30 July 2004

Kerry delivers, Bush begins to fade in memory
In Speech, Kerry Pledges to Restore Trust
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
NYT, 29 July 2004
EXCERPT: John Forbes Kerry stood before the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night, pledging to "restore trust and credibility to the White House" as he accused President Bush of misleading the nation into war and pursuing policies that he described as a threat to the environment, the economy and the Constitution. Mr. Kerry promised to take charge of "a nation at war.'' He invoked his service in Vietnam 35 years ago as he vowed to protect Americans from terror in the 21st century. "I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as president," Mr. Kerry said, according to a text of his remarks prepared for delivery. "Let there be no mistake: I will never hesitate to use force when it is required. Any attack will be met with a swift and certain response."
Text of Speeches: Kerry | Cleland | Clark
SEE ALSO: Democrat John Kerry Holds On To A Tentative Lead,New Zogby Interactive Presidential Battleground Poll Reveals (Zogby International)

Americans' Incomes Fell for Two Years
Report: IRS data shows first-ever consecutive-year drop; loss of jobs blamed.
CNN Money, 29 July 2004
EXCERPT: Americans' overall income shrank for two consecutive years after stocks plunged in 2000, the first time that has effectively happened since the current tax system was put in place during World War II, according to a published report Thursday.

Bush to Project Record Budget Deficit
Reuters, 29 July 2004
EXCERPT: The White House will project on Friday a record budget deficit expected to total between $425 billion and $450 billion for fiscal year 2004, government sources said. The mid-year budget report is slated to be released at noon EDT. A figure in that range could give ammunition to both Democrats and Republicans in the election-year debate over tax and spending policies. A deficit topping $425 billion would be well above the shortfall of $374 billion in 2003, which was a record.

Assessing Job Quality
How Factcheck.org got it wrong
by Elise Gould, Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and Lee Price
Economic Policy Institute, 27 July 2004
EXCERPT: Using jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the voter advocacy group Factcheck.org recently weighed in on the debate over the quality of the jobs being added to the U.S. workforce. Factcheck.org purported to find "good evidence that job quality has increased over the past year or more." 1 However, as we show below, Factcheck.org's analysis is flawed, and the BLS data do not support this conclusion. To the contrary, the evidence shows that the industry and occupation categories growing most quickly over the past year pay less than those growing at a slower pace.
SEE ALSO:
Unhappy Workers Should Take Prozac --Bush Campaigner
Reuters, 29 July 2004
EXCERPT: A campaign worker for President Bush said on Thursday American workers unhappy with low-quality jobs should find new ones -- or pop a Prozac to make themselves feel better. "Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?" said Susan Sheybani, an assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt. The comment was apparently directed to a colleague who was transferring a phone call from a reporter asking about job quality, and who overheard the remark.

Federal Bureau of Incompetence
The shameful treatment of Sibel Edmonds proves the FBI's urgent need for reform.
By Fred Kaplan
Slate, 29 July 2004
EXCERPT: Edmonds was a contract linguist for the FBI—translating material from Turkish, Persian, and Azerbaijani—who was dismissed in 2002 after complaining that the bureau's staff linguists had poorly translated important pieces of intelligence on terrorism, before and after Sept. 11. She also charged that one of these linguists had blocked the translation of material that implicated an acquaintance who had come under FBI suspicion. For her repeated efforts, Edmonds was not only dismissed, she was also barred from testifying in a lawsuit brought by family members of 9/11 victims. The Justice Department further prohibited her from speaking out anywhere about her own case. All facts about her job at the FBI, even which languages she translated, were declared "state secrets." Until recently, to the extent that FBI spokesmen commented at all about why Edmonds was dismissed, they said only that she'd been "disruptive" (probably true, as far as it goes). However, the story in today's Times reveals that the Justice Department's inspector general has concluded that Edmonds' allegations "were at least a contributing factor in why the FBI terminated her services." How did Mueller, the much-lauded FBI director, respond to this finding? He wrote a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, noting that he was "concerned" about the inspector general's conclusion but also pleased that the IG "had not concluded that the FBI retaliated against Ms. Edmonds when it terminated her services on April 2, 2002." ...For linguists and other analysts looking at what happened to Sibel Edmonds, the system of rewards and penalties is all too clear. The lesson they draw: Keep your head down; just do your job; if you see others doing their job badly, even if to the detriment of national security, don't get involved.
SEE ALSO: Whistle-Blowing Said to Be Factor in an F.B.I. Firing (NYT in BWUSA)

