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| CONSTITUTIONAL PROCESS PRESERVED 24 May 2005 Late last night, word came that a group of moderate senators from both parties had agreed to a plan that would prevent the Republican leadership from eliminating the filibuster from debate over judicial nominations. The parliamentary institution, enshrined in the constitutional rights of the minority to participate in and curb the activities of the majority party, can be an annoyance to leaders, but has served both parties consistently throughout Senate history and is seen as a key check on unfettered centralized power in Washington. [Full Story] The Congressional Black Caucus, in order to defend the concept of minority rights within the functioning of the US Congress, held a press conference explaining the importance of the filibuster in Senate procedure. They cited the many occasions where the Republican party and conservative southern Democrats used the filibuster to oppose civil rights legislation in the mid-twentieth century, saying that though they opposed the politics of such an implementation of the filibuster, it served to protect the right of minority viewpoints to be heard in open debate, and even to control the direction of debate. [Full Story] FLORIDA VOTING MESS: STILL SCARY During the last month, international observers, election experts invited by Democrats and by independent organizations to monitor the integrity of the November elections, reported that Florida's electoral system would not be prepared to produce a legitimate or fair democratic election on 2 November 2004. The major complaint was related to touchscreen voting machines (an issue first reported by SentidoNews on 29 January 2004), which are designed to record the count as votes are cast, but produce only that single electronic count, with no reliable means of reviewing the votes cast, and no way whatsoever of conducting a legally required manual recount... [Full Story] CAMPAIGN ENTERS FULL-ATTACK PHASE The Republican party has opted for a full-scale assault on the character of their Democratic challenger. It is a hallmark of Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, to relentlessly attack the greatest strengths of an opponent, in order to sow doubt and create the appearance of weakness or incompetence. This week saw the resuscitation of numerous false claims by Bush campaign operatives, culminating in the wild array of flagrantly false attacks by Zell Miller in the convention's keynote address on Wednesday. [Full Story] BUSH ACCEPTS REPUBLICAN NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT Pres. George W. Bush accepted his party's nomination to run for re-election tonight in New York. The venue was barricaded against all citizen demonstrations... The President's speech was marked by his citing of 9/11 as a hallmark of his presidency, his promise to ramp up the U.S. military posture in the world, and to do away with the current tax system. [Full Story] KERRY ACCEPTS DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT Sen. John F. Kerry formally accepted his party's nomination to run for President of the United States tonight at the Fleet Center in Boston. He was introduced by his friend, supporter and fellow Vietnam veteran, fmr. Sen. Max Cleland, who was flanked by the crew that served under Kerry in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. The candidate entered the arena to Bruce Springsteen's "No Surrender" which added poignant relief to the presence of Kerry's fellow veterans, which he has called his "band of brothers". After taking the podium, Sen. Kerry announced "I'm reporting for duty"... [Full Story] MEDIA MATTERS FINDS DRUDGE SLUR ABOUT KERRY FILMS UNFOUNDED The non-profit media watchdog organization Media Matters for America has reported that its analysis finds there is no truth to the Matt Drudge allegation that John Kerry's footage of Vietnam combat is inauthentic. According to Media Matters, Drudge deliberately ignored factual reports and evidence of authenticity in order to give priority to unfounded claims made by individuals with a history of distorting Kerry's record in order to benefit Republicans. [Full Story] EAC RECOGNIZES NEED FOR "ENHANCED SECURITY MEASURES" IN TOUCHSCREEN BALLOTING The Election Assistance Commission, set up by the 2002 Help America Vote Act to provide nationwide oversight of election processes and to seek to prevent any debacle resembling the 2000 Florida recount, has voiced support for "paper verification" and "enhanced security measures" to guarantee legitimacy of touch-screen votes. For some time, verified voting activists have been troubled by the unwillingness of members of Congress to support legislation to require a paper record of electronic votes until the EAC makes its recommendations. [Full Story] REP. WOOLSEY SENDS 191 CONGRESSIONAL SIGNATURES TO RIDGE TO STOP POSTPONEMENT OF ELECTION This week, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) circulated a petition among her colleagues in Congress, which called for an immediate halt to all planning for postponing the election. Within the first hour, it had 100 signatures, and was ultimately signed by 191 members of Congress, including Ms. Woolsey. Only 1 Republican member signed the petition, which again has raised concern among observers... [Full Story] COSTS & OVERCROWDING FORCE NYC TO LIMIT TRANSFERS FROM FAILING SCHOOLS The New York Times reports the New York City public school system will limit the number of transfers allowed next year, under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The Act targets failing schools with high-stakes testing requirements and short-term improvement requirements. New York City had adopted the policy