Global
The Senate passed approved a measure in a budget bill Thursday that included a provision to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling - just as the region suffers through one of the worst oil spills in history.
The provision to permit drilling in ANWR was included in a resolution passed last week by the Senate Budget Committee. The full Senate is expected to vote on the issue as early as Thursday.
The measure was prepared by the Republican-controlled Senate in such a way that it would be protected from a filibuster by Senate Democrats opposed to the issue. Drilling in ANWR has been debated at least half a dozen times over the past five years.
The issue is one of the cornerstones of President Bush's National Energy Policy. Bush has said that drilling in ANWR is crucial in order for the United States to cut its dependence on foreign oil.
The provision to permit drilling in ANWR was included in a resolution passed last week by the Senate Budget Committee. The full Senate is expected to vote on the issue as early as Thursday.
The measure was prepared by the Republican-controlled Senate in such a way that it would be protected from a filibuster by Senate Democrats opposed to the issue. Drilling in ANWR has been debated at least half a dozen times over the past five years.
The issue is one of the cornerstones of President Bush's National Energy Policy. Bush has said that drilling in ANWR is crucial in order for the United States to cut its dependence on foreign oil.
Do you favor or oppose the United States Senate
passing a resolution censuring President George W.
Bush for authorizing wiretaps of Americans within the
United States without obtaining court orders?
3/15/06 Favor Oppose Undecided
All Adults 46% 44% 10%
Voters 48% 43% 9%
Republicans (33%) 29% 57% 14%
Democrats (37%) 70% 26% 4%
Independents (30%) 42% 47% 11%
Based on 1,100 completed telephone interviews among a random sample of adults nationwide March 13-15, 2006. The theoretical margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points, 95% of the time.
http://americanresearchgroup.com/
3/15/06 Favor Oppose Undecided
All Adults 46% 44% 10%
Voters 48% 43% 9%
Republicans (33%) 29% 57% 14%
Democrats (37%) 70% 26% 4%
Independents (30%) 42% 47% 11%
Based on 1,100 completed telephone interviews among a random sample of adults nationwide March 13-15, 2006. The theoretical margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points, 95% of the time.
http://americanresearchgroup.com/
If we had a responsible media it would be reminding us daily that a republic
can only survive as long as the open market place of ideas is protected.
People must be well-informed in order to make decisions about those they're
entrusting to represent their interests. Our ability to exercise control
over our government is dependent upon our ability to consent, or to withhold
consent, through our vote. Once we lose control of our vote, the very
essence of our republic is undermined:
"Unless the mass retains sufficient control over those entrusted with the powers of their government, these will be perverted to their own oppression, and to the perpetuation of wealth and power in the individuals and their families selected for the trust." -Thomas Jefferson
"Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." - The Declaration of Independence
"Unless the mass retains sufficient control over those entrusted with the powers of their government, these will be perverted to their own oppression, and to the perpetuation of wealth and power in the individuals and their families selected for the trust." -Thomas Jefferson
"Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." - The Declaration of Independence
THE AMERICAN PRISON CAMP at Guantanamo Bay is on the southeast corner! of Cuba, a sliver of land the United States has occupied since 1903. Long ago, it was irrigated from lakes on the other side of the island, but Cuban President Fidel Castro cut off the water supply years ago. So today, Guantanamo produces its own water from a 30-year-old desalination plant. The water has a distinct yellow tint. All Americans drink bottled water imported by the planeload. Until recently, prisoners drank the yellow water.
The prison overlooks the sea, but the ocean cannot be seen by prisoners. Guard towers and stadium lights loom along the perimeter. On my last visit, we were escorted by young, solemn military guards whose nameplates on their shirts were taped over so that prisoners could not identify them.
The prison overlooks the sea, but the ocean cannot be seen by prisoners. Guard towers and stadium lights loom along the perimeter. On my last visit, we were escorted by young, solemn military guards whose nameplates on their shirts were taped over so that prisoners could not identify them.
For the past 10 months I've worked on a project at www.afterdowningstreet.org to urge Congress Members to hold the Bush Administration accountable for crimes and abuses of power. Some Democratic members of Congress have been as helpful in this effort as Fox News. Some have been less. In that last category you can list Jane Harman.
