year ago he was the accidental-some say illegitimate- president. Today he is beyond criticism. Matthew Engel on 12 months of 'Dubya:' A year ago today everything crumbled away. On December 13 2000, Vice-President Gore, the nation's popular choice by more than half a million votes, conceded the election to George Bush in response to the Supreme Court's 5-4 vote to stop the recounts in Florida ... Presidents need to be lucky in their enemies, though, as well as skilful in choosing their friends. Margaret Thatcher was blessed by General Galtieri and Arthur Scargill. In Osama bin Laden, Bush has a target who offers him glorious simplicity..." Caveat: Bu$h and his team are given more credit than they are due here, but this article illuminates why Bu$h enthused to Mitch Daniels shortly after 9/11 that he had "hit the trifecta."

John Negroponte and Elliot Abrams, Bush's appointees to the UN and Latin American affairs repectively, played key roles during the Iran-Contra affair. Then-Ambassador Negroponte ignored human rights violations in Honduras/El Salvador from 1981 to 1985. Elliott Abrams, then Undersecretary of State for Latin America - and the US symbol of support for dictatorships from Santiago to Mexico - also ignored civilian murders in Central America, and was convicted in 1991 of lying to Congress. El Pueblo, the first political newsletter in Spanish on the Internet, reveals part of their criminal activities.

"Why does the administration's favored bill offer so little stimulus? Because that's not its purpose: it's really designed to lock in permanent tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, using the Sept. 11 attacks as an excuse. Ten months into the Bush administration, we've all gotten used to this. But politics, while never completely clean, didn't used to be this cynical. We used to see bills like the Democratic stimulus package: mostly serving their ostensible purpose, with the special-interest add-ons a distinctly secondary feature. It's something new to see crises - especially a crisis as shocking as the terrorist attack - consistently addressed with legislation that does almost nothing to address the actual problem, and is almost entirely aimed at advancing a pre-existing agenda." So writes NY Times columnist Paul Krugman.

"A five-page executive order signed by President Bush on Thursday would nudge the nation's highest office back toward democracy's dark ages, when history could effectively be kept from the public. The decree permits an incumbent president to veto the release of a former president's papers even if the former president has agreed to make them public. It rolls back historians' and journalists' timely access to historical documents, giving even members of a former president's family veto power over the release of material... This attempt to gut the 1978 Presidential Papers Act is an attack on the principle of open government." So writes the LA Times.

"The Bush administration, which prompted an outcry by suspending a Clinton proposal on acceptable levels of arsenic in drinking water, has now decided to adopt the proposed Clinton level [10 parts per billion] after all." Why did Bush suddenly change his corporate-owned "heart" and embrace the exact position of the man he despises? Because on the same day the terrorists struck - September 11 - the National Academy of Sciences issued a report that arsenic was "more hazardous than earlier thought" and that even tiny amounts could lead to an increased risk of lung and bladder cancer - 3 cancer deaths per 1,000 people at 10 PPB. So environmentalists now want even LOWER levels to protect our health.

"Angered at leaks from classified briefings, President Bush ordered key department heads last week to restrict their briefings of members of Congress to the four major leaders and the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, sources told CNN on Monday... The top Democrats in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Missouri, expressed approval of the new policy. 'This morning, I informed the House and Senate leadership of this policy which shall remain in effect until you receive further notice from me,' the President said, ending the memo." So writes John King for CNN.

"It is no exaggeration to say that Battalion 316's dirty work induced the same kind of terror in a small nation of 6 million people that the recent bloodshed in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania did in this country. Among Battalion 316's victims were 184 Hondurans and at least one U.S. citizen, a Jesuit priest named Joseph Carney. Little wonder, then, that Latin Americans think Negroponte has blood on his hands as surely as Osama bin Laden has blood on his. Bush, not to mention Negroponte's good friend, Secretary of State Colin Powell, should have realized how hypocritical it would look for us to apply one set of moral standards to terrorists who killed thousands of innocent people in a few terrible hours while at the same time we use another set to judge a man who oversaw American aid to military thugs who did similarly cruel things to Central Americans." So writes Frank del Olmo in the LA Times.

Bush has nominated Eugene Scalia, the son of Supreme InJustice Antonin Scalia, to Solicitor of Labor, the third highest position in the Labor Department. Senators Ted Kennedy and Paul Wellstone oppose the nomination. Says Wellstone, "He is not the right person for this job. His professional record of apparent antipathy toward the same laws and principles that it would be his job to carry out make this a mismatch, in my view. He seems to have been opposed throughout his career to what I see as the very mission of the Solicitor of Labor... At a time when many working families face enough insecurity as it is, I believe we need someone who would instill much more confidence that the Department of Labor is on working families' side." You GO Ted and Paul, let's stop CONFIRMING these fleabitten foxes who do nothing but eat up all hens in the henhouse (and then steal the eggs, too).

As the days pass, Bush is trying less and less to define his plan, his means, or - incredibly - even his targets. He says we are at war, but not against whom. Instead, he lapses into biblical-sounding platitudes like "We will rid the world of evildoers." This is scary, because some of Bush's allies - like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson - regard an "evildoer" as anyone from a murdering terrorist to a gay, an abortion provider, or even a critical journalist. What is the plan? To visit the "full wrath of the U.S" against nations failing to join Bush's "crusade" - a word that explodes like a bomb in the Islamic world. How will it be fought? "In the shadows," taking, possibly, a very long time. We can think of no instance in which any nation on Earth has gone to war with a vaguer plan and vaguer strategy, more poorly-defined enemies, or a Congress and media more willing to tolerate and even embrace such insanity.

According to the mass media, you'd think at least 2/3 of all Americans are itching to go to war. But talk to young people across the nation (those with the most at stake!), people in banks, grocery stores, restaurants, and you will find a VERY different story. Most want justice, not revenge. This discrepancy between the man on the street and the media machine, which has from day one been an alternating lap and attack dog for Bush, shows that America is being set up big time. While justice against the guilty cannot be turned into a corporate profit, war most certainly can. War can be used to stave off a recession (gets all those young men and women out of the work pool for a while), can force a corporate iron control into countries where an advantage may be gained (Bush has widened his targets now to SIXTY nations), and can make it easy to push through your anti-environmental, anti-human rights agenda in the name of "national security."

Is Joe Biden (Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair) out of his ever-lovin' mind? In August, he blithely expressed confidence that the nomination of John Negroponte as UN ambassador would be easily confirmed. This is chilling news, indeed. But, then, maybe Joe doesn't do much reading these days - or maybe he's only seen what the Bush administration wants him to see on the topic of Negroponte. If so, we hope someone would be so good as to pass this link along to the senator. The article touches upon Negroponte's inexcusable actions while ambassador to Honduras under Ronald Reagan from 1981-85. However, there is more to this appalling story, which we suspect will come to light from several sources during the upcoming hearings. Stay tuned!

Why is the Bush administration embracing greater danger under the auspices of their claim to be reducing it? Because this is a no-talent administration with no conscience and no moral principles undergirding its actions, which appear to be no more than making (and stealing) money for a select few. For them, trouble is an opportunity for exploitation, so manipulating that trouble is merely the first step, just as it appears that "trouble" was manufactured in California's energy crisis.

Candidate Bush promised to draw his Cabinet from "the best people from all walks of life who are strong, experienced, capable Americans." Of course, then he chose radical ideologues like John Ashcroft and Gale Norton. But does he discuss policy with his Cabinet members? "Mostly we talk about the dog, about Barney," EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said of the Scottish terrier she gave the president. Asked if he spoke at Cabinet meetings, HUD Secretary Mel Martinez said, "I was asked to lead the prayer at one of them, and I did." So who runs the White House? The Washington Post cites aides Andrew Card, Karl Rove, and Karen Hughes, but we know the truth - Dick Cheney gives the orders in this Administration.

Mellon Bank's tax check-processing managers must have learned their trade in the Florida Secretary of State's office. When there were too many checks to handle, did they take the extra time to "count every check"? Nah, they just tossed them out. Mellon "was so pressed to finish processing hundreds of thousands of federal tax returns by April 29 that it tapped workers from the bank's One Mellon headquarters to help out, an employee familiar with the operation said. If it failed to meet the deadline, the bank would be hit with a penalty -- the size of which neither the IRS nor the bank would disclose -- and supervisory workers in the department wouldn't receive bonuses....an internal probe found that returns were hidden and in some cases destroyed. But the bank has not commented about what happened beyond that." Maybe they should hire Katherine Harris to explain it all to the American people!

While we were all discussing embryonic stem cells last week, the Senate voted 98 to 1 to confirm Asa Hutchinson as our new DEA chief. The secrecy behind this appointment should send chills up our collective spines. Never mind that this compassionate conservative’s first order of business is to call for enforcement of a federal ban on medical marijuana (jail all the doctors and cancer patients!). Having Asa in charge of the DEA is putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop. During his tenure as U.S. Attorney for western Arkansas, Asa turned a blind eye to the largest drug smuggling operation out of Mena with shadowy connections to Iran/Contra and CIA. According to Joe Conason, what happened in Mena during those years was to become the basis for the Arkansas Project, Scaife's get-Clinton effort. Veteran journalist Mara Leveritt sheds some light on Asa and his rise to power in the Arkansas Times.

Let's see, Cheney won't say who is on his secret energy task force. Bush won't spell out who helped shaped his stem cell position or what he plans to do about the growing list of "deferred" and "delayed" regulations and decisions. Now his White House Press office is providing the public with press releases featuring information that is sparser than the hair on Ari Fleischer's head! Take this one, that "authorizes appropriations [$2? $2 million? A roll of barbed wire fencing?] through fiscal year 2004 for the protection of tropical forests [Costa Rican Cloud forests? The Amazon? The Jungle book set at Disney World?] through debt reduction for certain developing countries [Indonesia? the Congo? South Texas?]." Maybe the lack of real information is all part of a plan to liven up press conferences by requiring reporters to make guesses a la Jeopardy. Or maybe they will be treated to a lively charade by Ari Fleischer (that should be entertaining, if not surrealistic).

While the Washington press corps focused on the all-important latest Chandra rumors, the Bush administration's Office of Government Ethics recently slipped proposed changes in the Ethics in Government Act under the radar. These would allow presidential appointees to hide potentially conflicting financial holdings in trusts and partnerships, while greatly limiting the amount of information they would have to provide about those holdings they would still be required to report. As Meredith McGeehee of Common Cause points out, if the proposed changes were in effect now the public would still be in the dark about Karl Rove's recent conflicts of interest if he had just held his stock in a trust or partnership. Lobbyists for the changes, however, claim we don't need all those pesky details because we can trust the Bushies to act in good faith. Yeah, right-o!

We think Bush took his current PR plan from a glossy brochure cooked up by the Heritage Foundation or perhaps the public relations office at Exxon on a slow day. We imagine Bush's thoughts go something like this: "Let 'em kill each other in the Middle East! So what if a few old geezers over 65 lose a few weeks' sleep over what I'm gonna do with Social Security! Let those Mexican illegals get ulcers while they wait for me to tell 'em where to go (haha!). No one will have any hard feelings after they read about my HOME TO THE HEARTLAND TOUR! Ari wanted to call it the "America the Beautfiul Pageant," while Karl suggested the "Man, I Just Love this Country Trip" and good ole Karie Hughes liked "The Red-White-and-Blue Tour." But I thought "Home to the Heartland" sounded just right - kinda makes you think of a cross between Macdonald’s and the Wizard of Oz. See, once you get the buzz word right, the American public'll eat it right up! Like takin' candy from a bunch of babies."

First, Bush goes on "vacation," assuming all the scrutiny on his act will lighten up. Next, he arranges a series of "down-homey" barnyard photo ops to divert attention away from his real activities, which include kicking the legs out from under Medicaid patients, stealing from Social Security, and giving the mining industry a new inflated cyanide allowance. Now, like some desperate carnival hawker, he has taken his show on the road, hoping to schmooze it up in places where his support is sagging. He thinks all he needs to do to get these folks eating right out of his oily little hand is to breeze through, pose for a photo or two and call the town a "community of character" (remember how old-time salesmen always opened their spiel with an oozy compliment to the "lady of the house?"). We can't help wondering why he doesn't just devote the same amount of thought and energy to actually doing something worthwhile.

Remember how Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA) sold out the patients' bill of rights under tremendous pressure from Bu$h? It turns out the man who muscled him is little-known Deputy Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten. Bolten is the evil twin of the West Wing's Josh Lyman - he'll lie, cheat and steal to get "results" for Bu$h. When a careless and heartless HMO brings pain and misery to your family - and it someday will - send a "thank-you" note to Bu$h and his muscle man, Josh Bolten.

"President [sic] Bush gets poor marks for his handling of international policy from a majority of Europeans, who say in a new poll that he makes decisions based entirely on U.S. interests and knows less about Europe than his predecessors. European approval of his foreign affairs efforts runs anywhere from 40 to 60 percentage points below the levels former President Clinton held... More than four in five [81%] disapproved of Bush's positions on the Kyoto treaty on global warming; two-thirds or more [67%] disapproved of his stand on missile defense... Approval of Bush's international policies ranged from one in six [17%] in France to three in 10 [30%] in Italy. Approval of Clinton's handling of international issues ranged from two-thirds [67%] in France and Great Britain to almost nine in 10 [89%] in Germany."

"Yes, George W. Bush is ignorant and lazy. Yes, he is a figurehead. But he is also a vicious opportunist. These things are not mutually exclusive. However inarticulate he is, Bush is well versed in ruthlessness and spite. With a limited knowledge of world affairs and zealous embrace of ideology, he has given free reign to his hatreds, with help from a network of corrupt backers and operatives. Being insulated by privilege and a secret police family has cloaked Bush with a powerful arrogance that is unmistakable in his smirk." So writes Larry Chin in the Online Journal.

Boy, Bush really knows how to pick 'em. His latest nomination, Steven A. Williams, whom Bush wants to head the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Dept. was fired from one of his last jobs for suspicion of payroll fraud. But then, we guess a man who himself has gotten away with fraud would figure "What's an uncharged felony or two between cronies?" Bush got away with flagrant inside trading over a decade ago simply because his Daddy happened to be president and had a friend in the SEC. The fact that Bush would even nominate someone with this kind of smudge on his record when there are so many qualified AND unsmudged candidates available is just another clear demonstration of his total lack of respect for the American public. We, however, believe the people of the U.S. deserve better than this.

When a normal (as in un-Bush-impaired) White House puts out a press release, there is something meaningful there worthy of being relayed to the public....right? Welcome to Bushland, where any statement made by the current WH resident that is at least semi-coherent is triumphantly put out as a "press release." This one is entitled "Remarks by the President to the Pool in Crawford, TX." We are guessing this means his swimming pool, as that is about the only audience we can imagine that would submit to this garbled string of meaningless nonsequitors. We can hardly wait for the next "press release." For yet another "poolside" string of unbelievably brainless Qs and As also see http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0813-114.html

"Karl Rove has failed to disclose his ties to a political consulting firm in his financial disclosure form, which ethics experts said was a serious omission. Rove signed the document Dec. 30 without making any mention of Karl Rove & Co., the firm he founded in 1981 that helped make him a millionaire several times over. He sold most of the firm in March 1999 but retained part ownership and was listed as its president until at least September 2000." We demand an investigation!

Republicans love to talk about how much they hate the government and the pointy-headed bureaucrats. But like everything else Republicans say, it's all a bunch of crap. Bush's top White House aides raised their salaries to $140,000, a 12% increase over the top Clinton staff salary of $125,000. We guess that's their reward for lying about the trashing of the White House.

Bush's FCC Chairman, Michael Powell, scorns the idea that our public airwaves should serve the public good. Like Michael Douglas' Gordon Gekko in "Wall Street," Powell believes "greed is good." Powell would love to see Rupert Murdoch own ALL of America's airwaves, to repay Murdoch for stealing the Presidency for Bush. Only one man stands in his way - Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-SC), Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

If this were back in the Clinton administration, we would have passed this information off as probably some conspiracy theorist's fantasy. But now, as we read the proposed details of the "shadow government" while at the same time looking at the priorities and activities of the Bush Administration and the new structure they are trying to create (which includes reducing everyone in the Pentagon to unquestioning, uninformed "subordinates" of Rumsfeld) -- we find very frightening parallels. We may joke about a corporate takeover of the US, but it is becoming clear it is a reality. And, the only thing standing between us and a very grim future are those senators and congressmen who can still think for themselves - or, more importantly, think ON BEHALF OF the American people. You have a public trust; it is time to act on it.

Under the personal dictatorship of Darth Rumsfeld, the Defense Dept. is now drawing up plans for a super-duper futuristic high-altitude aircraft called a "sub-orbital vehicle" that would be able to able to bomb the hell out of an "enemy target" halfway around the world in 30 minutes. How very tactful of the media and the administration to keep this news from the American public! As "The Guardian" points out, it doesn't look like Shrubcheney intends to lead the world into peace. Instead, we suspect the "internationalistic" scheme (to quote Darthette Rice) goes like this: First, put up missile defense shield. Next cruise through space and bomb some unsuspecting "rogue nation" back into the dark ages. Finally - and here's the REAL goal - undertake that favorite Republican pasttime: Reconstruction - at a super profit to a few big contractors. What a great corporate game plan, eh?

NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd writes, "I settled in with my popcorn as Mark Wahlberg's astronaut jumped in his Delta pod and shot into space, calling out 'Never send a monkey to do a man's job.' He is propelled through time and space and crash lands on the Planet of the Apes. As Mark ran around the jungle chased by snarling simians, I began feeling anxious. Apetown seemed strangely, disturbingly familiar: evolution hurtling backward. Progress in reverse. An arrogant determination to trash the compacts governing humans. 'Do-gooders,' one monkey sniffs. 'Who needs 'em?' When Tim Roth as the human-hating chimpanzee army general announced 'Extremism in defense of apes is no vice,' I suddenly got a creepy feeling that I had been there. Was Apetown Washington? Was the Planet of the Apes the Bush White House? Hmmmm, so W. is President Primate."

Bush's nominee for ambassador to Ireland is wealthy businessman Richard J. Egan. Egan padded his resume by lying about serving in Korea. In reality, "military records show that he entered the Marine Reserves three weeks before the truce in 1953, never served overseas, and was court-martialed for being absent without leave for three months after going on active duty." We cannot imagine that a court-martialed soldier has EVER been nominated for a position of honor. Of course, Bush himself was AWOL for the last two years of his Air National Guard duty - a fact the media covered up during the campaign under pressure from Karl Rove and Dan Bartlett (see smokingjet.com). Call your Senator (202-224-3121) and demand the rejection of Bush's lying, AWOL ambassador - and an investigation of Bush's own mysterious grounding from flight duty and subsequent AWOL.

