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Controversial BushAdmin Decisions And Sensitive News Announced Friday Or The Day Before A Holiday, A Time When Media Coverage And Readership Is At Its Weakest.

Saturday, January 17, 2004

Friday Sneak: Bush Seats Conservative Judge Accused Of Racist, Anti-Voter Positions Without Senate OK, nyt
Pickering Record "Disturbing," Bush Action "unwarranted escalation of...nomination wars.", ed
Bush Puts Finger In The Eye Of Fairness With Pickering Seating, ed
Friday Sneak: Supremes Say DeLay's Texas Redistricting Stiffing Of Minorities, DEMs OK. Gives GOP Up To 7 More Seats In Congress, nyt

BUSH BYPASSES SENATE - President Bush bypassed the Senate and appointed an outspoken Middle East scholar to a federal think tank over the objections of Democrats and others who say he is anti-Muslim. Bush on Friday appointed Daniel Pipes, director of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum, to the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace. The White House, which made the announcement in a statement released in Burbank, Wash., where Bush was visiting, called him a well-respected scholar. His supporters include a number of Jewish groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Anti- Defamation League. Critics call Pipes an extremist who should not be named to a peace organization. Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee have raised strong objections to Pipes' nomination, forcing the panel to postpone a vote on the appointment. The appointment won't be valid until the next Congress is sworn in, which would be January 2005. Pipes is a Harvard-trained scholar who, as head of the Middle East Forum, has called for a war on Islamic extremism, declaring in one post-Sept. 11 interview, ``What we need to do is inspire fear, not affection.'' The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington- based civil rights group, said Pipes is ``known for his hostility to Muslims,'' and called the appointment ``a backdoor move'' that is ``an affront to all those who seek peace.'' --AP, 08.23.03

FRIDAY SNEAK...BUSH LIES...Trailers Of Mass Destruction, Part Two..."You remember when [Secretary of State] Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons....They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two.* And we'll find more weapons as time goes on, But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them." (italics ours) --WP, "Bush: 'We Found' Banned Weapons. President Cites Trailers in Iraq as Proof, " May 31, 2003

*At the time of this statement, no such weapons were found, and no such weapons have been found to this day. On this point as well as the use of the captured trailers as biolabs, the WP said this in the above article: "U.S. authorities have to date made no claim of a confirmed finding of an actual nuclear, biological or chemical weapon. In the interview, Bush said weapons had been found, but in elaborating, he mentioned only the trailers, which the CIA has concluded were likely used for production of biological weapons." There was no statement of fact, there was no smoking gun. The CIA's finding was advanced as an opinion based on its own particular process of elimination, and it was immediately challenged by both U.S. and U.K. intelligence analysts who had seen the trailers. --Politex, 08.09.03 (italics ours)

Now comes this..."Engineering experts from the Defense Intelligence Agency have come to believe that the most likely use for two mysterious trailers found in Iraq was to produce hydrogen for weather balloons rather than to make biological weapons, government officials say.

The classified findings by a majority of the engineering experts differ from the view put forward in a white paper made public on May 28 by the C.I.A. and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which said that the trailers were ["likely used"] for making biological weapons....

The State Department's intelligence branch, which was not invited to take part in the initial review, disputed the findings in a memorandum on June 2. The fact that American and British intelligence analysts with direct access to the evidence were disputing the claims included in the C.I.A. white paper was first reported in June, along with the analysts' concern that the evaluation of the mobile units had been marred by a rush to judgment." --NYT, 08.09.03

CHENEY DROPS ENRONIZED SEC. OF ARMY TO GET READY FOR 2004. In a sudden move Friday, the service's senior civilian, Army Secretary Thomas White, was reported to have submitted his resignation. Several senior defense officials said yesterday that Rumsfeld asked White to resign during a meeting late Friday afternoon. Relations between the two men had been strained during much of White's two-year tenure, marked by a clash over a planned Army artillery system that Rumsfeld canceled and controversy over White's former employment with Enron Corp.

"ALLEGED TERRORIST MET WITH WHITE HOUSE ADVISER" KARL ROVE, PHOTOGRAPHED WITH BUSH DURING CAMPAIGN "A former university professor indicted this week as a terrorist leader attended a 2001 group meeting in the White House complex with President Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove, administration officials said yesterday. Sami Al-Arian, a former computer engineering professor at the University of South Florida, had been under investigation by the FBI for at least six years at the time of the June 2001 briefing for a Muslim organization. Numerous news accounts also had said federal agents suspected Al-Arian of links to terrorism. Al-Arian and his family also were photographed with Bush during a March 2000 campaign stop near Al-Arian's suburban Tampa home.... Al-Arian posed with Bush and his wife, Laura, at the Florida Strawberry Festival on March 12, 2000, a moment captured in an Al-Arian family photo. Nahla Al-Arian said Bush noticed her traditional headscarf and asked to meet her family. "The Muslim people support you," she recalled telling him. The family said that Bush gave their lanky son, Abdullah, the nickname "Big Dude."...And Bush sent a letter of apology to the suspect's wife after the Secret Service ejected their son -- who was then a congressional intern -- from the White House complex during a separate June 2001 meeting of Muslims interested in the president's faith-based initiative.Al-Arian's appearance at the White House came six days earlier, also as part of the administration's outreach to Muslims, officials said.... Al-Arian has told The Post that he and wife Nahla campaigned for Bush in Florida mosques and elsewhere because they thought him the candidate most likely to fight discrimination against Arab Americans." 2.22.03
wp |related stories

