Another Broken Record
Another Broken Record
Another record was broken this year — the number of serious international terrorist attacks in a single year more than tripled, from a record of 175 in 2003 to 655 last year, according to recently released U.S. government figures.
This data, however, will no longer be in the annual report on international terrorism submitted to Congress by the State Department. Just over ten days ago the State Department decided to eliminate the report, “Patterns of Global Terrorism,” entirely.
All this comes not even a year after then-Secretary of State Colin Powell had to publicly apologize for the first edition of the 2003 report — which severely undercounted the number of terrorist attacks. “The numbers were off,” Powell said, and “we have identified how we have to do this in the future.”
Apparently Condoleezza Rice doesn’t agree — her office had suggested an alternative method for counting attacks, and when the National Counterterrorism Center decided not to use this new method, the State Department eliminated the terrorism statistics in the congressionally mandated report altogether.
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Hello SPI
Hello SPI
Today on the new blog Democracy Arsenal, Heather responds to an interesting post from last week on the “Top 10 Myths Progressives Need to Let Go of to Regain the Upper Hand in Foreign Policy.” Discussing #4 on trade policy, Heather contends that 93% of Bush voters favored labor and environmental standards in trade agreements — so how left can that sentiment really be?
Democracy Arsenal is the blog of the newly-launched Security and Peace Initiative (SPI). SPI is the offspring of the Century Foundation and the Center for American Progress and will focus on promoting a responsible US foreign policy. It will also place special emphasis on identifying and promoting emerging voices in progressive foreign policy, thereby building the next generation of foreign policy thinkers.
Journal Blows Whistle On Wal-Mart
Journal Blows Whistle On Wal-Mart
Today, the Wall Street Journal highlights what may become a huge story on the reasons behind the recent resignation of Thomas Coughlin, a man who helped start Wal-Mart and who many thought might become CEO. An internal probe launched by a whistleblower suggests that Coughlin had subordinates create fake invoices to have Wal-Mart reimburse him for personal expenses. The story doesn’t end there though:
The tale involves another mystery: the “union project.” Mr. Coughlin told several Wal-Mart employees that the money was actually being used for antiunion activities, including paying union staffers to tell him of pro-union workers in stores…. The fake invoices… were simply a roundabout way of compensating him for out-of-pocket expenses in his antiunion campaign.
If the money was in fact used for antiunion efforts, Coughlin (and potentially executives still at Wal-Mart) would be in violation of the federal Taft-Hartley act. The WSJ reports:
Led by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, labor organizers have tried for years to unionize Wal-Mart’s U.S. workers, who currently number 1.3 million, but they have met with fierce and well-organized opposition.
Last week, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott “admonished his employees in a companywide broadcast,” saying that they absolutely must come forward if a supervisor or friend or anyone is engaging in illegal activity. Just to set a good example, the following day, company brass fired James Bowen, the employee who alerted them to Coughlin’s dealings.
Barbara Boxer as Erin Brockovich
Barbara Boxer as Erin Brockovich
It’s good to know that some senators are doing their research on President Bush’s nominees. Senator Boxer was the star of yesterday’s confirmation hearing for Stephen Johnson, Bush’s nominee to lead the EPA. She dug up information on a little-known program being sponsored by the EPA and the American Chemistry Council in Duval County, Florida.
The program targets low-income African-American families and asks parents to videotape their children crawling around a pesticide-infested environment (their homes). Scientists watch the tapes and regularly test the babies for pesticide exposure. In return, the families can keep the video camera and are paid $970 over two years.
This study, the Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study (CHEERS) also mandates that parents not be provided information about the proper ways to apply or store pesticides, and they cannot be informed of the risks of exposure to pesticides.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC), which numbers many pesticides manufacturers among its members, is paying $2 million to help sponsor this study. The ACC will have the chance to review the study’s findings prior to their release to the public as well.
Sen. Boxer responded to Johnson’s affirmation that the program had been suspended but not cancelled by saying, “… you should pull the plug on that program tomorrow and if you don’t, I’m going to do everything in my disposal to make that happen.” A single senator can hold up Johnson’s confirmation, and from Boxer’s remarks it appears that she is ready to take this one all the way.
Redefining Veterans
Redefining Veterans
Over the past few months, this right-wing’s handling of Veterans issues has gone from bad to worse.
January: House Republican Leaders remove Rep. Christopher Smith from his chairmanship of the Veterans Affairs Committee after he repeatedly asserts his independence from Leader Hastert. Most major Veterans organizations are outraged.
February: The proposed 2006 budget only included a very small increase — even though there will be a huge increase of service members who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan injured, and it would require Veterans to pay $250 a year to use the VA health services.
