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Bush Attacks Social Services

Attacks on Civil Liberty & Human Rights

Bushiness to Profiteer on Your Social Security *

As the Bush administration tries to persuade America to convert Social Security into a giant 401(k), we can learn a lot from other countries that have already gone down that road. . .Privatization dissipates a large fraction of workers' contributions on fees to investment companies.  It leaves many retirees in poverty. . .More than 99 percent of Social Security's revenues go toward benefits, and less than 1 percent for overhead. In Chile's system, management fees are around 20 times as high. . .A reasonable prediction for the real rate of return on personal accounts in the U.S. is 4 percent or less. If we introduce a system with British-level management fees, net returns to workers will be reduced by more than a quarter. Add in deep cuts in guaranteed benefits and a big increase in risk, and we're looking at a "reform" that hurts everyone except the investment industry.  Krugman, NY Times, 12/17/04 MORE

Social Security: Save it or Let Bush Destroy It

[E]xtending the life of the [Social Security trust fund into the 22nd century, with no change in benefits, would require additional revenues equal to only 0.54 percent of G.D.P. That's . . .less than we're currently spending in Iraq. And it's. . . roughly equal to the fraction of [the Bush Tax] cuts that goes to people with incomes over $500,000 a year. . .But since the politics of privatization depend on convincing the public that there is a Social Security crisis, the privatizers have done their best to invent one. . .[and] to bury Social Security, not to save it. They aren't sincerely concerned about the possibility that the system will someday fail. . . For Social Security is a government program that works, a demonstration that a modest amount of taxing and spending can make people's lives better and more secure. And that's why the right wants to destroy it. Krugman, NY Times, 12/7/04 MORE

Bush to Reduce SS Benefits*

The White House and Republicans in Congress are all but certain to embrace large-scale government borrowing to help finance President Bush's plan to create personal investment accounts in Social Security. . . Anybody who thinks borrowing money for the transition to personal accounts is going to solve the problem of the long-term solvency of Social Security doesn't understand the size of the problem," said Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa. . .   Mr. Grassley said Congress would also have to put benefit reductions and tax increases on the table, in part to hold down the need for borrowing and in part to assure that any changes restore Social Security's long-term financial stability.  RICHARD W. STEVENSON, NY Times, 11/28/04  MORE

Bush's Housing Shell Game*

The backlash against the Bush administration's attempt to gut housing subsidies for the poor has finally registered in Congress, where the Republican leadership is scrambling to be seen as fixing the problem. But the new housing budget that is scheduled to come before the House Appropriations Committee today is little more than a legislative shell game. This budget restores money to the Section 8 rental-subsidy program, which allows two million of the country's poorest families to keep roofs over their heads, but cuts all of the other important programs in the housing budget, including some that serve the elderly, the disabled and the homeless.  . . Congress and the White House seem bent on budgetary tactics that place more families at risk.   NY Times Editorial, 7/21/04

Bush Will Cut Social Security*

Three years ago George Bush claimed that he was cutting taxes to return a budget surplus to the public. Instead, he presided over a move to huge deficits. . .
The administration has not, of course, explained how it intends to pay the bill. But unless taxes are increased again, the answer will have to be severe program cuts, which will fall mainly on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — because that's where the bulk of the money is. . . Right now, it seems that the 2004 election will be a referendum on Mr. Bush's calamitous foreign policy. But something else is at stake: whether he and his party can lock in the unassailable political position they need to proceed with their pro-rich, anti-middle-class economic strategy.  Krugman, NY Times, 6/1/04

Bush Raises Rent for Elderly and Disabled*

Hundreds of thousands of low-income, elderly, and disabled families across the country could lose much or all of their federal housing assistance under cuts the Administration has proposed in the nation’s main low-income housing assistance program.  Each of the more than 2,500 state and local housing agencies that run the program would be forced to scale back assistance by about 30 percent by 2009, if the cuts are approved and are distributed proportionately among these agencies . . .Charging higher rents to voucher holders.  To deal with the cuts by raising rents instead, agencies would have to charge an average of about $850 more per family in 2005 and about $2,000 more per family in 2009, even though most of these families have incomes well below the poverty line. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 3/17/04

Bush Punishes the Needy*

hundreds of thousands of poor and low-income families will lose child care and housing assistance if the administration's ballyhooed spending cuts take effect. . . This [$4.9 billion in savings] is less than 1 percent of the record $521 billion deficit Mr. Bush helped create with tax cuts weighted toward the affluent (whose top 1 percent will net a $45 billion boon in this year alone). . .The real costs of such shabby budget politics would affect programs like housing vouchers. These would be cut $1.7 billion below what's needed to maintain the two million people getting help. . . this cut could mean the denial of vouchers to 250,000 of the impoverished, elderly and disabled.. ..the president's budget  . . . would leave profligate Republicans picking on the poor in a desperate attempt to stand for fiscal responsibility.  NY Times Editorial, 2/18/04

Is Social Security Safe with Bush?

So what will it take to get the budget deficit under control? Unless Social Security and Medicare are drastically cut — which is, of course, what the right wants — any solution has to include a major increase in revenue.

