The Guerrilla Campaign

http://www.pugbus.net/Politics/03272005_fischer.htm President Bush Blames Drop in Popularity on Bobby Fischer By Phil MaggittiWASHINGTON – An unusually contrite President George W. Bush apologized to the American people during his weekly radio address yesterday for ignoring renegade chess champion Bobby Fischer and “the threat he poses to the future of chess in our country.” The president, whose job approval rating plunged to an all-time low of 45 percent in a poll released on Friday, said he deserved the low rating for disappointing “decent, god-fearing American chess players.” “I accept responsibility for squandering some of my political capital on other people’s trivial agendas while an avowed enemy of American chess was making terroristic threats against the game and the people who play it in this country. I will not allow such conduct to go unchecked. Mr. Fischer will be made to answer for his remarks.” Bush also announced that unless “the rogue state of Iceland” hands Fischer ove...

Here’s an example of propaganda disguised as an editorial in the Washington Post today ( Dishonest Debate below). However, it is so ineptly written, and filled with contradictions within itself, that it’s hard to believe the editorial board even thought it might be believed. It ends up being a failed deceit. Just as those it seeks to champion are failures. And thanks to Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo for calling our attention to it. [ Much of this is demonstrated in George Orwell’s Politics & the English Language, posted at the Guerrilla Campaign http://tmars.iwarp.com/guerrilla_campaign/politics_and_the_English_language.htm Read this: The trustees' report, according to Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), "confirms that the so-called Social Security crisis exists in only one place: the minds of Republicans." The senator's desire to score political points is understandable. His willingness to do so by implying that Social Security is healthy is n...

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/03/con05108.html A Buzzflash Reader Contribution March 24, 2005 by Mary MacElveen Having seen the flurry of vigils in the past couple of days to save the life of Terri Schiavo, it makes me want to ask these pro-life people "Where were your vigils as we systematically murdered thousands upon thousands of innocent Iraqi people? Why no open show of force as your government launched a preemptive strike based upon a series of lies? Will you start to hold vigils as the killings in Iraq keep happening? Where were your vigils for the 1,500 servicemen and women who were killed in Iraq? They died for your right to hold these vigils out in the open for Terri. Didn’t they? As some were arrested for trying to bring Terri Schiavo some water to drink -- why didn’t you get on an airplane and fly to Iraq before we launched our attack and act as human shields? Many who side with this administration openly mocked those that did. Millions just like me held our...

Where Are the Democrats? By Richard Cohen Thursday, March 24, 2005; Page A19 washingtonpost.com http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61694-2005Mar23.html Rep. Tom DeLay is called "The Hammer." He is a man of fierce beliefs who has long confused politics with war -- religious war at that. At one time he would have been labeled an "extremist," the sort of politician whom reporters seek out for colorful, wacko quotes. But now he is in the GOP mainstream where, among other things, he has bludgeoned the Democratic Party into pathetic meekness. On the Terri Schiavo debate, the party went AWOL. By late Sunday, when the debate had reached the House of Representatives, Barney Frank stood almost alone in opposing the bill. Cliches suffered. Here was an openly gay Democrat, the Massachusetts liberal of all Massachusetts liberals, defending the Founding Fathers, federalism and the American tradition of keeping the government's nose out of a family's business. ...

Saturday was the second anniversary of the Iraq war. I wrote in an earlier post, that I didn’t expect the media, or the administration, to treat it with the attention it deserves. As it turns out, I couldn’t anticipate what happened. To begin with, the Michael Jackson trial got more air time than the Iraq war did over the weekend, at least where I live. I guess all that crap they pass us must be important news, while ignoring the fact that; 1.) people are still dying from our actions in Iraq, and 2.) our actions in Iraq are immoral, and illegal. And then the Schiavo circus went into high gear. Bush rushes from his vacation to sign a bill that a craven Congress passed to pander to the christian Taliban. To give the democrats some credit, they pretty much steered clear of that piece of crap. And that’s all it was. The family of Terri Schiavo is going through something that I hope I never have to. And my heart goes out to all of them, just as it does to anyone having to make such a choice...

http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2005/03/supersizing-profits-squeezing-news.html Monday, March 14, 2005 Supersizing profits, squeezing the news Amid dwindling circulation, receding advertising share and growing skepticism over credibility, newspapers took decisive action last year: They boosted profits twice as fast as they increased sales.That's one of the findings in "The State of the News Media in 2005," a new, unvarnished study of the nitty-gritty economics of the news biz from the Project for Excellence in Journalism .If you believe a healthy press is good for our democracy, then you won't find the report to be pleasant reading. But read it, anyway. Here is just some of what you'll learn:Newspapers last year "increased their profits at double the rate (8%) that their revenues grew (less than 4%)," a "distinct sign of profit-taking," the study found. The emphasis on supersizing the bottom line produced average industry margins of 22.9% in 200...