March: Hundreds of disabled veterans descended on the House Veterans Affairs Committee as it was holding hearings, to protest the 2006 budget.
And, now, Smith’s replacement, Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) wants to dramatically overhaul the Veterans Administration. Where does he start? By redefining what a veteran is. To cut costs, Buyer wants to reshape benefits and VA programs so that they are only available to a very specific group of veterans. Hastert has also recently announced the formation of the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission. Buyer wants them to consider offering one-time payments to some veterans with disabilities, preventing them from ever pursuing any additional claims — even if they have a degenerative disease that gets worse with age.
Helping Cheney Think
Helping Cheney Think
Yesterday Vice President Dick Cheney declared, “I can’t think of anybody more qualified than Paul Wolfowitz to run the World Bank.”
The two most important qualities that one must possess to run the World Bank are that (1) s/he must care about the mission of the World Bank, and (2) s/he must have demonstrated superior leadership capabilities.
Working off that assumption, here’s a quick list to help the vice president…
Patty Stonesifer: President of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where she runs its mission to “improve access to advances in global health and learning”; formerly senior vice president at Microsoft; member of U.S. delegation to the U.N. General Assembly Special Session on AIDS.
William Reilly: EPA administrator under Bush 1, and former president of the World Wildlife Fund. Created an innovative plan that enabled several Latin American countries to have some of their debts forgiven if they invested the money internally on environmental reform.
Brian Atwood: First president of the National Democratic Institute; former administrator at the Agency for International Development, where he streamlined the agency to devote more money to services and less to bureaucracy; formerly directed Citizens International and is now dean of the Hubert Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota.
And there are so many others. If we stick to the “Americans only” tradition, two other good candidates would be Carly Fiorina and Jeff Sachs … the list goes on and on …
For the Kids?
For the Kids?
Today, members of the Government Reform Committee are fretting about the state of Major League Baseball, claiming they are concerned about the implications on the health and well-being of America’s children.
Maybe Congress really is concerned about the welfare of children, but there isn’t much evidence to back it up. There hasn’t been any legislation addressing the 13 million kids who go hungry every year. Wal-Mart is violating child labor laws, but there is no indication that H. Lee Scott will be subpoenaed to come in and defend his company’s practices. And, if the leadership in Congress gets their way, 90,000 students will lose their money for college through the proposed cuts in Pell Grants.
But apparently, Committee Chairman Tom Davis is more concerned that “[k]ids aren’t just talking about their favorite teams’ chances in the pennant race. They are talking about which pro players are on the juice.”
Norma Rae, the Sequel
Norma Rae, the Sequel
There is a huge battle going on in the world of labor these days, and if you don’t know anything about it — well, you should. Despite the fact that many of us have no say in how the battle will end, it could still be a history-making turn of events. The future of the labor movement, the welfare of American workers, and, by extension, whether or not progressives have a strong ally in unions all hangs in the balance.
Yesterday, Andy Stern had some fighting words on his blog, reflective of the Executive Council (of the AFL-CIO) meeting in Las Vegas last week, where Stern’s proposals were shot down. A brief primer on the skirmish:
The two camps are:
• The New Unity Partnership (led by Andy Stern, president of SEIU and James Hoffa of the Teamsters) an alliance among several unions that has endorsed dramatic changes to the structure, method and organization of the AFL-CIO and its member unions. Bottomline is their desire to devote more money (from a 50% dues rebate) to on-the-ground organizing.
• John Sweeney, the 10-year president of the AFL-CIO, and many of the industrial unions, who recognize that changes need to be made, but seek to emphasize increased politicization of unions – boosting expenditures on politics and lobbying, rather than for organizing. Ironically, Sweeney himself ran as a reformer as then-president of SEIU. Though President Sweeney has guided labor to carry more political clout over the past decade, the percentage of workers in unions has fallen to 12.5% from almost 16% in 1994. More »
Eight Years And Counting
Eight Years And Counting
Over 80% of Americans support a raise in the minimum wage, and only 6% oppose it. Its purchasing power has fallen every year since 1997, and it is worth less today than it has been worth in all but two of the last 48 years.
And yet, yesterday the Senate rejected two proposals to raise the minimum wage (which is a ghastly $5.15 an hour and has not been raised since 1996). By this point an increase is so overdue it hardly seems worth fighting over raising wages a dollar — which is why some people have turned to working for a living wage.
The Kennedy amendment to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour was defeated 46-49, and Santorum’s bill lost 61-38. The latter bill was shamelessly duplicitous. The bill pushed a wage increase (to a whopping $6.25) but would have cut overtime pay by abolishing the 40-hour work week, and would have forced local governments to adopt a 100% tip credit (which means that if you earn tips where you work, you would get virtually no paycheck if your tips equaled the minimum wage).