America's most popular ex-president, Jimmy Carter, said he was "disappointed in almost everything [Bush] has done." He cited Bush's appointment of right-wing extremists. He "also said the United States should respect the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and he questioned the Bush administration's reluctance to ratify the so-called 'rights of the child' treaty. He called the proposed shield against incoming missiles 'technologically ridiculous.' Carter said it goes against the 1972 treaty with the Soviet Union and is a setback for the 'prestige and respect due our country.'" Right on, Jimmy!

Bush has nominated one dysfunctional and inappropriate candidate after another to public offices. The Democrats, alas, in a misquided effort at compromise have let too many of these oily fish through the net. Now, as a sort of "grande finale," Bush has named two of his biggest losers. John D. Negroponte, whom he wants as UN ambassador, was exposed in a 1995 investigative report by the "Baltimore Sun" for being involved in a reign of terror, torture and murder in Honduras in the 1980s. Gee, why don't we just Milosovic head of the UN Human Rights Commission? The other nominee, John P. Walters, is Bush's pick for the anti-drug office. Walters approach to the drug problem - shoot 'em all or throw in jail and throw away the key (drug treatment is a foreign concept to him). We say, hang tough, Dems! You let too many bad eggs through already - let's draw the line on this last round of rotten ones!

Robert Cohen, author of "Milk, The Deadly Poison," was interviewed on the Meria Heller Show on July 25th. After being a very outspoken opponent of the dairy industry and lecturing about the FACTS he uncovered, USDA inspectors appeared at his home to investigate him as a "bio-terrorist!" Learn about how Bush's government agencies try to intimidate you, silence you, and cover up the "fat cat" corporate interests. As Robert would say, "I Love Bush and his Monsanto Cabinet".

With Bush's endless list of destructive agency and administrative nominees, he appears to select them on the basis of how much damage they can do to the very things they are supposed to protect and manage. Now he has nominated an anti-consumer, anti-child corporate toady as head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission: Mary Sheila Gall. She is well named - she had the gall to vote against new safety standards for baby products despite evidence of death and injuries. When product safety is questioned, she blames the CONSUMER. She also thinks corporations should police themselves. So we bet corporate America is just clicking their heels by the news she is Bush's pick. It's about time the Democratic senate FINALLY stops the continuing stream of evil Bush choices.

In an MSNBC web poll (completely unscientific, of course) that attracted over 12,000 respondents, only 25% gave Bush a grade higher than a B for his performance so far. A whopping 70% rated his performance as a D or lower - 52% gave him a big fat F. Meanwhile, a report by MSNBC contributor Eric Alterman finds growing evidence that to give Florida to Bush, the GOP used "every trick in the book." These included everything from legal strategies to outright intimidation and blatant fraud. The web poll is a sidebar to the article.

The Bush administration is defending yet another lawsuit. According to the Washington Post, "Two organizations that represent the nation's pharmacies sued federal health officials yesterday to try to block President Bush's proposal to offer prescription drug discount cards to all elderly Americans... The suit reflects concerns by retailers and congressional Democrats that the discount cards will not substantially lower the price of prescription drugs for older Americans but will further squeeze profit margins of pharmacies that are struggling in an era of managed care." Bush is being sued right and left because his administration is so corrupt and incompetent - but the Republican media refuses to put the Bush administration under the same microscope as the Clinton administration.

"Having alarmed and angered America's overseas friends with his policies on missile defence, climate change and energy, George Bush is now well on the way to alienating domestic support, too. US voters, most of whom did not back him in the first place, wonder what has happened to the "compassionate conservative" the president promised to be. His biggest legislative "achievement" so far, a regressive $1.35bn tax cut, looks more profligate by the day. The overall picture is growing clearer. Mr Bush is a seriously limited man. If he has the political skills to be a leader for all Americans, they are well hidden. In heartland USA, as abroad, a negative impression of the Bush presidency is taking root. Once entrenched, such perceptions are notoriously difficult to dispel." So writes the "Guardian Observer." Alas, once more, they are right on.

According to the Detroit News, "Newsweek called [Heinz] Prechter a 'kingmaker' for his role in recruiting George W. Bush to run for president. Prechter told The [Detroit] News last year that he had his eye on the younger Bush as a presidential possibility for at least six years. 'I find him a very attractive candidate, a very congenial person, a person who truly reaches out,' Prechter said then. Prechter met with Bush several times, and in 1998, hosted a get-together for Bush and some top GOP moneymen at Prechter's cattle ranch in Wheeler County, Texas. That meeting set the stage for Bush's early lock on fund-raising. Prechter was widely believed to be under consideration by President [sic] Bush for an ambassadorship -- a position for which he seemed well-suited -- but Prechter took his name out of the running."

According to right wing columnist John LeBoutillier, "Behind the scenes the Bush White House is in utter turmoil. The senior White House staff is feuding, leaking and going for each other's jugulars... G.W. Bush is sinking. Proof of this can be seen yesterday in Philadelphia when the staff placed him in 'neighborhood' settings, throwing a football, sitting with the baseball mascot, the Phillie Phanatic, and playing golf the day before. This is all an attempt to make Bush 'connect' with the average person – and to counteract poll ratings that show voters think Bush is not concerned with their problems and is too close to Big Business. Image re-positioning is nothing new. Nor is staff infighting. But all of this happening just 4 1/2 months into a new presidency is disturbing." It's worse than disturbing for Bush, because most Americans are now convinced that Bush is a dunce, a tool of the corporate elite - and a thief. It's time for Bush to resign!

At the 1988 Republican convention that nominated George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush was asked by the Hartford Courant what he discussed with his father besides politics. "Pussy," W. replied. Given Bush's contempt for women, it's little surprise that women have been nominated for only 26% of top-level jobs under W - down from 37% of Clinton's first nominations. "I'm discouraged on behalf of the many, many qualified women seeking these jobs, and I'm discouraged for women generally because it's a signal that we're just not that important," says Roselyn O'Connell, Republican president of the bipartisan National Women's Political Caucus.

As Vladimir Putin prosecutes TV networks for exercising free speech, raids radio stations for the same, defends his oppression of Chechnya, blocks revamping of sanctions against Iraq, puts MIRVs on his old missiles, and ramps up production of two new ICBMs -- where is this "exceptional" and "trustworthy" leader that our Resident admires so much? Since praising Putin, Curious George looks even more like a monkey. Given Putin's record, it's little surprise that the people who masterminded a failed coup against Gorbachev now fully support Putin by saying he's their kind of guy!

Bush's campaign promises to bring "honor" back to the Big House -- and to "raise the tone" above "Washington politics" -- were just more hypocritical lies. Just five months since moving in, he's turned the White House into GOP "Campaign Central," with WEEKLY re-election strategy meetings to be held on the premises in what looks to be a permanent "war room." In fact, both Dems and GOP observers say the West Wing has become what may be the most high-powered political operation every run out of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. "I would argue that this is the quintessential permanent campaign presidency," says s Institution scholar Thomas Mann. USA Today played "musical links" and headlines with this story during the day – by first removing it, then moving it to a more obscure position and changing the headline to give the story a less damning spin. Who are they fooling!

There's a saying that those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. Alas, a look at three of the darker chapters of world history in the 20th century reveals that we may already be in the process of repeating it. This disturbing historic trilogy will make the icy hackles of deja vu rise in all observers of America's current administration.

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has just announced that the $1.2 trillion in the Social Security Trust fund is made up of fake government bonds that therefore do not need to be paid off like other bonds. O'Neill admits this, even though he was one of the trustees who signed this year's report showing the $1.2T in bonds as ASSETS. Now he's telling the 150 million American workers who paid into the fund that their hard-earned cash will never be paid back by the government. So the wealthy get a huge tax break that leaves the US unable to pay off the bonds. The average American will lose thousands (tens of times their tax "break"), while the wealthy will collect the windfall from these "fake bonds." (O'Neill's is over $10 million, Cheney's is over $14M). No wonder the members of Bush's Soc. Sec. Commission are urging default on the soc. sec. debt! Among these members are some of the biggest corporate fat cats, including AOL Time-Warner's Richard Parsons (who co-chairs the commission!).

Paul O'Neill is the sort of low life crank one would expect to find conducting hustles in Las Vegas, then boozily spouting their fruitcake philosophy in the bar to anyone who will listen afterward. He is not the sort of man any of us would even nominate as local dog catcher (we wouldn't let him near our dogs) let alone have to dinner, where he would be sure to embarrass us with his diatribes. Yet this man is the SECRETARY OF THE US TREASURY. Some of O'Neill's ideas: Three-Mile Island has a good safety record, corporate taxation is a ridiculous scam, AIDS treatment drugs for Africa is a waste of money, and the social security trust fund should be handed out as windfalls to the wealthy while "commoners" should keep working as long as they are able-bodied (they I guess just take them out and shoot them). While CEO of Alcoa, O'Neill saw to it that the co. paid NOT ONE CENT of taxes on its $399 million in profits in 1996. O'Neill is evil, no doubt about it. But even more evil is the man who cared little enough about the welfare of his country to appoint him to office.

In response to the demands of our readers and to the demands of all Americans who have sought a remedy to the outrage represented by the despotic and illegal Bush Administration, we have formulated a Renewal of the Declaration of Independence. This is NOT a petition, but an historic document that will be delivered personally to Washington. We urge you to celebrate the Fourth by re-affirming the guarantees and promise of the original Declaration and demanding the reforms that will ensure their continuance, once reaffirmed.

Federal law REQUIRES Bush to provide a "detailed account of all federal agency obligations and expenditures for climate change programs and activities, domestic and international obligations for such activities in fiscal year 2001, and any plan for programs thereafter related to the implementation or the furtherance of protocols" related to climate change mitigation. But no such account has been produced yet by Shrub. It is now long overdue, in fact. In response, 35 Democratic congressmen have demanded an explanation. Shrub's failure to produce the report, says the Dems, raises some very serious questions. As does Cheney's failure to produce the energy task force list. There's no doubt about it: Something is rotten in the State of Shrubmark!

Shrub is really rolling out the White House welcome mat these days. This week, a young Muslim intern was summarily ejected from the White House for no reason other than being an Arab. Now the new administration has slashed the number of people allowed to watch the Fourth's fireworks from the White House lawn from 11,000 to just 3,000 to 4,000. All invitees will be groundskeepers and other Shrub employees. Ari Fleischer (who reminds us irresistibly of an egg with eyebrows) claims the reason is concern for wear and tear on the grounds. Of course, wear and tear don't count if there's a warm fuzzy intimate photo op is involved, such as that offered by the T-ball games on the same grounds. But we guess there's just only so much you can do photographically with a cast of thousands in the dark - especially if they are mere underlings in your operation.

The Bush administration will probably go down in history as the one that LEAST represented America demographically and philosophically. First of all, two out of five appointees worked in the Bush Sr. Admin. (didn't we vote that bunch out for a reason?), while 31% worked for Ronald Reagan (from whom the nation is still attempting to recover). A whopping 80% are white Colin Powell and Condy Rice are just "passing"), three out of four are male, 42% are on the job only because they worked on the Bush campaign, while just 15% worked in the Clinton administration and thus have any idea at all of what has been going on. Another recent study points out that the Bush admin. is also far older on average than past admins. So there you have it: a regime of bigoted aging white men yearning for past glories.

A new CBS/NYTimes poll conducted during and after Shrub's jaunt to Europe reveals that confidence in the Clueless One's policies and abilities has shrunk. Meanwhile, public support of Democratic positions on health care, prescription drugs, minimum wage and judicial appointments has grown and is now higher than the Resident's on these issues. In one month, even in this corporate media poll, Shrub's disapproval rating has gone from 30% to 34%. We'd love to see what a non-corporate poll would reveal!

"Whatever happens in President Bush's meeting in Slovenia Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, you can bet on several things. It will be cordial and possibly frank. It will be substantive and quite possibly successful. It will be good, positive, constructive and very likely strong. This can be predicted with some authority for one reason: Virtually every meeting Bush has with virtually anybody merits such descriptions from him and his advisers... Is there anyone with whom Bush would have an ugly, unproductive or cold meeting? How about the one in January with Sen. John McCain, the maverick Arizonan who challenged Bush for the GOP nomination and has since contemplated bolting the party and battling Bush in 2004? 'The president said it was a very good session,' Fleischer reported."

This week George Bush came to Europe, and before setting off was given a full and detailed briefing: 'It's a kinda big peninsula, Mr President, with lots of different countries in it.' 'Sounds great - how come I never went before?' 'Well sir, with respect, you never had a passport until now.' The reason the Global Village Idiot has flown across the Atlantic is to get to know his allies in Nato and the EU." So writes John O'Farrell of the UK's "Guardian Observer." Alas, after a week of Bush Abroad, O'Farrell has concluded: "Europe needs to show some leadership because the official leader of the western world is leading us in the wrong direction. He's fallen for the American military's arguments and restarted the arms race. Bush says he was only persuaded to proceed with the star wars project after a full intelligence assessment. Well quite; they did one and found he doesn't have any."

Bush promised "the highest standards of integrity in Government." Yet here are some of Bush's ethics rules that Karl Rove has already broken. (1) Public service is a public trust, requiring employees to place loyalty to the Constitution, the laws, and ethical principles above private gain. (2) Employees shall not hold financial interests that conflict with the conscientious performance of duty. (6) Employees shall not knowingly make unauthorized commitments or promises of any kind purporting to bind the Government. (7) Employees shall not use public office for private gain. (8) Employees shall act impartially and not give preferential treatment to any private organization or individual. (14) Employees shall endeavor to avoid any actions creating the appearance that they are violating applicable law or the ethical standards in applicable regulations. To live up to his ethics promises, Bush must fire Rove immediately!

In March, Karl Rove committed a crime. Rove, "who owned more than $100,000 of Intel stock, met in March with the company's chief executive and two lobbyists as they pushed for federal approval of a corporate merger... Federal ethics laws and rules prohibit an executive official with an economic interest in a decision from participating through recommendations, advice or rulings. The only way Rove could avoid violating the laws was 'if he were truly mute and he offered no comment then or later' on the Intel matter, said Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor." We guarantee Rove was not mute and without comment. We demand a special prosecutor!

"To the United States Senate: We, the undersigned, are formally requesting a full Senate investigation as to why Karl Rove and Paul O'Neill have NOT sold their respective stocks. This is as illegal as insider trading would be. This is NOT United States of Profits. This is United States of America. While we are being laid off by the thousands, we, the undersigned, demand that the United State Senate fully investigate and remove Mr. O'Neill and Mr. Rove from their public office and tried for their crimes." Sign the petition!

Frank Rich in the June 9 issue of the New York Times gives his readers some clues on how the Bush gang employs photo op psychology to perpetrate its lies. The media is the message, so all they need to do is paint a pretty lie for the media to cover. Their "fuzzy math" will do the rest. Bushies know that a lie flies halfway around the globe before the truth gets its boots on. And so the lie, unobstructed by truth's need for time and research, becomes the first and most lasting impression. Successful lies come in pictures with lots of color.

"Arrogance is the real story of this White House thus far. The administration proceeds on the belief that no one would possibly question its wisdom and that anything can be sold with the proper marketing strategy and enough repetition of an unvarying script. If the president is known for 'reaching out' and 'building bridges,' as we're constantly told, it must be so, even if the Jeffords fiasco proves it wildly false. If he says it's possible to have a huge tax cut while building a missile shield and without dipping into the Social Security and Medicare piggy banks, it must be so, even if the numbers don't remotely add up. So goes this cognitive-dissonance presidency." So writes NY Times columnist Frank Rich.

I attended last Saturday's voter march in D.C., and I visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum before I left town. The history I read about there was scary, but what terrified me even more were the similarities between 1930s Germany and now. Just as I did after the inaugural protest in January, I came home inspired to write.

J. Steven Griles is Bush's nominee to the No. 2 spot at Interior. Slate's Chatterbox recently confirmed that Griles was cited on July 1975 by the Richmond Police Department for breaking and entering with "intent to commit assault felony". He was ultimately convicted of "trespass misdemeanor." But Griles won't talk about it, and the Richmond Police say they have destroyed all records before 1983 (how convenient!). Several reporters say Griles got into a shouting match with his ex-wife during their divorce. So why won't he talk about it?

A Dobin Hoor is someone who steals from the poor to give money to the rich. Guess who comes to mind - our president-select -- Drinky McDumass (hail to the thief!). Why, you ask? Well, he doesn't want to put caps on wholesale electric prices, but instead is willing to use taxpayer money to finance the escapades of energy executives (campaign contributors)! Presumably it would include those taxpayers that won't be receiving a refund. Besides, he has to do ALL he can to fill the silver-lined pockets of those who helped him steal the election. All the better to steal the next one.

"Bush may not have found the best Victorian role model for virtue in the British author George Eliot, whom he quoted on the value of marriage Thursday. Mary Anne Evans, who wrote in the mid-1800s under the pen name George Eliot, cohabited for 24 years with a married man.In a speech at the National Summit on Fatherhood, the president [sic] praised healthy marriages as 'incredibly important for children,' and went on to quote a passage from Eliot's 1859 novel, 'Adam Bede'" "Bush's decision to quote George Eliot, a woman who lived her adult life in a long-term, loving, unmarried relationship, only underscores our message: People always have and always will form both married and unmarried families,'' said Dorian Solot, executive director of the Boston-based Alternatives to Marriage Project.

The 68,000 pages of confidential memos, letters, and briefing papers passed among Ronald Reagan and his top advisers that were supposed to have been made public in January, as dictated by federal law, have been short-stopped by Shrub. Seems the White House wants time to paw through the files first - no doubt with paper shredder at the ready. Some historians believe Shrub is worried about what some of his top aides might have said when they worked for the Gipper. Among the Reaganites Bush seeks to protect in defiance of federal law: Colin Powell, Mitchell Daniels, Jr., Lawrence Lindsey, Andrew Card, Gale Norton, Ken Dam, and of course, George Bush Sr (and his role in Iran-Contra and Iraqgate?). Letting Bush have control of those papers for even a day is like sending the chickens to the fox's den for "safekeeping." But Shrub plays by special rules he makes up as he goes along. Wouldn't it be nice if we "commoners" could have control over OUR IRS, work or academic files for a day or two!

Dick Morris is no fan of Democrats. But even he is appalled by Bush's extremist policies. "George W. Bush is practically begging the American people to send him a Democratic Congress. Even if you favor nuclear power, don't you want a good environmentalist in on the decisions to make sure it's safe Even if you back oil drilling in the Arctic, don't you want a nature advocate to look over the plans? Add to the list, his coming Social Security cuts (due this fall) and his likely conservative Supreme Court picks (due this summer) and Bush is adding to the reasons why Americans will want a Democratic Congress to check and to balance his tendencies on these issues."

Bush's FEMA director, Joe Allbaugh, is bringing Bush's "compassionate conservatism" on his trip to Midwest flood victims. "The question is: How many times the American taxpayer has to step in and take care of this flooding, which could be easily prevented by building levees and dikes?" Allbaugh said. "There is a point of no return," he said. "I don't know whether it's two strikes you're out, three strikes you're out, but obviously, these homes and properties that are continually flooded, it is not fair to the American taxpayer, to ask them time in and time out to pay for rebuilding." That should go over real well in the Midwest!

