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Frist vs Science
By Ari Berman
Last May the Republican-dominated House of Representatives voted to loosen President Bush's limits on embryonic stem cell research, allowing scientists to study cells derived from soon-to-be discarded embryos at fertility clinics. Senate Democrats and moderate Republicans could pass similar legislation as soon as this week. Conservatives realize they're opposing a popular policy that could be used against them as a wedge issue in midterm elections next year and in 2008. So Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has devised an alternative that undermines science while scoring political points.
In 2001, Frist came out in support of embryonic research, calling the science "a promising and important line of inquiry." But a month later, under pressure from Christian conservatives, President Bush limited federal funding to already-existing stem cell lines, which are few in number and often already contaminated. Frist quickly fell in line.
Now his so-called alternative would bypass "ethical constraints" by obtaining stem cells without destroying embryos. Only this method remains entirely unproven and has yet to appear in a major scientific medical journal or clear the peer review process. Even scientists exploring this approach call the choice between supporting the bipartisan legislation co-sponsored by Tom Harkin and Arlen Specter and Frist's alternative "a no-brainer."
(39) CommentsJuly 18, 2005
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Outrageous Outtakes
By Ari Berman
** Before the war, Paul Wolfowitz famously predicted that Iraq's oil revenues would pay for the country's reconstruction. Twenty-eight months later, Iraq may bring in $20 billion in revenues but "very little, if any, of that money will actually be used in the country's stalled reconstruction," the Christian Science Monitor reports. The botched occupation, coupled with smuggling and "outright theft" of revenues, are major reasons why. Case in point: $9 billion of oil money given to Iraqi ministries last year went missing. Millions more were recently discovered after being "misplaced" in unauthorized Iraqi and Jordanian bank accounts. Much of the legit funding is earmarked for the Iraqi budget. The rest, presumably, goes toward Halliburton.
** Judges back in America seem none too concerned about Iraq's corporate lawlessness. A Federal District Court judge ruled this week that Iraqi oil money dished out to American contractors by the Coalition Provisional Authority in 2003 and 2004 is not subject to the False Claims Act. The Act, which rewards corporate whistleblowers and penalizes corporate criminals, "is widely regarded as the government's most potent weapon against contractor fraud," the New York Times reports. A Department of Justice lawsuit against Custer Battles, a now-defunct Virginia contractor who double-billed its salaries and charged the Army for work never completed, will still move forward, but whistleblower cases in their early stages may not.
** "Abu Ghraib Tactics Were First Used at Guantanamo," the Washington Post wrote yesterday. How's that for Dick Durbin's vindication?! A military investigation released to the Senate Armed Services Committee strongly debunks the claim by the Pentagon that prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib was the product of a few bad apples. In fact, the general who set up US operations at Abu Ghraib first commanded the detention facilities at Gitmo, where he introduced the hoods and attacks dogs which became staple images of last April's prison scandal. Of course, the Post's conservative uptown competitor, the Washington Times, adopted a sunnier (and entirely misleading) approach to the new revelations: "No Gitmo torture, Senate panel told."
(44) CommentsJuly 15, 2005
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Playing Politics With Terror
By Ari Berman
Last summer the Bush Administration received intelligence indicating that Al Qaeda operatives were plotting a "big bomb" attack aimed at Britain. How did US authorities respond? By raising the threat level for New York and New Jersey to Code Orange three days after the conclusion of the Democratic Convention.
"Little, if any, evidence has turned up suggesting that the plotters had taken any steps to attack US financial targets as Bush Administration officials had initially suggested," Newsweek wrote in November, debunking the Administration's elevated alert. "The new view is that there was indeed an active Al Qaeda plot underway earlier this year--one that involved coded communications between high-level operatives in Pakistan and a British cell headed by a longtime associate of September 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed."
Four of the suspects who died in the London bombings are now believed to be Britons of Pakistani origin, who spent six months last year in Afghanistan and Pakistan. By going public with the domestic terror alert last July, Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge likely subverted the ongoing joint intelligence investigation between Pakistan and Great Britain. The Newsweek article, coupled with the London bombings, suggest that Ridge & co were more concerned with playing politics against John Kerry than protecting US and British citizens.
(72) CommentsJuly 14, 2005
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Halliburton Fails Upward
By Ari Berman
"Lawmakers, Including Republicans, Criticize Pentagon on Disputed Billing by Halliburton," read a New York Times headline on June 22. "Worries Raised on Handling of Funds in Iraq," the Los Angeles Times wrote the same day. It seemed clear that the Bush Administration's favorite war profiteer was again in hot water. Shortly thereafter, the Democratic Policy Committee released a report alleging that Halliburton subsidiary KBR overcharged the US government by as much as $1 billion, not even counting an additional $442 million in "unsupported" billing, for work in Iraq.
