News From The Progressive States Of America

4/22/05

What was, was. What will be is up to us.

This newsletter is from Freedom Strategies, Inc., an exciting new enterprise dedicated to searching the globe for important underreported news and neglected commentary that significantly affects the nation and the world, and seeks to raise awareness and promote discussion of those issues.

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"President Bush was in South Carolina to push his plan for people to invest their Social Security money in the stock market.

The stock market -- good timing! What was the second choice? The national bank of Iraq?" --Jay Leno

Poll Shows Concern About Gov't Secrecy

AP - - - Americans feel strongly that good government depends on openness with the public, with seven out of 10 people concerned about government secrecy, a new poll says.

The poll, conducted by Ipsos-Public Affairs for Sunshine Week, a coalition of media organizations and other groups pressing for government access, found that more than half of Americans believe government should provide more access to its records.

A bipartisan bill now in the U.S. Senate seeks to revisit the federal Freedom of Information Act to address many of the open-government complaints.

"A government that inoculates itself so it can operate in secret is not serving the best interests of the country," said Chris Farrell, director of investigations and research at Judicial Watch, a Washington-based watchdog group.

"Bush threw out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals game.

Of course, it's a little different there. Their score board also keeps track of Tom DeLay's ethics violations.

And when an umpire makes a bad call people chant 'Judicial activist! Judicial activist!'"  --Bill Maher

Bush Says He Lacks Power To Control Rising Gas Prices

Admission is an about-face from his rhetoric in 2000

By JULIE MASON
Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - With gasoline prices spiraling up just before the summer holidays, President Bush conceded Wednesday there is little he can do to help.

"I wish I could simply wave a magic wand and lower gas prices tomorrow; I'd do that," Bush told the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce legislative conference. "Unfortunately, higher gas prices are a problem that has been years in the making."

Bush repeated his call to Congress to pass a long-stalled energy bill aimed at expanding domestic oil and natural gas supplies, improving the reliability of the nation's electric power grids, and promoting fuel conservation.

But Bush's admission that he lacked the power to lower prices was a notable turnaround. Bush promised as a candidate in 2000 to pressure oil producers to increase supply and drive down prices.

"I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply," Bush said outside of Detroit in June 2000.

"Friends say that each day President Bush spends two hours playing video games.

Now let's think about this -- there's a war in Iraq, gas prices have never been higher and what is he working on? Getting Spiderman to the third level.

...Yeah George loves video games. His favorite? Grand Theft Election."  --David Letterman

Churches Don't Want To Be Associated With Nuclear Option

Religious groups are pushing back against Senator Bill Frist for his decision to appear at a right-wing telecast this weekend.

Frist plans to appear at an event that describes those who support the filibuster as against "people of faith."

Religious leaders, including Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick from Frist's own Presbyterian Church, are holding a conference call today to discuss their concerns about Frist's alignment with the extremist group.

Religious groups, including the National Council of Churches and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, plan to conduct a conference call with journalists on Friday to criticize Senator Frist's participation in the telecast.

The program is sponsored by Christian conservative organizations that want to build support for Dr. Frist's filibuster proposal.

Among those scheduled to speak in the conference call is the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, a top official of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., in which Dr. Frist is an active member.

Reality Check

Here's a real tale of two cities: California's Encino and Pacoima. They are about 12 miles apart.

Pacoima has a population roughly twice that of Encino while Encino residents have an average income nearly double that of Pacoima residents.

Encino is only 3 percent Black while Pacoima is closer to 15 percent Black. However, while Pacoima has twice as many residents, it has only two bank branches and nine check cashers compared to Encoma has almost 30 banks and one check casher.

A surprise? Not to the authors of a new report that finds great disparities in the number of mainstream financial institutions in low-income communities versus more affluent ones.

In those communities without mainstream banks, payday lenders and fringe banking services often fill the void, charging as much as 5 to 9 times more than mainstream banks.

Who would have thought that being poor was so expensive?

"A man in West Bend, Wisconsin who bought a shirt at the local goodwill store found $2,000 stuffed inside the pocket, isn't that amazing?

The more amazing part is how did one of Tom DeLay's old shirts wind up in Wisconsin?" --Jay Leno

Bush Says His Privacy Must Be Protected

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
Friday, April 15, 2005

"I believe in open government," Bush said at a meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. "I've always believed in open government. I don't e-mail, however. And there's a reason: I don't want you reading my personal stuff."

Bush once was a prolific e-mailer. But he signed off from cyberspace just before taking office in 2001 after lawyers told him that his presidential e-mail communications would be subject to legal and archival requirements.

"There's got to be a certain sense of privacy," Bush said. "You're entitled to how I make decisions and you're entitled to ask questions, which I answer. I don't think you're entitled to read my mail between my daughters and me."

Steve Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy Project, said, "Protecting the president's personal e-mail does not in any way justify the pattern of withholding that we've seen."

Aftergood said classification activity is increasing, records are being withdrawn from government Web sites and access barriers are being put in place at reading rooms at federal agencies.

"Information which used to be easy to obtain is now difficult or impossible to get," he said. "Trivial things such as the Pentagon phone directory have been marked for official use only and are no longer public."

"Stocks plunged again Friday, suffering their worst day since 2005 and third-straight triple-digit loss for the Dow Jones Industrial average.

On the bright side, your Social Security money isn't in there yet."  --Amy Poehler

Bush Supporter Sues RNC Over 'W' Logo

DALLAS, (AP) -- A supporter of President Bush is suing the Republican National Committee and one of its suppliers, claiming they stole his design for the ubiquitous "W" bumper sticker logo in the 2004 campaign.

Jerry Gossett of Wichita Falls says he pitched his design for a logo to the RNC's supplier of campaign materials, The Spalding Group of Lexington, Ky., in 2001 and to the RNC in 2003, and was turned down. But in early 2004, he says, a similar logo appeared on a Web site and he traced it back to the RNC. This month, Gossett's Rally Concepts LLC sued in federal court, seeking unspecified damages for copyright infringement and conspiracy.

Tracey Schmitt, the RNC's press secretary, called the lawsuit frivolous.

Officials at Spalding did not respond to calls seeking comment, but a company lawyer, William H. Hollander, said in a letter to Gossett's attorney that his design doesn't meet the legal test of being "substantially similar" to Spalding's.

Gossett, inspired by scenes of firefighters raising a flag at the site of the World Trade Center, drew an American flag fluttering from a large W, next to the number 43 for Bush as the 43rd president.

The Spalding design reads "W '04" instead of "W 43," and is rounded, unlike Gossett's rectangular design. Hollander said key elements in the company's design had emerged as early as 1999.

The Shadow Iraqi Government

By Pepe Escobar

The ideal White House/Pentagon script for Iraq calls for a pro-American government, total control of at least 12% of the world’s known oil reserves and 14 military bases to make it happen. Reality has been churning up other ideas.

Whenever there is a so-called “transfer of power” in Mesopotamia, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, like clockwork, steps on a plane to Baghdad. On his latest trip designed to issue orders for the new, supposedly sovereign Iraqi government, Rumsfeld, in a splendid Freudian slip, let it be known on the record the US “does not have an exit strategy” in Iraq: only a “victory strategy”. This is code for “we’re not going anywhere.”

This is a rather full article explaining the current ins and outs of Iraqi politics and our place in those politics.

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