Now that Democrats control the Senate, they can scrutinize - and defeat - Bush's extremist nominees. A large coalition of women's organizations led by NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund is opposing Wade Horn's nomination as Assistant Secretary for Family Support. Horn is founder of the National Fatherhood Initiative (www.fatherhood.org), and believes single mothers should be economically coerced into marriage. For details on Horn's views, click here.

Bush's three biggest proposals - the tax giveaway, missile defense, and energy plan - have no popular support, and won't fix the White House-manufactured "crises" that allegedly justify them. But according to former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Bush "and his key staff don't care what anyone else thinks. They feel under no compulsion to respond to facts and arguments summoned by distinguished scientists, academicians, policy experts or journalists. They figure if they stick to the script, reiterating the same illogic and perpetrating the same deceptions, the public will eventually see the world their way." Perhaps - but only if the media uncritically promotes these "deceptions." Which is why Democrats need to keep the heat on the media to tell the truth about Bush's lies.

"Jim Jeffords's departure from the GOP was dramatic enough. But ... what has happened since has been even more remarkable: an orgy of Republican criticism of the White House's hardball tactics and the president's breezy style." Jeffords wasn't the only Republican to get political death threats. "Bush Chief of Staff Andy Card and Vice President Dick Cheney 'subtly threatened [Lincoln Chafee's] political future.'" But Bush "seems untroubled by the brass-knuckle tactics his aides use to win over wavering members. After all, in his father's White House, W. himself was known as an 'enforcer'--the man who flew in from Dallas to fire Chief of Staff John Sununu for what was perceived as a lack of loyalty. White House aides may be taking their cues from the president. Or they may play hardball simply because they know their boss lacks the relationships and policy expertise to cajole members into changing their minds." So writes Ryan Lizza in The New Republic.

"When Texas sent the nation Billy Bob Forehead for President, we did, in fact, try to warn y'all about Rove. He not only goes after Democrats, his record of attacking Republicans who cross him is equally distinguished. Rumor and slur campaigns are among his favorite methods. He started using dirty tricks when he was with the College Republicans and has since been linked to the rumors that Ann Richards is a lesbian (a perennial for any woman in politics), that John McCain is crazy as a result of his years in prison camp and several other notable doozies. The campaign against McCain in South Carolina during the primaries was a Rove classic. McCain was simultaneously rumored to be gay and a tomcat who cheats on his wife, who in turn was rumored to be a drug addict. The news that McCain has a black daughter (adopted from Bangladesh) was spread judiciously under the radar of the national media." So writes Molly Ivins in The Nation.

Most Americans object to Shrub for his stupidity, arrogance, corruption, and devotion to the radical right agenda. But for the oh-so-jaded Washington establishment, none of this matters. For people like Michael Kelly, there is only one true sin - Incompetence. And Bush's loss of Jeffords and the UN Human Rights seat are viewed as major-league screwups. Kelly says Democrats will win the next election as the party of competence. We'll take it however it comes!

We couldn't think of a more horrifying choice for ANY government post than J. Steven Griles, who has over the years behaved as if he were Earth's sworn enemy. Yet Bush has, unbelievably, nominated him for Deputy Secretary of the Interior. "Steven Griles is the Mike Tyson of the coal and oil industry operatives," says Friends of the Earth president Brent Blackwelder. "This confirmation must not move forward." Among other things, Griles has pushed for oil drilling off the CA coast, in ANWR, and just about any other pristine place he can dream up. He also inflicted long-term damage to the budget, morale, and effectiveness of the Office of Surface Mining while he worked there. He is obnoxious, arrogant, and operates like an SS officer, scorning any controls that Congress tries to place on his high-handed behavior. If you wanted proof that Bush was not just stupid but evil, here it is.

We have received several first-hand reports that during a Miami Sol (WNBA) game, a video clip of Bush at the recent Notre Dame graduation was shown. Upon seeing Bush, the crowd broke out into a spontaneous BOOOOOO. Like his Republican predecessors (Bush I, Reagan, and Nixon), Bush has no public support - except what the media creates through image manipulation.

Shrub really knows how to pick 'em. This past week, he announced a gift of $43 million to Afghanistan's extremist leaders, the Taliban - a group known for its religious intolerance, terrorist tactics, oppression of women and obliteration of a nation's historic heritage. Now it comes to light that the UN has accused the Taliban of selling stockpiled opium and heroin to finance its war and train terrorists. So, Shrub's nice little gift added to the dope money ought to finance plenty of torture deaths, bombs, and misery. Who will you finance next, Shrub? - Neo-Nazi extremists?

Shrub's "uniter" facade, never very convincing, has cracked wide open and now not even the best GOP spin doctors can hide the reality beneath. "Bipartisanship on Capitol Hill is something Bush still has to figure out," says veteran Republican political consultant Doug Bailey. "He defines it as smiling at people and giving them nicknames and patting them on the back. He doesn't haul both sides into a room and work out a deal." Even now in the face of Jeffords' defection, Shrub's first response has not been to reach "across the aisle" but to assign blame.

It was truly a Shrub administration moment: Rep. David Wu, the only Chinese-American ever elected to Congress, was barred from entering the U.S. Energy Department headquarters today because he just didn't look American enough. Wu has fired off a letter of protest to Spencer Abraham. The incident, says Wu, represents just "the tip of the iceberg, an indicator of a much larger problem at DOE which may be damaging our national security." Hey, we're just surprised the FBI didn't collar him at the door and charge him with spying, a la Wen Ho Lee or at least ask him if he was there to pick up laundry. Geez, and this had to happen right after Shrub and Rummy's great photo op with all those hand-picked multi-ethnic military folks!

"The White House troika of Mr. Rove, Andrew Card, the chief of staff, and Karen Hughes, a counselor to the president, must take a major portion of the blame for the defection and must assume a major portion of the responsibility for getting Mr. Bush back to the center. Hubris is a word often heard in the first months of a new administration, and there were plenty of people in Washington, even many Republicans, happy to see these aides taken down a notch. Fundamentally, however, they have talked an excellent game in preaching unity, bipartisanship and inclusiveness but have handled Congress in a rough, even presumptuous manner." Hey NY Times - what do you expect from the capos of the Bush organized crime family? After all, they stole the Presidency of the United States.

"On July 9, 1975, someone named James Steven Griles was charged by the Richmond, Va., police with breaking and entering with the "intent to commit assault felony." Eventually, it says, this Griles was convicted on the misdemeanor charge of trespassing." Is this the J. Steven Griles who is poised to become deputy secretary of the interior? Bush administration officials will not say. If you have any information, e-mail chatterbox@slate.com.

Nothing like blaming everyone else for your own ineptitude, eh Shrub? After dawdling for months before even suggesting candidates for most senior government posts, the GOP is now implying that the "dragged out" confirmation process is to blame for the fact that only 11% of these posts are filled. Yet the Democrats have - disturbingly - put up amaziningly LITTLE resistance to most of his candidates. But, then, I guess whining and casting blame sounds better to the GOP spin doctors than the truth, which is that Shrub hasn't a clue how to run the country.

Shrub's new first line of defense involves the Navy - well, sort of. For almost two months now, each time there's a PR crisis, Shrub calls in the 24-member crew of the downed spy plane for a photo op: When in doubt, trot 'em out! So today, in the wake of the infamous energy plan unveiling, Bush has once more called in the troops! Man those Nikons, boys! Line up and give 'em hell with your dress whites!

Dick Cheney has ordered the White House kitchen to serve genetically modified foods, a.k.a. frankenfood. On one level, this looks like an effort to boost the GM industry, which faces wholesale rejection by consumers. But maybe Cheney has another motive. Let's play close attention to Bush's next medical exam...

Bu$h's Energy Task Force is about to issue its report, which will call for increased global warming (through oil and coal production) and more nukes, in order to enrich Bu$h's energy donors. "Since the task force's work began in February, most of Washington has remained in the dark about how it operated, which arguments it embraced and how it reached decisions on some of the nation's thorniest energy issues." When Hillary's Health Care Task Force operated this way, Judicial Watch hauled them into court before a Federal Society judge, who threw the book at them. Where is Judicial Watch now?

Ted Olson has been lying to the Senate Judiciary Committee about his role in the Arkansas Project, the $2.3 million project to "get Clinton" undertaken by the right-wing rag American Spectator with funding from Richard Mellon Scaife, the ATM of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Now is the time to expose this entire "get Clinton" effort for all of America to see. We demand FULL and OPEN hearings into Olson's lies. Call your Senator (202-224-3121) today - especially if his name is Feingold!

"It's been dubbed by some the 'de-Bushing' of Texas: plugging holes in the state budget, banning new charter schools, overhauling the criminal justice system. A swift unraveling of George W. Bush's Texas legacy is dominating the first legislative session since the two-term governor became president [sic]." Texas is finally realizing what an awful mess Bush left behind. Will the rest of America be able to "de-Bush" when Bush finally gets sent back to Texas?

Are you kidding? Give Shrub unlimited authority to negotiate trade deals? Why don't we just clean out Grandma's savings and send it to the White House - it would be just as ethical. Or maybe we'll just take up roller skating on the Beltway - it would be just as safe! Our greedy little Shrubmeister obviously thinks he needs more toys for his new playpen and wants us to just drop him off at International Toys R'Us with a blank check. But head daycare attendant Ari Fleischer assures us that Bush would offer "fresh new thinking" on free trade and stresses the importance of trade promotion authority - also known as "fast track" (as in watch how fast we can send your job to Mexico!). Worst of all, under Bush's proposed authority, Congress cannot amend trade deals negotiated by his Highness (make that heinous!).

"Through Bush's first 100-plus days, a combination of about-faces on some issues and Bush's famed imprecision on others has made it nearly impossible to get a fix on what the administration is saying, or in Bush’s case, whether he knows what he’s saying. The verbal chaos has been so sweeping that while some observers are compiling lists of Bush's gaffes, others have come to suspect that there must be some method behind the fuzzy rhetoric." So writes Sam Parry in consortiumnews.com.

"Bush is rewarding Republican donors and loyalists with plum ambassadorships at an unprecedented pace. Of 27 ambassadors announced so far, 22 went to people with political or personal connections and no diplomatic experience." In contrast, "at this point in Bill Clinton's presidency, he had nominated 23 envoys, 21 of them foreign service officers." In Bush's case, "the major GOP donors chosen by President [sic] Bush include Richard Egan, nominated ambassador to Ireland, who gave $491,100; Charles Heimbold Jr., Sweden, $367,200; Howard Leach, France, $225,559; and John Palmer, Portugal, $167,850." Scott Harshbarger, president of Common Cause, points out the hypocrisy behind a favorite Bu$h campaign platitude. "George Bush was going to bring a different tone to Washington. Now, internationally, those who pay get to play. This certainly gives people more access and opportunity to open the doors for their companies, their colleagues, their friends."

To destroy President Clinton, right-wing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife funded the "Arkansas Project" by the American Spectator, a right-wing magazine. They sent investigators to Arkansas with cash in hand to pay witnesses to smear Clinton - which eventually led to David Brock's article about a woman named "Paula," then a lawsuit by Paula Jones, then the entrapment of Clinton by lawyers for Jones and Ken Starr, then to impeachment. The Arkansas Project's lawyer was Ted Olson, who testified under oath to the Senate in April that he was involved in the project "only as a member of the board of directors of the American Spectator. It has been alleged that I was somehow involved in that so-called project; I was not involved in the project, in its origin or its management." But in response to follow-up questions from Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT), Olson is now changing his tune big-time. We demand a full investigation -and the rejection of Olson's nomination for lying to the Senate!

Republican "Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson paid a $3,000 fine for not telling [Wisconsin] state ethics officials about his investment in a condominium project when he was governor."

George W. Bush campaigned as a moderate because that is what it took to get an election close enough to steal. But now, in a classic case of false advertising, Bush and his cronies are trying to push the country on a hard right turn. Read activist Eric Rainbolt's true chronology of Bush's first 100 days and ask yourself how long the commercial news media is going to be able to keep publishing stories about Bush allegedly living up to his campaign promises?

"It sort of feels like we've all been invited to a sock hop. This 1950s 'Back-to-the-Future' Administration lacks only poodle skirts and duck tails. Let's solve our energy problems with nuclear power plants! It worked out so well the first time. We could even put nuclear-promotion bureaucracy in the same department as nuclear regulation. No conflict there!" So writes Molly Ivins in The Progressive.

"The administration - to which power was in effect granted by the Supreme Court in a controversial ruling last December - is preparing not only to set the highest court in the land on course for a conservative generation, but has quietly revolutionised the way in which all federal judges are appointed to benches across the country, guaranteeing politically right-wing selections. At the core of this manoeuvre, which will weave a new fabric in US society, is a tightly organised right-wing lawyers' group which has come in from the fringes to the core of the administration. It is called the Federalist Society, of which Bush's Solicitor General Theodore Olson, Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch are leading members - as are many members of the new White House counsel team." So writes Ed Vulliamy in the UK Observer.

"White House officials led the cast of 'The West Wing' on a tour of the real thing Sunday and mugged with the actors in a mock news briefing. Notably absent was President Bush and the man who plays a Democratic president on the television show, Martin Sheen - a real-life Bush critic who in February called Bush a 'moron'... Bush was not available Sunday because he was entertaining other guests. A spokesman would not identify them."

President Bush's 2002 budget would limit access to the National Flood Insurance Program by phasing out flood coverage for property owners who have made flood-damage claims before and raising premiums for some businesses and rentals. "President Bush is sending a clear signal to the American people - suffer a natural disaster in your state, and I'll find a way to cut its funding," said Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe.

The Democratic National Committee has unveiled a new website, www.100daysofbush.com, to highlight the disappointing record of President George W. Bush during his first 100 days in office. The website features a detailed analysis of Bush's first 100 days, including a "Bush Day-by-Day" calendar showing what he has done -- and undone -- every day since taking office on January 20, 2001. The website also features ten "Top 10 Lists" of some of Bush's greatest assaults on issues like the environment, women, his budget cuts; as well as, special interest giveaways, contradictions and paybacks to big businesses, and much more.

As obscene as it seems, Bush has actually been bragging about the "achievements" he's made in his first 100 days. Well, we aren't yet at war, there are still a few trees left in our national forests and we can still actually see the sun on a clear day -we guess that's something, with Shrubmeister at the helm. But if you want to get down and get real, check out this compilation of the Bush's actual activities since being sworn in. Bush's wholesale attacks on the environment, working people, civil rights, the budget, and world peace are unparalleled - and virtually unnoticed by the corporate media.

Federalist Society triumphant! Bush "intends to nominate Eugene Scalia to be Solicitor of the Department of Labor. He is currently a Partner at the law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher [Ted Olson's firm] in Washington, D.C. He served as Special Assistant to U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr from 1992 to 1993 and served as Speechwriter to U.S. Education Secretary William J. Bennett from 1985 to 1987." Earlier when Bush v. Gore was before the Supreme Court, it had been brought up that Scalia's son was a lawyer at Ted Olson's firm. This was clearly a massive conflict of interest. This latest Bush appointment suggests a quid pro quo for Scalia, who led the illegitimate installation of Bush into the White House.

"For Bush, the first US president with an MBA, the election was a straightforward business proposition in which American corporations acted as venture capitalists. They were invited to take a moderate risk and put the bulk of their political funds behind the Republican dauphin in the most expensive campaign in history. The returns, in the form of abandoned lawsuits, relaxed federal regulations and the scrapping of at least one major international treaty, are heavily loaded with short-term profit. Whatever the economic climate in the world outside, for big business it is truly springtime in Washington." So writes the Guardian in a special report.

The Democratic National Committee called for an IRS investigation of the Bush-Cheney vote-recount fund. The DNC sys fund manipulators are evading a new law targeting unreported political spending and that they failed to publicly disclose fund-related contributions and expenditures. In a letter to the IRS, Terry McAuliffe charged that the recount operation amounts to the biggest stealth PAC ever created and that is should have been registered with the IRS under a law passed in 2000 requiring secretive tax-exempt groups to reveal their finances.

"Even though he is no longer governor, George W. Bush is having an unusually tough time with the Texas Legislature. Many of the same lawmakers who passed tax cuts championed by Mr. Bush are now talking about future tax increases. Legislators in both parties agree that the state's charter schools, one of Mr. Bush's pet programs, need to be fixed." Heads up, Washington - everything Bush touches turns not into gold, but arsenic.

Next Monday marks Day 100 of the Bush coup d'etat. Like a naughty little boy who's been caught stealing, little Bushie is running home to his mommy to show everyone that he is such a GOOD little boy. Fortunately, Democrats and progressives in Washington will be exposing the truth about Bush's 100-day record - most notably his attacks on the environment, women, workers, and the federal budget.

Current Health and Human Services Secretary and "Former [Wisconsin] Gov. Tommy G. Thompson said Tuesday he knew nothing about a deal in which a former top aide would share in a $46.5 million payment if his firm could persuade federal regulators and the governor to approve a Kenosha casino project. Journal Sentinel columnists Cary Spivak and Dan Bice reported Sunday that former Thompson chief of staff and campaign manager Bill McCoshen [and his firm Madison Consulting] would get the money from Nii-Jii Entertainment, the company hired to manage the proposed casino...The report prompted Rep. Spencer Black (D-Madison) to reintroduce legislation he said would close a loophole in state lobbying law, requiring lobbyists to disclose when they seek to influence the governor in approving contracts."

"Interior Secretary Gale Norton may face contempt of court charges for failing to comply with a federal court order in a four-year-old lawsuit involving the Bureau of Indian Affairs' management of individual trust funds for Native Americans. A group of Native Americans filed a motion Monday with U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth, alleging that Norton and her lawyers failed to properly inform employees in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) that they could speak freely and without fear of retaliation with a court-appointed official about problems involving trust fund accounts." Judge Lamberth ruled consistently against Bill Clinton, which enabled the Larry Klayman and Judicial Watch vendetta (bankrolled by Richard Mellon Scaife). Will Lamberth, a Republican judge with ties to the Federalist Society, treat Federalist Society soldier Norton the same way he treated her Interior Dept. predecessors? Or will he let her off the hook? Stay tuned.

"U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao failed to reveal on her financial disclosure form that she was a board member of privately held Multa Communications Corp., which operates a high-speed Internet backbone, according to documents...A review of Chao's disclosure form...shows 28 positions held outside the government, including director's chairs at Dole Food Co. Inc. and the Nasdaq stock market." Chao also served on the board of Northwest Airlines. This fact raised conflict of interest concerns when Bush halted the mechanics strike against Northwest. Chao was also a fellow at the Heritage Foundation that is considered the center of right-wing power. Reportedly, Chao caused internal problems at Heritage for her sympathetic stance towards China. This may explain why Larry Klayman’s Judicial Watch has targeted Chao over her ties to Chinese fundraisers. Judicial Watch is the legal attack dog of Heritage Vice Chairman Richard Mellon Scaife, who has used it repeatedly to go after the Clintons.