Think Again: The Word 'Liberal'
by Eric Alterman
Center for American Progress, 29 July 2004
EXCERPT: Ever since George McGovern was defeated in 1972 with the help of the criminal conspiracy that was Richard Nixon's re-election campaign, the media have made a sport of bashing liberals come election time. As Michael Kinsley pointed out recently, "It's true enough that this is a moment when the Democrats are called upon to reject extreme liberalism (whatever that might be) and to embrace moderation. But that is only because every moment is such a moment. The opinion that the Democrats need to foreswear McGovernism and prove their commitment to moderation is one of the very safest in all of punditry." Yet Republicans, Kinsley notes, receive the equivalent of a free ideological pass regardless of the fact that they are led by two men whose political extremism has no analogy in power circles in the other party. Extremism versus moderation is a beloved media leitmotif at the Republican convention as well. But there's a difference, at least in tone. It is generally considered enough if the Republicans prevent their nuttier element from actually taking over the convention. The GOP is rarely threatened with oblivion if it fails to stage a public festival of contrition. And the Republicans are under no pressure to avoid the word "conservative." The demonization of the word "liberal" has been an ongoing project of the well-funded right and draws its fire from intellectuals who should really know better.

Public Opinion Watch - July 28, 2004
by Ruy Teixeira
Center for American Progress, 28 July 2004
EXCERPT: The new Gallup poll gives Kerry/Edwards a slightly larger lead (4 points) over Bush/Cheney among RVs, with or without Nader–Camejo in the mix. Internals of the horse race question show Kerry/Edwards with a whopping 21-point lead among independents. And, just as in Gallup's last poll, Democrats are now supporting their ticket even more strongly (91 percent/8 percent) than the Republicans are supporting theirs (87 percent/8 percent). Kerry/Edwards also have a wide, 23-point lead in the solid blue states (59 percent to 36 percent) and continue to lead in the purple, up-for-grabs states, though by a smaller margin (48 percent to 44 percent) than in Gallup's last poll. In addition, the Kerry/Edwards ticket continues to enjoy a substantial advantage in favorability ratings over the Bush/Cheney ticket, though slightly diminished from Gallup's last poll. Kerry's favorability rating is 55 percent favorable/37 percent unfavorable (a +18 net rating), while Bush's is 52 percent/46 percent (+6). Similarly, Edwards' favorability rating is 52 percent/26 percent (+26), while Cheney's is 47 percent/43 percent (+4).

Barack Obama Rules, OK
By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times, 30 July 2004
EXCERPT: On Tuesday night in Boston, the United States was hit by a weapon of mass enlightenment. The name of the weapon is Barack Obama. He's not even a US senator - yet: but he will almost certainly be one in November. Not a uniter, not a divider: the ultimate transcender. Some day, some say, he may become the first black president of the United States. Democrats in Illinois - where he is a widely admired state legislator - already know a lot about "the skinny guy with the funny name", in his own words, as he is a state legislator. The best in the blogosphere, such as The Daily Kos website, have been praising him for months. As the keynote speaker on the second night of the Democratic National Convention in Boston, he was to be introduced in prime time to the national stage. But transcending already high expectations, he did not just deliver a speech praising presidential candidate John Kerry. He made history, his oratorical mastery drawing instant comparisons with Dr Martin Luther King's legendary "I Have a Dream" speech. Most Americans didn't see it. In a graphic display of their concern for the public good, US television networks - ABC, NBC, CBS - did not broadcast the 15-minute speech, opting for deep slumber in sitcom hell. On Fox, it was as though the speech never happened.

Missed Opportunities for Medicare
by Terri Shaw
Center for American Progress, 28 July 2004
EXCERPT: The new Medicare prescription drug benefit, signed into law by President Bush in December 2003 and set to begin in January 2006, is widely acknowledged to be the biggest change in the history of the program. Federal officials have estimated that the new law will cost taxpayers anywhere from $395 billion to $534 billion over the next 10 years. Who ultimately benefits and who pays the costs largely depends on the choices that the administration makes in implementing the new law – particularly in establishing the rules by which private health insurers and drug companies will have to play. On Monday, the Bush administration released its proposed regulations for the program, giving a first indication of how beneficiaries might fare under the new Medicare drug benefit. The signs are not encouraging.