Many Democrats have called for a partial rollback of the Bush tax cuts, preserving the "middle class" cuts — those that convey at least some benefit to the 77 percent of taxpayers in the 15 percent tax bracket or below. Such a partial rollback would have reduced this year's budget deficit by about $180 billion; that would help, but one hopes politicians realize that it's not enough.

Another major source of revenue could be a crackdown on tax loopholes and tax evasion, which has reached epidemic proportions. In particular, what's going on with the tax on corporate profits? That source of revenue is down, as a percent of G.D.P., to 1930's levels. No, that's not a misprint.  Krugman, NY Times, 2/3/04

Sock it to Poor Children: There are 12 million deserving children in poor families that are far more likely than the affluent to immediately spend the money in the economic stimulus Mr. Bush has been promising. As the Republican government's priorities become ever clearer, the status of the nation's poorest children is a prime litmus test for the G.O.P. vows of compassion.

In another crucial measure, Congress is proposing to tighten requirements for workers receiving temporary welfare aid . . . Some 350,000 impoverished children will likely be denied care in the next five years. NY Times Editorial 7/24/03

Medicaid Mismanagement:  [GAO investicators] "said the secretary of health and human services, Tommy G. Thompson, had "not fully complied with the statutory and regulatory requirements" to monitor the quality of care under such [Medicaid] waivers. . . investigators found "medical and physical neglect" of some Medicaid recipients. . . .no one was enforcing basic safety and hygiene standards"

Robert Pear, NY Times 7/7/03

Promise them Anything:  Recently, President Bush and members of Congress authorized and recommended the spending of $15 billion over 5 years to fight the global AIDS pandemic . . .While the bill authorized the spending of $3 billion this year, we see now that members of congressional appropriation committees -such as Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) - plan to allot as little as $1.52 billion

Sucherman, Colorado News June 25, 2003

Gov. Bush's Witch Hunt *

Equity in Bush's America*

"Repubnant" Tactics *

Laws by the Will of the Governed or the Will of God *

I think it is truly important to expose the fundamental flaw in the arguments of these zealots. The unifying theme now being pushed by this coalition is actually an American heresy -- a highly developed political philosophy that is fundamentally at odds with the founding principles of the United States of America. We began as a nation with a clear formulation of the basic relationship between God, our rights as individuals, the government we created to secure those rights, and the prerequisites for any power exercised by our government.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident," our founders declared. "That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights..."  But while our rights come from God, as our founders added, "governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed."  Al Gore 4/27/05 MORE

Bush Appointee Burns Bush *

 A federal judge today ruled that President Bush does not have the power to hold an American citizen as an enemy combatant. The decision by U.S. District Judge Henry F. Floyd, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Bush in 2003, came in the case of Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen being held in a naval brig in Charleston, S.C.  "Today's decision by one of President Bush's own appointees to the bench represents yet another blow to the Administration's misguided belief that it does not have to follow our constitutional traditions in pursuing terrorists,'' said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director. "As Judge Floyd recognized in his opinion, President Bush's actions in the Padilla case flout the checks and balances that ensure our democracy and liberty." 
In his decision, Judge Floyd ordered Padilla to be released within 45 days.  ACLU, 2/28/05

Bush Mockery of Justice *

In the fall of 2002 Mr. Arar, a Canadian citizen, suddenly found himself caught up in the cruel mockery of justice that the Bush administration has substituted for the rule of law in the post-Sept. 11 world. While attempting to change planes at Kennedy Airport on his way home to Canada from a family vacation in Tunisia, he was seized by American authorities, interrogated and thrown into jail. He was not charged with anything, and he never would be charged with anything, but his life would be ruined.  Mr. Arar was surreptitiously flown out of the United States to Jordan and then driven to Syria, where he was kept like a nocturnal animal in an unlit, underground, rat-infested cell that was the size of a grave. From time to time he was tortured.   He wept. He begged not to be beaten anymore. He signed whatever confessions he was told to sign. He prayed.  Herbert, NY Times 2/25/05  MORE

Bush & the Bill of Rights *

A new survey found that a majority of high schoolers think newspapers should not be allowed to publish without government approval. And almost one in five said that Americans should be prohibited from expressing unpopular opinions.. . . I understand that when you're in high school you're still very young and that no one really cares what kids say anyway — it's not like priests are dating them for their brains.  But the younger generation is supposed to rage against the machine, not for it; they're supposed to question authority, not question those who question authority.  And what's so frightening is that we're seeing the beginnings of the first post-9/11 generation — the kids who first became aware of the news under an "Americans need to watch what they say" administration, the kids who've been told that dissent is un-American and therefore justifiably punished by a fine, imprisonment — or the loss of your show on ABC.  Bill Maher, LA Times, 2/18/05 MORE

Rehnquist on Right's Agenda*

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, . . . returned on Friday to one of his longtime themes: a need to safeguard the independence of federal judges from intrusive Congressional oversight. . . "There have been suggestions to impeach federal judges who issue decisions regarded by some as out of the mainstream. And there were several bills introduced in the last Congress that would limit the jurisdiction of the federal courts to decide constitutional challenges to certain kinds of government action."  There have been calls in Congress to strip the federal courts of jurisdiction to hear challenges to the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, to the display of the Ten Commandments on government property and to the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that permits states to withhold recognition of same-sex marriages  LINDA GREENHOUSE, NY Times, 1/1/05 MORE

