Saturday, June 30, 2007

Weekend Reader

  • MUST WATCH VIDEO - Exposed: The Carlyle Group: Shocking documentary uncovers the subversion of Americas democracy.

  • New York Times: The Break-In That History Forgot:
    "...I finally realized that what had gone wrong in the Nixon White House was a meltdown in personal integrity. Without it, we failed to understand the constitutional limits on presidential power and comply with statutory law.

    In early 2001, after President Bush was inaugurated, I sent the new White House staff a memo explaining the importance of never losing their personal integrity. In a section addressed specifically to the White House lawyers, I said that integrity required them to constantly ask, is it legal? And I recommended that they rely on well-established legal precedent and not some hazy, loose notion of what phrases like “national security” and “commander in chief” could be tortured into meaning. I wonder if they received my message."
  • NY Times editorial -Resegregation Now:
    "The Supreme Court ruled 53 years ago in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated education is inherently unequal, and it ordered the nation’s schools to integrate. Yesterday, the court switched sides and told two cities that they cannot take modest steps to bring public school students of different races together. It was a sad day for the court and for the ideal of racial equality...."
  • The Raw Story | Revealed: Bush EPA chief says she quit after Cheney rewrote coal power plant rules:
    "Christine Todd Whitman is the media darling of talk shows, the conservative former governor of New Jersey and head of President George W. Bush's Environmental Protection Agency who quit the Bush Administration to "spend more time with her family."

    Evidently, that's not true.

    In a groundbreaking article today by the Washington Post, the paper alleges that Whitman left the Administration because they pressured her to accept pro-industry coal power plant rules which threatened ghoulish levels of air pollution...."
  • LA Times - Bush's offices reportedly refused probe:
    "A federal watchdog agency planned to inspect the president's executive offices in the White House in 2005 for evidence of suspected leaks of classified information, but it was rebuffed by Bush administration officials, congressional investigators have been told.

    The report of the White House's refusal to be inspected comes amid criticism from congressional Democrats of how President Bush signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to submit to independent oversight of their handling of classified information, but did not enforce it for his office or that of Vice President Dick Cheney...."
  • The Progressive - Kudos to Kucinich, But There's More to Impeach Cheney For:
    "Comedians like to poke fun at Kucinich, but the guy’s got guts.

    On Tuesday, the Ohio Democrat and presidential candidate introduced a bill to impeach Dick Cheney.

    I’ve been waiting for someone to get the impeachment ball rolling, either against Bush or Cheney, and I certainly understand the logic of going after Cheney first, because who wants to impeach Bush and end up with the prince of darkness.

    I think they both should go.

    And for more reasons than Kucinich enumerates...."
  • Sen. Mike Gravel: Why Hillary Scares Me

  • ABC News - Gay Groups Decry Bush Top Doc Nominee:
    "President Bush's nominee for surgeon general, Dr. James W. Holsinger, wrote a paper in 1991 arguing that homosexuality is unnatural and unhealthy, suggesting a scientific view rooted in anti-gay beliefs, valuing anti-gay ideology over sound science. These views are seen by many as incompatible with the job of serving the medical health of all Americans...."
  • Political Affairs Magazine - Australia: Howard Government Knew About Torture and Rendition:
    "On Monday evening last week, a documentary news program went to air on the Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) containing material of a sort that used to bring down governments or at least cause some of their ministers and senior public servants to fall on their swords. Sally Neighbour's 'Ghost Prisoners' on the ABC program Four Corners was the second part of an exposé �that brought together a wealth of material and expert opinion to show conclusively that Australian authorities have co-operated and will continue to co-operate with the CIA's 'rendition' program...."
  • Bin Laden may have arranged family's US exit: FBI docs

  • U.S.-IRAN: New Arms Claim Reveals Cheney-Military Rift:
    "WASHINGTON, Jun 20 (IPS) - In a development that underlines the tensions between the anti-Iran agenda of the George W. Bush administration and the preoccupation of its military command in Afghanistan with militant Sunni activism, a State Department official publicly accused Iran for the first time of arming the Taliban forces last week, but the U.S. commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan rejected that charge for the second time in less than two weeks...."
  • NY Times Editorial -Don't Veto, Don't Obey:
    "President Bush is notorious for issuing statements taking exception to hundreds of bills as he signs them. This week, we learned that in a shocking number of cases, the Bush administration has refused to enact those laws. Congress should use its powers to insist that its laws are obeyed...."
  • WAPO - Ex-Surveillance Judge Criticizes Warrantless Taps:
    A federal judge who used to authorize wiretaps in terrorism and espionage cases criticized yesterday President Bush's decision to order warrantless surveillance after the September 11, 2001, attacks...."
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