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Vice President Halliburton
By Matt Bivens
According to Dick Cheney's 2003 tax returns, his Halliburton paycheck last year was $178,437. His vice president's paycheck was $198,600.
His Halliburton paycheck?
Yes, the vice president still gets an annual Halliburton check. When he resigned as CEO to become the hand in the George W. Bush talking puppet, Cheney arranged his massive $36 million severance package to be paid out over a period of years, so as to pay less tax. Cheney says that this check comes in regardless of whether the enormous oil-and-defense contractor has a good year or a bad one, and so he has "no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind."
(0) CommentsApril 14, 2004
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Green Scissors
By Matt Bivens
The Green Scissors coalition, one of the smartest political movements going, unites consumer and taxpayer groups with environmentalists to target the worst government spending: The kind that's both wasteful and harmful.
The coalition released its 2004 report today, and it focuses in on just five of the many dozens of green cuts the campaign has advocated over the years.
Were these five cuts made, we'd avoid wasting $4 billion in tax money and in the process we'd be keeping the environment cleaner. And so, courtesy of Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense and the US Public Interest Research Group -- and with endorsements from the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, Public Citizen, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the National Audubon Society and others -- here are those five green smart cuts:
(0) CommentsApril 13, 2004
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Keystone Kounter-Terror
By Matt Bivens
Only George W. Bush could study a memo titled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US", and then blithely assert that it "said nothing about an attack on America."
Note to the President: "US" is a common abbreviation for "the United States of America", the country we live in and of which you are the highest elected official, a country also often referred to in shorthand as "America." Good luck with that whole national security thing from hereon out.
The "Bin Laden Determined to Strike" memo, reluctantly released this weekend, was first presented as an intelligence briefing for the President on Aug. 6, 2001 -- while he was in Texas enjoying a near-record-setting month-long siesta. Ever since -- and outrageously, even to the present day, when the actual document is out there contradicting them -- Bush and Condoleeza Rice have slyly characterized it as a brief history lesson about al-Qaida, when it is actually a reasonably specific warning.
(0) CommentsApril 12, 2004
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Nero Fiddles
By Matt Bivens
A "war-time president" wouldn't skip town just as the combat situation soured.
Which must by why George W. Bush has skipped town.
Yes, he's taken another unearned vacation down in Texas, where he's been showing off his expansive ranch to representatives of the National Rifle Association and other "sporting aficionados and conservation groups."
(0) CommentsApril 9, 2004
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Slyly Reviving the Draft
By Matt Bivens
"Even in Vietnam, as difficult as it was there, you knew from the time you hit the ground to the time you returned it was one year -- whereas with this [Iraq war] it's really up in the air." -- an American soldier discussing Pentagon decisions that keep soldiers in the field against their will even after they've served their tours of duty.
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Donald Rumsfeld has said that US troops scheduled to leave Iraq in the next few weeks might instead be forbidden to leave. So soldiers who have no doubt been counting down the days to when they can go home are now in limbo. The Army, meanwhile, has prepared new so-called "stop-loss" orders that forbid thousands from leaving the service even after they've put in their agreed time.
(0) CommentsApril 8, 2004
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Republican Priorities
By Matt Bivens
The White House fought for a year to prevent the very idea of a commission to investigate the 9/11 terror attacks, and even after he was forced to bow to public pressure George W. Bush has tried to hamstring it -- from trying to put it under the leadership of Captain Truth himself, Henry Kissinger, to setting unreasonable deadlines for it to close down.
So as Condoleeza Rice, Dick Cheney and the President each have their days of testimony before the nation, remember this: When Republicans were after Bill Clinton, they saw fit to allocate $70 million to look into this one man's business dealings and sexual escapades; the 9/11 commission, by contrast, has had to beg and scrape from the Administration to gather a budget of $15 million.
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(0) CommentsApril 7, 2004
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Iraq Optimist's Club
By Matt Bivens
When the Treasury Department issued a statement about how John Kerry's tax proposals would affect "hard-working individuals and married couples," the Kerry campaign responded angrily -- and correctly -- that Treasury officials ought to stick to their jobs. After all, we supposedly believe in a professional government. That's why we have civil servants, who are protected by the Hatch Act from political pressures and so free to speak uncomfortable truths -- and free to do their jobs, instead of politicking on the public's dime -- instead of an army of craven loyalists who are dumped out of office every four or eight years.
In this light, consider the flagrant Hatch Act abuse that is our Iraqi coalition press office. As The Associated Press reports from Baghdad, the press office is lead by "Republican Party operatives" who "promote mostly good news about Iraq."
Like the April Fool's Day press release the office just put out under the headline -- I kid you not -- "Optimists Club Organizes Baghdad Chapter." (You can skim similarly wistful press release headlines here.)
(0) CommentsApril 6, 2004
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Islamic Republic of Iraq
By Matt Bivens
Journalist Tim Russert: If the Iraqis choose, however, an Islamic extremist regime, would you accept that ...?
President George W. Bush: They're not going to develop that. And the reason I can say that is because I'm very aware of this basic law they're writing. They're not going to develop that because right here in the Oval Office I sat down with Mr. Pachachi and Chalabi and al- Hakim ... -- from an interview two months ago on "Meet the Press".
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(0) CommentsApril 5, 2004
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Yawning Boy
By Matt Bivens
If you missed the footage of the 12-year-old Florida boy who sleepily shared a stage with George W. Bush, you can view it here (or read about it, and see some still photos from it, here).
It's very funny, which was why it made the "Late Show with David Letterman": While the President drones on from the podium, the young man standing a few feet behind him in khaki shorts, a black polo shirt and an orange baseball cap goes through some jaw-unhinging yawns (without covering his mouth because his hands are in his back pockets), lolls his head around to loosen up a stiff neck, claps and yawns, claps and checks his watch and yawns; and then, as things grow progressively more desperate for him, engages in must-stay-awake stretch exercises; takes a knee for a time; and ultimately seems to fall asleep while standing, only partially waking up when the applause starts again -- at which point he smiles sleepily and claps with everyone else.
Pretty amusing stuff, right?
(0) CommentsApril 2, 2004
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Twenty-Five Grand Per Hour
By Matt Bivens
On Friday, at a private home and golf resort in Georgia, George W. Bush will headline a bash to celebrate the first chapter of what has been the biggest presidential fundraising drive in American history.
In just nine months, Bush has collected, as planned, more than $170 million -- or $25,043 an hour. The money will be used to fund a full-bore anti-John Kerry ad campaign, one that by some accounts is already working.
Raising $170 million in nine months ain't easy. It involved the President and the Vice President criss-crossing the country on Air Force One and Air Force Two, with George Bush attending 56 fund-raisers and Dick Cheney 41. For the President alone, that was a pace of 1.5 fund-raisers a week.
(0) CommentsApril 1, 2004
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