"Today, nearly two weeks after [Treasury Secretary Paul] O'Neill said he would resolve the issue, the Washington Post reported that O'Neill still hasn't sold the stock. In fact, Alcoa yesterday announced a 16 percent rise in profits, which boosted its stock price by $1.95 per share. That means O'Neill has made close to $5 million by holding on to the stock and options..." Remarked DNC Chairman Terry MacAuliffe, "His portfolio may be expanding, but Americans' faith in Bush's promise to run an ethical administration is shrinking every day." By the way, Richard Mellon Scaife is an Alcoa heir who used those holdings to help finance the New Right network that went after Clinton and helped put Reagan and Bush Jr. into power.

On the eve of Ted Olson's confirmation hearings for Solicitor General, he and his cronies at the American Spectator are trying to scrub any memories of Olson's involvement in the infamous "Arkansas Project" - the $1.8 million effort funded by far-right millionaire Richard Mellon Scaife to spread money around Arkansas to "get" the Clintons. Olson was a key player in the effort from the beginning in 1993 - when the project was hatched in his office - to the end in 1997 - when the Spectator publisher Ronald Burr was fired for demanding an audit of the project, and Olson replaced him. Senate Democrats should call Burr to testify about Olson's role in the scandalous project.

"Seventy-five days into the Bush regime and I'm a wreck. I'm afraid to drink the water. I'm afraid to breathe the air. I'm afraid glaciers will melt and seas will rise. I'm afraid to visit California in the dark. I'm afraid the Dow will dip below 5,000. I'm afraid Russia will take leave of its senses. I'm afraid China will take leave of its senses. I'm afraid North Korea will lob a missile our way. At the rate things are reeling backward, soon I'll be fearing fear itself." So writes Maureen Dowd in the New York Times.

In an effort to defend recent environmental decisions, the Bush administration is demanding cost-benefit ratios in environmental policy decisions (such as oil exploration on national monument land) and pointing to what they consider to be a lack of scientific certainty on key environmental issues (like arsenic standards and global warming). However, Bush has no use for these concepts when it comes to other issues like defense shields and drug wars. Those who limit their concerns over scientific certainty and cost-benefit ratios to only environmental issues reveal that such concerns are really political strawmen used to mask anti-environmental agendas -- don't be fooled.

"Eradicating arsenic from our drinking water, that's for the kids. Controlling C02 emissions and other polluting substances, that's for the kids. Doing our best to lead the world on how to counter global warming, that's for the kids. Preserving our lands and our resources, that's for the kids. Keeping the peace, that's for the kids. Inviting a couple of dozen carefully hand picked kids to run around the White House lawn in some twisted public relations ploy, that's just disgusting." So writes PJ McIlvaine in Online Journal.

It has taken George W. Bush just more than 50 days in office, in a dozen outrageous initiatives, to hand this country over to big-monied conservative interests – lock, stock and barrel – with scant notice by the media and limited public outcry. Here are the "dirty dozen" – 12 major Bush moves of his first eight weeks.

Just as Hitler, Castro, Qaddafi, and other dictators have done when their despotism begins to loom a little too large in the press, Bush is scrambling for "warm and fuzzy" photo ops, preferably with children and old folks. Aware he will face boos at the Milwaukee big league baseball game on Friday, he has arranged to play T-ball with local little leaguers on the South Lawn of the White House beforehand. His team will include his increasingly disliked cabinet officials. Will it work? Well, hundreds of shots of Hitler with children and even the 1936 Olympics (staged by Hitler as the PR event of the century) failed to mask the reality beneath the "charm."

In a move deceitfully labled as a "revocation of blacklisting regulations," Bu$h is killing a rule that makes it harder for companies that have violated federal labor, employment, safety, environmental, and other laws to get juicy contracts. Needless to say, the Associated General Contractors of America have tried to buck these rules. Now they will join the vipers nest of anti-labor, privileged fatcats hiding under the sheltering branches of the Bu$h. Watch the shoddiest contractors scramble up to the pork trough!

The "Education President"? Nah. The "Teflon President"? Nope. Shrub will henceforth be known as the "Asbestos President," as NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd declares.

"The Bush administration is indeed compassionate. It has never seen a rich businessman for whom it did not feel compassion... Loyalty to one's own kind is what politics is all about. The men in the present administration (installed in office by the vote of one supreme court justice) are loyal, therefore loyal to their own kind--to rich businessmen like themselves. That's what Bush means by compassionate conservatism--compassion for conservatives." So writes Andrew Greeley in the Chicago Tribune.

A falling stock market is spelling trouble for a number of wealthy Bush administration officials who are selling their multimillion-dollar investment portfolios — and taking some losses in the process — to comply with government ethics rules. The timing could not be worse. The stock market ended the 2001 first quarter yesterday at lows not seen in two years, part of an accelerated slide that began just as the Bush administration assumed office. "Pardon me if I don't get out my handkerchief," said Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington nonprofit.

"In 1923, President Warren Harding's administration was rocked with bribery and graft scandals. Though Harding himself died in office, his Secretary of Interior, Albert Fall, was forced to resign and eventually ended up in prison -- the first but not last -- Republican cabinet officer to spend time as a penitentiary resident. The corruption that tainted Harding's legacy forever was about -- oil, the infamous Teapot Dome scandal." So writes Dave Chandler, publisher of www.earthside.com

"We are learning something these days about the power of a willful president. Without a popular mandate, George W. Bush is making radical changes that will have long-term consequences for this country and the world. He is making them in a hurry, and for the moment there are no checks or balances to stop him." So writes columnist Anthony Lewis in the New York Times.

Let's face it – the guy is an embarrassment – and his handlers know it. They can't risk putting him in any situation that they can't control. "President Bush doesn't plan to conduct formal conferences, the White House said Wednesday, but intends to 'be accessible' to reporters during his public appearances and meetings with world leaders." Somehow this brings back memories of Ronald Reagan walking to the helicopter. Check out how Ari Fleischer continues to talk like Bush is actually in charge. We're sure that the Bush handlers' idea of a candid interview is a Larry King smooch session. That must be what they mean by "affirmative access."

John Huang, who was at the center of the Chinese fundraising scandals, testified that Elaine Chao asked him to donate $2,000 to the campaign of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, whom she later married. Eventually, Huang was illegally reimbursed by James Riady’s Lippo Group. "McConnell refunded $2,000 to the Treasury Department's Bureau of Public Debt in January after President Bush nominated Chao for the Cabinet post." According to Huang, Chao also solicited him for a contribution towards New York Senator Al D’Amato’s campaign.

"In an abrupt reversal, Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill said yesterday that he would sell about $100 million worth of Alcoa Inc. stock and options that he had planned to keep." O’Neill bowed to pressure especially from public interest groups that had criticized this blatant conflict of interest.

"George W. Bush promised corporate-style efficiency, but few could have imagined the relentless speed with which his administration has set about dismantling protections for the country's most vulnerable children, workers and natural assets." So writes the Atlanta Journal- Constitution.

"The United States government has been acquired by leveraged buyout. With the GOP narrowly in charge of all three branches of government and Democrats in seeming disarray, it's as if the nation were being run directly from corporate boardrooms." So writes columnist Gene Lyons.

Shrub's "official" position on soft money is to support a ban on soft money for corporations and unions, while allowing it for rich folks (read: Republicans only). But Bush's real position is the one expressed by the Republican National Committee, which wants to preserve soft money from corporations. Of course, it turns out, the RNC position was approved by Karl "Machiavelli" Rove. So the White House is actually mobilizing its troops to oppose a soft money ban, while it officially "supports" it. What double-dealing knaves.

Seven months after President Clinton told federal agencies to make plans for interpreters and literature in multiple languages, Bush and Congress are deciding whether to reverse the mandate. Rep. Bob Stump (R-AZ) made bizarre Orwellian statements about how these rules cause language barriers! He also lamented the cost -- which proves once again that Bush and the GOP really do believe in "greed before need" with their insane tax giveaway to the rich. Gabriela Lemus of the League of United Latin American Citizens said, "I'm very discouraged, even saddened. What is the message? We're not including people?" Yes, Bush is being quite a divider. Charm us with some more of your spanish George. Tell us what is really in that "compassionate" heart of yours: "Mi casa NO es tu casa." Why don't you get out of the Casa Blanca you stole! "Nuestra casa NO es tu casa Jorge!"

It may seem odd, but the less Bush actually works the more people like him. That seems strange for an Administration that is trying mightily to make the country less safe and healthy -- and the world more dangerous -- by the minute. But what is Dubya really doing with his day?

"On the same day Ms. Whitman made her announcement, the Interior Department announced it would suspend new environmental regulations that would have affected mining operations on public land. Those regulations would have made it more difficult for mining companies to escape financial liability for violating pollution laws. Like the new drinking water standards, those new pollution rules prompted lawsuits from the mining industry. During the last election cycle, the mining industry contributed heavily to President George W. Bush and the Republican Party. With last week's announcement by Mr. Bush that he would not seek reductions in carbon dioxide emissions at power plants, the mining industry has now achieved three significant victories at the expense of ordinary citizens and the environment. The political winds have shifted in Washington. Along with arsenic, carbon dioxide and mining sludge, add campaign contributions to the list of toxins endangering the public health." We couldn't agree more with the editorial board of the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Rockwell Schnabel, Bush's nominee for the Italian consulate, contributed over $175,000 to the GOP last election. Bush's pick for French ambassador, Howard Leach, has donated $282,000 to Bush and the Republicans. Most intriguing is Bush's choice of his former business partner Mercer Reynolds for the Swiss ambassadorship. Both Reynolds and their partner William DeWitt were Bush Pioneers who raised up to $3 million for the Bush campaign. Moreover, Texans for Public Justice writes: "DeWitt and Pioneer Mercer Reynolds III owned Spectrum 7, the oil company that bailed out Bush's hemorrhaging Bush Oil Co. in '84. Both of these partners...were big President Bush donors and major investors in the Texas Rangers baseball team, which made Bush a millionaire 15 times over." Furthermore, Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity writes, "Bush and his partners...wanted land around the stadium to boost its value...they orchestrated a land grab that shortchanged the local landowners by several million dollars."

It pays to contribute to Bush. The mining industry in America is now getting carte blanche in its efforts to roll back environmental and health protections for us all. Bush is showing us all that we need campaign finance reform big time -- and immediately. And Christie Whitman proved once again that she is a total pawn with this howler: "there is no consensus on a particular safe level [of arsenic]." How about as little as possible?

How else can you explain the EPA's reversal of a regulation to decrease the amount of arsenic in water? Never has one administration done so much in so little time to endanger the health and safety of the American public. When people start dying, it won't take Miss Marple to figure out the cause.

"And since I cannot face the prospect of looking my children in the eye and explaining why I stood by while the president I served was selling out their health, the health of their children and the health of our planet, I respectfully submit my resignation -- and bid you goodbye." Go for it Christie!

New Right conservatives like Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed, the Heritage Foundation's Edwin Feulner and Free Congress' Paul Weyrich are raving about how the Bush administration is even more "reaganite than the Reagan Administration." Of course, both Feulner and Weyrich are mighty beholden to Richard Mellon Scaife, the Coors family and Amway's DeVos and Van Andels -- the key bankrollers of the New Right network. And just like the Bushes, whom Reverend Moon has paid millions, Feulner and Weyrich have long-standing ties to Moon. "Mr. Weyrich suggests that the administration's attentiveness may stem from the closeness of the election." Weyrich went so far as to declare "that they're there by the grace of God, and if they don't pay attention to their coalition they won't be there." Funny that Weyrich considers the "coalition" of the Council on National Policy (that went after McCain like they did Clinton), the Federalist Society cabal of Ted Olson, Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas -- and Moon -- the "grace of God". In any event, Bush Jr. has learned from his father's mistakes -- he has rebuilt the Reagan coalition between the traditional Eastern/Rockefeller/Bush establishment and the even more powerful New Right.

"What missile defense would do is divide this country not only from Russia and China, but also from our allies, almost all of whom oppose the idea. It would also weaken the rule of international law, since it would violate (or require the revision) of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. There are many things you can do with the billions of dollars that ballistic missile defense would require. You can buy military hardware that really does work, like ships and planes. And you can buy schools and hospitals and roads. Or you can save it. The worst thing you can do is waste it." So writes Richard Foster of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Boy, the guys in Bush Incorporated sure have some wacky, knee slapping ideas. Take Donald Rumsfeld's recommendation that we start an arms race in space. You can imagine the fantastic laser and light show of nuclear weapons and Star Wars technology set off in outer space. What a great sci-fi story. Except Rumsfeld is serious, dead serious.

Ah, it's such a challenge to get an adult politician to speak the truth. That's why it was especially refreshing to see that a student forced EPA Chief Whitman to admit that Dubya broke his campaign promise on reducing global warming. From the mouths of babes...

Christie Whitman is supposed to be in charge of the Bush administration's environmental policy, but she was "was cut off at the knees" on global warming - the most important environmental issue of this century. Now she is "refusing interviews because she wants the story to die." What is dead is Whitman's credibility; if she had any character, she would simply quit.

Bush's campaign-style visit to Florida was a big mistake. It took only a handful of activists and a small TV buy to put Bush on the defensive over his theft of the Presidency. According to the Oral Majority's Bob Kunst, "Panama City was George the Pretender's Waterloo!" Read Jack Nichols' analysis in Gay Today.

Last week, Ian Thomas posted a map on a U.S. government Web site of the caribou calving areas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an area the Bush administration wants to open up for oil exploration. This week, Thomas is looking for a new job. "I'm really flabbergasted," Thomas said Wednesday. "After putting out 20,000 maps with no problem and then putting out one where baby caribou like to hang out, I got fired."

It took many criminals to steal Florida's election. Katherine Harris spent $4.2 million for a vendor that illegally purged thousands of qualified voters. Seminole and Martin County officials illegally allowed Republican officials to alter absentee ballot applications. But the first indictment may be a Republican official who voted twice. Is this the tip of the iceberg?

The man who headed the Senate's legal investigations of Whitewater will become our top Federal prosecutor. Along with the Ken Starr proteges who are running the White House counsel's office, the Ashcroft wrecking crew at Justice, and Ted Olson as our Chief Supreme Court Attorney, we now have a full reunion of attorneys who wasted the taxpayers money in the fruitless effort to dig up dirt on the Clintons. You don't have to show talent to get a job as a lawyer in the Bush administration, you just have to show that you were loyal to the cause of trying to take down Clinton.

Remember all those Bush-Cheney comments when they tried to trash talk the economy down? They really seemed intent on pushing the markets south in order to justify their outrageous tax cut for the wealthy. Well, there efforts to undermine the American economy seemed to have worked all too well. So now Dubya's handlers have sent him out to say the economy is doing just fine, thank you. What a damned cynical lot they are, and we will pay the price.

From energy policy to bankruptcy legislation, the Bush Administration has so many conflicts of interests it is hard to keep track of them. It's like that old commercial where someone opened a Volkswagen door and all these clowns kept tumbling out. At a certain point, you stopped counting. So it comes as no surprise that Secretary of Labor Chao served on the Board of Directors of Northwest Airlines. Now you might say that Bush's order to prohibit a mechanics strike at Northwest Airlines at this time has nothing to do with Chao's service on the Northwest board. And you'd probably be right. This administration is out to crush the organized labor movement come Hell or High Water. Yet, if they had a shred of decency, the Republicans would admit to their conflicts of interest. However, it has been the pattern of the Republican double standard to assert that only Democrats have conflicts of interest. Republicans, we are assured, only have good intentions.

It's time to quarantine the Bush Cabinet - to stop the spread of potentially deadly "Foot in Mouth" disease. Until now, this disease was considered a mild genetic defect of Bush males, but now it seems to be contagious, and threatens to set off World War III. Colin Powell, who previously earned millions with his silvery tongue, erupted with a horrendous case last week, when his "Bushisms" set off fire alarms in two of the world's hottest hot spots - Jerusalem and Taiwan. Powell's outbreak came shortly after Shrub's mangled tenses enraged North Korea.

Christie Whitman swallowed her pro-choice principles to go to work for the radical-right Bush administration. On Bush's first day in office, he showed his contempt for Whitman by signing the "global gag rule," which denied funds to international groups that support family planning and abortion rights, even though Bush had no clue that his rule would condemn 80,000 women each year to death from botched abortions. Now Bush has shown even more contempt by breaking his only pro-environmental pledge, to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as a way of slowing global warming. As EPA Administrator, Whitman strongly endorsed CO2 reductions. Whitman has been totally humiliated by her boss, who obviously doesn't care what she thinks on any policy matters. Rather than continue to be humiliated, Whitman should resign.

John Graham, who has been tapped for a key Bush administration position overseeing food, environmental and product safety regulations, drew fire from the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. Joan Claybrook accused Graham of producing pro-industry safety research in return for funding from companies such as Dow, DuPont, Monsanto, and Exxon. Graham has been nominated to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and Budget, which has veto power over regulations developed by agencies such as the EPA and the FDA. Bush's industry allies are vehemently opposed to all such regulations, regardless of the cost to consumers and the environment, and frequently use biased and distorted "research" - produced by scientists they quietly bribe - to fight such regulations.

Debra Dickerson writes, "As the final tentacle of the GOP/VRWC strategy to neuter any black leaders it can't woo, President Bush has showered attention on urban America's shock troops, the bridesmaids of black political leadership -- the ministers and community activists on the ghetto's front lines. Through his faith-based organizations initiative and the strategic appointment of highly visible and very brave minorities to his administration, he's engineered the perfect end-around the entrenched black political class." On March 2, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Reverend Moon (Bush benefactor, owner of the Washington Times and a bankroller of the New Right) had a rousing conference with black religious leaders in Chicago. Perhaps Moon is part of this effort by Bush and the New Right?

Americans realize that Bush is just a screen projection, like the Wizard of Oz. The CBS/NYTimes Poll asked: "Do you think George W. Bush is in charge of what goes on in his administration most of the time, or do you think other people are really running the government most of the time?" The response: 42% say Bush really running; 50% say other people running. An even larger number - 54% - feel the country is going in the wrong direction - a bad sign for a President.

"It's not the government's money. It's your money. But it's also going to be your responsibility to pay your parents' nursing home bills when they get old and you find that Social Security and Medicare are underfunded because of today's excessive tax cut." So writes Thomas Friedman in the New York Times. Too bad Bush can't read something this complicated - maybe some 4th grader can read it to him on his next school visit.

It's coming at us so quickly, that it's hard to fight on all fronts. Take the Shrub's energy policies. We all knew that they would be pro-oil - and on this account, the Bush-Cheney team is not disappointing America. But their fossil outlook on fossil fuels means a looming energy disaster for Americans - and every other inhabitant of a rapidly warming Earth.