When Congressman John Conyers wrote a letter to Bush asking him to explain the Downing Street Memo, and 120 Congress Members signed it, Harman didn't. When Barbara Lee introduced a Resolution of Inquiry into the Downing Street Memo, and over 100 Members co-sponsored it, Harman didn't. Kucinich's Resolution of Inquiry into the White House Iraq Group? No Jane. Holt's inquiry into the Plame leak? Uh-uh. Barbara Lee's commission on pre-war intelligence? Not Harman. Lee's commission to monitor the treatment of prisoners in US custody? Jane was elsewhere.
When Congressman John Conyers wrote a letter to Bush asking him to explain the Downing Street Memo, and 120 Congress Members signed it, Harman didn't. When Barbara Lee introduced a Resolution of Inquiry into the Downing Street Memo, and over 100 Members co-sponsored it, Harman didn't. Kucinich's Resolution of Inquiry into the White House Iraq Group? No Jane. Holt's inquiry into the Plame leak? Uh-uh. Barbara Lee's commission on pre-war intelligence? Not Harman. Lee's commission to monitor the treatment of prisoners in US custody? Jane was elsewhere.
Something fundamental about who we are as a nation is dribbling away, it seems, without alarm or even debate. We torture prisoners - it's out in the open, a done deal. We're fighting an unnecessary war that, well, yes, was launched on a lie, but too late now; we're in, we can't get out. And our neighbor's phone is being tapped.
But the worry that trumps all others is the state of this proud, imperfect democracy. We may be surrendering our power to change the national direction or demand that government be responsive to us. My fellow Americans, our voting machines don't work, at least not all the time. The mechanism of our democracy is in chaos, and almost everyone is going along with it.
Thanks to the allegedly well-intentioned, but disastrous, Help America Vote Act, the country is shifting, county by county, to electronic voting machines, which are not only glitch-prone on a spectacular scale (e.g., 100,000 phantom votes were recorded in Tarrant County, Texas, during the state's primary last week), but work, like God, in mysterious ways, which we're not supposed to question. The results they give us are all too often unverifiable.
But the worry that trumps all others is the state of this proud, imperfect democracy. We may be surrendering our power to change the national direction or demand that government be responsive to us. My fellow Americans, our voting machines don't work, at least not all the time. The mechanism of our democracy is in chaos, and almost everyone is going along with it.
Thanks to the allegedly well-intentioned, but disastrous, Help America Vote Act, the country is shifting, county by county, to electronic voting machines, which are not only glitch-prone on a spectacular scale (e.g., 100,000 phantom votes were recorded in Tarrant County, Texas, during the state's primary last week), but work, like God, in mysterious ways, which we're not supposed to question. The results they give us are all too often unverifiable.
If you have not yet seen the film "Occupation Dreamland," I highly recommend it. Co-Director Garrett Scott died on March 2, but he truly accomplished something before he left.
http://www.occupationdreamland.com
Those who oppose the Iraq War often struggle with the fact that so many U.S. soldiers are willing to participate in it, are willing to attack someone else's country, raid their houses, shoot at their cars, melt the skin off their children with white phosphorous. Why, it's easy to wonder, don't more soldiers do what a brave few have and refuse to fight?
This film of seven U.S. soldiers stationed in Falluja before its destruction does absolutely nothing to convince us that the war is any less of a crime than we've supposed. In fact, it will convince many of that criminality who've doubted it. But this film shows us a glimpse of the complex, fragile, and suffering minds of the U.S. soldiers we've sent over there.
Those who oppose the Iraq War often struggle with the fact that so many U.S. soldiers are willing to participate in it, are willing to attack someone else's country, raid their houses, shoot at their cars, melt the skin off their children with white phosphorous. Why, it's easy to wonder, don't more soldiers do what a brave few have and refuse to fight?
This film of seven U.S. soldiers stationed in Falluja before its destruction does absolutely nothing to convince us that the war is any less of a crime than we've supposed. In fact, it will convince many of that criminality who've doubted it. But this film shows us a glimpse of the complex, fragile, and suffering minds of the U.S. soldiers we've sent over there.