"PROFESSOR IN TERROR INDICTMENT WAS A BUSH SUPPORTER" "Sami Amin al-Arian, the University of South Florida professor charged with being the US leader of a Mideast terrorist group, was an influential figure in Tampa's small Muslim community whose political activism landed him in a photograph with President Bush during the 2000 campaign. ''He was a Bush supporter,'' said Robert McKee, an attorney who is representing Arian in a legal dispute with the university. ''As close as the election in Florida was, Sami may have put him over the top. He got out the vote in the Muslim community in Florida, and now Bush's attorney general is going after him.''...A photograph taken during a campaign stop in the Tampa area shows George and Laura Bush, both smiling, flanked by Arian, his son Abdullah, and three women wearing Islamic scarves. Newsweek magazine published the picture in July 2001. Asked about the photo, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said yesterday that Bush met Arian and his family at a strawberry festival in Florida. ''Then-Governor Bush just walked around greeting people,'' Buchan said. Arian did not contribute money or volunteer work to the Bush campaign, she said. Her account differed from Newsweek's in its July 16, 2001, issue: ''It was one of the coolest moments of his life. Abdullah al-Arian was finally old enough to vote for president, and George W. Bush singled him out in the crowd. Bush called the college student `Big Dude' and posed for pictures with his Arab-American family - an ethnic group politicians have long ignored.'...Remembering his campaigning for Bush in Florida and the president's thin margin of victory there, Sami Arian was indignant. ''We certainly delivered him many more than 537 votes,'' Newsweek magazine quoted him as saying." 2.22.03
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ALASKAN DRILLING "As much as 9 million acres of wilderness on Alaska's North Slope would be open to oil exploration and production in a move aimed at boosting sagging production in that region and reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil, the Bush administration said yesterday....The administration's decision to consider another major avenue to oil production in Alaska comes a day after the government released a new survey that concluded that a large majority of oil and natural gas reserves on Western federal land can be tapped with minimal leasing restrictions. " 01.18.03
wp | related stories

CLEAN WATER ACT "The Bush administration said yesterday it will consider removing Clean Water Act protections against pollution and development from up to one-fifth of the nation's streams, ponds, lakes, mudflats and wetlands. While the question is being decided, the administration said, federal regulators should act as if that policy already is in effect. Only by getting clearance from headquarters can the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency try to protect the approximately 20 million acres that appear to be affected, administration officials said....The move was denounced by some environmentalists and their allies in Congress. Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., said it would "roll back 30 years of progress" under the landmark environmental law.For those waterways and wetlands that lose protection, "you can throw garbage in it or animal waste in it," said Joan Mulhern, a lawyer-lobbyist with the Earthjustice law firm. "You can kill it, ditch it or destroy it."...In Washington state, the policy apparently would remove protection from mudflats that scientists say are critical to the biological health of Puget Sound." David Beckman, director of the California Clean Water Project said Bush's decision, "is going to make it much easier for big corporations to develop wetlands and discharge pollutants into streams. It's a blatant attempt to sidestep Congress, a move under the cover of darkness to rewrite the rules incorporated by the act." (SFC) --Seattle PI, 01.11.03

FRIDAY SNEAK: AS PREDICTED, LOTT'S GONE "Wounded by the controversy over his comments criticized by many as racially divisive, Sen. Trent Lott announced Friday he was stepping down as Republican leader in the Senate." --CNN, 12:42 PM, 12.20.02

Kissinger Agrees With Bush Watch

Hours after it was announced a week ago that Kissinger had been selected by Bush to head up an independent 9/11 probe, Bush Watch said he would have a credibility-killing conflict of interest unless he revealed his secret Kissinger Associates clients list. Today Kissinger announced he was stepping down as head of the probe, citing potential conflicts of interest questions due to his unwillingness to release his list of clients.

Lott Plays Hardball With The Bush White House

According to William Kristol on NPR right after one more press conference, Lott's ultimate mia culpa in Mississippi in front of his followers and the press this Friday evening didn't cut it, but Lott aides have put it to the Bush White House, threatening that the besieged senator would resign from the Senate if he were forced to give up his leadership as GOP majority head. This would mean, they reminded Bush, that the Dem governor of Mississippi would then be able to nominate a Dem to fill Lott's shoes, threatening the GOP majority in the Senate and thereby spelling defeat to Bush's more extreme far right policies that he's itching to push through come January. Count on Bush giving in to Lott's threat, thereby reinforcing those who point to coded racisim as the GOP's "dirty little secret."