In and of itself, the fact that Congress has not raised the minimum wage in 8 years is disgraceful. Couple that with the fact that over the past five years they have given themselves raises totalling $28,500 and it is simply un-American.
John Bolton: Jesse Helms Protégé
John Bolton: Jesse Helms Protégé
[President Bush today named neoconservative, unilateralist hawk John Bolton as the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Just who is John Bolton? ]
Jesse Helms must be proud of President Bush today. A few years ago, Helms called John Bolton “the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at the gates of Armageddon,” and given that Helms and Bolton share similar feelings for the U.N., he must be sorry to miss the chance to confirm Bolston to his new post.
While there are a wealth of quotes and articles about Bolton, his words speak best for themselves:
“If I were doing the Security Council today, I’d have one permanent member because that’s the real reflection of the distribution of power in the world… [and that member would be] the United States.” [NPR, Talk of the Nation, 6/6/00]
When proponents of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty worried that its defeat was marking an isolationist turn for the U.S., Bolton said that “such fears are indications of a profoundly misguided and potentially dangerous philosophy in American foreign policy” and called them “timid and neo-pacifist.” [Taipei Times, 11/20/99]
And when he was given permission to sign the letter to the U.N. that stated Washington was renouncing the Rome Treaty creating the International Criminal Court, he described it as “the happiest moment of my government service.” [USA Today, 1/18/00]
Busting the NPT
Busting the NPT
Today is the 35th anniversary of the the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The NPT, at its most basic, requires states without nuclear weapons to not acquire them, and those states with weapons to commit to eventual disarmament. Article VI of the treaty sensibly calls for a “cessation of the nuclear arms race.” Described as “the cornerstone of global efforts” to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, it has been signed by 188 countries (though North Korea withdrew in 2003) and will undergo a five-year review this May. While the Treaty is in need of a review and some strengthening, a good start would be simply to have the United States comply more fully.
In its 2001 Nuclear Posture Review–the core document for official U.S. nuclear strategy–the Administration emphasizes the importance of coming up with new, more “usable” nuclear weapons such as a nuclear “bunker-buster.” It strongly supports research into this weapon, and is poised to battle Congress over getting funding for nuclear bunker-buster research back into the federal budget. This research makes U.S. calls for strengthened global nonproliferation measures seem hypocritical, and dramatically undermines America’s capacity to exercise essential leadership on combating nuclear threats.
Bush meets Putin meets Bush
Bush meets Putin meets Bush
Today President Bush met with President Vladimir Putin in a visit just as important as their first encounter, four years ago in Texas, where Bush “got a sense of his soul” when he looked into his eyes. The Russian Press Corps got the chance to take a look into President Bush’s eyes — and exhibit Russian-style democracy at work.
Highlights from the press conference include:
Bush on American and Russian differences — “if you really think about what we have done in the last four years and what we want to do during the next four years, the common ground is a lot more than those areas where we disagree.” Considering that Freedom House just downgraded Russia this year to “Not Free” for the first time in a decade — is that such a ringing endorsement for how the Bush Administration has behaved?
Bush on Putin — “This is the kind of fellow who when he says yes, he means yes, and when he says no, he means no. And we had a discussion about some decisions he’s made. He’s had some interest in decisions I’ve made. That’s a very important dialogue.” So, when Putin says “we’re going to remain committed to the fundamental principles of democracy,” that is the same thing as making “sweeping constitutional changes” to benefit one party?
Bush on the American Press — “And he wanted to know about our press. It’s a nice bunch of folks.” Apparently he’s changed his mind from the days of expressing his personal feelings about some reporters.
Russian scholars and politicians across America and in Western Europe all want Bush to be tough on Putin — but it is hard to tell what actually transpired in their private meeting. Was the President who met with Putin the Bush who said that America will “seek and support the growth of democratic movements… in every nation” or the Bush who asked “politely about Russia’s retreat from democracy?” We’ll have to wait and see.
Attention Deficit Disorder in Europe
Attention Deficit Disorder in Europe
One thing not being addressed by President Bush in his visit abroad: the effect of America’s ballooning deficit on the European economy. As America has fallen deeper and deeper into debt, the value of the dollar has plummeted against the euro; the dollar has lost 37 percent against the euro since 2002. Bush needs to restore confidence that America can manage the global financial system – but he is saying little about the dollar these days. European and U.S. economists alike are concerned that the falling dollar and the growing deficits are increasing the risk of financial instability in the United States.