Police Intimidate 11-Year Old*

When the two plainclothes Loudoun County sheriff's investigators showed up on her Leesburg doorstep, Pamela Albaugh got nervous.. . [then] she got angry: A complaint had been filed alleging that her 11-year old son had made "anti-American and violent" statements in school. . . .They asked how she felt about 9/11 and the military. They asked whether she knows any foreigners who have trouble with American policy.  . .They also inquired whether she might be teaching her children "anti-American values," . . . Georgetown law professor David Cole said Yishai's statement in class is protected by the Constitution".  There's no indication from the student making an anti-American statement that violence to the school would follow," he said. "The FBI and government officials should be investigating real terrorists, not children who criticize the United States."  Rosalind S. Helderman, Washington Post, 12/15/04 MORE

The Bush Plan for an Extreme Right Supreme Court*

Republicans say that Democrats have abused the filibuster by blocking 10 of the president's 229 judicial nominees in his first term -- although confirmation of Bush nominees exceeds in most cases the first-term experience of presidents dating to Ronald Reagan. . . .Democrats are refusing to forgo filibusters and say they will fight any effort by Frist to act unilaterally to end them for judicial nominations. They warn that it could poison the well for bipartisan cooperation on other issues in the upcoming Congress. . . several lawyers and former administration officials who have discussed the issue with West Wing aides said they see indications that Bush is headed toward nominating what one called a "strong ideological conservative"  

Tanks Block Protesters in Los Angeles *

"What the heck happened in L.A. last night? A peaceful antiwar protest in Westwood got a Robocop response. Two armored tanks came to dispel the protest. It's unknown at the moment whether the protesters had permits, or what the rationale for bringing an armored response was by officials, but what kind of rationale could possibly merit this approach?" Afternet, 11/10/04 MORE

"LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2004 - At 7:50 PM two armored tanks showed up at an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in Westwood. The tanks circled the block twice, the second time parking themselves in the street and directly in front of the area where most of the protesters were gathered. "  LA.IndyMedia.org  11/10/04  MORE
SEE Video of Tanks at L.A. Protest HERE

Bush Oversteps Constitution*

"A federal judge ruled Monday that President Bush had both overstepped his constitutional bounds and improperly brushed aside the Geneva Conventions in establishing military commissions to try detainees at the United States naval base here as war criminals.  The ruling by Judge James Robertson of United States District Court in Washington brought an abrupt halt to the trial here of one detainee, one of hundreds being held at Guantánamo as enemy combatants. It threw into doubt the future of the first set of United States military commission trials since the end of World War II . . .In the 45-page ruling, the judge said the administration had ignored a basic provision of the Geneva Conventions, the international treaties signed by the United States that form the basic elements of the laws governing the conduct of war." NEIL LEWIS,NY Times, 11/9/04 MORE

Bush Tries Intimidation of Black Voters*

Two e-mails, prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in Florida and the campaign's national research director in Washington DC, contain a 15-page so-called "caging list".  It lists 1,886 names and addresses of voters in predominantly black and traditionally Democrat areas of Jacksonville, Florida. . . An elections supervisor in Tallahassee, when shown the list, told Newsnight: "The only possible reason why they would keep such a thing is to challenge voters on election day." . . ."Quite frankly, this process can be used to slow down the voting process and cause chaos on election day; and discourage voters from voting." Sancho calls it "intimidation." And it may be illegal. . .we filmed a private detective filming every "early voter" - the majority of whom are black - from behind a vehicle with blacked-out windows.   Greg Palast. BBC Newsnight, 2/26/04 MORE

Voting in the US, the US, the USSR*

Republican Party officials in Ohio took formal steps yesterday to place thousands of recruits inside polling places on Election Day to challenge the qualifications of voters . . .Election officials in other swing states, from Arizona to Wisconsin and Florida, say they are bracing for similar efforts by Republicans to challenge new voters at polling places. . ."Our concern is Republicans will be challenging in large numbers for the purpose of slowing down voting, because challenging takes a long time,'' said David Sullivan, . . ."And creating long lines causes our people to leave without voting.'' . .In Cuyahoga County alone, which includes the heavily Democratic neighborhoods of Cleveland, the Republican Party submitted more than 14,000 names of voters for county election officials to scrutinize for possible irregularities. MICHAEL MOSS, NY Times, 10/23/04 MORE

Bush² in Florida *

After the 2000 [Florida election] debacle, a task force appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush recommended that the state adopt a robust voting technology that would greatly reduce the number of spoiled ballots and provide a paper trail for recounts: paper ballots read by optical scanners that alert voters to problems. This system is in use in some affluent, mainly white Florida counties.  But Governor Bush ignored this recommendation, just as he ignored state officials who urged him to "pull the plug" on a new felon list - which was quickly discredited once a judge forced the state to make it public - just days before he ordered the list put into effect. Instead, much of the state will vote using touch-screen machines that are unreliable and subject to hacking, and leave no paper trail. Mr. Palast estimates that this will disenfranchise 27,000 voters - disproportionately poor and black. . .  Mr. Bush may yet win convincingly. But we must not repeat the mistake of 2000  Krugman, NY Times, 10/22/04  MORE