The headlines ceased over the next week. Then, In early July, KBR captured coverage in a decidedly more positive light: "Halliburton Gets More Iraq Work," Reuters reported on July 7. Once again, an Administration ally was/is failing upwards. Five billion dollars of new work, to be exact, on top of a contract that has brought KBR $9.1 billion, almost one sixth of what Bush promised the entire war effort would cost.
The military signed the $4.97 billion deal in May, but didn't reveal the details until this month, "because the Army did not consider it necessary," an Army spokesman told Reuters. Most of the money will go toward logistics--food, sanitation, laundry and other services for the troops--precisely the functions KBR has failed so spectacularly to properly administer thus far.
(42) CommentsJuly 12, 2005
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Outrageous Outtakes
By Ari Berman
** It was only a matter of time, a few hours to be exact, before Fox News began insinuating that the London terror attacks might not have been such a bad thing. Commenting on the interrupted G-8 gathering in Scotland, Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade remarked, "Their topic Number 1--believe it or not--was global warming, the second was African aid. And that was the first time since 9-11 when they should know, and they do know now, that terrorism should be Number 1. But it's important for them all to be together. I think that works to our advantage, in the Western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together, just 500 miles from where the attacks have happened." Yes, Brian, the bombings were nothing more than a collective bonding experience for world leaders.
** The sluggish pace of executions in America is too much for Republicans to handle. The recently introduced "Streamlined Procedures Act of 2005" would restrict the ability of prisoners on death row to appeal their sentences to federal courts, thereby gutting the 300-year legal precedent of habeas corpus review. House Democrats have little chance of stopping the bill, even though a Columbia University study found that of the 5,826 death sentences handed down between 1973 and 1995, 68 percent were reversed on appeal. A full 40 percent of convictions upheld by state appeals courts were later overturned through habeas corpus; precisely the mechanism "compassionate conservatives" now want to block.
** "I love the smell of napalm in the morning," Robert Duvall famously announced in Apocalypse Now. Apparently, despite an international ban in 1980 by the UN, the US military still feels the same way. "American officials lied to British ministers over the use of 'internationally reviled' napalm-type firebombs in Iraq," London's Independent reported two weeks ago. Since then, not one US newspaper or TV station has pursued accounts of MK77 firebombs used in the initial invasion and subsequent razing of Falluja last April. "It's no great way to die," Colonel James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11, said after firebombing bridges south of Baghdad in March 2003. "The generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect."
(43) CommentsJuly 8, 2005
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Blessed Be Thy Dough
By Ari Berman
During the 2000 and 2004 campaigns, George W. Bush promised to nominate conservative judges in the mold of Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Now, with the sudden Supreme Court vacancy of Sandra Day O'Connor, the far right plans to spend millions of dollars to hold Bush to his word.
Progress for America, a 527 that spent $45 million on ads in 2004 comparing John Kerry to Osama bin Laden, will disburse another $18 million on media targeting Republican moderates and Democratic incumbents up for re-election next year. PFA dished out nearly $4 million to help confirm Appellate Court Justices Pricilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown, and has already released a research paper entitled "Tar & Feather, Inc: A 10 Step Plan for Judicial Character Assassination." The Judicial Confirmation Network, an umbrella of 70 conservative groups led by a former clerk to Justice Thomas, will add $2-3 million for grassroots lobbying. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a former ally of Klansman David Duke, has pledged "millions" to activate members of 20,000 churches.
"This is the moment that social conservatives have been awaiting for more than a decade," Perkins told the Washington Post. "The engine has been idling since the election, and all we have to do is rev it up again." The three aforementioned groups, according to the Post, "only touches the surface of the expected investment" by right-wingers such as James Dobson's Focus on the Family, the Christian Coalition and the Center for Law and Justice. Many of these organizations, thanks to their tax-exempt religious status, aren't forced to disclose how or where they allocate their money.
(28) CommentsJuly 7, 2005
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The Gamblers Go Bust
By Ari Berman
Grover Norquist is known as a brilliantly effective strategist and ideologue, a Reagan Revolutionary who more than anyone deserves credit for turning Washington, DC into a one-party town. From his perch at Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), his weekly Wednesday meetings with conservative activists and his ruthlessly successful K Street Project, Norquist has created a new Republican political establishment. A Nation profile of Norquist in 2001 dubbed him "the managing director of the hard-core right in Washington." Norquist has been the go-to-guy on virtually every right-wing priority, from tax cuts to Social Security privatization, holding the GOP's big business and Christian conservative constituencies together.