Europe is America’s largest trading partner, exchanging over $1 billion in goods per day. Europe’s net direct investment in the US is over $1 trillion, so it is hard to blame Europeans for being worried about their investments.
Why Negroponte Got the Nod
Why Negroponte Got the Nod
This morning President Bush announced his decision to pull America’s lead man in Iraq, John Negroponte, and appoint him to be the new national director of intelligence. Though the White House claimed the delay was just President Bush trying to “get it right,” at least three potential nominees (Robert Gates, Sam Nunn and William Barr) turned the job down. The NDI will be the country’s quarterback on intelligence – coordinating and leading all 15 partners of the intelligence community.
Given that Bush has repeatedly told America that Iraq is the “central front in the war on terror,” and he thinks that Negroponte is serving with “distinction in Iraq,” why is he being pulled at such a critical juncture?
Negroponte’s most notable experience in intelligence is breaking the law in Honduras . Perhaps his strongest qualification to be the NDI is simply that he is confirmable. Though his nomination as ambassador to the United Nations was held up when several senators demanded answers for his actions (or lack thereof) in Honduras, after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, there was such a great need to have a consistent voice at the U.N. that Negroponte was able to fast-track through the confirmation process.
He was then confirmed again when Bush nominated him to be ambassador in Iraq, and so it’s expected he will be confirmed to this new role.
Star Wars Fails Again
Star Wars Fails Again
For the second time in as many months Bush’s wannabe-missile defense system (or, the “Son of Star Wars“) failed to work properly as the interceptor rocket failed to launch, leaving the target rocket to splash in the Pacific Ocean — and costing taxpayers another $85 million.
The Missile Defense system has a long sordid history, starting under President Reagan and continuing under Bush, who declared his goal to have the system ready by 2004. Since 1999 there have been a total of ten tests, but none that included the interceptor have worked. In 2003 the administration sought a waiver to “exempt the Pentagon’s controversial missile defense system from the operational testing legally required of every new weapons system in order to deploy it by 2004.” In February 2003 it was still not demonstrating “significant operational capability” and now the 2004 deadline has come and gone. It doesn’t look like the missile defense will be ready by the end of this year either, let alone while Bush is president. In case it ever does work though, don’t worry, the Pentagon already has six missiles in place in Alaska, two in California and ten about to be installed in Alaska.
No doubt the program will continue, despite its lack of success. As David Wright, of the Union of Concerned Scientists notes, “the program is being pushed ahead for political reasons regardless of its capability.”
Administration Flunks Audit
Administration Flunks Audit
Any questions on how our comptroller general feels about the president’s inability to manage the deficit were answered early last week in his annual keynote address, in which he lambasted the state of the government’s checkbook. A few of the highlights:
I’m sad to say that since I last spoke on this issue here… in September 2003, our nation’s long-range fiscal imbalance has deteriorated significantly….
The American people need to realize that the fiscal choices being made in Washington today have profound consequences for the future of our country, and our children….
[W]hat does the federal government’s annual report say about the results that are being achieved with the taxpayer dollars being spent? The answer is not much!…
By continuing to run huge budget deficits, America is partially ceding control over its own destiny to others.
He noted that the first step towards curbing this trend is to “insist on truth and transparency in government operations” — something that the Bush administration has made nearly impossible because its financial record-keeping is so inadequate. The worst offenses stem from the Defense Department – where auditors report “serious financial management problems.” (Not to mention excessive waste.)
When the Soldiers Come Home…
When the Soldiers Come Home…
President Bush did not use the word “veterans” a single time in his 2005 State of the Union. This should come as no surprise given that the last time he mentioned veterans in a SOTU was in 2002 – before we went to war. Since then, over 10,000 troops have come home wounded from Iraq, and now there are “painful” changes to staff rotations in Iraq due to a lack of new recruits. One would think that the president would have something encouraging to say to the men and women who have served our country.
The president’s inattention to veterans is more than just rhetorical; it’s having an impact.
Though the Veterans Administration’s enrolled population has grown 134 percent since 1996, appropriations have only risen 44 percent.
Because of this lack of funding, and with troops coming home injured from Iraq every week, the waiting lists are growing for medical services — leading to what seems to be the current strategy for saving money: hiding available veterans services from them.
Those who speak out on behalf of veterans suffer the consequences. At the opening of the new Congress, Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) was removed by Republican leaders as chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee for being too strong an advocate for veterans.
And things may get worse quickly. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Defense Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness David Chu says benefits for veterans have “gotten to the point where they are hurtful. They are taking away from the nation’s ability to defend itself.” (You decide: a tax cut in a time of war for the top 1 percent, or health care for those who serve the nation?)
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