It’s been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The only thing more depressing than watching the Democratic Party cower cluelessly in a corner while the country goes to hell in a hand-basket is reading the pathetic pleas of the liberal punditocracy exhorting their party to grab the reins and forge ahead. I hate to be the one to break the news to you, folks, but your horse is dead. Flogging it is unlikely to lead to its revival.
What will it take for you to understand this?
How many golden opportunities can the Democrats blow before you get a clue?
If your party can’t make hay out of illegal wire-tapping and torture, the bloody mess in Iraq, the Abramoff scandal and Hurricane Katrina, then isn’t it time to consider an alternative?
If you really care about your country and the future of the planet, consider your options. But understand that trying to reform a stagnant, out-of-touch, corporatized culture from within isn’t one of them.
The only thing more depressing than watching the Democratic Party cower cluelessly in a corner while the country goes to hell in a hand-basket is reading the pathetic pleas of the liberal punditocracy exhorting their party to grab the reins and forge ahead. I hate to be the one to break the news to you, folks, but your horse is dead. Flogging it is unlikely to lead to its revival.
What will it take for you to understand this?
How many golden opportunities can the Democrats blow before you get a clue?
If your party can’t make hay out of illegal wire-tapping and torture, the bloody mess in Iraq, the Abramoff scandal and Hurricane Katrina, then isn’t it time to consider an alternative?
If you really care about your country and the future of the planet, consider your options. But understand that trying to reform a stagnant, out-of-touch, corporatized culture from within isn’t one of them.
The third anniversary of the Iraq invasion is bound to attract a lot
of media coverage, but scant recognition will go to the pundits who
helped to make it all possible.
Continuing with long service to the Bush administration’s agenda-setting for war, prominent media commentators were very busy in the weeks before the invasion. At the Washington Post, the op-ed page’s fervor hit a new peak on Feb. 6, 2003, the day after Colin Powell’s mendacious speech to the U.N. Security Council.
Post columnist Richard Cohen explained that Powell was utterly convincing. “The evidence he presented to the United Nations -- some of it circumstantial, some of it absolutely bone-chilling in its detail -- had to prove to anyone that Iraq not only hasn’t accounted for its weapons of mass destruction but without a doubt still retains them,” Cohen wrote. “Only a fool -- or possibly a Frenchman -- could conclude otherwise.”
Continuing with long service to the Bush administration’s agenda-setting for war, prominent media commentators were very busy in the weeks before the invasion. At the Washington Post, the op-ed page’s fervor hit a new peak on Feb. 6, 2003, the day after Colin Powell’s mendacious speech to the U.N. Security Council.
Post columnist Richard Cohen explained that Powell was utterly convincing. “The evidence he presented to the United Nations -- some of it circumstantial, some of it absolutely bone-chilling in its detail -- had to prove to anyone that Iraq not only hasn’t accounted for its weapons of mass destruction but without a doubt still retains them,” Cohen wrote. “Only a fool -- or possibly a Frenchman -- could conclude otherwise.”
AUSTIN, Texas -- President Bush has once more undertaken to explain to us "Why We Fight," which is also the title of an excellent new documentary on Iraq. According to the president, "Our goal in Iraq is victory." I personally did not find that a helpful clarification.
According to the president, we are doomed to stay in Iraq until we "leave behind a democracy that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself." That's not exactly getting closer every day. But, the Prez sez, "A free Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will make the American people more secure for generations to come."
So far, no good. After three years, tens of thousands of lives and $200 billion, we have achieved chaos. As Rep. John Murtha put it, "The only people who want us in Iraq are Iran and al-Qaida." Since the revisionist myth that we went to war to promote democracy keeps seeping into rational discussion, it is worth reminding ourselves that there never were any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
According to the president, we are doomed to stay in Iraq until we "leave behind a democracy that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself." That's not exactly getting closer every day. But, the Prez sez, "A free Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will make the American people more secure for generations to come."
So far, no good. After three years, tens of thousands of lives and $200 billion, we have achieved chaos. As Rep. John Murtha put it, "The only people who want us in Iraq are Iran and al-Qaida." Since the revisionist myth that we went to war to promote democracy keeps seeping into rational discussion, it is worth reminding ourselves that there never were any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.