Bush Says "No" To Karen Hughes' Job, So Matalin Leaves

"Always announce bad news on Friday: As foreshadowed with eerie prescience in kausfiles, Mary Matalin wants to spend more time with her family! ... She spins it to the wall: 1) She'd planned to leave anyway! 2) It's part of the traditional turnover! 3) She was really influential -- (as AP puts it) "a key adviser not only to Cheney but also President Bush ...at the center of most high profile announcements"!... She only left out 4) Bush doesn't like her!"

2000 census off by 3.3 million
Saturday, December 7, 2002
BY DOUG PARDUE AND PAUL OVERBERG, Gannett News Service
The 2000 census underestimated the nation's population by about 3.3 million people, or about 1.2 percent. [One million were children, and the majority of the rest were minorities and immigrants.]...Undercounts have broad implications for states and cities because census numbers are used to redraw political districts and distribute $185 billion in federal funds annually....The Bush administration resisted making the figures public.

The 2000 census underestimated the nation's population by about 3.3 million people, or about 1.2 percent, Treasury Secretary O'Neill and White House Economic Head Lindsdey to Step Down
Friday, December 6, 2002, [circa 12:30]
A Wall Street Journal Online News
WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, whose outspokenness often landed him in hot water, announced his resignation Friday in a shakeup of President Bush's economic team amid concern about the ailing economy. Lawrence Lindsey, head of the White House's National Economic Council, also resigned, a senior White House official said. Although there have been persistent rumors that President Bush might shake up his economic team, Mr. O'Neill's resignation came as a surprise in Washington, where such major moves are often telegraphed in leaks or news stories. The changes come as concern has increased at the White House that the lagging economy could be a political problem in President Bush's re-election campaign. The unemployment rate rose to 6% on Friday, the highest in nearly nine years.

Bush Limits Federal Pay Increase to 3.1 Percent
President Withholds Locality Adjustment
By Stephen Barr and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, November 30, 2002; Page A01
Federal employees will receive a scheduled 3.1 percent raise in basic pay next year, President Bush said last night. But Bush, citing a national emergency, said he would allow no increase in their locality adjustments.
The House and a Senate committee had suggested in two spending bills that civil service employees get a 4.1 percent raise -- about what the military is to get next year.
Federal pay law required an increase of 3.1 percent, effective Jan. 1. The law gave the president a deadline of today to set additional compensation known as locality pay.
In a letter addressed to congressional leaders, Bush said "full statutory civilian pay increases in 2003 would interfere with our nation's ability to pursue the war on terrorism." The letter was released last night.

Kissinger's Back...As 9/11 Truth-Seeker for Bush
by David Corn
Asking Henry Kissinger to investigate government malfeasance or nonfeasance is akin to asking Slobodan Milosevic to investigate war crimes. Pretty damn akin, since Kissinger has been accused, with cause, of engaging in war crimes of his own. Moreover, he has been a poster-child for the worst excesses of secret government and secret warfare. Yet George W. Bush has named him to head a supposedly independent commission to investigate the nightmarish attacks of September 11, 2001, a commission intended to tell the public what went wrong on and before that day. This is a sick, black-is-white, war-is-peace joke--a cruel insult to the memory of those killed on 9/11 and a screw-you affront to any American who believes the public deserves a full accounting of government actions or lack thereof. It's as if Bush instructed his advisers to come up with the name of the person who literally would be the absolute worst choice for the post and, once they had, said, "sign him up."

Gov't Proposes More Leeway for Logging
Wed Nov 27,12:01 PM ET.
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is proposing to give managers of the nation's 155 national forests greater leeway to approve logging and commercial activities with less examination of potential environmental damages.

Wildlife Protections Lost in New Forest Rules
Industry hails changes as being long overdue, but environmentalists charge the White House is doing the bidding of the timber companies.
By Elizabeth Shogren, LA Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration Wednesday [, the day before Thanksgiving,] proposed removing wildlife protections in the national forest system as it moved to streamline 20-year-old rules that govern how much logging, grazing and mining can be approved....No longer would they be required to ensure the survival of native mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian and fish species when planning development."The Forest Service wants ... to spend its available resources doing real work on the land and not disproportionately on planning and analysis," said Sally Collins, associate chief of the Forest Service, the agency of the Agriculture Department that manages national forests.

White House Loosens Clean Air Rules
Fri Nov 22, 1:59 PM ET
The Bush administration on Friday eased clean air rules to allow utilities, refineries and manufacturers to avoid having to install expensive new anti-pollution equipment when they modernize their plants.