Bush Disenfranchises Dems*

[T]here is a pattern of Republican efforts to disenfranchise Democrats, by any means possible. . . Ohio's secretary of state, a Republican, tried to use an archaic rule about paper quality to invalidate thousands of new, heavily Democratic registrations. . .in Wisconsin, a Republican county executive insists . . .Milwaukee will receive fewer ballots than it got in 2000 or 2002 - a recipe for chaos at polling places serving urban, mainly Democratic voters. . .Florida's secretary of state recently ruled that voter registrations would be deemed incomplete if those registering failed to check a box. . . State officials have imposed Kafkaesque hurdles for voters trying to get back on the rolls. Depending on the county, those attempting to get their votes back have been required to seek clemency for crimes committed by others, or to go through quasi-judicial proceedings to prove that they are not felons with similar names. Krugman, NY Times, 10/15/04 MORE

Bush Dirty Election Tricks *

Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash. . .The focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America. . .Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.  "We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some of them out of the garbage . ." said Eric Russell, former Voters Outreach employee. . .The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee. Similar complaints have been received in Reno where the registrar has asked the FBI to investigate. KLASTV, Las Vegas,10/12/04  MORE

Liberty and in Bush Supreme Court*

Paul Gregory House was convicted of murdering a neighbor in 1985, before the era of DNA typing. The Tennessee jury that found him guilty was told that the semen found on the body of the neighbor, Carolyn Muncey, matched his blood type. . .the semen's DNA matched that of Mrs. Muncey's husband, Hubert, not the defendant. A 15-judge United States Court of Appeals panel in Cincinnati that heard a request to reopen the case knew that. Yet the judges recently voted, 8 to 7, that Mr. House should neither be freed nor given a new trial. . .The eight judges appointed by a Republican president voted to keep Mr. House on the road to the death penalty. Six judges appointed by a Democrat wanted to free him, and the seventh called for a new trial. . .For Mr. House, the next stop is the Supreme Court. For the rest of us, his case should serve as a reminder that when we elect a president, we are also deciding the makeup of our courts. NY Times Editorial, 10/9/04  MORE

God is Obviously Not Republican*

By an amazing stroke of luck, there have been no vacancies on the [Supreme] Court in Bush's first term. Still, the current Court has been sitting for ten years, and the only Justice under 65 is Clarence Thomas. How much longer can God--who is obviously not a Republican--keep these spry oldsters going? . . .Some pundits, and of course Naderites, pooh-pooh feminists who fear Bush appointees would overturn Roe v. Wade. Bush wouldn't let that happen, they say, because that would wake up the sleeping pro-choice voter giant. Maybe--but why then is he nominating to the federal bench such anti-Roe zealots as Michael Fisher, John Roberts, Michael McConnell and John Rogers, and going so far as to give recess appointments to Charles Pickering and William Pryor? Why are antichoice Edith Jones, J. Harvie Wilkinson III and Janice Rogers Brown on the Supreme Court short list?   Katha Pollitt, The Nation, 10/7/04  MORE

Bush Plays Politics*

THE HOUSE OF Representatives' version of intelligence reform might be dismissed as an election-year stunt were it not so dangerous. . . One section would relax restrictions on deporting people who may face torture at home, in violation of an international treaty to which this country is a party. . .The goal here is not subtle, nor does the Republican leadership even make a pretense of concealing it. The goal is to force Democrats either to accept policy they would otherwise oppose or to turn against the bill itself -- thereby letting Republicans brand them as weak on terrorism . . . there is considerable danger that some of these provisions will become law. The House is due to take up the intelligence reform bill this week and is likely to pass it with many of the most offensive provisions intact. It will then go to a House-Senate conference committee to be reconciled with a far sparer, bipartisan Senate version. Anything can happen there.  Washington Post Editorial, 10/5/04

Ashcroft Patriot Act Unconstitutional*

A federal judge today declared unconstitutional a tool the FBI uses to get Internet and other records in terror investigations, saying the provision, which was enhanced by the USA Patriot Act, operated in secrecy and lacked adequate judicial oversight. . .Marrero ruled that the law was flawed because it did not provide the recipients of the letters any opportunity to challenge them in court. He also ruled that a part of the law that prohibited recipients from ever disclosing the existence of the letters violated the 1st Amendment.
. .Anthony Romero, the ACLU's executive director, said the decision was "a stunning victory against the John Ashcroft Justice Department." 
The ruling comes as Congress is deliberating on whether to add new surveillance powers to the government as part of intelligence-reform legislation.  Richard B. Schmitt, LA Times, 9/29/04 MORE

Bush Attacks Free Press *

A group of organizations representing publishers and authors sued the federal government Monday, saying it is blocking the works of authors in countries such as Cuba, Iran and Sudan from reaching the United States. . . The lawsuit noted that authors in those countries already work under government restrictions and blamed the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control for, in effect, extending "the force of foreign censorship to the United States." The office was named as a defendant because it enforces U.S. trade embargo regulations requiring publishers to obtain licenses to edit articles and books by authors in some other countries  Plaintiffs include the Association of American University Presses,. . .the Association of American Publishers, and the PEN American Center. Associated Press, 9/27/04 MORE