In a love letter to the new White House, the New York Times describes Bush as the "CEO" and Cheney as the Chief Operating Officer running the executive branch like a corporation. In reality, Bush just fulfills his figurehead role with regular hours - by being "punctual" for meetings, while Cheney and staff keep the White House trains running on time. Berke lets slip that Reagan was an actor taking stage directions, to contrast with the claim that Bush gives stage directions! Now really - who do you think was more on the ball - Reagan or Junior? At least Reagan could repeat his lines with the correct syntax. Kenneth Duberstein declared: "There has been a sea change. This is the first time in American history we've had a president and a prime minister." No...this is just like when Reagan was the ceremonial head and Bush Sr., James Baker and the lawless cabinet ran the White House...and Iran-Contra.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors was all set to honor Bush's Labor Secretary, Elaine Chao, until several groups started protesting this action. These groups are especially opposed to Chao for her stance against affirmative action, as well as her public objection to the appointment of Bill Lann Lee as Attorney General. Before joining the Bush cabinet, Chao was a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, which has a long history of promoting a stealth racialist agenda - especially through the writings of the notorious Roger Pearson (see Russ Bellant's "The Coors Connection"). She was also one of Bush's "Pioneers" who raised over $100,000 for his campaign. Chao is married to Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a Big Tobacco shill - and a vociferous foe of campaign finance reform.

"Together, these two appointments provide an amazing, though depressingly consistent picture of a superpower that is either too forgetful or insouciant to care about the damage it has rendered, both to other nations and to its own credibility in the extremely recent past. And judging by the non-reaction in both the Democratic Party and the mass media, it's hard to believe they won't get away with it. Let's hope that history somehow ignores Santayana's famous dictum and does not repeat itself this time as farce. Latin American nations have already paid a high enough price for this, our country's folly." So writes journalistic hero Eric Alterman about the Bush administration appointments for U.N. Ambassador and Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs. Why are our Democratic leaders mute?

Organized Labor will be doing a lot more demonstrating, now that they know that Bush and company have declared an open war on unions. Pretty soon all but the wealthy will be taking to the streets to decry the plutocratic rule of the privileged GOP leadership.

With the FCC headed by Colin Powell's son, don't expect any decisions from that regulatory board that aren't favorable to Bush. Start with the FCC clearing the Bush campaign of any violations in running their unethical and perhaps illegal subliminal message "RATS" ad. Despite complaints from prominent Democrats, the FCC didn't even bother to investigate the ads.

"For a White House that prides itself on lock-step discipline, this was a week of apostasy. It began Sunday morning, when Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill, on national television, acknowledged that he used an unprintable word to describe 10-year budget surplus projections -- the very projections President Bush is relying on to fund his $1.6 trillion tax cut." And it got worse from there.

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill says he will not divest his $100 million in Alcoa stocks and options. O'Neill was the CEO of the huge aluminium manufacturer until his appointment by Bush. Even though O'Neill claims that he has been cleared by government ethics lawyers, this still stinks to high heaven as a conflict of interest. As the Center of Public Integrity's Charles Lewis' states, "Everyone at Treasury and everyone in the Bush administration will know 'Mr. Alcoa' is the treasury secretary." Of course, O'Neill says that he will recuse himself from deciding any matters pertaining to Alcoa business. At the same time, the nominee for Deputy Treasury Secretary is Kenneth W. Dam, an Alcoa director.

Lo and behold, Dennis Hastert is announcing that the Clinton pardon "investigations" are winding down. Wonder why? It's because too much of the truth about Papa Bush's sordid pardon history and business dealings were beginning to become part of the media discussion. Bush Jr. didn't want people to see the soiled underwear that Pappy wears beneath his Brooks Brothers suits, so they called off the dogs for awhile. It shows what can be done when the Democrats launch a little bit of a counter attack.

Remember the years of the Republicans unethically holding up Bill Clinton's federal judiciary appointments? Remember Ashcroft's unconscionable successful battle against distinguished Judge Ronnie White for instance? Well, now we know why. It was just to buy time until a Republican president would push through right wing ideologues. Will the Democrats stand for this? We'll see as the Bush wrecking crew puts judicial appointments on the fast track.

From Minnesota Public Radio, Erin Galbally reports on a move by the Bush Administration that has angered hog farmers across the country. The farmers voted to end mandatory contributions to pork ad campaigns. But the Bush Administration disregarded their vote and restored the program. Listen to the angry farmers. (requires RealPlayer)

The National Conference of Black Mayors denounced the Bush administration's decision to reject any adjustment of census numbers to make up for undercounts. "There's not a soul in this nation, no respected voice anywhere, who disputes the fact that African-Americans and people who live in cities were undercounted," said New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial.

The Bush administration has a commitment to family values - but only if your name is "Godfather." The Center for Public Integrity recently published a report on its website that links cigarette smuggling for tax evasion with organized crime groups that engage in "family-friendly" activities like illegal drugs and child prostitution. Since HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson is beholden to Phillip Morris (http://www.tobacco.org/News/thompson.html) - one of the tax-evading and cigarette smuggling companies mentioned in the report - it is unlikely that there will be discipline for these dysfunctional and criminal "families."

Bush nominated a Boston prosecutor with little civil rights experience to head the Justice Department's office of civil rights. Ralph F. Boyd Jr. recently advised the American Sports Shooting Council on how to fight lawsuits filed against the gun industry by cities - probably the most effective gun control strategy adopted recently.

The Bush Administration knew exactly what it was doing when it told the Census Bureau -- and the Treasury Department -- not to recognize the widely acknowledged undercount in the census. This means the GOP will have effectively disenfranchised perhaps millions of minority voters when it comes to redistricting battles and the re-apportionment of Congressional seats.

Oh, those Bush brothers! Aren't they a sly bunch? Jeb Bush echoes his bro's efforts at promoting greed for the wealthy through unnecessary tax cuts. And, surprise, surprise, Jeb almost forgot to mention Florida election reform in an address to the state legislature. Mercy me.

As the saying goes, "you can't tell the players without a scorecard." Here's a scorecard for the Bush League, courtesy of the Independent Media folks.

What happens if a journalist says a negative word about the Commander-in-Thief? Bush's scrubbers go on the attack, according to New York Times reporter Marc Lacey. After Bush's pathetic first press conference, Lacey said the White House "called around, criticized some reporters who wrote some critical stories. They're very concerned about their boss' image. They--they don't want this president portrayed as a lightweight. They think he did just fine. One thing about that press conference, there was very little advance word given to reporters. They wanted reporters to just show up and think of questions on the fly. They didn't want too much pressure on this pr--on this very new president." We demand an investigation of press intimidation by the White House!

Otto Juan Reich is rumored to be Bush's candidate for Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs. During the Reagan-Bush years, Reich was actively involved in "prohibited covert propaganda activities" at the center of the Iran-contra scandal. It's scandalous that he is even being thought about as a candidate for this critical and sensitive post. Do these people think we have no memory? The National Security Archive is an excellent source for this and other abuses of the public trust.

"It was during a time of Great Prosperity that Dubya, the Governor of a large and extremely polluted State, decided to run for President. He was the son of George H. W. Bush who was the son of Herbert Walker Bush who was the son of George Walker Bush who was the son of King George the IV who was the son of King George the III who was the son of King George the Feeble-minded who was the son of King George the Tyrant who was the reason the US rebelled against Monarchy in the first place. But the People had forgotten the wise warnings of their Founding Fathers. And so a New Plague was about to befall them...."

Bush's Texas bag man, Don Evans, pressured the Census Bureau into toeing the Bush line against statistically adjusting the census. An estimated 3 million Americans were missed by the census, primarily minorities, the poor and children, and poor communities will suffer economically and politically as a result of failing to adjust the final numbers. The slave-owning Founding Fathers counted "other persons" as three-fifths of a person. That was temporarily fixed after the Civil War by the 14th Amendment. But the neo-Confederate Bush Administration wants to revive slavery's "perverted agenda".

Meet the Confidence Men: Rove, Cheney and Bush. Right now, they are rolling the dice and trying to pull off the big bluff. It involves misleading the public and using the GOP brown shirts in the House to do a muscle job on the Democrats. It's a confidence man's dream.

The earthquake that struck the Northwestern part of the United States came on the same day that Bush proposed to kill a federal program designed to help communities protect themselves against the effects of natural disasters. His proposed budget recommends cutting $25 million from FEMA. FEMA is now being mis-led by Joe Allbaugh, Bush's former Chief of Staff, who is a named conspirator in Bush's "Funeralgate" scandal.

Meeting with Colombia's President Pastrana, Bush said he would not sit at the peace talks between the Colombia government and the FARC rebels. We'd like to know what Bush Daddy's CIA is doing down there under the auspices of "Plan Colombia". There have long been questions about whether the Bush family's interest in cocaine extends beyond Jr.'s alleged "cocoa" problem. After all, Bush Sr. was linked to Klaus Barbie's 1980 "Cocaine Coup" in Bolivia, especially through Bush benefactor Reverend Moon (See http://www.disinfo.com/pages/dossier/id195/pg1/). Later, Contra supply chief Felix Rodriguez reported to VP Bush, and the Contras were seen loading the white stuff into Ollie North's planes. Recently, the CIA admitted to at least tolerating Contra drug trafficking, with many questions still remaining (See http://www.consortiumnews.com/2000/060800a.html).

Bush and his fellow Republican could not repress their smirks as they celebrated Bush's stolen Presidency from the well of Congress. Republicans cheered every line, especially as Bush proposed the largest transfer of wealth from working families to the rich in history. Get ready for a propaganda avalanche as the Republicans and their media allies try to force their reactionary agenda through Congress against the will of the American people.

According to the latest Washington Post-ABC poll, Bush's 55% job approval rating is the LOWEST of any new President in 50 YEARS. At the start of their terms, Clinton's approval was 63%, and Poppy's was 76%. Considering the absolutely fawning coverage Shrub has received from the media, we're astonished his ratings are so low. Now the Post tells us that all of Bush's pet projects are in trouble - tax cuts for the wealthy, evangelical pork, the aristocracy restoration act (abolishing the estate tax), and on down the list of programs that 54 million Americans voted AGAINST when they voted for Al Gore or Ralph Nader.

Not only did Dubya lose the election by 540,000 votes, but he is also losing his bid to make rich people richer at the expense of the working family and the poor. Indeed, only 22% of Americans believe a tax cut should be a top budget priority, while 35% want to increase spending on domestic programs like education and health care - just what Democrats are prescribing. We're sure that even a smaller number - under 1% - would support a tax cut that heavily favors, well, the top 1% in income!

The Social Security system needs $1 trillion to cover the costs of retiring baby boomers. So what is Bush's plan? First, empty the Treasury with a $1.6 trillion tax cut for the rich. Then appoint a "commission" to study the Social Security system. Of course, the last such commission collapsed in failure in 1997. We figure that Bush's commission will finish its work around 2037, the year the Social Security system will declare bankruptcy from Bush's malign neglect.

Newsweek editor Evan Thomas and John Barry berate Secretary of State Colin Powell for not being enough of a hawk, citing Powell's "Vietnam-haunted" past as a reason for his distaste for war-mongering. But they fail to mention Powell's role in covering up Vietnam atrocities like the My Lai massacre under Lt. Calley. They also neglect to bring up Powell's pivotal role in Iran-Contra. But they do manage to paint George Bush Sr (who armed Saddam Hussein for years right up to the Kuwaiti invasion) as a hero of the Gulf War. And they also get in some digs at Clinton for Bosnia and Somalia -- two messes left to him by the Bush administration. Even Bob Dole charged that Bush Sr. gave the "greenlight to Serb aggression" with his 1991 embargo of Bosnia. Contrast the Thomas/Barry piece with Robert Parry's incisive series on Powell at http://www.consortiumnews.com/news.html. Ironically, Evan Thomas caved in to upper management pressure to fire Robert Parry from Newsweek for digging too deeply into Iran-Contra.

You have to go back pretty far to find a "President" (and we use that term loosely) who has had as low an approval rating (at this point in time) as Bush does now. We bet it goes lower as people start to see whose really pulling the strings in the White House. They ought to really take a poll of Cheney's approval ratings if they want to gauge an accurate public assessment of the "President."

Yes, two leading Bush administration officials had roles in pardon requests. Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff was a lawyer for Marc Rich for many years, working to obtain a pardon for him. Now it turns out that Ted Olson, who was Bush's Supreme Court Attorney and whom he appointed as the Solicitor General, solicited Clinton for a pardon on behalf of a client. What's ironic here is that Olson played a key role in orchestrating the Clinton impeachment entrapment strategy.

Boy, Dubya is sure awfully concerned about the terrible plight of his rich buddies and campaign contributors. After all, not only are they making more money, they are actually paying a smaller percentage of their income taxes. But greed knows no limits. So George is going to give them the whole bank with his tax cut.

Yes, there must be a guide somewhere as to how to install an unelected "President." We think it's all in Karl Rove's head, but who knows, maybe the Bush team is taking its cue from a CIA manual that Papa Bush took home one night when he ran the agency. Hmmm, but wouldn't that be a breach of security?

Many supporters of President Clinton and of Democratic principles have become discouraged over the last weeks, as a result of watching their fellow Democratic public officials and pundits join in the trashing of the Clintons. By virtue of its sheer noise level alone, the coverage and criticism is enough to cause even the most stalwart of Democratic-leaning Americans to second-guess their own continued support for the Clintons, and in some cases even their party. And that's exactly the reaction the Karl Rove/RNC/Media machine has in mind for you." So writes Jennifer Kelly of MediaWhoresOnline.com.

Shrub mangled the English language so badly in his first press conference that one journalist asked Mary Matalin whether the public might expect more from the "education president" than "a third-grade grammatical error." Matalin, of course, changed the subject. Notice that Matalin works for President Cheney, not his marionette Shrub.

George W. won his election with an election fix ranging from his Governor brother in Florida, to a raid of the vote count from his pals in the US Supreme Court -- the likes of which this nation has never seen. So rather than focusing our attention towards an investigation about "serious Constitutional violations" about voting in Florida and related illegalities, what do we all do? We talk about the Clinton's "disgraceful" exit, including the theft of Presidential gifts. As if they need them.

"To Members of Congress: We find it unacceptable that 9 people were killed, including 4 teenagers, when the submarine Greenville capsized a Japanese fishing boat. We are deeply disturbed by the presence of 16 civilians on board who, according to one crew member, were a serious distraction. It is also troubling that many of these individuals were members of a private organization administered by former President Bush and several members of Congress. We feel that this issue deserves a congressional investigation." Sign the petition!

At last, there is an opportunity to ask Ted Olson under oath about his role in the "Get Clinton" efforts. Olson represented Bush before the Supreme Court, and he has been subsequently nominated Solicitor General by the Bush team. As documented in "The Hunting of the President", Olson played a central role in the efforts to destroy Bill Clinton's presidency -- including Richard Mellon Scaife's "Arkansas Project" and the Paula Jones case. A good friend of Ken Starr, Olson is yet another member of the Federalist Society. Democratic Senators should ask Olson probing questions about his part in these criminal activities. They should also demand the release of the Shaheen Report that is based on a government investigation of the Arkansas Project.

Even though it is the job of the director of the Census Bureau, "Commerce Secretary Don Evans decided Friday that he, not statisticians, will decide which census figures count." These figures are critical for drawing district lines and allocating grants. Unfortunately, there is a very serious risk of undercounting areas, especially their minority populations. Such undercounting can drain away needed funds and voting power from those districts. Just as in Florida, Democrats have been in favor of those policies that will provide for a fair count, while Republicans have resisted methods like statistical sampling to insure that minorities are sufficiently represented. For Evans to take such a brazen stance is proof once again that the Bushies are going to grab as much power as they can since they got away with stealing the Presidency.

Bush's Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton has Native Americans worried about how she will use her authority. Norton served under James Watt both when he was Reagan's Interior Secretary, and also as an attorney employed by Watt's Mountain States Legal Foundation. As one critic says about Mountain States Legal, it is "devoted to the abolition of Indian treaties and sovereign tribal rights." Following suit, Norton's casework "has displayed antipathy toward indigenous people".

He Hems, He Haws, He Dodges Questions, He Has no Direct Answers. Just Call Him the Artful Dodger! He May Not Know What He's Talking About, But He'll Give You A Cute Nickname! We're Talking Dubya Here, Right Here in River City!

Shrub held his very first White House news conference today, and made sure it was a national secret. Reporters barely had time to get there in the DC storm. Bush ducked the tough questions, and mangled the few that he pretended to answer. "Sanctions that work are sanctions that when a - the collective will of the region supports the policy, that we have a coalition of countries that agree with the policies set out by the United States." Hey George, just watch "It Takes a Thief" reruns and let President Cheney speak for himself the next time.

George W. Bush is trying a new experiment: he is seeing if you can give the appearance of governing by photo-op. He hasn't held a news conference yet, and there doesn't appear to be one anywhere on the horizon. How do you spell S-C-A-R-E-D of looking stupid?

We've said it before and we'll say it again. The post-election campaign against Bill Clinton is condoned and probably orchestrated by the White House. The man behind it all: Mr. Machiavelli himself, Karl Rove.

Bush's Commerce Secretary, Don Evans, wants to undercount minorities for purposes of political representation and allocation of funds. Los Angeles says he's breaking the law and plans to sue him. Let's see how the criminal Federalist Society judges handle this important case.

The Democrats are the only party that believes in Bipartisanship. The Bush administration just likes to trot out the language to give the appearance of being nice guys. But they much prefer giving the knife in the back than the hand of cooperation. Just look at what they're doing to John McCain.

The Bush Administration, not satisfied with just disenfranchising voters in Florida, wants to screw poor Americans nationally by not counting them in the census. This will help the Republicans in a variety of ways when it comes to reapportionment. It will also screw urban areas because they will get less money from the Feds for any program that is based on population size. The City of Los Angeles, for one, is saying enough is enough.

What ever happened to the "Rule of Law"? Well, as we've noted, that's something that the Republicans only apply to Democrats. As far as Republicans and Republican contributors are concerned, no need to bother with the rule of law. After all, you're among your fellow hypocrites! Thank the Lord that some Democrats are standing up against this Bush effort to undermine integrity and justice.

"Nine power companies and a trade association that stand to gain the most from President Bush’s hands-off policy in California contributed more than $4 million to Republican candidates and party committees during the last election, and some of the company heads have close personal ties to Bush, according to a new Public Citizen report. Three of the companies — Enron, Reliant Energy and Dynegy — are based in Texas and gave more than $1.5 million to Bush’s campaign, his inauguration committee, and the Republican National Committee, which served, in effect, as an arm of the Bush presidential campaign. Two companies — Enron and Reliant Energy — are headed or steered by Kenneth Lay and James Baker III, both close Bush advisors."

We knew from the get-go that the regime of Bush II was in large part motivated by a family sense of entitlement. More than that, Papa Bush, through Dick Cheney, wants to make right all the wrongs of his four-year term. Given his poor performance, there's a lot to make up for. The bombing of Iraq is all part of the grand plan.