On March 19, 2003, the US invaded Iraq. After two years, the president bush has not been able to articulate a coherent, or moral, reason for his actions in that country. As each of his reasons were exposed to be false, his criminal administration has shifted from one to the other, and, with the help of the CCMA, seamlessly. Each has been presented as if it were the original articulated purpose from the start. Weapons of mass destruction? False. In speeches given in 2000, both condi rice and colin powell said that Saddam Hussein was contained, no longer a threat to its neighbors, and had no capabilities to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. Amazingly, according to the president bush, in 2 years, while under draconian sanctions, which were responsible the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi children, constant patrols of the northern and southern no-fly zones, and constant surveillance by US satellites, Hussein was able to build the infrastructure necessary to construct and maintai...

http://www.ariannaonline.com/columns/column.php?id=763 by Arianna Huffington March 16, 2005 Arianna Online I just got back from a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. Didn't ride the Teacups, though. Because I wasn't in Disneyland but in Washington, D.C., where everyone is walking on air, swept away by the Beltway's latest consensus: President Bush was right on Iraq, and, as a result, Tomorrowland in the Middle East will feature an E-ticket ride on the Matterhorn of freedom and democracy. The political and cultural establishment has gone positively Goofy over this notion. In the corridors of power, Republicans are high-fiving, and Democrats are nodding in agreement and patting themselves on the back for how graciously they've been able to accept the fact that they were wrong. The groupthink in the nation's capital would be the envy of Dear Leader Kim Jong Il. ….. And can we really blame the Arab world for its skepticism about the Unites States' sudden commitment...

Arrogance White House to Agencies: Ignore GAO's Ruling On 'illegal' TV News Releases by Ken Herman Published on Tuesday, March 15, 2005 by Cox News Service http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0315-05.htm WASHINGTON -- The White House, intent on continuing to crank out "video news releases" that look like television news stories, has told government agency heads to ignore a Government Accountability Office memo criticizing the practice as illegal propaganda. …. Comptroller General David Walker of the GAO said Monday that his agency is "disappointed by the administration's actions" in telling agency heads to ignore the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress. "This is not just a legal issue, it's also an ethical matter," Walker said. "The taxpayers have a right to know when the government is trying to influence them with their own money." ….The GAO, in a Feb. 17 memo to agency heads, said its review of video news releases dis...

It's an Open-and-Shut Case http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-chait11mar11,1,3269014.column Being willing to entertain the idea of ruining Social Security is no virtue. By Jonathan Chait March 11, 2005 In the Social Security debate, apparently the worst thing anybody can say about you is that you've made up your mind. A Washington Post editorial writer penned an Op-Ed article praising "the thoughtful voice of a Democrat not reflexively opposed to personal accounts." Joe Lieberman's spokesman piously insists the Connecticut senator is "still in a listening and learning stage and keeping an open mind." Well, good for him. But I've read several books and many articles advocating Social Security privatization, and it still strikes me as a horrible idea. Can I stop listening and learning now? Or must I remain thoughtfully agnostic while the same unconvincing arguments are repeated ad nauseam, in the hope that another repetition will fina...

Two recent articles demonstrate the complete lack of repect for life that the administration of the president bush, and his apologists display. Gibson: Bomb a Democracy "With Clean Conscience" Reported by judy at March 10, 2005 11:34 AM http://www.newshounds.us/2005/03/10/gibson_bomb_a_democracy_with_clean_conscience.php Fox News' John Gibson has gone even farther than other journalists in falling, hook, line, and sinker, for the Bush claim that the Iraq elections are related to some Lebanese demonstrating for the removal of Syrian troops from their country. Gibson went over the line on "The Big Story" Wednesday (March 9), however, when he said the U.S. could bomb Lebanon "with a clean conscience" if it votes democratically to retain Syrian troops. … US Gaining World's Respect From Wars, Rumsfeld Asserts By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 11, 2005; Page A04 washingtonpost.com http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A2575...

From The New York Times OP-ED, Thursday, March 10, 2005; A27 False Diagnosis Don't mess with Texas tort system By Bernard Black, Charles Silver, David Hyman and William Sage Austin, Tex. Medical malpractice litigation reform is a high priority for President Bush, who contends that juries are running amok, multimillion-dollar settlements are on the rise and greedy trial lawyers are filing frivolous suits. The results, Mr. Bush and others argue, include skyrocketing insurance prices, abandoned medical practices, defensive medicine and a crisis of access to care. Their proposed solution: caps on jury awards to patients and on lawyers' contingent fees. No one disputes that insurance premiums have risen significantly. The question is whether a crisis in states' tort system accounts for the increase. Consider Mr. Bush's home state of Texas, America's second most populous state and the third largest in terms of total heal...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/05/03/10_sand.html March 10, 2005 By Sheila Samples Because in life, there comes a time, When one must fight, and one must climb, When we must rise and take a stand, Or leave our butt prints in the sand. - author unknown It's time. Before this obscene, gaping hole gets any deeper, it's time we convinced the media to stop digging. As someone once said... and said... and said - time is not on our side. I couldn't agree more, because when you consider the media horror show of the last four years, it could get hairy out there unless we wake up, stand up, and do something about it. It's time we told the media it's either them, or us. We need to pass them by, boycott their advertisers, protest them - shake them until their teeth rattle. It's time we realized there is no entity more to blame for the mess we're in nor for the needless loss of life than our shameless and treasonous media. The media is even more obscene th...