Ashcroft: Unfair and Unbalanced*

Under Ashcroft, the Justice Department has also changed its method of hiring lawyers, who are supposed to be apolitical, and often go on to spend their careers working for the government. The department, which employs close to four thousand attorneys, hires junior-level lawyers through a program known as the Attorney General’s Honors Program, which brings in about a hundred and fifty new lawyers each year. In the past, the program was run by mid-level career officials, who were known for their political independence. Since 2002, the Honors Program has been run by political appointees. . .Thanks to these changes. . . it’s only a matter of time before tensions in the Voting Section disappear. As a current employee puts it, “Soon, there won’t be any difference between the career people and the political people. The front office is replicating itself. Everyone here will be on the same page.”  JEFFREY TOOBIN, The New Yorker, 9/12/04 MORE

Bush Assaults Freedom of Speach

The memo came from DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). In the memo, OLC concluded, not surprisingly, that the monitoring, interrogating and gathering of evidence on potential political protesters raised no First Amendment concerns. In addition, it went on to conclude that even if, hypothetically, such activities did raise concerns, any "chilling" effect would be "quite minimal" and would be far outweighed by the overriding public interest in maintaining "order." . . .In the last few months, evidence has been mounting that special agents are showing up at the homes and offices of potential protesters - casting suspicion upon them in front of bosses, colleagues, family, friends and neighbors. This activity apparently has increased as the Republican Convention and the November election draw near. . . Also according to the New York Times, the final question the FBI agents ask is this: Does the interviewee know that withholding information on whether they know anyone else who might be planning a demonstration or "disruption" is itself a crime?  Bob Barr, FindLaw, 8/25/04

Bush Chill in Florida*
[A] man who is close to the Republican establishment in Florida but [who] asked not to be identified [said] "It's no secret that the name of the game for Republicans is to restrain that turnout as much as possible. Black votes are Democratic votes, and there are a lot of them in Florida.". . .The two ugly developments - both focused on race - were the heavy-handed investigation by Florida state troopers of black get-out-the-vote efforts in Orlando, and the state's blatant attempt to purge blacks from voter rolls . . . The use of state troopers to zero in on voter turnout efforts is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, in Florida. But the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Guy Tunnell['s] spokesmen have said a "person of interest" in the investigation is Ezzie Thomas, a 73-year-old black man who just happens to have done very well in turning out the African-American vote. Herbert, NY Times, 8/23/04

Jeb Bush, the Intimidator*

The smell of voter suppression coming out of Florida is getting stronger. It turns out that a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation, in which state troopers have gone into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando in a bizarre hunt for evidence. . ., is being conducted despite a finding by the department last May "that there was no basis to support the allegations" . . .state troopers have gone into the homes of 40 or 50 black voters, most of them elderly, in what the department describes as a criminal investigation.  . ."These guys are using these intimidating methods to try and get these folks to stay away from the polls in the future,'' said Eugene Poole, president of the Florida Voters League,  . . . Mr. Tunnell, . . . was handpicked by Gov. Jeb Bush to head the Department of Law Enforcement,  Herbert, NY Times, 8/20/04

FBI Intimidates Political Demonstrators*

For several weeks, starting before the Democratic convention, F.B.I. officers have been questioning potential political demonstrators, and their friends and families, about their plans to protest at the two national conventions. These heavy-handed inquiries are intimidating, and they threaten to chill freedom of expression. They also appear to be a spectacularly poor use of limited law-enforcement resources. The F.B.I. should redirect its efforts to focus more directly on real threats. . .  In Missouri, three men in their early 20's said they had been followed by federal investigators for days, then subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury. They ended up canceling their plans to show up for the Democratic and Republican conventions. . .The F.B.I.'s questioning of protesters is part of a larger campaign against political dissent that has increased sharply since the start of the war on terror. NY Times Editorial, 8/17/04

Accountants Know Why*

Electronic voting systems have major security problems and hackers should make it their mission to find the flaws, an e-voting critic told security researchers on Thursday. 
Speaking at the Black Hat Security Briefings here, Rebecca Mercuri, a fellow at a Harvard-affiliated research center and a noted e-voting critic, called the current voting process a statistical game of shells, one that e-voting machine makers are playing for profits.  "The data is not being collected in any meaningful way," she said. "Citizens should demand full accountability in election data at the precinct, county and state levels." . . ."We had a computer scientist talk about why there is a good reason to have three sets of books in a voting machine," she said. "But an accountant would know that there is only one reason for a double or triple set of books, and that is fraud." Robert Lemos, CNET News.com, 7/30/04

Electronic Votes Missing in Florida*

Almost all the electronic records from the first widespread use of touch-screen voting in Miami-Dade County have been lost,. . . The records disappeared after two computer system crashes last year, county elections officials said, leaving no audit trail for the 2002 gubernatorial primary. A citizen's group uncovered the loss this month after requesting all audit data from that election. . . Florida is headed toward being the next Florida," said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, a lawyer who is the chairwoman of the coalition. . . .After the 2002 primary, between Democratic candidates Janet Reno and Bill McBride, the American Civil Liberties Union . . . found that 8 percent of votes, or 1,544, were lost on touch-screen machines in 31 precincts in Miami-Dade County.  ABBY GOODNOUGH, NY Times, 7/28/04