of permitting any studen who wishes to transfer out of schools classified as "failing". [Full Story] HOMELAND SECURITY CRAFTING CONTINGENCY PLAN TO POSTPONE NOVEMBER ELECTION Newsweek broke the story, which is now being covered by newpapers around the world, that the Department of Homeland Security is considering plans to postpone the November elections, should there be a terrorist strike. This has never occurred, and so the government would need to create a legal framework for implementing such a plan. [Full Story] FEDERAL APPEALS COURT FINDS PLANS FOR YUCCA NUCLEAR REPOSITORY INADEQUATE The federal appeals court for the D.C. circuit ruled last week that the plans for containing contamination from nuclear waste stored at the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada, facility, are inadequate and cannot proceed as written. The ruling is seen as a major setback for the government's controversial plan to remove all nuclear waste in the U.S. to the single repository under Yucca Mountain. [Full Story] IRAQ WATCH: CONGRESS WORKING TO GET THE NEWS TO THE PEOPLE Iraq Watch is a project put together by members of Congress who are concerned that the true story of the Iraq War has not been consistently and dispassionately told by the nation's leaders. Led by Rep. Delahunt of Massachusetts, this group has sought to bring major news stories, and intelligence from independent sources to the floor of the House, in order to tell the story of how contractors are alleged to have gouged the American taxpayer and how civilian leaders have misused military force in response to a battle plan apparently conceived on false assumptions. [Full Story] FAMILY UNFRIENDLY: US LAGS WORLD IN FAMILY BENEFITS A new study, produced by the Project on Global Working Families, compares guaranteed family-related labor benefits in the US to over 100 industrial and developing countries. The study found that a lack of government mandates has left the US behind not only industrial democracies, but even poorer developing countries like Botswana and El Salvador, in terms of protections for workers responsible for children and sick relatives. [Full Story] BISON ALLEGEDLY HARASSED, HUNTED BY NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE Rep. Maurice Hinchey today told the House of Representatives that residents have complained that the Parks Service has been deliberately directing American Bison out of Yellowstone National Park, into the surrounding territory, where they are then captured and slaughtered. It has been alleged that the Parks Service has been "hazing" the bison, even shooting at them from helicopters, to drive them into unprotected lands where they can be legally hunted. Some 277 have been slaughtered this spring alone, more than 3,500 since 1985. [Full Story] GENERAL KARPINSKI ALLEGES TORTURE ORDERED FROM TOP Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski has told the press that she is being made a "convenient scapegoat" by compromised authorities. She alleged specifically that she was told, while in command at Abu Ghraib, that all prisoners should be treated like dogs. She says that Maj Gen Geoffrey Miller, now in charge of Iraqi prisons, then in charge of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, told her that any hint that detainees were anything more than dogs would lead to breakdown of her authority. [Full Story] STATE DEPARTMENT PUBLISHES FLAWED TERROR DATA The US State Department has issued a report on the global terrorist threat, giving evidence of the rate of incidents occurring throughout the last year. The report has now been cited for publishing seriously flawed information. The Baltimore Sun explained it this way:
Allegations surrounding the latest incident of false administration reporting include that there was an effort to make it appear that terrorist incidents had decreased thanks to the war on terror and the war in Iraq. [Full Story] ATTORNEY GENERAL INTERROGATED BY SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: POSSIBLE CONTEMPT CHARGE RAISED Ashcroft today refused to submit the memoranda in question to Senate Judiciary Committe for review in conjunction with Senate investigations into the incidents of torture uncovered in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. Senators believe that at least 3 memoranda being withheld contemplate the unconstitutionality of anti-torture treaties, and may assert that torture should be used in certain circumstances. [Full Story] HOUSE CONSIDERS CONTINUITY OF GOVERNMENT AMENDMENT The US House today considered a proposed Constitutional Amendment permitting the appointment of Representatives to replace any who may have perished in an attack killing at least 100 elected Representatives. The proposed Amendment would establish a process whereby House Members themselves would specify an appointment to serve temporarily in their stead, in the eventuality that they perish in an attack killing at least 100 Members. [Full Story] ACLU WARNS OF LOOMING DISENFRANCHISEMENT, POLLING IRREGULARITIES IN FLORIDA The ACLU is reporting that current processes underway to prepare for November's elections in Florida are likely to cause many of the same incidents of disenfranchisement that turned thousands of voters away with no remedy in 2000. The State of Florida has said it cannot guarantee that information used to erase 40,000 names from the state's voter registry was accurate. Despite this shortcoming, the State ordered all county supervisors to begin the "purge" of names said to belong to legally disenfranchised felons, without any instruction reminding them of their legal obligation to ensure that the names actually match felons who have been barred from voting. [Full Story] SNEAK ATTACK: FRIST SEEKS TO NATIONALIZE CLASS ACTION SUITS The Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate is now seeking to push a business-sponsored bill through the Senate, in order to forbid citizens from filing class-action suits before state courts. The purpose of the bill, as envisioned by its backers, is to impede the freedom of citizens to access the judicial system in order to seek redress for wrongs committed against them. By predetermining that a certain type of lawsuit can only occur in federal courts, the Republican sponsors are hoping that judges favorable to their political interests will reject suits that are unfavorable to their supporters in the corporate world. That much is not in dispute. What is puzzling about the timing of the sudden initiative is that the Senate Majority Leader chose to do so while a major defense bill is still pending, in the midst of a war that most Americans now feel has gone desperately off course. Sen. Frist also launched this push at a time when even his own party, which is solidly aligned behind this legislation, felt it would be inappropriate, given the gravity of the crisis in Iraq, and the need to resolve Pentagon funding. [Full Story] MAINE DEFENDS RIGHT OF CITIZENS TO OPT OUT OF SWEATSHOP PRODUCTS The state of Maine has passed an Anti-Sweatshop Purchasing law requiring that all companies selling textiles in Maine follow international human rights-based code of conduct, inform public of location of factories, allowing consumers to choose lawful, ethical manufacturers over less scrupulous ones. CONDOLEEZZA RICE TESTIFIES UNDER OATH National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, testified under oath today, before the Commission investigating the 9/11 attacks and intelligence activities during the years prior to the attacks. The testimony came only after months of stalling by the White House. Dr. Rice repeatedly asserted that there were no clear indications of imminent terrorist attack during the months prior to 9/11, but she admitted that the administration had been warned there were Al Qaeda cells operating in the US and under investigation. [Full Story] MEDIA SELECTED KERRY, SAYS NEW STUDY22 February 2004 A study conducted by the Center for Media and Public Affairs targets the nature of coverage in the week prior to the Iowa caucuses. According to this study, the media "appointed" John Kerry as most electable by showering him with favorable coverage, while attacking the details of the Dean campaign. Citing:
PRESIDENT PROPOSES CUTS TO TOXIN RESEARCH The AP reports that on the same day ricin powder was discovered in the Senate Majority Leader's mail, the new budget proposal requested that Congress eliminate funding for decontamination research. The article cites an EPA response as saying the cuts would "force it to disband the technical and engineering expertise that will be needed to address known and emerging biological and chemical threats in the future." [For more: Salon] STATES OPT OUT OF FUNDING FOR NCLB The Wall Street Journal today reports on increasing budget-related difficulties in the Bush agenda. Among the items listed is the problem of using a portion of the budget to lay claim to the education issue: the problem, No Child Left Behind is so strict, and poses so many logistical unpleasantness, that Vermont has opted out of federal funding and several other states are considering following suit. Virginia's House of Delegates, under a GOP majority, voted last week to exempt the state from NCLB. CBS News adds that Connecticut has already refused federal funds. According to CBS News, NCLB is "philosophically incoherent" for many Republican federalists, imposing federal mandates over local schools, centralizing decisions that many liberals and conservatives agree cannot be intelligently addressed from the rarefied air of Washington. So, even in Utah, "where Republicans reign", legislators are pushing to back out of federal funding. Analysts note the issue has become thorny enough to affect the 2004 election. [For more: ASCD] NEW VOTING MACHINES FAIL TO VERIFY, LACK SECURITY Since the 2000 presidential election, and the revelation of flaws in the Florida process, the nation has moved toward new balloting techniques. Today, an article in the New York Times reported that a "Red Team" security test conducted for Maryland's legislature revealed troubling security gaps in the state's new electronic voting system. The test demonstrated a wide range of rudimentary tactics that could be used to taint or even steal an election. Over 100,000 votes were lost in Florida's 2002 elections, "due to a software error". VerifiedVoting.org recommends a Google News search for "electronic voting", to locate a wide range of newspaper reports on the subject. [Full Story] NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTE SHOWS KERRY 39-26 OVER DEAN By 9:30pm ET, CNN was reporting its projection that Sen. John Kerry would win the New Hampshire primary. According to CNN, the projection is based on a combination of 59% of precincts reporting and exit polls taken by media groups. The projections showed Kerry with 39% to Dean's 25%. The news, perhaps, is that the media appear to have waited until voting was complete, so as not to fall into the trap of racing for a projection while being accused of swaying the vote, as in the 2000 election. [Full Story] NEW HAMPSHIRE POLLS SHOW ROLLER-COASTER RACE New polls from New Hampshire shows an uncertain primary climate. Zogby says Dean trails Kerry by 3; Gallup says Kerry leads by 11. On the note of electability, a new Newsweek poll now shows Kerry winning 49% against Bush's 46% in November. The Boston Globe cites a Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby poll