29 July 2004

AUDIO LINK
Forty ways to fail
Calls Grow to Reform Bush Education Act
Morning Edition, 29 July 2004
EXCERPT: Many teachers and legislators are pushing for reforms to the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act. Though many acknowledge the act helped raise standards at public schools across the nation, critics charge its method for measuring success may be designed to ensure most schools end up failing. Hear NPR's Claudio Sanchez.

AUDIO LINK
Ex-Sen. Cleland a Rallying Figure for Democrats
Morning Edition, 29 July 2004
EXCERPT: Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, a Georgia Democrat, is helping to rally veterans for the Kerry-Edwards ticket. Severely wounded in Vietnam, Cleland lost his Senate seat in 2002, when Republicans attacked his patriotism in TV ads that tied Cleland to Osama bin Laden. His story is energizing Democrats. Hear NPR's Juan Williams.

Bush Reported to be Using Drugs to Control Depression, Erratic Behavior
By Teresa Hampton
Capitol Hill Blue, 28 July 2004
EXCERPT: President George W. Bush is taking powerful anti-depressant drugs to control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia, Capitol Hill Blue has learned. The prescription drugs, administered by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, can impair the President’s mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis, administration aides admit privately. “It’s a double-edged sword,” says one aide. “We can’t have him flying off the handle at the slightest provocation but we also need a President who is alert mentally.” Tubb prescribed the anti-depressants after a clearly-upset Bush stormed off stage on July 8, refusing to answer reporters' questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay. “Keep those motherfuckers away from me,” he screamed at an aide backstage. “If you can’t, I’ll find someone who can.” Bush’s mental stability has become the topic of Washington whispers in recent months. Capitol Hill Blue first reported on June 4 about increasing concern among White House aides over the President’s wide mood swings and obscene outbursts.

Auditors Assail Halliburton: Company Lost $18 Million in Government Property
By Tony Capaccio
Atlanta-Journal Constitution, 27 July 2004
EXCERPT: Halliburton Co., the biggest U.S. contractor in Iraq, has lost $18.6 million of government property that country, about a third of the items it was given to manage, including trucks, computers and office furniture. Government auditors couldn't account for 6,975 of 20,531 items on the ledgers of Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root unit, according to a report by Stuart Bowen, auditor for the coalition provisional authority inspector general, which oversees contractors. Halliburton is providing services to U.S. troops under a contract that has generated $3.2 billion in revenue so far. "This occurred because KBR did not effectively manage government property," Bowen wrote. "As a result, we projected that KBR could not account for 6,975 property items from an inventory of 20,531 valued at $61.1 million."

Proof of Bush's stronger economy...
US CEO Pay Up More than Twenty Percent
By Dan Roberts
Financial Times, 28 July 2004
EXCERPT: Executive pay in the US is rising faster than previously thought, according to a new analysis which includes the value of cashed-in stock options. Total compensation for chief executives at the top 500 companies rose 22.2 per cent in 2003, double the rise in the previous year, says the Corporate Library, an independent research firm. The figure is by far the highest estimate calculated from this season's company disclosures and undermines claims that corporate governance reforms and pressure from investors are encouraging more restraint. Previous research, largely carried out by industry compensation consultants, has put the average increase in 2003 at between 9.1 and 16.4 per cent.
SEE ALSO: Oil Price at 21-Year Record as Fears Grow (Financial Times)

Bush Plan Excludes Public From Environmental Review
BushGreenWatch, 28 July 2004
EXCERPT: A new directive proposed by the Bush administration would grant broad environmental exemptions to numerous government agencies under the guise of national security. It would also exclude the American public from decisions that can have long-term health and environmental consequences. Under directives for carrying out the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), agencies such as the Coast Guard, Border Patrol, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and many others would be given "categorical exemptions" from following federal environmental regulations if they invoke reasons of national security. Such exclusions would enable agencies to conduct activities in secret that could have serious implications for public safety - such as using or storing hazardous chemicals in close proximity to residential areas and schools without letting citizens know about their risk of exposure.

