Editorial from:  

Nearly one-third of the way into the fiscal year, Congress is limping its way toward passing the bills to cover this year's spending. The Senate last week belatedly approved a $390 billion spending package that wraps together the appropriations bills Congress failed to deal with last year. We have become resigned to government by continuing resolution - a peculiarly Orwellian euphemism for procrastination. But the combination of the extreme tardiness of the measure, the large number of spending bills lumped together (11 of 13), and the relative paucity of debate makes this year's budget debacle particularly appalling. And that is leaving aside the substance of the spending measure, which manages to find funding for lawmakers' pet projects ($1 million for noxious weed management in Montana, $20 million for Alaskan seafood marketing) while skimping on homeland security and the needy.

By: Steve Chapman  

For the last year, the Bush administration has been striving to mobilize the world on Iraq, and it has finally succeeded. Everyone is coming together - against us.

President Bush has shown a knack for helping old rivals find common ground. The French and the Germans spent most of the last century killing each other, restraining each other, or eyeing each other warily, but in recent weeks they've stood shoulder to shoulder against Washington. The Russians and Chinese, who are normally about as brotherly as Cain and Abel, have joined forces to resist Bush's policies.

By: Mary McGrory  

Bush's audacity in presenting an economic package that looked like a handout to the rich - and then rounding on his critics with charges of class warfare - was breathtaking. Rove went him one better: He claims his boss is a "populist".

And, he added, amid dropping jaws and lowered eclairs: "Give him a choice between Wall Street and Main Street, and he'll choose Main Street every time."

Rove's show offered a picture of a White House where improvisation is the preferred method of operation. Policy is made up as they go along. Please don't mention politics. He established himself as a policy wonk with a filibuster on Bush the environmentalist, who endorses clear-cutting to save our national forests from fiery death. He described hearing beetles consuming a dead tree in Oregon. Teddy Roosevelt would be cheering W. on, Rove said, in one of his most adventurous spins.

By: Bridget Gibson  

In this world of 'accountability', it appears the only one who isn't ever held accountable is George W. Bush.

If I hear anyone else whine that the things that are happening on his shift are not his fault and he is not to be blamed for the economy, the state of the union, the coming war with Iraq, the fiasco in Afghanistan, the flair up of tensions with Korea, and the mess that he has made of relationships with 90% of the international community, I do believe that I will become violently ill.

Since he has been in office, it seems that his every action has been contrary to the good of our nation. To date, he has not met an environmental safeguard that he hasn't trashed, a budget he hasn't busted, a country he hasn't threatened, or a war he wouldn't create.

For what one defense analyst says is a worst-case scenario, planners are studying the use of atomic bombs on deeply buried targets.

By: Paul Richter  

As the Pentagon continues a highly visible buildup of troops and weapons in the Persian Gulf, it is also quietly preparing for the possible use of nuclear weapons in a war against Iraq, according to a report by a defense analyst.

Although they consider such a strike unlikely, military planners have been actively studying lists of potential targets and considering options, including the possible use of so-called bunker-buster nuclear weapons against deeply buried military targets, says analyst William M. Arkin, who writes a regular column on defense matters for the Times.

Military officials have been focusing their planning on the use of tactical nuclear arms in retaliation for a strike by the Iraqis with chemical or biological weapons, or to preempt one, Arkin says. His report, based on interviews and a review of official documents, appears in a column that will be published in the Times on Sunday.

By: Nicholas Stein  

In December, President Bush named Thomas Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, chairman of an independent commission examining the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But Fortune has learned that Kean appears to have a bizarre link to the very terror network he's investigating - al Qaeda.

From:  

For years Susan McDougal didn't talk. Not to prosecutors. Not about Bill Clinton's role in a questionable land deal called Whitewater.

For her silence she would spend 18 months in jail for contempt of court... plus three-and-a-half months for fraud.

And she tells CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart: "It was not an easy time. It was not an easy time."

But now she's telling her story in The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk.

"I question things, and I do not believe Bush simply because he says something. And I don't believe MSNBC, CNN, BBC, or any of the rest of them simply because they say it. The fact is that: Why did we not have any fighter jets around the Pentagon after two jets had slammed into the WTC, a third jet was heading at full speed towards the Pentagon on FAA radar, and yet we had no fighter jets around the Pentagon? George Bush should be impeached for criminal negligence at best. And that doesn't even factor in... that he didn't receive the majority of votes. How is it possible there were no jets around the Pentagon and we have no independent investigation?"