released on Sunday as showing a 7% advantage for Kerry. [Full Story] MERCURY HOTSPOTS THREATEN PUBLIC HEALTH Environmental groups have been warning against controversial plans to trade in pollution credits, which allow companies, or countries, to buy and sell leftover maximum pollution quota credits, on the grounds that they undermine the effectiveness of regulation by permitting contaminated "hotspots" to emerge in places where a given polluter has purchased a large number of credits. Environmental Defense reports that 10 US states are already emerging mercury hotspots and that current federal policy will not protect against such contamination. In November, the Center for Science and Environment published a report indicating that India is on the brink of an environmental disaster, due to mercury-contaminated hotspots. The report says according to UNEP "chlor-alkali industries located on river basins in eastern India have released 60-320 times more mercury than the permissible limit into the rivers". Mercury is a contaminant of particular concern for opponents of pollution credits, because it accumulates, is highly toxic in all its forms, and penetrates into the food web through fish, water and plantlife. [For more: CSE Press Release] FBI WANTS NAMES IN LEAK PROBE According to NBC News, the FBI has requested that certain senior officials in the Bush administration "to release reporters from confidentiality", freeing them to confirm whether they were the source for the leak of the name of an undercover CIA agent last year, without violating their journalistic ethics. Some media professionals are worried, saying the move is without precedent. Experts further indicate there is likely no legal support for the request, as courts routinely recognize source-protection privilege as belonging to the journalist, not the source. WISCONSIN GOVERNOR WANTS INQUIRY INTO DRUG PRICING CRISIS Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin today said in the Democratic radio address that he had asked AG Ashcroft to investigate certain drug companies for antitrust violations, after they threatened to undersupply the Canadian market in order to drive up prices. He spoke about the crisis facing seniors who cannot afford high-priced prescription drugs and who cannot get coverage, and criticized the recent legislation passed by Congress as doing nothing to help seniors. BUSH ANNOUNCES GUEST-WORKER PROGRAM President George W. Bush has announced a plan to offer temporary legal status to undocumented immigrant workers who fill jobs Americans do not. He said he wanted to match willing workers with employers and to recognize the role which such workers already play in the US economy. ALLEGED CORRUPTION ON HOUSE FLOOR Serious questions have arisen as to the methods used by Republican leaders in the House of Representatives to persuade members of their party to vote in favor of the Medicare prescription drug bill. Conservative columnist Robert Novak broke the story, in which Rep. Nick Smith of Michigan, a Republican who voted against the bill, charged that various colleagues and business interests offered large amounts of money to his son's congressional campaign in exchange for a yes vote. [Full Story] ESKIMOS INVESTIGATE POLLUTION Yup'ik Eskimos, along Cape Romanzof in Alaska, are seeking answers regarding the source of high levels of contaminants found in their fragile local ecosystem. The Air Force had operated a strategic base at Cape Romanzof during the Cold War, and has agreed to begin cleanup of materials that appear to have originated at the base. [For more: NPR] BIPARTISAN CONCORD COALITION CRITICIZES BIG SPENDING In its report, "Over the Fiscal Brink", Concord criticizes the new Medicare bill as big spending aimed at political gain, without providing any of the structural reforms needed for facing the "age wave", during which the ratio of seniors to non-senior taxpayers will shrink to 2 to 1, the lowest in history. The report calls debate over the bill a "surprising spectacle" in which Republicans push "biggest expansion of government in a generation", while Democrats threaten to filibuster. [For more: Concord Coalition] WAR CRIMES UNCOVERED Yesterday the story broke about the Army's Tiger Force, special forces deployed in Vietnam, during the Vietnam War, regarding a campaign in 1967 during which "murder" apparently became routine.
The Blade, a Toledo, Ohio newspaper, published new investigations into the matter last month, prompting public outcry and talk of new Army investigations. If true, the allegations would mean that a particular unit within the US Army had committed war crimes, opening up perilous new legal territory. Peter Jennings reported tonight that members of Congress said they had no intention of asking for an investigation. BUSH DEMANDS VOTE ON JUDGES After an all-night debate session in the Senate, the President has called for an up or down vote on all of his judicial nominees. Three controversial nominees in particular still await approval, while one has withdrawn from the process. Republicans are calling the filibusters a "constitutional crisis", while Democrats point out they have approved 98% of Bush's judicial nominees. These four were just too radical to be entrusted with the future of American democracy, Democrats say. SUNDAY MORNING GUIDANCE & SPRAWL "MINI-NUKES" APPROVED FOR DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION DEFENDS CLIMATE POLICY JFK "probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy": SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE SHUTS DOWN NUCLEAR POTATO VIOLENT STORMS BATTER MIDWEST COURT FACES QUESTIONS OF BASIC FREEDOM BUDGET WOES UNEMPLOYMENT RISING |
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