Networks Missed a Historic Speech
By John Nichols
The Nation, 28 July 2004
EXCERPT: ABC, NBC and CBS chose not to air any of Tuesday night's convention proceedings. For the first time since the development of broadcast television, Americans could not tune into one of their local commercial television stations and watch nation's oldest political party reinventing itself for the newest campaign. To be sure, the cable networks offered a reasonable mix of live convention coverage -- ranging from the incessant play-by-play chatter of CNN to the potshots from Fox and the uninterrupted feed of CSpan -- but the broadcast networks chose not to be carry the convention. As such, they sent a powerful signal regarding the extent to which they take seriously their responsibility to provide citizens with the information that is the lifeblood of democracy. It is true that much of what is said from the convention podium these days adds up to little more than a partisan informercial. But there are still meaningful moments, and Obama's address was one of them. In fact, the Illinois state senator's speech was an exceptionally significant expression of the ever-evolving story of American citizenship and political engagement. Obama's often poetic message -- with its "E pluribus unum. Out of many one" theme -- was the talk of the convention.
SEE ALSO: Transcript of Barack Obama's Speech (Common Dreams)
SEE ALSO: Engelhardt: The Real Deal at the Convention (TomDispatch)

Negative Energy
by Jonathan Chait
The New Republic Online, 28 July 2004
EXCERPT: The challenge for Democrats at the convention is to project an uplifting, positive message, and not to give in to the rabid impulses of their hard-core anti-Bush base. That, in any case, is the line that seems to be programmed into the brain of every reporter and pundit in Boston. Am I the only one who wants to retch when he hears this, and not just because it's been repeated so often? First, the notion of Bush-bashing as the sole province of lefty radicals reflects a deep misunderstanding. Opposition to Bush may have a radicalizing effect, but it's not a radical phenomenon. One of the peculiarities of Bush's presidency is that many of his most outspoken critics--Howard Dean, Paul Krugman, Al Gore--had well-established moderate credentials before he took office. Even the Democratic Leadership Council has taken a stance of searing opposition to Bush. Sure, radicals like Michael Moore have glommed onto the Bush-bashing movement, but fundamentally the intense opposition to Bush is a product of the president's radicalism and partisanship, not that of his critics.The corollary is that opposition to Bush, far from being a minority notion confined to blue state salons, is actually quite widespread. Bush's job approval rating has consistently remained below 50 percent. In fact, the proportion of Americans who want Bush out of office is substantially larger than the proportion who want Kerry to replace him. So the idea that boosting Kerry is a mainstream sentiment, and bashing Bush a minority sentiment, has it backwards. Now, that may be exactly why it makes some strategic sense for Democrats to spend more time emphasizing Kerry's positives than Bush's negatives. They already have a solid anti-Bush majority, so all they need to do is turn those anti-Bush voters into pro-Kerry voters. The DNC's strategy also has the added benefit of establishing a higher standard that Republicans will invariably fail to meet. When Republicans next month focus most of their energy on denigrating Kerry--which looks at this point like their only viable strategy--the media will inevitably bash their negativity. But that merely brings me to the most annoying thing about the sanctimonious insistence upon positive campaigning. The political press simply can't let go of the idea that puffing up your guy is somehow better for democracy than tearing down the other guy. I don't think that's correct in general. The relevant gauge is truth. I think accurate negative claims are better than inaccurate positive claims.
SEE ALSO:
Clinton Clinches the Deal
By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times, 29 July 2004
EXCERPT: The Big Dog (Clinton) may have laid out the full roadmap - content, context, intonation, stress - for Kerry to capture the elusive undecided vote in key swing states. In an ideal campaign, Kerry's team would just need to follow the Clinton prescription, carefully detailing the social cost of the Bush administration's policies while contrasting their legacy with the US the world cherishes. There's a slight problem, of course: Clinton can't freelance as Kerry's speechwriter and much less teach the stiff Massachusetts senator how to come out swinging. ...Conspicuously absent from Clinton's roadmap for Kerry was the Iraq question. For a simple reason: neither the Democratic Party, nor Kerry, nor Bush for that matter, knows what to say and do about Iraq. ...The Iraqi resistance knows what to do. The Democrats and Kerry still don't. In the next few days the Big Dog might well figure it out - as well as the right way to deliver the news to the US electorate. When that happens, as far as November is concerned, it's game over.