Real Election Fraud?*

It's election night, and early returns suggest trouble for the incumbent. Then, mysteriously, the vote count stops and observers from the challenger's campaign see employees of a voting-machine company, one wearing a badge that identifies him as a county official, typing instructions at computers with access to the vote-tabulating software.  When the count resumes, the incumbent pulls ahead. The challenger demands an investigation. But there are no ballots to recount, and election officials allied with the incumbent refuse to release data that could shed light on whether there was tampering with the electronic records.  This isn't a paranoid fantasy. It's a true account of a recent election in Riverside County, Calif., reported by Andrew Gumbel of the British newspaper The Independent. Krugman, NY Times, 7/27/04

Florida Election Voter Purge "possibly criminal"*

Members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called Thursday for a federal investigation to determine whether Florida officials violated the Voting Rights Act when they put together an error-plagued list designed to purge felons from the state's voting rolls.  The state Division of Elections scrapped the list Saturday because it is riddled with mistakes, including the omission of nearly all Hispanic felons in the state. . ."This is not just about sloppy databases; it's not just about bureaucracies strapped for resources," commission member Christopher Edley said. "It's about the possible deprivation of a civil right, possibly criminal."  Gwyneth K. Shaw, Orlando Sentinal, 7/16/04
 

Bush Could Cancel Election *

The [Justice] department wants to know about the possibility of granting emergency power to the newly created U.S. Election Assistance Commission, authority that Roehrkasse said was requested by DeForest B. Soaries Jr., the commission's chairman.  Soaries, who was appointed by President Bush, is a former New Jersey secretary of state . . . Soaries, who was appointed by President Bush, is a former New Jersey secretary of state and senior pastor of the 7,000-member First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, New Jersey.  He wrote in April to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice asking them to seek such legislation from Congress, Roehrkasse said.  CNN, 7/11/04

Voter Roles Purged of Democrats

Florida's error-prone list of 47,763 suspected felons who could be tossed from voter rolls before November's presidential election contains nearly three times as many registered Democrats as Republicans. Almost half are racial minorities. . . .Circuit Judge Nikki Ann Clark said in her ruling that the Florida Constitution ``grants every person the fundamental right to inspect or copy public records.'' . . .Felons, meanwhile, continue to be purged from voter rolls - sometimes improperly - because processes exist separate from the statewide list of potential felons. As a result of records that were provided directly by the courts, Daren Jones, 30, a salesman from Miami, saw his voting rights improperly taken away last month.  GARRETT THEROLF, Tampa Tribune, 7/3/04

Florida Vote Fraud - Again*

A Florida Division of Elections database lists more than 47,000 people the department said may be ineligible to vote because of felony records. The state is directing local elections offices to check the list and scrub felons from voter rolls. But a Herald review shows that at least 2,119 of those names -- including 547 in South Florida -- shouldn't be on the list because their rights to vote were formally restored through the state's clemency process. . . .''I have never seen such an incompetent program implemented by the DOE,'' said Leon County elections chief Ion Sancho. Sancho said his office has already found people in the state's felon voter database who have received clemency.  ERIKA BOLSTAD, JASON GROTTO AND DAVID KIDWELL, Miami Herald, 7/2/04

Bush Wrong on Rights*

In a matter of a few minutes Monday, the Supreme Court unraveled a major component of the Bush admin-istration's legal strategy for fighting the war on terror. . . The Supreme Court . . .ruled that even enemy combatants deserve at the least a chance to prove in court they are innocent. Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that the court unflinchingly flexed its muscle in a ruling that shows "the Bush administration's war on terror has eroded constitutional rights and respect for the rule of law."  Joseph Margulies, an attorney for prisoners in Cuba, called it an "emphatic reinforcement of the resilience of the Bill of Rights."  "You don't simply hold people in a lawless void based on an executive say-so," he said.  Associated Press, 6/28/04

Ashcroft, the Travesty *

No question: John Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in history. . .First, there's the absence of any major successful prosecutions. The one set of convictions that seemed fairly significant — that of the "Detroit 3" — appears to be collapsing over accusations of prosecutorial misconduct. . . Then there is the lack of any major captures. Somewhere, the anthrax terrorist is laughing.  . .consider the case of Sibel Edmonds, a former F.B.I. translator who says that the agency's language division is riddled with incompetence and corruption, . . .to prevent Ms. Edmonds from providing evidence. And last month the department retroactively classified two-year-old testimony by F.B.I. officials, which was presumably what Mr. Grassley referred to. . .Mr. Ashcroft, apparently in contempt of Congress, refused to release a memo on torture  Krugman, NY Times, 6/15/04

Felony about Non-Felons?*

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has joined a lawsuit filed by CNN seeking to force the state to allow the copying of a list of names of people assumed to be convicted felons. The issue is important because the list may contain names of people who are not convicted felons, and who could be barred from voting in the upcoming elections. . .The list technically is a public record, but state law allows only certain people and groups, such as political parties or candidates, to obtain copies. Anyone else is legally entitled to look at the list, but cannot copy it. 
And why is the state resisting so strongly? Because, says the Florida Department of State, which maintains voter lists, releasing the list would violate the privacy of voters who might accidentally appear on the list.
Say, what?
Stuart News editorial, 6/13/04