- Ken Nichols O'Keefe, speaking to Mike Barnacle on MSNBC

"Unemployment, up by 2.2 million - 2.2 million people lost their jobs under Bush. Stock market down 38% under Bush. Poverty up 1.3 million under Bush. Homelessness up 19%. Budget deficit way up - from a $300 billion surplus [to] a $300 billion deficit. The uninsured people without health care, up 1.4 million. This is the Bush economic record. Now... are we better off than we were two years ago?"

- Paul Begala, speaking the truth on CNN's Crossfire

By: Jerry Knight  

Quickly forgetting whatever it was that gave the market a little lift yesterday, investors started selling early and indiscriminately, sending the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index toward their sixth loss in the past seven days.

At 2:30 29 of the 30 Dow stocks were down for the day and the blue chip index was off more than 200 points. Only a couple dozen of the S&P members were able to avoid the avalanche of selling that knocked more than 20 points off that index. The Nasdaq Stock Market composite index was falling even faster, off more than 40 points, a plunge approaching 3%.

With today's decline the Dow is down almost 700 points since the markets turned south on Jan. 14.

By: Don Wycliff  

Maybe it has always been there and I've just been looking past it at Iraq, the Middle East, Sept. 11, and such. But in serious ways and frivolous ones, the issue of economic class seems to have become unusually prominent in the media lately.

It has shown up most seriously in coverage of the debate over a "stimulus" for the American economy, as Republicans defend President Bush's package of tax law changes by blasting the Democrats for engaging in what they term "class warfare".

It strikes me that those who use it must be ignorant of warfare and in denial about class. The very fact that Americans are debating policy and not firing weapons, seizing the levers of power, or staging general strikes suggests just how far we are from real class warfare.

And that invites the question: Given the realities of wealth and income inequality in our country, why do we not experience real class warfare?

Doubts are growing about President Bush's handling of the economy and foreign policy, polls suggest.

Report from:  

Bush's job approval stood at 58% in a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. It was 54% in an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll.

A new New York Times/CBS News poll found nearly 50% of the public disapproved of Bush on the economy, while 41% disapproved of his management of foreign policy.

"The President considers this nation to be at war and, as such, considers any opposition to his policies to be no less than an act of treason."

- an anonymous White House source

By: Marty Jezer  

It was a bad week for the Bush administration, and it's likely to get worse. The American people are beginning to understand the folly and greed that form its economic policy. And most of the civilized world has turned decisively against the Iraqi adventure. The great coalition that George W. Bush proposes to lead against Saddam Hussein is now a coalition of two, and British prime minister Tony Blair has lost the support of his own people, most especially members of his own Labor Party, who warn of a political revolt if Britain goes to war without a new U.N. resolution.

Bush is losing it. His composure, his "good-guy" image, the debate about economic policy, the sympathy and support of the international community and, as polls indicate, the backing of the American people.

"This is the worst President ever. [Bush] is the worst President in all of American history."

- Helen Thomas

By: Joanne Kenen  

Former President Bill Clinton blasted President Bush's proposed tax cuts on Thursday, saying some of the money should be funneled into a renewed effort to finally fix the U.S. health care system, this time in a bipartisan fashion.

Clinton's speech, a rare public appearance in Washington and his first major address on his signature issue of health care since leaving office, comes as pollsters detect growing public anxiety about health insurance and a return of double-digit health care inflation.

He scolded those who said that the nation can't worry about its health system while it is dealing with terrorism, Iraq, and North Korea. "That's why you develop a brain, so you can think about more than one thing at a time."

"President Bush said this Iraq situation looks like 'a rerun of a bad movie'. Well sure, there's a Bush in the White House, the economy's going to hell, we're going to war over oil... How many of us have seen this movie?"

- Jay Leno

From:  

Welcome once again to the Top Ten Conservative Idiots! Democratic Underground is two years old this week, and to celebrate we've got some first-class idiots lined up for you. George W. Bush holds on to the number one slot this week for flip-flopping like a freshly-landed haddock over North Korea. CNN (2) are beating the drums of war and Donald Rumsfeld (3) says that we will attack Iraq if they a) tell us that they have WMD or b) don't tell us that they have WMD. Their choice. Elsewhere Minneapolis City Workers (4) demonstrate what it means to be a true patriot, Bill Frist (5) is getting off to a poor start, and - no sex please! - Robert McDonnell (6) is an idiot. Meanwhile Poppy Bush gets a free ride from ABC (9) and Matt Drudge reminds everybody who he is. Enjoy!

By: Judith Foster  

Everyone who votes knows that voting is the cornerstone of our American Democratic way of life. Take away this one right and our Constitution collapses and becomes just another piece of paper we can line our bird cages with. Voter fraud and tampering are a fundamental crime because the result is the destruction of the foundation of our government, our national ideology, and even our daily way of life.