An Issue Too Hot for Fahrenheit?
At a Massachusetts political rally, Michael Moore leveled some well-deserved zingers at the media, while ducking a key question
By Ciro Scotti
Business Week, 28 July 2004
EXCERPT: And despite Moore's brilliant use of humor and pathos to deliver a political broadside, Fahrenheit is seriously flawed. A critic as tough as Michael Moore could make the case that the great auteur has foisted on the country an argument against U.S. involvement in Iraq that avoids the central reason behind the invasion. Talk about being chicken-hearted and missing the big story. The film goes on about filial revenge and oil, but it never ventures onto really touchy turf -- namely the role of fiercely pro-Israel neocon hawks in convincing Bush to go to war. The elephantine Mr. Moore conveniently fails to mention that other pachyderm in the Democratic room. Why didn't Fahrenheit go there, Mr. Moore?

9/11 Commission: Failure No. 3
This is the third of a five-part series pointing out Five Things That the 9/11 Commission Got Wrong.
The Dryfuss Report, 28 July 2004
EXCERPT: Despite some juicy tidbits about the Bush administration’s post-9/11 obsession with Iraq, the 9/11 Commission unconscionably lets Bush off the hook on this one. Nowhere in the report does it conclude, as virtually any fair-minded observer would, that the attack on Iraq had nothing to do with the so-called War on Terrorism. (In fact, even the fair-minded have concluded that the war on Iraq was a major setback to the battle against Al Qaeda and Islamic fundamentalism.) And nowhere does the commission say point-blank that Iraq was innocent of ties of Al Qaeda. It’s a glaring omission. And it allows Chairman Kean to get away with nonsense like this: “There was no question in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda.” With a straight face, the commission—whose chapters on Iraq seem to cite Bob Woodward’s book as much as the actual testimony and documents it received—reports many instances of Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith demanding attacks on Iraq. Best, of course, is the one reported in a footnote (page 559, Note 75), citing a memo to Rumsfeld “that appears to be from Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith.” Says the commission: “The author suggested instead hitting outside the Middle East in the initial offensive, perhaps deliberately selecting a non-Al Qaeda target like Iraq.” This, said the commission, “might be a surprise to the terrorists.” That is so hilariously stupid on so many levels that it almost doesn’t need comment—but yes, an attack on Iraq would have surprised the terrorists.

New Stats Show Bush's Deficit Dishonesty
The Daily Mis-Lead, 28 July 2004
EXCERPT: President Bush and Vice President Cheney have repeatedly promised America that they would get their record-deficits under control. Last year, President Bush said "My Administration firmly believes in controlling the deficit and reducing it." Similarly, Vice President Cheney said "I am a deficit hawk. So is the president." But according to congressional sources, the government is soon expected to project a record federal budget deficit, even as President Bush demands more money for war in Iraq , and a $1 trillion proposal for more tax cuts.

A Ghost in the Machine of Christmas-Yet-to-Come...
Florida Officials: Some Voting Records Wiped Out
CNN, 28 July 2004
EXCERPT: A computer crash erased detailed records from Miami-Dade County's first widespread use of touchscreen voting machines, raising again the specter of election troubles in Florida, where the new technology was supposed to put an end to such problems. The crashes occurred in May and November of 2003, erasing information from the September 2002 gubernatorial primaries and other elections, elections officials said Tuesday. The malfunction was made public after the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition, a citizen's group, requested all data from the 2002 gubernatorial primary between Democratic candidates Janet Reno and Bill McBride. In December, officials began backing up the data daily, to help avoid similar data wipeouts in the future, said Seth Kaplan, spokesman for the county's elections supervisor, Constance Kaplan. The loss of data underscores problems with the touchscreen voting machines, the citizen's group said. "This is a disaster waiting to happen," said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition. "Of course it's worrisome."