Now, the man who once bragged of wanting to "cut government in half" and "drown it in the bathtub" is up to his neck in hot water because of ties to uberlobbyist Jack Abramoff. Newly released emails from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee confirm Norquist's role in helping Abramoff milk millions from Indian tribes, in one of the most extravagant corruption scandals to reach the Capitol in decades.
Over the course of several years, Abramoff and fellow lobbyist Michael Scanlon charged the Choctaw Indian Tribe of Mississippi $7.7 million for lobbying services directed against rival gambling opportunities in neighboring Alabama. In 1999, Norquist approached Abramoff about getting involved, citing "a $75k hole in my budget from last year." The Choctaws gave ATR $1.5 million, which Norquist funneled to the Alabama Christian Coalition and Citizens Against Legalized Lottery, both of whom opposed a proposal to create a state lottery. Neither group was allowed to accept casino money, so Norquist, with the help of former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed, kept the money's source secret. The state lottery and video poker machine initiatives were defeated in 1999 and 2000. Norquist subsequently invited tribal groups to meet Bush at the White House for discussions on tax policy.
(8) CommentsJuly 5, 2005
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Outrageous Outtakes
By Ari Berman
** Politics is once again shamelessly spilling over into sports. Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), who chaired the showboating steroid hearings for Major League Baseball, now wants to prevent George Soros from buying the Washington Nationals. Davis and other Republicans have threatened to revoke the league's antitrust exemption if the deal goes through, even though Soros isn't even the leading partner in the bid. Rival bidder Fred Malek, however, is a former Richard Nixon aide and major GOP donor. Thus far, Davis has denounced Soros as "pro marijuana," an "out of towner" and "some multinational." Pssst Tom, he's also a Jew!
** President Bush invoked the words "terror" or "terrorism" 34 times in his address on Iraq on Tuesday. Needless to say, Bush neglected to mention that since the US invasion Iraq has become a more effective training ground for Islamic radicals than Afghanistan under the Taliban, according to a new CIA report. Militants now use the country as a "real-world laboratory for urban combat," writes The New York Times, replete with "assassinations, kidnappings [and] car bombings." And when CIA chief Porter Goss backed up Dick Cheney's assertion that insurgents were down to their "last throes," he failed to note that more foreign fighters are moving into Iraq today than six months ago.
** Guantanamo Bay may be expanding out to sea. The UN has learned that US officials may be secretly detaining suspected terrorists aboard prison ships, in remote international waters exempt from US law. "This opens the door to very tough interrogations on key prisoners before it ever has been revealed that they have been captured," Francis Tusa, editor of Jane's Defense Weekly, told Agence France-Presse. The island base of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean could be one such locale, Tusa says. The UN may soon open an official inquiry, even though its already been denied access to Gitmo. Hand-held tours for Congress now suffice for oversight.
(17) CommentsJuly 1, 2005
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Another Clinton Sell Out
By Ari Berman
When Barack Obama ran for the Senate he distanced himself from the centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). Hillary Clinton is taking the opposite approach as she tacks toward the Presidency.
According to Roll Call and the Des Moines Register, Hillary is set to assume a key "policy role" in the DLC starting in July. Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack will assume the chairmanship from Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, another presumed candidate in '08, with Delaware Senator Tom Carper becoming vice chairman.
Clearly, Hillary hopes that by identifying herself with an organization devoted to bashing the Democratic base she can solidify her moderate credentials. "A senior Democratic aide suggested Clinton's involvement with the DLC is just another move toward expanding her political appeal as she ponders a presidential bid," Roll Call reports (subscription only). As recently as last March, Hillary was not listed in the DLC's New Democratic Directory of elected officials. Now she is.
(20) CommentsJune 29, 2005
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Supporting Which Troops?
By Ari Berman
By now, it should be obvious that the "pro-defense" party doesn't give a damn about our troops, least of all veterans.
House Republicans ousted fellow conservative Chris Smith as chairman of the Committee on Veterans Affairs for his tireless advocacy of veterans rights. Current Chairman Steve Buyer was promoted, in the words of one Republican aide, "to tell the veterans groups, 'Enough is enough.'"
Senate Republicans have repeatedly voted down funding increases for vets to keep pace with inflation and meet rising needs.
(17) CommentsJune 28, 2005
Ari Berman
The Daily Outrage aims to shine a spotlight on the forces that corrupt our democracy. The outrages come from all over these days: lobbyists stifling reformers in both parties, defense contractors profiting off pre-emptive war, the mainstream media echoing government deceptions, and a rightwing attack machine defending neo-imperialists and distorting progressive values. These stories rarely make the front-page, penetrate talk-radio, or appear on the evening news. So let The Daily Outrage guide you through the tangled web of media, money and politics at home and abroad. And click here to let us know of any outrages you think we should be covering.
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