George W. Bush's environmental record can be dummied down to one simple word: devastating.

Not only has President Bush gutted numerous environmental laws--including the Clean Air and Water Acts--he has also set a new precedence by disregarding the world's top scientists and the Pentagon, as their concerns about the rate of Global Warming grow graver by the day.

As Mark Townsend and Paul Harris reported for the Observer in the UK in February of 2004, '[The Pentagon report] predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.'

Indeed one of Bush's first actions in office was to forge the dirty 'Energy Policy Act of 2003', which calls for a slash in renewable energy funding and an increase in fossil fuel consumption. The bill, authored by Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force, met with a reported 39 oil lobbyists and executives to form the outlandish legislation. Portions of

Political myth-making goes into overdrive every four years. With presidential campaigns fixated mostly on media, an array of nonstop spin takes its toll while illogic often takes hold: When heroes are absent, they're invented. When convenient claims are untrue, they're defended.

Many supporters come to function as enablers -- staying silent or mimicking their candidate's contorted explanations to try to finesse the gaping contradiction. Fast talk substitutes for straight talk. A kind of "covering fire" across media battlefields makes it easier for the candidate to just keep on dissembling.

There are true believers, of course -- people who believe every word that comes out of their own mouths when, for instance, they stand at the podium of the Republican or Democratic convention. Whatever the extent of their sincerity, only superlatives will do as speakers unequivocally praise George W. Bush or John Kerry.

The fact that Bush keeps saying things that aren't true should matter. His repeated statements about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, or supposed links between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein (again explicitly

(COLUMBUS, OH, 6/15/04) - On Wednesday, June 16, the Ohio office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio) will hold a news conference in reaction to the arrest of Nuradin Abdi, a Columbus Muslim who was indicted Monday on four counts of conspiring to provide support for Al-Qaeda.

The news conference will take place following the conclusion of Nuradin's bond hearing on Wednesday afternoon at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Columbus, Ohio.

WHERE: U.S. Federal Courthouse, 85 Marconi Blvd., Columbus, Ohio WHEN: Following conclusion of bond hearing (Hearing at 1:30 pm)

"Given previous cases involving American Muslims in which evidence proved to be faulty or non-existent, we are concerned about the strength of the charges against Mr. Abdi," said CAIR-Ohio Executive Director Jad Humeidan.

Humeidan cited the cases of Army Chaplain James Yee and Oregon attorney Brandon Mayfield. Both men were cleared of all charges following extensive damage to their reputations.

There are an estimated 150,000 Muslims in Ohio. CAIR, America's largest

AUSTIN, Texas -- Such comfort. At the close of the G-8 summit, described by President Bush as "very successful" (except we didn't get anything we wanted), the president offered us comfort on the uncomfortable topic of torture: "Look, I'm going to say it one more time. The instructions went out to our people to adhere to the law. That ought to comfort you."

        "We're a nations of laws," he went on. "We adhere to laws. We have laws on the books. You might look at those laws, and that might comfort you."

Many writers mourning the death of our 40th president fail to mention that Ronald Reagan's administration brought on a poverty and despair that inflicted an entire generation of minorities and changed the sound and reality of ghetto life from a pursuit of the dream deferred into a descent into the American nightmare. The children of that era are many of the progenitors and purveyors of modern hip-hop, and Reagan's presidency single-handedly changed that music. Ronald Reagan is hip-hop's first president, and while America mourns, rappers are still rapping about the rusted legacy he left behind.

His turn to the political right and its affects on the inner city are best chronicled in what so many have come to call 'gangsta' rap and not in the history books. While hip-hop culture had been a vibrant thing long before Reagan's administration, his policies coalesced the Jamaicans, Black Americans and Latinos under the same struggle and as their lifestyles changed, so did the music that filled their streets. Whether politically conscious or celebratory, the fact is there is no such thing as 'gangsta'