Bush Above U.S. Laws*

In the view expressed by the Justice Department memo. . ., physical torture "must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." . .  . "As Commander in Chief, the President has the constitutional authority to order interrogations of enemy combatants to gain intelligence information concerning the military plans of the enemy," said the memo, obtained by The Washington Post.
Critics say that this misstates the law, and that it ignores key legal decisions, such as the landmark 1952 Supreme Court ruling in Youngstown Steel and Tube Co v. Sawyer, which said that the president, even in wartime, must abide by established U.S. laws. Mike Allen and Dana Priest, Washington Post, 6/9/04

Florida Election Redux*

The head of Florida's elections division resigned Monday amid reports he was feeling political heat over a push to purge thousands of suspected felons from the state's voter rolls.  Ed Kast, who has worked for the state elections division for more than a decade, said only that he was resigning to "pursue other opportunities."   But Kast has told a handful of associates that he was uncomfortable with growing pressure to trim felons from voter rolls in time for the fall election, friends say. . .Hours earlier, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson joined a lawsuit to force state election officials to reveal the names of 47,000 suspected felons who could be dropped from voting lists, saying he wanted to be sure mistakes in 2000 are not repeated.  Bob Mahlburg, Florida Sun-Sentinel, 6/8/04

SEE VIDEO ON 2000 FL ELECTION FRAUD

Indefinite Detention; No Hearing

[Jose] Padilla was arrested after arriving at Chicago's O'Hare airport on a flight from Pakistan. Although no charges have been filed against Padilla, President Bush has designated him an enemy combatant — a status that the government says justifies indefinite detention. Until very recently, Padilla was not allowed to see a lawyer.  Padilla's lawyers argue that his treatment violates due process of law. The Bush administration says its actions are an appropriate exercise of executive branch powers.  At the news conference Tuesday, Deputy U.S. Atty. Gen. James B. Comey Jr. denied that the release was intended to sway the Supreme Court. He said it was the product of months of effort to compile a complete accounting of how and why Padilla was detained.  Richard B. Schmitt, LA Times, 6/2/04

To Tell the Truth

[W]hy did the press credit Mr. Bush with virtues that reporters knew he didn't possess? One answer is misplaced patriotism. After 9/11 much of the press seemed to reach a collective decision that it was necessary, in the interests of national unity, to suppress criticism of the commander in chief. . .Another answer is the tyranny of even-handedness. . .And some journalists just couldn't bring themselves to believe that the president of the United States was being dishonest about such grave matters. . .Finally, let's not overlook the role of intimidation. After 9/11, if you were thinking of saying anything negative about the president, . . . you had to expect right-wing pundits and publications to do all they could to ruin your reputation, Krugman, NY Times,5/28/04

Sgt. Mejia, A Brave Patriot*

Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia is a 28-year-old member of the Florida National Guard who served six harrowing months in Iraq,. . .has been charged with desertion.  . .Sergeant Mejia told me in a long telephone interview this week that he . . . led an infantry squad and saw plenty of action. But the more he thought about the war — including the slaughter of Iraqi civilians, the mistreatment of prisoners (which he personally witnessed), the killing of children, the cruel deaths of American G.I.'s . . ., the ineptitude of inexperienced, glory-hunting military officers . . ., and the growing rage among coalition troops against all Iraqis (known derisively as "hajis," the way the Vietnamese were known as "gooks")  — . . . the more he felt that this war could not be justified, and that he could no longer be part of it.  Bob Herbert, NY Times, 5/21/04

Rumsfeld Violates Geneva Convention*

Under the fourth Geneva convention, an occupying power can jail civilians who pose an “imperative” security threat, but it must establish a regular procedure for insuring that only civilians who remain a genuine security threat be kept imprisoned. Prisoners have the right to appeal any internment decision and have their cases reviewed. Human Rights Watch complained to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that civilians in Iraq remained in custody month after month with no charges brought against them. . . As the photographs from Abu Ghraib make clear, these detentions have had enormous consequences: for the imprisoned civilian Iraqis, many of whom had nothing to do with the growing insurgency;  SEYMOUR M. HERSH, New Yorker, 5/10/04 Issue

Cheney & the Elected Dictatorship*

 the administration has put forward  "a vision of presidential power . . . as far-reaching as any the court has seen."  That same vision is apparent in many other actions. Just to mention one: we learn from Bob Woodward that the administration diverted funds earmarked for Afghanistan to preparations for an invasion of Iraq without asking or even notifying Congress.
What Mr. Cheney is defending, in other words, is a doctrine that makes the United States a sort of elected dictatorship: a system in which the president, once in office, can do whatever he likes, and isn't obliged to consult or inform either Congress or the public.  Krugman, NY Times, 4/27/04

Threats to a Free Press

Anna Perez, who recently directed communications at the National Security Council, will become chief communications executive for NBC, the network announced yesterday.  NY Times, 4/2/04

Katherine Harris & Bush-Cheney*

When Katherine Harris had to decide which candidate won Florida in 2000, many people were disturbed to learn she was both the state's top elections official and co-chairwoman of the Florida Bush-Cheney campaign. This year, that kind of unhealthy injection of partisanship into the administration of a presidential election could happen again. . . Many of the decisions secretaries of state make have the potential to change an election's results. Purging voting rolls too aggressively, as Ms. Harris did in 2000, can change the party breakdown of the electorate. . . This country should start holding its election system to the same standards of impartiality that its election monitors routinely apply to others.  NY Times Editorial, 3/29/04