Whistle-Blowing Said to Be Factor in an F.B.I. Firing
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
NYT, 29 July 2004
EXCERPT: A classified Justice Department investigation has concluded that a former F.B.I. translator at the center of a growing controversy was dismissed in part because she accused the bureau of ineptitude, and it found that the F.B.I. did not aggressively investigate her claims of espionage against a co-worker. The Justice Department's inspector general concluded that the allegations by the translator, Sibel Edmonds, "were at least a contributing factor in why the F.B.I. terminated her services," and the F.B.I. is considering disciplinary action against some employees as a result, Robert S. Mueller III, director of the bureau, said in a letter last week to lawmakers. A copy of the letter was obtained by The New York Times. Ms. Edmonds worked as a contract linguist for the F.B.I. for about six months, translating material in Turkish, Persian and Azerbaijani. She was dismissed in 2002 after she complained repeatedly that bureau linguists had produced slipshod and incomplete translations of important terrorism intelligence before and after the Sept. 11 attacks. She also accused a fellow Turkish linguist in the bureau's Washington field office of blocking the translation of material involving acquaintances who had come under F.B.I. suspicion and said the bureau had allowed diplomatic sensitivities with other nations to impede the translation of important terrorism intelligence. The Edmonds case has proved to be a growing concern to the F.B.I. because it touches on three potential vulnerabilities for the bureau: its ability to translate sensitive counterterrorism material, its treatment of internal "whistle-blowers," and its classification of sensitive material that critics say could be embarrassing to the bureau. The Justice Department has imposed an unusually broad veil of secrecy on the Edmonds case, declaring details of her case to be a matter of "state secrets." The department has blocked her from testifying in a lawsuit brought by families of Sept. 11 victims, it has retroactively classified briefings Congressional officials were given in 2002, and it has classified the inspector general's entire report on its investigation into her case. As a result, groups promoting government openness have accused the Justice Department of abusing the federal procedures in place for classifying sensitive material.
SEE ALSO:
The Sibel Edmonds Story
BreakForNews, compilation of stories
Courtesy of tw
SEE ALSO:
The links below survey current laws on the books that may yet put Bob Novak into jail. He is the journalists that outed Valerie Plame from The CIA.
Courtesy of tw
Disclosing CIA Agent's Identity
The 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/toc.html

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/50/toc.html

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/50/
chapters/15/subchapters/iv/toc.html
* United States Code
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/toc.html
TITLE 50 - WAR AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/50/toc.html
* CHAPTER 15 - NATIONAL SECURITY
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/50/chapters/
15/toc.html
* SUBCHAPTER IV - PROTECTION OF
CERTAIN NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/50/chapters/
15/subchapters/iv/toc.html

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/50/chapters/
15/subchapters/iv/sections/section_421.html
U.S. Code as of: 01/02/01
Section 421. Protection of identities of certain United States undercover intelligence officers, agents, informants, and sources

28 July 2004

Good news for Bush's base
CEO Pay Hikes Double
Corporate Library survey finds median raise for S&P 500 CEO was 22.18% in 2003.
CNN/Money, 28 July 2004
EXCERPT: The CEO's at the nation's largest companies saw their raises more than doubled in 2003 as the median raise handed out by S&P 500 companies to their top executives was 22.18 percent, according to a study by The Corporate Library. The watchdog group said that stock options and awards of restricted stock drove the larger pay hikes. But most elements of the pay -- base salary, annual bonuses, restricted stock, long-term incentive payout, value realized from stock options and total compensation -- showed increases. The only type of compensation not to show a gain was the value of stock option grants during the year.  "This double-digit rise in pay shows that calls for pay restraint appear to be being ignored," said the statement from the group.

The Story of No-Story
A Day at the Kerry Convention
By Tom Engelhardt
TomDispatch.com, 27 July 2004
EXCERPT: On Tuesday, I slipped my cell phone into my holster, my Mother Jones credentials into my backpack, and headed for the Fleet Center, prepared to be the fifteen-thousand-and-first journalist at the 2004 Democratic Convention. All news articles on the Convention claim that 15,000 media people are in attendance, three times the number of delegates (and alternates), except a New York Times piece by David Carr headlined, "Whose Convention Is It? Reporters Outnumber Delegates 6 to 1." His math may be faulty but, in the feel of the event, he -- or his headline writer -- was distinctly on the mark.

Democrats Assail Bush on Iraq, Laud Kerry
AP, 28 July 2004
EXCERPT: Democrats assailed President Bush's handling of the Iraq war Tuesday night and painted a vivid portrait of John Kerry as a decorated war hero. "He earned his medals the old-fashioned way, by putting his life on the line,'' Teresa Heinz Kerry told the party's national convention. More than 900 soldiers have been killed and nearly 6,000 wounded in "this misguided war in Iraq,'' Sen. Edward M. Kennedy told delegates packed into the FleetCenter. And in a keynote speech that drew frequent and sustained applause, Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama described Kerry as a Vietnam War hero who has long made "tough choices when easier ones were available.'' Without mentioning Bush by name, he said the president had failed to level with the public before ordering troops into Iraq.
SEE ALSO: GOP Senator Criticizes Bush for Iraq War (AP)
SEE ALSO: Bucking Antiwar Support: How Dems Alienate Their Base (ZNet)

New Records Indicate Gap in Bush Military Service
The Daily Mislead, 27 July 2004
EXCERPT: Earlier this year, the White House released documents it said proved President Bush fulfilled his National Guard service during the Vietnam War. White House spokesman Scott McClellan at the time said the documents "means he served" and that there was no longer any question about whether the President actually showed up to fulfill his duty. But according to new records released late last week, Bush did not accumulate any flying hours at all for several months during 1972.