It is a documented fact that the presidential election of 2000 was stolen through fraud, lying, manipulation of information, denial of voting rights to thousands of blacks (through erroneously adding their names to lists of felons), and through the age old tactic of intimidation, including staged riots threatening those who would count the votes. Two years later the insidious "reform" of electronic voting and the sudden refusal to have even exit polls counted basically put all the power of our votes in the hands of the manufacturers of the electronic voting machines.

"Neither the country nor the society we built out of it can be healthy until we stop raiding and running, and learn to be quiet part of the time, and acquire the sense not of ownership but of belonging."

- American writer Wallace Stegner, in a 1986 essay

By: Joe Conason  

While searching my office for W's autobiography this morning, I came across an old copy of Debating Affirmative Action, an excellent paperback anthology of essays from all perspectives edited by Nicolaus Mills. It includes a 1991 article reprinted from the Washington Monthly on legacy admissions by John Larew, a former chairman (meaning editor) of the Harvard Crimson.

Investigating quotas for the rich and well-born, Larew came across an advertisement in the right-wing Dartmouth Review. Placed by a group of "concerned" conservative alumni, the ad demanded an end to "goals or quotas for any special group or category of applicants. Equal opportunity must be the guiding policy... based solely on individual performance."

As Larew read on, however, he came to this qualification: "Alumni sons and daughters should receive some special consideration."

By: Frank Rich  

The Bush rhetorical technique - of implying one thing while doing quite another - was first honed to perfection in the speech handing down the great stem-cell "compromise" of summer 2001. In his new and mostly worshipful memoir about Mr. Bush, The Right Man, his former speechwriter David Frum describes the President's sleight-of-hand technique from the inside: "Because Bush summarized all points of view so sympathetically, he was able to win the support of his viewers for his own not at all middle-of-the-road position." What the speech did, in other words, was persuade inattentive listeners that the President was so sympathetic to scientific research and the ill that he couldn't possibly be throwing roadblocks in the way of potential cures for cancer, juvenile diabetes, and Alzheimer's (as in fact he was).

Mr. Bush rolls out an economic plan that he says will help address joblessness, now at an eight-year high and growing, when in fact it's mainly a payday for those who collect dividend checks. Promising to speed the cleanup of corporate corruption, he accepts the resignation of Harvey Pitt, but two months-plus later Mr. Pitt is still on the job, working his will as the SEC does some of its most crucial "reform" rule-making. Mr. Bush thumps as a hallmark of his education vision the No Child Left Behind Act, but his tight budget will leave states struggling to fulfill its alleged goals. Even Marvin Olasky, the Bush sycophant who wrote the book that inspired compassionate conservatism, said last month that while he awards the President an "A" for "setting the message" he gives him an "F" for his legislative follow-through.

"CIA Director Casey personally spearheaded the effort to ensure that Iraq had sufficient military weapons, ammunition and vehicles to avoid losing the Iran-Iraq war... the United States actively supported the Iraqi war effort by supplying the Iraqis with billions of dollars of credits, by providing US military intelligence and advice to the Iraqis, and by closely monitoring third country arms sales to Iraq to make sure Iraq had the military weaponry required. The United States also provide strategic operational advice to the Iraqis to better use their assets in combat. For example, in 1986, President Reagan sent a secret message to Saddam Hussein telling him that Iraq should step up its air war and bombing of Iran. This message was delivered by Vice President Bush, who communicated it to Egyptian President Mubarak, who in turn passed the message to Saddam Hussein. Similar... advice was passed to Saddam Hussein through various meetings with European and Middle Eastern heads of state. I personally attended meetings in which CIA Director Casey or CIA Deputy Director Gates noted the need for Iraq to have certain weapons such as cluster bombs and anti-armor penetrators in order to stave off the Iranian attacks. When I joined the NSC staff in early 1982, CIA Director Casey was adamant that cluster bombs were a perfect 'force multiplier' that would allow the Iraqis to defend against the 'human waves' of Iranian attackers. I recorded those comments in the minutes..."

- Howard Teicher, a staffer for the National Security Council from 1982 to 1987

Editorial from:  

When George W. Bush ran for President in 2000, he said the United States must be "humble" in the world. Now he has cast humility aside and replaced it with hubris. Supremely confident in his gut instincts, wrapped up in a fundamentalist belief system, endowed with the most powerful military of all time, and unchecked by Congress, Bush feels he can "rid the world of evil" - at the barrel of a gun.

A picture emerges from the President's public statements - and even from such adulatory accounts as Bob Woodward's Bush at War and David Frum's The Right Man - of a President on a divine mission.

Call it messianic militarism.

"I think the American people... I hope the American... I don't think, let me... I hope the American people trust me."

- pResident Shit4Brains, Washington, DC, Dec. 18, 2002

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