What is one of Bush's first acts? Signing an executive order to restrict the ability of unions to participate in political campaigns. They keep minorities from voting through various strategies and now they are limiting the ability of organized labor to participate in elections. There's a rancid smell coming from the White House as the corpse of democracy continues to rot.

Bush chose veteran diplomat John Negroponte as ambassador to the United Nations. Better-known names like Elizabeth Dole and Lee Hamilton turned Bush down, because he will not give the post Cabinet-level rank. As a member of Nixon's team, Negroponte resigned in protest over Nixon's Paris Peace Agreement with Vietnam. Negroponte served Reagan in Honduras during the Contra war in Nicaragua, then was the NSC deputy to Colin Powell from 1987 to 1989 in the wake of Iran-Contra. He later served Bush I as ambassador to Mexico, and was Clinton's ambassador to the Philippines.

The Cheney/Bush administration is going around the Washington press corps to reach the local media, and the DC folks aren't too pleased. A newspaper bureau chief, who asked that his name not be used, was blunt: "They have no use for the Washington media. All through the campaign they made disparaging remarks, sometimes to the reporter's face, about the Beltway crowd. The game plan is to circumvent the Washington press. It's becoming harder and harder to get information."

UnPresident Bush has yet to hold a press conference, and William Safire is starting to grumble. The truth is that Dick Cheney is running the government, so anything Bush says would either be second-hand or wrong - as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) discovered when she asked him about the "global gag rule" that he allegedly signed.

The White House Correspondents' Association lodged a protest Thursday with the Bush administration about ground rules that prohibited identifying a senior official who briefed reporters on President Bush's visit to Mexico. Previous Republican administrations have strictly limited press access, and it looks like the Bush administration is playing the same anti-democratic game.

While George W. Bush's job performance in his first few weeks in office is 57%, or roughly what Clinton's was at the same time, Bush's disapproval rating is the highest in the history of the Gallup Poll. More than four times as many Americans disapprove of Bush's performance than disapproved of his father's job performance in the first few weeks of his presidency.

Hysteria? Is that too strong of a word to describe the effect that Karl Rove's Machiavellian propaganda efforts of "smear and run" have had on the media. Not in the least. Let's back up a moment. The other day, Bush stated on Air Force One, in response to a question, that nothing was stolen from Air Force One by Clinton or anyone associated with him. But who leaked the original lie that promoted a mob frenzy in the press? Why you can be sure it wasn't the Clintons. Then one has to assume it was the Bush team. Karl Rove, whose role model is Lee Atwater, knows that the slanderous accusation gets the four alarm headlines on page one, while the retraction gets buried on page 62 if covered at all. Rove's PR puppet, Ari Flesicher, kept this calumny alive for several days with tantalizing comments such as "we are inventorying what has been taken and the damage to the White House." Of course, part of the Bush team's game is to make the President appear above it all. So, it follows that Bush assumes a public position that he isn't really interested in the current Congressional witch hunt aimed at Clinton, for example. Of course, any journalist with even a quarter of a brain knows that one phone call from Dick Cheney to Trent Lott and Tom DeLay would end the latest chapter in the 9-year GOP tax payer funded stalking of Bill Clinton. (Click onto this commentary for more on the Bush propaganda machine and media hysteria.)

Bush wants to slash government programs providing computers and Internet access to poor and underserved areas, even as the "digital divide" widens, with whites enjoying far greater access to such technology than blacks and Hispanics. Bush wants to cut the Technology Opportunities Program, a favorite of the Clinton administration and many leading technology executives, by about 65% to $15 million from the current year's $42.5 million. (Wall Street Journal online subscription required.)

We've been saying it for days, Ted Olson will be our next Solicitor General. Ted was one of the legal architects of the Clinton entrapment plan. He helped out Paula Jones among other things. More than that, he helped facilitate the whole legal stalking strategy against Clinton. Of course, he also, as Bush's Florida lawyer and Federalist friend of Antonin Scalia was probably the back channel go-between who got the green light from Scalia that 5 votes would swing to Bush if an appeal on the Florida recount came before the Court. The rest is history as they say. But put it in the criminal history section.

Dick Cheney is trying to reduce National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's role to that of a token within the Administration. One of the NSA's most important jobs is to chair the "Principals Committee" of Cabinet-level officials with foreign policy responsibility, including the Secretaries of State and Defense and the heads of the CIA and the NSC. But Cheney, who is expected to run the "Deputies Committee", also wants to run the "Principals Committee." Will Condy stand up to Cheney? Don't bet on it.

Twice in the past week, Shrub has visited military bases - and snubbed local members of the Congressional Black Caucus by refusing to invite them. First he snubbed Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) when he visited Fort Stewart. Then he snubbed Robert Scott (D-VA) when he visited Norfolk Naval Air Station. Bush's excuses were lies, as usual. So was his pledge to Caucus members during his "charm offensive": "This will be the beginning of, hopefully, a lot of meetings," Bush told the group at the time. "I hope you come back. And I'll certainly be inviting."

For many of us, watching "West Wing" is like gorging on a great dessert. You love it and hopes that the pleasure of eating it lingers forever. But the next day you wake up to clothes that don't fit you. In short, reality sets in. That's how a morning after "West Wing" feels when you wake up to read the headlines about Bush's latest outrageous action or statement. But today's headline is a choice for rejoicing. Martin Sheen, in an article posted on the BBC website, does what no Democrat will do: He outs Bush as the first Alfred E. Newman president.

Federal marshals seized the Indianapolis Baptist Temple on Tuesday to satisfy a $6 million tax debt, and wheeled its former pastor out on a gurney as he protested the move. "We had a promise from the Bush administration. We had every reason to believe there was a moratorium. ... They were going to dismiss the case. We had a deal, and they welshed on the deal," said pastor emeritus Greg Dixon. It sounds a lot like Elian and Waco. So why aren't right-wingers howling about Bush and Ashcroft - the way they screamed about Clinton and Reno?

The Bush administration is composed of individuals who have made vast fortunes by ripping off the American taxpayer. It is no surprise that the overriding goal of the Bush Administration is to further line the pockets of the rich by transferring wealth to the rich from the middle class and the poor. Here is a thumbnail sketch of the administration, with insights from Jim Hightower and the Wall Street Journal.

Dubya's the grinning snake oil salesman who comes to town and leaves a lot of people ill and forlorn in his wake. He promises a cure, but all he has up his sleeve is fakery and hollow promises. Just look what Bush tax breaks did to Texas. Even some Republicans in the Lone Star State are starting to question the whole idea. After all, there are only lean times ahead.

As a reader, you are still mad as Hell. No, we don't accept "the fact on the ground" that possession is 9/10th's of the law. The rule of law should have given Al Gore the presidency. Instead, it gave him the shaft. One of our Democratic.com/BuzzFlash readers and contributors has just begun to fight.

Bush and his new Labor Secretary, Elaine Chao, displayed their compassion to coal miners, workers who literally sacrifice their lives and health to provide energy to our country, by once again halting orders by the Clinton administration. A new administration cannot simply withdraw final regulations that the previous president published in the Federal Register, they have to write a new rule after receiving public comments. Read how Bush will take his time with miners health. We told you his heart was black!

Hey, anyone surprised that Bush is courting the right wing big time? In return, they're giving him a big fat kiss!

Bush's pick for Deputy Secretary of State under Colin Powell is Richard Armitage. Like Powell, Armitage was in the thick of Iran-Contra as a member of the Restricted Interagency Group (RIG) to which Oliver North reported. Armitage was later mixed up with a woman "convicted of running a gambling operation in Northern Virginia". Will the Senate question Armitage about this troubling history -- or will they just toss him more lovebombs?

Hushang Ansary is a former Iranian ambassador to the US who owns IRI International, an oil field equipment maker in Texas. He has given hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations, mostly to Republicans. He is a GOP "Pioneer" who raised $100,000 for Bush's presidential campaign, and he donated $100,000 for the Bush inaugural. He is alleged to have illegally reimbursed employees who contributed to the campaigns of Bob Dole, Alfonse D'Amato, and exactly ONE Democrat - Bob Torricelli. So which of these many contributions is being investigated by the FBI? You guessed it! The one to the DEMOCRAT. Bush and John Ashcroft have already corrupted the FBI - we demand a Congressional investigation!!!

Forget about all the good deeds that religious groups will do when the money starts flowing from Uncle Dubya - at our expense of course. The Faith-based funding scheme is just a patronage scam. If W gets his way, he will have a whole network of religious organizations supporting him in 2004 because they won't want the money spigot turned off. Sounds like the potential for Tammany Hall corruption to us.

Bush's $1.6 tax giveaway would further widen the enormous gap between rich and poor. So it's no surprise that Bush is applying the same "torrent-up" policy in the White House. Mid-level salaries are being cut nearly in half, so top-level salaries can be raised to the maximum of $145,100. Maybe the inevitable anti-Bush revolution will start inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue!

Of all the issues that Bush has lied about supporting, his pledge to pursue electoral reform is the most glaring example of his betrayal. He has abandoned White House backing for a Congressional panel to look into the Florida election and ways to prevent it from happening again. As a result, the Democrats will probably have to go at it alone. Bush doesn't believe in one person, one vote, unless you're talking about the Supreme Court.

Do we support our men and women in blue? Absolutely! Does Bush? No! In fact, in order to squeeze money out of the budget for his "make the rich richer" tax cut, he's going to pull the rug out from under the law enforcement community. That's despicable -- and unsafe for America.

Jimmy Hoffa's Teamsters endorsed Gore over Bush. Their punishment? Bush just opened the border to Mexican trucks, whose drivers earn $7 per DAY, undercutting the Teamster wage of $15 per hour. The rest of us are in trouble as well, because Mexico has no truck inspection system, and 35% (!) of Mexican trucks that entered the United States last year were put out of service for significant safety violations. Where's Ross Perot when we need him?

Blacks voters opposed Bush by a 10:1 margin, the worst ever for a Republican candidate. Bush and his brother Jeb stole Florida's electors only by preventing tens of thousands of blacks from voting. He rejected the Congressional Black Caucus request to nominate Ronnie White for federal judge as a peace offering, and he won't back down on school vouchers to undermine public schools. It looks like he's written off the black vote until 2012, when today's gradeschoolers cast their first vote.

We would be led to believe that unPresident Bush is a man with a heart; that he surrounds himself only with people with "good" hearts (notwithstanding Dick Cheney's not-so-good one). He is obsessed with the hearts, if not the minds, of his fellow Republicans. But, as Steve Chapman, asks: "We all know Gale Norton has a heart. But, does it beat for the spotted owl?"

"To George W. Bush and John Ashcroft: Stop violating the 3rd Commandment. "You shall not make wrong use of the name of the Lord your God; the Lord will not leave unpunished the man who misuses his name." (Exodus 20:7) Every time you are not talking directly to God or to Christ, and every time you are not talking to someone about them but simply using their names, you are using their names in vain! The Republican Party doesn't have the monopoly of God, so stop exploiting his name or you will be faced with his wrath and his justice." Sign the petition!

When Gore attacked Bush for not being in support of a strong HMO patient rights bill, Bush accused Gore of not telling the truth. But Gore, of course, was telling the whole truth -- and nothing but the truth. Now Dubya is trying to sink a bipartisan HMO reform bill, just like Gore predicted.

The Democrats in Congress are starting to feel the hangover from a "honeymoon" bender with Dubya. As the sun rises, they are starting to see, in the light of day, that the guy is a snake oil salesman peddling snake venoms like a $1.6 trillion tax cut. "What's wrong here in River City?" the Music Man might ask. What's wrong is that there is a usurper sitting in the White House.

Bush's welfare-for-religious groups scheme will be bad for the country, Gene Lyons argues. And it will be worse for religion.

The Gallup Poll measured disapproval ratings for Shrub at 25%, the worst rating of a new President in over 50 years. Only 50% of women approve of his performance, and only 35% of non-whites. The corporate media may find his "charm offensive" irresistable, but the American people do not.

"Our anger is real. It is justified. We must not let it fade away. The media want us to go back to sleep. The congressional Democrats are playing a long-term game, laying low, giving this idiot enough rope to hang himself. They can play their game—but we must also play ours. Let them take the high road. Let us use our anger. Not in petty, or small, or hateful ways, but in sincere expressions of pain, anger, and sober, reasoned, rage. We have a right to demand their apology. When they refuse, we have the right to call them what they are." So says the staff of "Bush Occupation" in the Online Journal.

Bill Clinton promised a cabinet that "looks like America," and he made good on that promise by appointing the most diverse cabinet in American history. Bush's cabinet, on the other hand, looks like Fort Knox. The total net worth of the 16 cabinet members, including Bush and Cheney, is between $222 and $696 million. Make no mistake - we now have a government of the millionaires, by the millionaires, and for the millionaires. When the recession hits, we can expect to hear them say, "Let them eat stock options!"

Barely hours after White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card announced that the White House offices on AIDS and race relations would be closed, the Bush administration announced that they would remain open. Can you spell "damage control"?

Some have said that Bush, feeling he only has one term to get his conservative politices enacted, is going to forego the honeymoon period as far as actions are concerned and immediately begin enacting his rabid right policies. However, those who have observed his entire political career know exactly what he is up to. His strategy has always been to have his most unpopular policies quickly put into place during the first two years, then spend the second two years pretending he's a moderate politician. Obviously, it's now worked twice, first in his run for a second term as Texas governor, secondly in his recent presidential campaign, because most folks seem to have short memories. At present, of course, he is talking as though he is a moderate politician, but his actions show that's a lie. Anyway, please remember to share this list in two years with anyone who claims Bush is a moderate politician and not the rabid conservative that he is.

Bush has championed Leininger's favorite causes, vouchers and tort reform, since he defeated incumbent Texas Governor Ann Richards in 1994. Soon after taking the oath of office, he repaid the financial and power brokering favors of Dr. Leininger (who contributed $4 million to the Republican Party in 1998 alone, and almost $90,000 to Bush himself) by declaring a judicial emergency and demanding swift tort reform. The tough reforms, backed by big businesses and manufacturers across the state, passed easily through a legislature that is a tool of PACs and special interest money.

Bush is just bubbling over with compassion. That's why he is shuttering the White House offices that focus on AIDS and race relations. This guy is doing whatever he can to dismantle a civil, secular society. Meanwhile, he's grinning like an idiot -- and a lot of people on Capitol Hill, unfortunately, are smiling back.

Karl "Machiavelli" Rove met with the Republican Congressional sponsor of an HMO reform bill and deep sixed it. So much for Dubya saying he was for patient's rights. Of course, the only rights he was interested as far as health care was concerned in Texas was the right of insurance companies to make a ton of profits by denying treatment to people in need. Dubya's doing for America what he did for Texas. What did you expect?

We have reached the third act break -- the moment of despair. Indeed, it is a sorry state of affairs, isn't it? I don't know who is writing this screenplay but I will certainly be relieved when this 'ultimate moment when things could not get worse' passes. With things so dark, with not one victory having been achieved or in sight, it is easy to slip into apathy here--precisely what the opposition wants.

How does President Bush expect to "raise the tone" in Washington by nominating a right-wing celebrity and Kenneth Starr pal as solicitor general? Joe Conason hits the nail on the head, as always.

In large part, the Democratic Congressional leaders have been fearful that Bush will paint them as obstructionists unless they cower quietly in the corner. Dubya uses words like "civility" and "bipartisanship"as cudgels to keep Democrats in Congress from getting too uppity. "In our age, as much as in Edith Wharton's or Emily Post's, civility is just code for sit down and shut up. But this charming, charmed gentleman, applauded even by Democrats, has made it a religious imperative, tying obedience to God and goodness, and painting the opposition, not only as rude and uncouth, but frankly, in league with the devil." So says Kelly Cogswell in a perceptive analysis of how Bush is using language to crack the whip at Democratic Congressional leaders and making sure that they don't leave their cages.

On his first day on the job, Bush signed an Executive Order reimposing the "global gag rule." When asked about it by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), he got thoroughly confused and his face turned "bright red". 80,000 women die each year worldwide from 20 million unsafe abortions, but Bush doesn't have a clue - he just signs whatever Dick Cheney, Pat Robertson, and Ralph Reed tell him to sign. Bush is a completely empty suit, an utter fraud who was first created by - and now protected by - the media. It's time for the media to pull back the curtain on the Wizard of TX.

Bush learned "love bombing" from the Sun Myung Moon, who paid large fees to Bush's father after he left the White House. And he learned guerilla warfare from Ralph Reed, who is perhaps the key strategist of the Bush administration. Bob Dylan has a few appropriate words of warning.

"Until Bush took over, no one worried about Confederate epilepsy being a communicable disease. Now, before anyone realized it, the South has risen again, with delerious troops who cannot wait to bayonet civil rights, abortion rights, gay and lesbian rights, and environmentalists. They've won the second round of the Civil War. There is no more need to look away, look away. They are singing, 'Lookie here! Lookie here! DeeCee Land!'" So says the unfailingly accurate Derrick Z. Jackson in the Boston Globe.

When he voted to confirm John Ashcroft, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) said he hoped Bush would reciprocate by naming Justice Ronnie White as a federal judge. Feingold's plea was seconded by Dick Gephardt (D-MO) and members of the Congressional Black Caucus during their meeting with Bush last week. It took less than a day for two anonymous Bush aides to say "fuggedaboutit!" Wake up, Democrats - you'll get NOTHING from the far-right Bush administration. Senator Feingold, can you take that vote back?

There are at least seven reasons why Bush wants a recession. That's why he has been touting it, in hopes of bringing it on as soon as possible.

Drunk with power at having successfully usurped the US Presidency, George W. Bush spent his first week in office raising GOP hypocrisy to new heights: the global gag rule, evangelical pork, John Ashcroft. With such an incredible beginning, we can only dream what heights of hypocrisy we'll see in the next four years. Stay tuned!

California voted for Al Gore, so Bush will get even by letting energy companies - led by Kenneth Lay of Enron, whose employees have given more money to Bush than anyone else - steal billions from California citizens.

Bush said today that he was "deeply concerned" that the power crisis was "spreading beyond the California borders" and vowed to make it easier for companies to explore, exploit and transport oil and gas for the production of more electricity. So how does drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge help California? Alaska Republican Senator Frank Murkowski stated at Interior Secretary nominee Gale Norton's hearing today that, "This would be the largest construction project in North American history." The average person knows it takes years just to build a stadium. So the presumption is that years from now Texas Tea from Alaska would help states with energy woes. What the Bush team doesn't say is that presently oil contributes only 5% of the energy we consume.

It just gets worse everday. Now we learn that the office of the White House Counsel is stuffed to the gills with attorneys who tried to bring down the Clintons. Bush is, as we predicted, governing from the far vengeful right. Clearly, a pre-requisite for giving legal advice to the President is having been a protege of Kenneth Starr. And still the Democratic leaders say nothing.