Revisited
Financing the Election: Soft Money Out, Bundling In
Corporate Backers Spend More, Get More
By Bill Messler
CorpWatch, 22 July 2004
EXCERPT: ...John Kerry will accept the Democratic nomination to run for United States President at a gathering in Boston that will cost over $95 million to produce, the most expensive political party convention in history. The Fleet Center, a sports and entertainment arena where the meeting is being held, is named after the powerful FleetBoston Corporation, the biggest donor to Kerry's Congressional career, a company typical of the corporate benefactors floating the Democratic and Republican parties ever higher on a sea of special-interest cash. Kerry may denounce the corrupting influence of special interests and big business and he may praise the Federal Election Campaign Act banning "soft money," the unchecked expenditures of special-interest money that distorted past elections and subverted federal limits on campaign contributions. But he may be a little more bashful about the $1.25 million dollar donation by Fleet Boston Financial to the Democratic convention host committee. Fleet, which recently merged with Bank of America, has been Kerry's biggest backer during his congressional career, support Kerry has reciprocated over the years. In 1999, Kerry used his position on the powerful Senate Finance Subcommittee to support the merger of Fleet and BankBoston, even though the merger was opposed by local Democratic leaders and resulted in the layoff of 2,500 workers. In the presidential campaign, Fleet/Boston's chairman Chad Gifford is participating in a dubious effort to skirt federal rules designed to stop the flow of huge sums of special interest cash.

27 July 2004

Democrats Open Convention, Faulting Bush's Record
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
NYT, 26 July 2004
EXCERPT: With two former presidents and one almost-president, the Democratic National Convention began Monday with promises for the future and glances to the past, as Al Gore urged Democrats to remember his defeat of 2000, but focus their anger "on putting John Kerry and John Edwards in the White House." Former President Jimmy Carter, invoking his foreign policy triumph of 25 years ago, harshly attacked President Bush as he declared the "achievements of Camp David a quarter-century ago and the more recent progress made by President Bill Clinton are now in peril" because of policies of Mr. Bush that have allowed the Middle East to be "swept by anti-American passions." He also made reference to questions about Mr. Bush's service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War. And a second former Democratic president, Bill Clinton, in a primetime speech that effectively served to drop the opening gavel on this convention, declared that Democrats and Republicans have "fundamentally different views of how we should meet our common challenges at home and how we should play our role in the world." "Democrats want to build an America of shared responsibilities and shared opportunities," Mr. Clinton said, according to prepared remarks circulated before he spoke. "Republicans believe in an America run by the right people, their people." Taken together, the speeches spanned more than a quarter-century of Democratic Party history, and offered Mr. Clinton, Mr. Gore and Mr. Carter an opportunity to contrast their records with that of President Bush. The prominence of their positions -- on the opening night of the convention -- signaled the themes Mr. Kerry plans to draw in the months ahead, and the extent to which Mr. Kerry, unlike the men who appeared here on Monday, intends to embrace the records of past Democratic presidents.

Accounting and Accountability
By PAUL KRUGMAN
NYT,  23 July 2004
EXCERPT: Accountability is important. The nation will be ill served if officials who didn't do all they could to prevent a terrorist attack, or led the nation into an unnecessary war, manage to shift the blame to someone else. But those weren't the only big mistakes of the last few years. Will anyone be held accountable for the mishandling of postwar Iraq? Last month we learned that the United States, while it has spent vast sums on the war in Iraq, has so far provided almost no aid. Of $18.4 billion in reconstruction funds approved by Congress, only $400 million has been disbursed. Almost all of the money spent by the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq until late June, came from Iraqi sources, mainly oil revenues. This revelation helps explain one puzzle: the sluggish pace of reconstruction, which has yet to restore many essential services to prewar levels. But it creates another puzzle: given that the authority was spending Iraq's money, why wasn't it more careful in its accounting? When a foreign power takes control of an oil-rich nation's resources, it inevitably faces suspicion about its motives. Fairly or not, the locals are all too ready to believe that the invaders came to steal their oil. The way to deal with such suspicion is to let in as much sunlight as possible by appointing financial officials with strong reputations for independence, keeping meticulous books, and welcoming and cooperating with international audits. What actually happened was just the opposite. Every important official with responsibility for Iraqi finances was a Bush administration loyalist. The occupying authority dragged its feet on an international audit, which didn't even begin until April 2004.