Bush Rejects Geneva Conventions*

a new report by Human Rights Watch on Afghanistan has documented, the Bush administration's practice of refusing to follow the Geneva Conventions or any other rule of law has led to abuses that are an affront to fundamental American values. . . .U.S. authorities have never disclosed how many prisoners are being held or where, nor have they permitted visits by family members or lawyers to those detained. No charges have been brought against any of the prisoners. "Simply put," the report concludes, "the United States is acting outside the rule of law." . . .The silence is shameful: It could be taken to suggest that suspects can be killed in U.S. custody with impunity.  Washington Post Editorial, 3/20/04

Bush Peddles Illegal Campaign Ware*

The official merchandise Web site for President George W. Bush's re-election campaign has sold clothing made in Burma, whose goods were banned by Bush from the U.S. last year to punish its military dictatorship. . . Bush last July signed into law the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, saying "The United States will not waver from its commitment to the cause of democracy and human rights in Burma."

Violators of the import ban are subject to fines and jail, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.  LAUREN WEBER, Newsday, 3/19/04

Checking the Polls*

Charlie Matulka, who lost to Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska the same year, does not trust the results in his election. Most of the votes were cast on paper ballots that were scanned into computerized vote-counting machines, which happen to have been manufactured by a company Mr. Hagel used to run. Mr. Matulka, suspicious of Senator Hagel's ties to the voting machine company, demanded a hand recount of the paper ballots. Nebraska law did not allow it, he was informed. "This is the stealing of our democracy," he says. . .  every voter should see a paper receipt. This "voter-verified paper trail" should be retained, and made available for recounts — a low-tech check on the reliability of electronic voting.  NY Times Editorial, 2/29/04

The Computer Ate My Vote  True Majority

[The federal government] has warned publishers they may face grave legal consequences for editing manuscripts from Iran and other disfavored nations, on the ground that such tinkering amounts to trading with the enemy. . . .
"That's censorship," said Leon Friedman, a Hofstra law professor who sometimes represents PEN. "That's a prior restraint."
Esther Allen, chairwoman of the PEN American Center's translation committee, said the rules would also appear to ban translations. "During the cold war, the idea was to let voices from behind the Iron Curtain be heard," she said. "Now that's called trading with the enemy?"
In an internal legal analysis last month, the publishers' association found that the regulations "constitute a serious threat to the U.S. publishing community in general and to scholarly and scientific publishers in particular." Mr. Adler, the association's lawyer, said it was trying to persuade officials to alter the regulations and might file a legal challenge.
These days, journals published by the engineering institute reject manuscripts from Iran that need extensive editing and run a disclaimer with those they accept, said Michael R. Lightner, the institute vice president responsible for publications. "It tells readers," he said, "that the article did not get the final polish we would like."  NY Times, ADAM LIPTAK
2/28/04
 

Mean-spirited Bush*

President Bush proposes to radically rewrite the Constitution. The amendment he announced support for yesterday could not only keep gay couples from marrying, as he maintains, but could also threaten the basic legal protections gay Americans have won in recent years. It would inject meanspiritedness and exclusion into the document embodying our highest principles and aspirations. . . the wording of the Federal Marriage Amendment now pending in Congress. . .calls for denying same-sex couples not only marriage, but also its "legal incidents." It could well be used to deny gay couples even economic benefits, which are now widely recognized by cities, states and corporations. Such an amendment could radically roll back the rights of millions of Americans.  NY Times Editorial, 2/25/04

Bush Takes Rights Away*

the mega spending bill recently passed by Congress contained more than just billions of dollars in pork barrel projects. The lawmakers also took some of your rights away. . . .The new policy . . .was largely the work of the gun lobby, which persuaded the White House to support its position that releasing the information would jeopardize police investigations. Yet there was no evidence that any investigations had been hampered under the old policy. In fact, many police organizations and the FBI Agents Association joined with gun-control advocates in opposing the new policy, which bars the release of government records on gun dealers and requires the ATF to purge its background checks on buyers within 24 hours, compared with the previous 90-day limit. Times Union, 2/22/04

Threat to Civil Liberties on College Campuses*

In what may be the first subpoena of its kind in decades, a federal judge has ordered a university to turn over records about a gathering of anti-war activists.

The group, once targeted for alleged ties to communism in the 1950s, announced Friday it will ask a federal court to quash the subpoena on Monday.   RYAN J. FOLEY, Associated Press Writer

The Bush Election Fix*

After the trauma of the Florida recount, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act, and when President Bush signed it, he declared that "when problems arise in the administration of elections, we have a responsibility to fix them." But the president's new budget provides only $40 million of the $800 million promised for election improvements at the state level this year . . .Hundreds of millions of dollars have been allocated for making improvements at the state level, but the commission is too short of cash to distribute it. By law, the money cannot be disbursed until the states' plans appear in The Federal Register, and the commission cannot afford the $800,000 publishing cost. NY Times Editorial, 2/8/04