Ted Olson was at the heart of the behind the scenes legal efforts to entrap President Clinton. A good buddy of Ken Starr, he provided strategic and legal advice as to how to best get Clinton in a position where he could be successfully prosectued for a violation "of the rule of law." Olson went on to represent Bush in his successful Supreme Court case, which stole the election for Dubya. Olson and the Bush camp must have known ahead of time about the outcome. Olson is good friends with several of the right wing Justices, because they belong to the conservative Federalist Society. Olson's wife, Barbara, is a right wing TV pundit and wrote a scathing book about Hillary. Is this a nightmare? Please say it isn't, pretty please.

Because on Monday, the New York Daily News posted a story that indicated a top Cheney aide, and possibly Cheney, sought a pardon for Mr. Rich during Papa Bush's administration. It wasn't an act of statesmanship on Bush's part to "put the pardon issue behind us." It was just another cynical act of doublespeak from the White House, also known as hypocrisy central. Bush and Cheney were just trying to cover their butts. It's that simple.

It was unanimous! Elaine Chao was confirmed as Secretary of Labor on Monday. This comes in spite of the allegations that Ms. Chao, and her high ranking GOP Senator Husband, Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), were involved with campaign contributors that the GOP has targeted in the past because of their alleged associations with Clinton and Gore. In short, no Republican or Democratic objected to Chao's association with two of Congressman Dan Burton's favorite obsessions in the Clinton administration. It sure does make a difference if you're a Republican. You have a get out of jail card for life. No Republican or Democrat will bother challenging you. Only Democrats can ever be guilty of illicit behavior. Republicans always have "integrity" even if they're caught stealing from the cookie jar. Jesus forgives them and that's enough, the Democrats be damned.

We apologize. We attacked the Bush propaganda machine for maliciously lying about an alleged "trashing" of the White House by the departing Clinton/Gore troops. But we were wrong. In an exclusive, Democrats.com expose, we have now documented how the White House was defaced! See it for yourself -- and then remember that the only people who desecrated the White House were members of the Bush PR team who lied through their teeth.

A few years ago, listeria-tainted hot dogs and deli meat from a Michigan company sickened 100 people, 21 of whom died. As a result, the Clinton administration spent 2 years drafting rules to impose stricter testing for listeria, which overall causes 2,500 serious illnesses and 500 deaths nationally each year. So what did Bush do last week? He put the new regulations on "hold." How many people will have to die before the stricter listeria inspections begin?

Here's a story you won't find in the Washington Times: "Evangelical leaders, including many Southern Baptists, were unaware that the Jan. 19 Inaugural Prayer Luncheon for Unity and Renewal was sponsored and by Sun Myung Moon, founder of The Washington Times and the Unification Church." According to Southern Baptist Convention President James Merritt, "we had no idea that the luncheon was hosted by the Moonies." Moon, whose church kidnapped and brainwashed thousands of young Americans, has been a major backer of Republican Presidents for decades.

Columnist Matthew Miller compared Bush's tax cut plans with his supposed "no. 1 priority" of education. Bush's education plan gives $235 to every teacher, but $6.2 MILLION to EACH of the richest 2,400 families through his estate tax cut. Dividing $6.2 million by $235 produces a hypocrisy index of 26,382, definitely a Super Bowl record!

Not only has Bush crossed the sacred line separating church and state in America, he has appointed controversial academic John DiIulio to head the office of "Faith-Based and Community Initiatives." This is the guy who came up with the bogus concept of "juvenile superpredators" ravaging and pillaging across America. (When his ideas were challenged, he called his critics "intellectually bankrupt" and "full of crap" - reflecting his own deep spirituality.) Bush is devastating the American traditions that guarantee a secular society - and the Demoratic leadership sits mutely by.

Dear Mr. Bush: In your Inaugural Address on January 20, you affirmed "a new commitment to live out our nation’s promise through civility, courage, compassion and character." You said, "Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos." You also said, "I will live and lead by these principles: to advance my convictions with civility." Jack Oliver violated your promise, and we call upon you to fire him to send a message that you meant what you said. Sign our petition!

Only a week ago, Unpresident Bush made "civility" the centerpiece of his inaugural address. But his Republican Party is already on the attack, calling groups like People for the American Way, NOW, and NARAL "radicals," and accusing them of running a "smear campaign." This is a major test for Bush - is he going to fire Jack Oliver, or is Bush going to break his very first promise after just a week in office? We're watching!!

It didn't take long for the Bush Administration to start trash talking the economy again. Given the curious statement by Alan Greenspan last week that he supports Bush's tax cuts, you have to think Dick Cheney's latest effort to slow the economy down is part of a coordinated effort to promote tax cuts for the wealthy. They wouldn't be that devious, would they? You bet.

Well, thank God Bill Clinton is hanging around. Given that the mainstream press gave instant credibility to a vague charge of Clinton and Gore staffers "trashing" and defacing the White House. The Chicago Tribune, for instance, called the "trashing" a national disgrace. Of course, the only problem was that the White House was never "trashed." Without even bringing in one photographer or camera man to show the evidence (because there was none), the press abandoned all journalistic standards and ran banner headlines about an act that didn't even occur. Chalk one up to the Karl Rove propaganda machine. This guy learned at the feet of Herr Goebbels. As for Clinton, he's told Bush, he'll pay for the damage, but he wants an itemized list. It's his way of calling Bush's bluff. Watch for Ari Flesicher to say that Bush is so benevolent that his campaign funds will pay for it rather than Clinton. This will allow Bush to get away completely with the despicable scam to take the heat off Ashcroft and continue the ruthless GOP politics of character assassination, even when a man's back is turned.

Elaine Chao, Bush's latest labor nominee, and her husband, high profile GOP Senator Mitch McConnell, were both financially mixed up with the same people Gore was crucified for associating with. Do the Republicans criticize one of their own? Of course not. Hypocrisy is their best friend. And considering how they let loose criminal investigations for exactly what Senator McConnell and his wife are implicated in, it’s not just hypocritical, it’s almost criminal. Indeed, Frank Rich of the New York Times reported over the weekend that “John Huang, the convicted Clinton- Gore fund-raiser, repeatedly took the Fifth Amendment in November when questioned in court about his alleged fiscal ties to Republicans, including Senator Mitch McConnell, the No. 1 opponent of the John McCain crusade for campaign finance reform that Mr. Bush has yet to credibly embrace.” Mighty interesting, isn’t it? As we say, it’s almost criminal, and just possibly it is

"The flowering of the Bush dynasty comes as a result of the abandonment of women's rights. Bush is departing from the sincerely held beliefs of his grandfather and replicating his father's cynical switch and demonstrating that his moderation was a political device. The women who voted for George W. (as well as those who didn't) have a right to feel betrayed." So says journalism professor Caryl Rivers in Women's Enews, an outstanding zine from the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund.

"Did you catch any of Saturday's festivities on TV? They looked so forlorn. I grew up in Washington, and I can't recall an inaugural, even in dreadful weather, where the stands were so empty."--Frank Rich in Slate Magazine And that wasn't even the half of it. They could have easily filled those stands with the jeering crowds on the parade route, although you wouldn't have known that from watching the news, or reading the front page of the Sunday NY Times, which could have been written weeks before the inauguration? So goes a first person account of the protests along the parade route.

Planned Parenthood has put together a website that helps us prepare for the coming war. From now on it's Roe Vs. Bush (and Ashcroft, and Thompson, and...)

Don't let them demean you or marginalize your efforts. Don't let them suck away your energy for change. Don't let them make you feel futile and irrelevant. A generation ago, a grassroots movement of Americans ended a misguided war when everyone, at first, thought their cause was hopeless. "If it takes a cadre of crazed militants to stop racial profiling, unwanted pregnancies, wife beating and gay bashing," Anna Quindlen writes, "so be it. The so-called special-interest groups will continue to be demonized and denigrated while little by little, year by year, what they believe becomes, not a political position, but an accepted commonplace. Sure, it’s a dirty job. Thank God somebody does it." Because of the impassioned protest against the Vietnam War, because it grew from opposition at the fringes to a mainstream movement of millions, because it succeeded, tens of thousands of American lives were saved. These men, who might have died in a ill-begotten war, are now alive, with families, lovers and friends, because people who cared about justice fought for a noble cause through the era of Nixonian darkness -- and they prevailed. Just remember that this Administration is led by a Vietnam evader whose vice president and attorney general nominee dodged the draft. These shameless men have no scruples; they have no integrity. They ran on a deceptive platform and campaign emphasizing primarily Democratic issues. Once they were safely ensconced in the White House, they brought in the right wing wrecking crew. In short, they deceived the American public; they lied. 30 years ago, an energized opposition changed the world against more formidable opponents than this crew of hacks and pretenders. Read this Anna Quindlen column and remember: you helped Al Gore win the election; you can help beat the men who stole it from him. You can change the world.

On his second day in office, Bush declared war on women in the U.S. and around the world by reimposing Reagan's despicable "global gag rule." The rule denies international family planning funding to groups which use their OWN separate funds to speak up for abortion rights overseas. Worldwide, 20 million abortions are provided annually under unsafe conditions because of anti-abortion policies, resulting in the preventable deaths of 80,000 women each year. Bush received no mandate from the voters to condemn 20 million women each year to unsafe abortions, but he is taking orders from the radical right, just like his father did. Is Bush's heart dark? Ask those 20 million women - and the motherless children left behind by the 80,000 who die.

"As we go about our work, there's no excuse for arrogance and never a reason for disrespect toward others," Bush told his staff. He urge them to show "humility and decency and fairness." He did not, however, apologize to past victims of arrogance, such as Carla Faye Tucker or Adam Clymer. We'll be watching this promise big time!!

Ralph Reed, the former political director of the Christian Coalition, used to talk about "flying below the radar." Now Reed is a top Bush strategist, so it's no surprise Bush is giving soothing speeches while slashing away at our rights.

In his first day on the job, Bush made it clear that his first priority would be to abolish the separation of church and state. First, he declared that he will fund churches to deliver social services. Then he declared Saturday to be a "national day of prayer." Finally, he signalled that his first bill to Congress would be for parochial school vouchers. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church & State was quick to denounce these actions.

Until energy companies and their paid Republican lackeys began demanding deregulation, electricity prices were low and supplies were stable. Now prices are skyrocketing and California is suffering blackouts.

In his inaugural address, Bush attacked cynicism. But what could be more cynical than soaking corporations for $100,000 contributions to pay for the inaugural, in return for promises of government giveaways? Bush emphasized four "C" words - civility, courage, compassion, and character. But one "C" word overshadowed the entire inauguration, but was never mentioned - corruption!

In his inaugural speech, Bush cited America's "faith in freedom and democracy." He also made a solemn pledge: "I will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity." But Bush made no mention at all of the crimes against democracy and the massive INjustice that made him President - the election stolen in Florida by Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, and the Republican majority of the U.S. Supreme Court. Is Bush planning to pretend throughout his Presidency that he won a just and democratic election?

Ronald Reagan exploded the national debt from $1 trillion to $4 trillion by slashing taxes for the rich and massively increasing defense spending. It took seven arduous years for Bill Clinton to bring the budget back into balance. So what is the centerpiece of Bush's agenda? You got it - cutting taxes and increasing defense spending.

Considering how many Jews play an active role in government and the creation of public policy, it does seem like an intentional oversight that there are no Jews in Bush's cabinet. Maybe that's because there were no Jewish plantation owners in the ante-bellum South. Therefore, they don't meet the primary pre-requisite of serving in the Bush administration. Or maybe it's just a continuation of the Bush assault on meritocracy. Yale, when Bush attended, limited the numbers of Jews admitted to ensure that people like Dubya, who had pedigree but no brains, would be admitted. It was the WASP affirmitive action program that got Dubya into Old Blue, certainly not his academic performance. Shortly after Dubya was admitted to Yale, the school dropped its quotas on Jews and suddenly they were everywhere on campus. The brainy kids from the Bronx and Shaker Heights took the spots reserved for the booby-headed inbred progeny of America's WASP and Southern Christian elite: the Prep School mediocrity. That's what happens when you allow people to compete on merit instead of bloodline. That's what threatens Bush and his cohorts. What they champion is the return to the affirmative action program for white Christian males. That's the only quota system they are interested in.

Even before his swearing-in as UnPresident, W. is costing American taxpayers millions of dollars by shutting down the Federal government early on Thursday for the lavish inaugural parties for his fatcat donors. We demand an Independent Counsel!!

Despite cynical calls from the GOP to accept Bush as the duly elected president, 40% of Americans believe that he didn't come by the office legitimately. Yet Bush keeps pushing his far right wing pro-Confederacy cabinet nominees on the majority of Americans who believe that the Civil War was decided in 1865. Bush, who keeps saying that all that matters is that he "won", should note that the South lost. Maybe he should have run for President of the Confederate states and not have imposed himself on the rest of us.

Like the smoke and mirrors of the GOP convention, Bush has assembled a Cabinet that has all the appearance of diversity. But like the convention, it's just a facade for the same old right wing ideology. Yes, there are a handful of right wing and conservative minorities -- and the Bush team located all of them.

In a bizarre twist, Clinton hater and right wing "law foundation" head Larry Klayman is accusing Bush's latest secretary of labor nominee of being caught up in Clinton's Chinese fundraising "scandal." Published in NewsMax, a right wing Internet rag, this article may be a sign that the far right will not hesitate to slash away at Bush if they don't feel he is appointing someone that meets their right wing litmus test. This is a good sign that Bush may get eaten alive by the sharks that he is swimming with. Cracks are appearing in the GOP united front.

Ashcroft was caught red-handed using his staff as Attorney General for his campaign to become Governor of Missouri in the 1980's. He implemented a plan to make extensive use of state employees and resources to advance his own political career. The GOP ripped the Clintons apart for alleged improprieties that never existed. When will the Democrats stop calling this extremist, cunning man a man of "integrity." The Democrats sully their own names when they use that word so cheaply. There are plenty of adjectives you could use to describe Ashcroft, but "integrity" fits him about as well as the word "genius" fits Bush.

"Gale Norton has devoted her life to undermining the mission of the agency she has been nominated to lead, and we have every reason to believe that she would continue this crusade as Secretary of Interior with disastrous consequences for our forests, parks, wildlife and public lands," said Greg Wetstone of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Gale Norton is one of the scariest Cabinet nominees since James Watt," said Brock Evans of the Endangered Species Coalition at a Friday news conference in Washington. "We expect a fierce struggle over the fate of the Endangered Species Act." From CNN News.

Well John Ashcroft, in a speech to Bob Jones University, let the cat out of the bag. America has a new King: Jesus. Pshaw! Doesn't John know that the new King is Dubya, although Dick Cheney is his regent? We can't have any competition here between Jesus and Dubya. Why that would make for "divisiveness," which Dubya can't pronounce and apparently doesn't like. After all, W's into this healing thing. He's kind of like the mugger, who when brought to court tells the Judge that the victim should heal his wounds and get over the assault. "Hey, move on with your life," Bush would shout at the victim. "Look, I got your wallet and what do you got, a bunch of bruises. You're a loserman." And then he would stick out his tongue and call to Dick Cheney to bring the Secret Service in to clear the courtroom.

"At holiday parties, Republican political operatives boasted freely about their success in snaring the White House. A common refrain, told in a joking style, was: “We stole the election fair and square.” This high-level Republican bragging is, of course, in marked contrast to what the Republican rank-and-file are expected to believe. For the followers of Rush Limbaugh and the conservative media, the message is still that Al Gore and Joe Lieberman were the ones trying to steal the election by “inventing” votes. In the weeks after the Nov. 7 election, this propaganda theme whipped the GOP foot soldiers into a near frenzy, helping to create a climate of crisis that added to the rationale behind the five conservative justices settling the election in Bush’s favor. But high-ranking Republicans now acknowledge, at least privately, that many legitimate votes favoring Gore were tossed aside in Florida to preserve Bush’s tiny victory margin." Enough said.

Will the Congressional Democrats wimp out once again, or will they rise to the occasion? In large part, Bush's radical cabinet appointments are a means for the Bush camp to test the courage, strategic thinking and will of the Congressional Democrats. Will the Congressional Democrats finally stand up for their constituents, or will they get rolled once again?

The primary strategy of the Bush Usurper is to give the appearance of "diversity and healing," while insidiously cutting away at America's Constitution and tradition of fairness. Last week, Jesse Helms said that he would only support expanded foreign aid if it went to faith-based organizations. What that means is that the U.S. taxpayer will end up financing the religious right, helping to shore up Bush's political support. The Bush administration is about to mount an unprecented assault on our sacred Constitutional foundation that church and state should be separated. All American patriots should be prepared to do battle on behalf of our rights to a secular society, as embedded in our Constitution.

The shock waves coming from the revelations about Bush's nominees are coming so fast, there is barely enough time to recover before another disturbing bombshell is dropped. Now we learn that John Ashcroft, in a speech to Bob Jones University, called Jesus the King of the United States. That makes W. the Dauphin, we guess.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Anti-tobacco activists hope to use Gov. Tommy G. Thompson's record on tobacco issues in Wisconsin and his close links to tobacco giant Philip Morris to cast a cloud on his nomination for health and human services secretary in George W. Bush's cabinet. They don't like Thompson's acceptance of large sums in campaign donations from Philip Morris, his mixed record on tobacco control issues and his participation in three international trips bankrolled by the firm."

Gene Lyons, who co-authored "The Hunting of the President: The Ten Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton," has this to say about the nomination of John Ashcroft:"Had Bush announced he'd appoint an Ashcroft in October, Al Gore would have won the presidency in a walk. Opposing Ashcroft needs no constitutional justification and has nothing to do with "personal destruction." It's purely political. The man's dogmatic, intemperate views make him unfit for the job of enforcing laws he clearly doesn't believe in. That's really all we need to know."

While critics are circling around John Ashcroft's deplorable record, Ashcroft himself is worried about black UN helicopters circling over the United States. And there are Democratic Senators who are going to vote for this lunatic. Shame on you.

How can Colin Powell maintain his dignity among such a motley crew of cabinet appointees who long for the good 'ol days of the Confederacy. Now it comes out that Ms. Norton, James Watt in a skirt, called slavery a "bad fact" that "interfered" with the South winning the Civil War. And no Democratic senator has yet to publicly oppose her nomination.

In a move that indicates the GOP is stealing many of its tactics from former Kremlin regimes, Republicans in Texas forced a publisher to remove a photograph of Al Gore from a textbook. It's getting very, very scary. (reposted by request)

You can't be critical of the Bush campaign all the time, can you? Actually, we do have a compliment for them: They are very good and disciplined at getting the spin of the day dispersed through their Ministry of Propaganda apparatus. Right now, the key message is that "all Americans should unite for the good of the country." But the code word "Bipartisanship" is just another way of saying "lean back and enjoy it while I tear your guts out." It's a tool to divide and conquer. As this op-ed in the Washington Post argues,"Comatose Senate Democrats better wake up."