democraticunderground.com 1. What's the best way to support the troops, especially in a time of war? Republicans on the House and Senate veterans' affairs committees have got the answer: raise their taxes. Those Republican majorities voted last week to "impose an enrollment fee of at least $230 a year on 2.4 million veterans - one of every three now eligible for Veterans Affairs Administration health care," according to Military.com . Apparently half of those 2.4 million veterans used the VA health system last year. George W. Bush has been keen to insist that during a time of war we need to make sacrifices - it's just a shame that the sacrifices apparently have to be made by the soldiers he sent to war in the first place. I mean, I'm sure the top 1 percent who benefited hugely from Bush's tax giveaway could sacrifice, say, that fourth BMW in order to make sure veterans get the health care they deserve. But I guess the Republicans prefer to charge people w...

go to original By EPI, (Economic Policy Institute) ILCA (International Labor Communications Association) Associate Member The minimum wage amendment proposed by Sen. Rick Santorum (R), which is expected to come to a vote on Monday, would harm far more workers than it helps. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that a straightforward raise of $1.10 in the minimum wage could directly benefit, at most, about 1.8 million workers. The Santorum proposal, however, is anything but straightforward. Other provisions would take away minimum wage eligibility, overtime rights, and would overrule higher state standards for workers who earn tips. Many millions of workers would stand to lose pay and protections to which current law entitles them. • Weakening FLSA Coverage : Employees of businesses with revenues of more than $500,000 and all workers who engage in interstate commerce now have important protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act, such as the right to be paid a minimum wage and to ...

http://writ.findlaw.com/mariner/20050302.html By Joanne Mariner Wednesday, Mar. 02, 2005 As shaped by men like Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and justified by some (now notoriously) inventive lawyers, the Bush Administration's approach to fighting terrorism can be summarized in a phrase: the president's inherent power. A series of legal memoranda drafted by government counsel argue that the president possesses inherent authority to have people detained without charge, interrogated mercilessly, and kept in a legal limbo for unlimited lengths of time. But while these lawyers focus on the Constitution's grant of power to the president as Commander in Chief, they ignore constitutional principles like the separation of powers and the concept of individual rights. They also disregard an entire body of statutory law that sets limits on the government's power to detain, question, and prosecute people suspected of wrongdoing. In an important decision issued Monday in the case...

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3059805 Recruit foreigners to serve with promise of citizenship By Max Boot Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle News Services Feb. 27, 2005, 8:32PM … Some experts are already starting to wonder whether the war on terrorism might break the all-volunteer military. But because reinstating the draft isn't a serious option (the House defeated a symbolic draft bill last year, 402 to 2), some outside-the-box thinking is needed to fill up the ranks. In this regard, I note that there is a pretty big pool of manpower that's not being tapped: everyone on the planet who is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. … The simplest thing to do would be to sign up foreigners for the regular U.S. military, but it would also make sense to create a unit whose enlisted ranks would be composed entirely of non-Americans, led by U.S. officers and NCOs. Call it the Freedom Legion. As its name implies, this unit would be modeled on the French Fo...

WARNING!!! To God's Elect: Leave Sweden NOW!!! "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Rev. 18:4 Fags have a 3 point agenda: 1) decriminalize sodomy, 2) add fags to the protected classes as victims like blacks, and 3) criminalize Gospel preaching against fags. Sweden's doom is now irreversible! With the imprisonment of Ake Green, Swedes have allowed the filthy sodomite agenda to be completely fulfilled. See our monument to Pastor Green here . With this act, Sweden has drawn to it the wrath and mocking of God! "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you" (Proverbs 1:26-27) "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision" (Psalm 2:4). See our commentary on t...

http://www.commonground.ca/iss/0412161/cg161_marya.shtml BC The Organic Way by Marya Skrypiczajko December 2004 … During the US occupation of Iraq, administrator Paul Bremer decreed 100 orders pertaining to Iraq’s economic, political and social future. These orders are now in place until revised or repealed by a new Iraqi regime. Since the new Iraqi government is tied to the US government, it is not expected to be revising Bremer’s orders any time soon. Order 81 is a new patent law that includes a chapter on plant variety protection. The gist of this chapter is that Iraqi farmers are now only allowed to plant “protected” crop varieties defined as new, distinct, uniform and stable. The heritage seeds Iraqi farmers have been saving since the time of Babylon do not meet these criteria; those that do are products of multi-national seed companies and include transgenic seeds. In addition, this order gives plant breeders that claim to have discovered the new varieties the exclusive rights to...