26 July 2004

Nothing like fueling hatred and bigotry to distract from the real right-wing agenda...
Gay Marriage as 'the New Abortion'
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post, 26 July 2004
EXCERPT: In the battle over gay marriage, both sides contend that time is on their side. But both are raising -- and spending -- money like there is no tomorrow. The forces arrayed for and against a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage are rapidly becoming institutionalized at both the federal and state level, according to evangelical Christian groups and gay rights organizations. A little more than a year ago, each side had a handful of little-known activists. Now mighty coalitions are pouring millions of dollars into advertising and lobbying. Activists on both sides have begun to speak of the issue as "the new abortion" -- a passionate and uncompromising struggle that will be fought in Congress, the courts and state legislatures, and through referendums for at least a decade to come. The two sides are also increasingly identified with the Republican and Democratic parties. What began as at least nominally bipartisan alliances are now more polarized groups closely aligned with the campaigns of President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and their networks of consultants and donors. "For anybody who thought the culture wars were over, this will reignite them and ensure that they will be here for years and years to come. In that sense, it's very much like the abortion issue," said Michael Cromartie, director of the Evangelical Studies Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a Washington think tank. "New careers on both sides will grow out of this, the polarization will continue and grow, and the room for compromise will diminish."

As Conventions Begin, Big Business Eyes Both parties; But the Poor Have the Ear of Neither
By Gary Younge
The Guardian (UK), 26 July 2004
EXCERPT: As the convention season kicks off this week, there will be little mention of people like Fitzsimmons. The Republicans would rather forget he exists; the Democrats might talk about him, but they won't be talking talk to him. Both will certainly discuss the issues that matter most to him - jobs and health - but they won't address them in a way that will make a substantive difference to his daily life. Still, Fitzsimmons is backing Democratic hopeful John Kerry, enthusiastically but with no illusions. He doesn't believe the Democrats will propose a socialised healthcare system that would cater adequately for him and his family, a fair-trade policy that would protect his livelihood from cheaper labour or an economic policy that would offer him more stable employment. The fact that doing so would jeopardise any chance of a Democratic party victory only serves to highlight the glaring dysfunction in US political culture. Of the thousands of lobbyists at the two conventions over the next month, few, if any, speak for the poor. Big business has its eye on both parties; the poor have the ear of neither. In the words of Upton Sinclair: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

Anti-Terrorism Measures are an Excuse to Stop Dissent, Say Iraq Activists
By Julian Borger
The Guardian (UK), 26 July 2004
EXCERPT: Anti-war campaigners claimed yesterday that tight security at this week's Democratic national convention was being used as an excuse to quash dissent. The protesters will go to court today over a decision confining them to a small pen under a flyover, ringed by razor wire and largely out of sight of the convention centre, where party delegates from around the country will gather to hear Bill Clinton and Al Gore open the convention. "We don't deserve to be put in a detention centre, a concentration camp," said Medea Benjamin, a peace campaigner from San Francisco. "It's tragic that here in Boston, the birthplace of democracy, our first-amendment rights are being trampled on." At the weekend, a judge described the protesters' conditions as a "festering boil" and "an affront to free expression", but he stopped short of ordering any substantial changes.

Despite Warnings of Terrorist Threats, Chemical Security Bill Again Stalled in U.S. House
BushGreenWatch, 22 July 2004
EXCERPT: "According to the EPA, there are 823 sites where the death or injury toll from a catastrophic disaster at a chemical plant could reach from 100,000 to more than 1 million people...There are no federal laws that establish minimum security standards at chemical facilities." So writes Dr. Stephen Flynn, who held major national security positions in the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations, in a new book released this week. "After 9/ll," writes Flynn, "Senator John Corzine (D-NJ) drafted legislation that would require chemical companies to identify the vulnerabilities in their operations and prepare security plans to address them...The chemical industry rallied nearly 30 trade associations...to oppose these new requirements." The Bush administration later supported weaker legislation backed by the industry.

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