Bush believes he has a mandate to pick right-wing extremists for his cabinet, cut taxes for the wealthy, and waste trillions on Star Wars. NOT!

"No choice for Interior secretary could have been more likely to divide and less likely to unite than Gale Norton. By nominating her, Bush has rewarded the corporate contributors who underwrote his White House run, but he risks alienating the vast majority of Americans who support strong environmental laws and protection of our public land. Indeed, the more you learn about Norton, the more the label 'James Watt in a skirt' seems unfair to Watt." So says Doug Kendall in the Los Angeles Times.

"I am sickened and astonished at the gall of Linda Chavez. After oppressing women, those who make minimum wage, and union members (hell, *anyone* who works for a living,) throughout her career by word and action, she feels that it is appropriate to haul six people on live national television to talk about her "compassionate conservatism" towards the less fortunate." So says one of our readers, commenting on the woman who tried to spin indentured servitude as an act of compassion. But remember one thing: the GOP really believes that it is an act of compassion to illegally "hire" people at slave wages.

Ah, it's the blame game, again. Linda Chavez blames FBI agents and an unnamed Democrat for her woes. BuzzFlash would like to ask her a few questions: Did they harbor an illegal alien? Did they use the illegal alien for labor and only pay her in paltry "gifts"? Did they lie about "employing" an illegal alien and simultaneously condemn Zoe Baird for the practice? Nothing like stepping up to the plate and accepting responsibility. Isn't that what Conservatives are always lecturing us about, especially those Conservative columnists like Linda Chavez. She must have also been talking about Republican tactics when she said, "``I do this with some regret, because I think it is a very, very bad signal to all of those good people out there who want to serve their government. But so long as the game in Washington is a game of search and destroy, I think we will have very few people who are willing to do what I did, which was to put myself through this in order to serve.'' Those are the Republicans, and columnists like you, who are doing the searching and destroying. Isn't that right Linda?

According to Trent Lott, "a concerted effort to 'Bork' John Ashcroft would not be well received." Is that a folksy southern way of saying the Republicans will pull out their AK47's and start firing? Before they start blaming the Democrats for sabotaging "bipartisanship," Republicans need to focus on the "uniter" who chose Ashcroft, one of the most extreme politicians in America. Maybe it's time for Bush to admit that he stole the election and has no mandate to impose far-right ideology on the country, which voted for Gore.

Well, one down and 39 to go. That's how many Democrats will be needed to filibuster the nomination of a bigoted member of the senate club to the position of Attorney General. Barbara Boxer, hugs, kisses, and gratitude for finally seeing a Democratic senator stand up for justice.

Whine! Whine! Whine! That's all you are hearing from the Bushies these days. After 8 years of sabotaging the Clinton administration and scurrilously attacking the President and his family, the Bushies are decrying the "policies of persecution and charcacter assassination." Will someone put them in an ice cold shower and make them tell the truth for once. Their latest whine is that the opponents of John Ashcroft (which means you and me) are going to use opposition research from the Mel Carnahan campaign to attack the bigot from Missouri. Well, Duh! You bet! You taught us well pardner!

The self-proclaimed "Great Unifier" has only unified one group of people so far: the loyal opposition to the Bush Monarchy. Some say that the January 20th protests will be the largest since the Vietnam War. So don't get left behind: Join us.

Apparently, Bush's EPA appointee, Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey, also hired illegal workers at the very time Zoe Baird was being pilloried by the Republicans. She and Linda Chavez are being given a pass by Bush spinners, even though they committed the same violation of the law that Zoe Baird did. At the time of Baird’s appointment as Attorney General, the GOP cried for Baird’s head because she had “violated the rule of law.” She had to withdraw before even assuming the office, because the GOP junkyard dogs were all over her like maggots on meat. But Republicans apparently can NEVER “violate the rule of law. They get a free pass just for being Republicans. America Has a New Double Standard: The Rule of Law for the Democrats and Endless Compassion for the Republican Law Breakers.

John Ashcroft told the "Southern Partisan" that he personally needed "to do more" to defend Southern patriots. Does Ashcroft defend these famous words of Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy? "Our new government is founded on the opposite idea of the equality of the races. Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the Negro is not equal to the White man; that slavery -- subordination to the superior race -- is his natural condition."

"As they never tire of telling us, the Bushies don’t have extramarital affairs. They save their lies for public affairs. Remember: “Read my lips.” Remember: “I was out of the loop on Iran-Contra.” And who can forget: “Clarence Thomas is the most qualified person in America for the Supreme Court.” So spare us the lectures about “restoring honor and dignity” to the White House. Bush hasn’t even gotten there yet, and he’s already left a trail of mendacity from here to Waco. The only thing the Bushies ever wanted to restore was themselves — to power." So says Paul Begala, who has penned an article that comes closest to the truth about Bush than anything we have recently read. Not only are the Bushies liars and hypocrites, they are incompetent to boot. A hard rain's a gonna fall.

Watch out for Tricky John. He's got an idea for his own Constitution: the one he and the Christian Right Wing want. Damn the American public, Johnny's going to get the Constitution he wants, even if he has to write it. We were confidentially leaked the new Constitutional preamble he will present once he assumes the post of Attorney General.

"We keep hearing that George W. Bush's choice for attorney general, John Ashcroft, is a man of honor, a stalwart when it comes to matters of principle and integrity. Former Senate colleagues are frequently quoted as saying that while they disagree with his ultra-conservative political views, they consider him to be a trustworthy, fair-minded individual. Spare me! The allegedly upright Mr. Ashcroft revealed himself as a shameless and deliberately destructive liar in 1999 when, as the junior senator from Missouri, he launched a malicious attack against a genuinely honorable man, Ronnie White, who had been nominated by the president to a federal district court seat." So says Bob Herbert of the New York Times.

"If confirmed by the Senate in hearings expected to begin this month, Mr. Ashcroft would reach the highest office ever attained by a leading figure of the Christian right. The appointment would place him at the head of the Justice Department, a sprawling government legal agency that is often at the front lines of the pitched battles over emotion-laden social issues like abortion, the death penalty, crime, civil rights and the selection of federal judges." So says the New York Times in a story that reveals Ashcroft has annointed himself with Crisco oil. We can't let this happen. Will our Democratic Senators stand up to this travesty of justice?

According to ABC News, "The nomination of Linda Chavez as labor secretary faces a new obstacle today after Chavez acknowledged an illegal immigrant lived in her household." The Bush spinsters, continuing their unrelenting campaign of Orwellian doublespeak, are claiming that the illegal alien didn't "work" for Chavez. Rather, Chavez, they argue, took her in as one would take in a stray dog, providing her with food, clothing and shelter. The Bush campaign is lying through its teeth. Will the Democrats finally call them on it, or continue to wimp out? Remember Zoe Baird. She had to withdraw from consideration because of an illegal worker. But not the Republicans. They rule by the new double standard that the Democrats accept like doormats. It goes like this: If a Democrat does it, it's immoral and illegal. If a Republican does it, it is for Godly reasons and must be excused. It doesn't matter what the transgression is, the same double standard applies.

Well, the Bush Orwellian Doublespeak is being trotted out again to defend Donald Rumsfeld's agreement with racist remarks uttered by Trick Dick Nixon many years ago. Poor Ari Fleischer. He can't deny the remarks because they are on the infamous Nixon tapes. So, now we are being told that Rumsfeld really didn't mean it when he agreed with Nixon's racist assertions. And the Democratic Senate continues to wimp out as the stench of racism rises once again in the Bush cabinet.

"After Bush's dubious "victory," there was reason to think he would in fact move to the center. After all, he had lost the popular vote by more than 500,000, and likely lost Florida and the Electoral College too; it took the timely intervention of five conservative Supreme Court justices to install him in the White House. Immediately afterwards, he at least sounded like a chastened man; his victory speech dutifully struck the chords of reconciliation and humility. And with a large percentage of Americans unconvinced of the legitimacy of his election, it seemed quite possible that Bush would reach across the aisle. He did -- but only to flip Democrats the bird." Yeah, we're getting screwed alright, in more ways than one.

Steve Neal, political columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, has this to say about Bush's selection of Ashcroft and Thompson to his cabinet: "This isn't the only time Ashcroft's judgment has been questionable. Two years ago, he backed a referendum that would have allowed Missouri residents to carry concealed weapons. Law enforcement officials warned that this would make their state a more dangerous place. Missouri voted for common sense and repudiated this stooge of the National Rifle Association. Where did Bush find these clowns? Thompson and Ashcroft are the wrong men for these roles."

"It is an insult to American working men and women to put an avowed opponent of the most basic workers' rights in charge of enforcing the federal laws and regulations that protect workers' wages, employment and pension rights, equal employment opportunity and other programs for advancement. As the appointed director of the Commission on Civil Rights in the Reagan administration, Linda Chavez favored terminating the commission and opposed working family advancement programs for women and minorities." So says John J. Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO.

Want to know who was backing Bush, just follow the money.

We knew it was coming, didn't you? Some people said that Bush would never appoint Katherine Harris to a position in his administration. These people argued that it would be too embarrassing for Bush. But, who are you kidding? Bush is a rich kid brat. He thinks he deserved the presidency, and his credo is to award the loyal for their combat duty. Call it despicable, call it lacking in any semblance of integrity, call it Bush league.

As clear indications of Ashcroft's support for the slave owning south pours in, the Bushites are continuing to advance the country into an Orwellian vision of deplorable double speak. Listen to this Bush justification (from an Associated Press article) of Ashcroft's wistfulness for the noble lifestyle of mint juleps and slavery: 'Juleanna Glover Weiss, a spokeswoman for Bush's transition, said Ashcroft's comments reflected that he "believes in an exact reading on history." "He holds sacred the legacies of Jefferson, Washington and Martin Luther King," she said. "Senator Ashcroft's favorite historical figure is Abraham Lincoln. He has been an avid student of history." She added, "he will be an exceptionally strong enforcer of the civil rights laws as he has been a proponent in Missouri and throughout his career."' It should be noted that the racist, neo-confederacy publication Ashcroft praises once sold T-shirts that extolled the last words of John Wilkes Booth before he shot Abraham Lincoln. But here's the amazing thing: Democrats.com and BuzzFlash.com are not making any of this up. Click here for more of the Associated Press article. Get additional scoop on Ashcroft at BuzzFlash.com.

"The great irony is that Ashcroft lost his re-election bid because black voters in Missouri (a state Bush won) stampeded to the polls to punish him for his Stone Age stance on civil rights. A further twist is that Ashcroft lost his Senate seat to a dead man. Missouri voters elected the state's deceased governor, Mel Carnahan, who was killed in a plane crash three weeks before the election. Carnahan's name remained on the ballot, and the state's new Democratic governor promised to appoint Carnahan's widow to the Senate if Carnahan won. Civil rights groups will, and should, protest John Ashcroft's nomination. But as a former member of the chummy Senate fraternity, he'll likely be confirmed. And once in as attorney general, he will get his chance to wreak revenge."

"With Ashcroft as attorney general, conservatives know that the Justice Department will vehemently oppose all forms of affirmative action programs and will push for allowing more of a religious presence in government, such as in school prayers, and more aid to religions, through charitable choice and voucher programs. Democrats in the Senate should express outrage at such a conservative choice for one of the most important Cabinet positions. They should send the message now, early in a Bush administration, that such selections will not be accepted."

Maybe we should be happy James Baker is advising W. Or advising Cheney, who's advising Dubya. After all, with Baker's track record he may help to sink the ship. Just look at a few of the people he's advised over time.

When Bush says, as he did for Gale Norton (nominee for Secretary of the Interior), that she will be good for preserving our national parks and open lands, he means: "Hey, Papa B., Dick, and I owe a lot to big oil. Hey, down in Houston, we take our baths in oil. And this babe is alright. Some people say she's James Watt in a skirt. But that's not true. Gale's got a nice butt and Jim was squat ugly. We need a decent looking broad on the cabinet. I kept telling Dick that, but he wouldn't listen. Gale saved the day. She'll let the oil companies rip loose, and she doesn't mind a dirty joke now and then."

During the 87th Rose Bowl Game, Citizens for Legitimate Government, a newly formed grass roots action group, plans to protest the inauguration of Governor George W. Bush as president of the United States. The special message will be displayed as an aerial banner at the oldest college football bowl game in the World, which will be broadcast from Pasadena, California, on Monday, January 1, 2001. The message will remind all citizens of their traditional right to attend the Inauguration Day activities to be held in Washington D.C. on January 20, 2001, and to join with many other Americans in protest of these ceremonies, says the group’s leaders.

"In selecting Governor Thompson to head HHS, President Bush has chosen one of this nation's staunchest opponents of a woman's right to choose to head the agency with the greatest impact on women's health. If he is confirmed, Thompson will become the President's top advisor on health-related matters — including abortion and contraception — and as such will hold tremendous sway over the reproductive lives of American women. The HHS Secretary oversees the nation's domestic family planning program, the FDA, and the office of the Surgeon General. The impact of an anti-choice HHS secretary on these and other programs affecting women's reproductive rights and health could be devastating." So says NARAL. We couldn't agree more.

"The political motives behind the president-elect's efforts are apparent: to make sure that any problems are blamed on the outgoing Clinton administration rather than on him, and to advertise the need for the 10-year, $1.3-trillion tax cut plan that Bush touted during the campaign." Isn't that a tad selfish? We must say it doesn't really make the word "integrity" come to mind, now does it?

We must be vocal in our opposition to Ashcroft, and communicate that to our elected officials. We can remember it's only two years until we get a chance to beef up Congress to take on those who railroaded Florida in the election. We can remember. Gore received at least 500,000 more votes than Bush. We are the ones with the REAL power!

Our next attorney general is anti-choice, pro-Christian conservative, anti-civil rights, and pro-gun just for starters. He is an NRA made man, and no doubt looks forward to receiving legal guidance on the Second Amendment from Charlton Heston. If you wanted to find a guy who is in the Amen chorus for Falwell and Robertson, but who has a senatorial look that goes over well in collegial confirmation hearings, then Ashcroft is your man....Bush had the gall to assert that Ashcroft "will be faithful to the law, pursuing justice without favor. He will enforce the law and will follow the truth." It's a perverted Orwellian turn of the phrase.

John Ashcroft, who reportedly treasures his honorary degree from Bob Jones University, is no casual opponent of civil rights. This guy is actually a fan of the Confederacy. He recently told a racist publication that people need to do more to defend the reputations of the Confederate leaders,"or else we'll be taught that these people were giving their lives, subscribing their sacred fortunes and their honor to some perverted agenda.'' Slavery sounds pretty perverted to us, but that's just our opinion. This guy is a threat to our civil liberties and our civil discourse.

John Ashcroft, if confirmed will be our first toxic Attorney General. The man will do a lot of damage to our civil liberties -- and he will be particularly harmful to the interests of minorities and women. Major women's groups are horrified at the prospect that he might assume office.

Watch Out for Guns and Your Civil Liberties! The NRA Gets Its Payoff. On Friday, GWB announced John Ashcroft as the next Attorney General (subject to Senate confirmation). He is a right wing dream boat when it comes to their core issues. He is the man who will control the "administration of justice" in the United States. But when you look at his support from almost every right wing advocacy group, including the pro-life and NRA contingents, Ashcroft is likely to become the Justice Department's Katherine Harris, a symbol of grave injustice. But in this case, it's the very integrity of our civil liberties and tradition of law and justice that is at stake. Ashcroft, a former Missouri Senator, most recently became infamous for losing his Senate re-election to a dead man. Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan, who was running against Ashcroft, was killed in a plane crash shortly before the November election. But his name remained on the ballot -- and a dead man (Carnahan) beat a live one (Ashcroft). (Carnahan's wife, Jean, was appointed by Missouri's Democratic Governor to be seated in her husband's place.) Now the loser is set to become our new attorney general.

Eric Alterman, one of the few journalists who clearly sees through the Bush game of smoke and mirrors, deplores the media's effort to gloss over the Supreme Court ordered coup d'etat. He particularly excoriates the conservative "Amen chorus" for Bush: "Never has the moral or intellectual bankruptcy of conservative intellectuals been on more prominent display" than in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.

That's right, Al Gore officially beat George W. Bush by more than a half a million votes. As Bush boasts of forcing a "make the rich richer" tax cut down the throats of the American people, shouldn't he remember that losing the election calls for a bit of modesty? Don't count on it, GWB views his occupation of the White House more as the restoration of the Bush monarchy than as a result of a Democratic election.

"Spare me. If ever there was a time to question the legitimacy of an incoming administration, it is now. I know, the national script calls for us all to come together as Americans, unite behind our new president, put this terrible ordeal behind us, etc. But what ordeal? It's not like we just suffered an assassination, a spate of riots, or a civil war. No. What occurred is that a presidential election was stolen, first on the ground in Florida and then for good measure by a partisan Supreme Court whose right-wing majority cared more about its own retirement schedule than about the institution itself." So says Robert Kuttner of American Prospect online magazine.

Back in the mid-90's, Colin Powell penned a memoir in which he expressed disdain for "rich daddy's boys" who escaped service in Vietnam because their papas got them into the National Guard. Given that Democrats.com has made Bush's derelict stateside National Guard Service a major focus of our site, we can't help but wonder why Powell is now working for such a Vietnam evader. Of course, there are Vietnam Vets out there who haven't sold out. Read on to learn more about the thoughts of one of them.

"Groups representing gays and women in the military expressed alarm yesterday over the possible nomination of former senator Daniel R. Coats (R-Ind.) as George W. Bush's defense secretary, which aides to the president-elect have indicated could be announced today." So says the Washington Post. Of course, we all knew that a Bush cabinet would have all the window dressing of diversity, without the substance.

The reason Dubya looked and sounded hostile and arrogant is because he is hostile and arrogant when he's not being overly adaptive.

Here are a few questions about the future that - when answered - may tell us what we have to look forward to during the next four years. My bias comes from the premise that George W. Bush is the least competent individual to reside in the White House since Warren Harding and that past - the first George Bush regime - is prologue.

On Sunday, Regent Cheney killed bi-partisanship before it even began by insisting the Cheney-Bush administration will not compromise on its right-wing agenda, starting with a $1.3 billion tax cut for the rich. "It's his [sic] program, his agenda and we have no intention at all of backing off of it," Cheney told the CBS "Face the Nation" program. "It's why we got elected [sic]. So we're going to aggressively pursue" it.

W promised to bring integrity to the White House. A key person in setting ethical standards is the White House Counsel. Unfortunately, W's nominee, Texas Supreme Court Justice Al Gonzales, was the lawyer who helped W cover up his DUI record when called for jury duty in 1996. Gonzales' court has also been an energetic administrator of the death penalty.

Karen Hughes, who tells George W. Bush what to say and do, was given the official title of "Counselor to the President." It's a rather fitting title - like a camp counselor, Shrub's parents put her in charge of their irresponsible little boy.