Will Bush/Iraq crash our spaceship earth?

Aptly preceeding Colin Powell's screed for war in front of the United Nations and the world were a string of condolences for the death of yet another crew of astronauts killed aboard yet another crashed United States shuttle mission.

Instead, there should have been a string of criminal indictments for the inexcusable loss that mirrors the Bush Administration's latest push for war. 

Almost exactly 17 years ago, Ronald Reagan was about to give his State of the Union address.  His PR-minded handlers at the White House insisted the Challenger be shot into space that very morning.  Among others it carried a New Hampshire school teacher whose global appeal was meant to balance the image of a program being increasingly militarized. 

The Reaganauts wanted a Star Wars missile defense system that would mean tens or hundreds of billions for Boeing, Martin Marietta and other military contractors which today share responsibility for shuttle operations.  The Challenger seemed the perfect public relations foil for an administration determined to turn space into a lucrative armed camp.

Deficit at record high

AUSTIN, Texas -- "We will not pass along our problems to other Congresses, to other presidents, and other generations." -- George W. Bush, State of the Union address, Jan. 28, 2003

"Even though hundreds of other government programs would be squeezed, the president projects the deficit will still hit record highs of $304 billion this year and $307 billion in 2004. Over the next five years, the deficits would total $1.08 trillion. ... Taken together, the new stimulus measure and making the tax cut permanent would add up to $1.3 trillion in new tax relief, on top of the $1.35 trillion tax reduction Congress passed in 2001." -- Associated Press, Feb. 3, 2003.

The question is, does the President believe himself?

"To lift the standards of our public schools, we achieved historic education reform, which must now be carried out in every school, in every classroom, so that every child in America can read, and learn, and succeed in life." -- Bush, ibid.

The president's first education budget after he signed his much-touted No

One Angry Jury

"I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution." -- Thomas Jefferson.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The district attorney of San Francisco, Terence Hallinan, got it right. Tuesday saw a scene outside U.S. District Court in that city that was probably without parallel in American history. Five jurors plus one alternate (there were three more jurors unable to attend but in agreement) publicly apologized to the man they had found guilty four days earlier and proclaimed to the press their shame that they had been, as one of them put it, "manipulated, intimidated, controlled" by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer into finding Ed Rosenthal guilty.

It was certainly one of the most moving scenes outside a courthouse I have ever witnessed: six angry people asking Rosenthal for forgiveness and declaring that they would be ashamed of what they did for the rest of their lives.

Senators seek to repeal Iraq War Act

WASHINGTON, DC— Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Ron Paul (R-TX) today introduced legislation to repeal the Iraq Use of Force Resolution passed by Congress and signed into law by the President last fall. Following is DeFazio’s statement: “I heard no new evidence today from Secretary Powell’s address to the United Nations, that would convince me that military action in Iraq is necessary to improve security of Americans.

“Americans want the President to lay a clear case for immediate military action in Iraq, but the Administration’s message keeps changing- six months ago, their case hinged on regime change, three months ago it was Saddam thwarting inspections, three weeks ago it was possible possession of chemical weapons, today its tenuous terrorist links. If the case was clear, it would have been clear from day one.

“Our nation’s immediate threat is still Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda terrorist network. We have full knowledge of North Korea’s equally rapidly developing nuclear weapons program under the control of an equally diabolical leader. There’s well-published accounts of several

UHCAN Ohio issues report on free health care in Columbus

In the summer of 2000, the Universal Health Care Action Network (UHCAN) Ohio’s free care committee conducted a survey of the ten non-profit acute-care hospitals in Columbus. The results will appear in a report to be issued in December (check the uhcanohio website for a copy of the report). UHCAN Ohio has already met with administrators of several hospitals, all of whom indicated a willingness to collaborate with the community group on instituting improvements recommended in the report.

The group wanted to find out how easy it is for individuals to get information about free care. The concern was not that the hospitals aren’t providing free care, but rather that hospitals do not take steps necessary to inform patients and the public that free care is available to those in need. Thus, people are not seeking needed care because they don’t know – and can’t easily find out — about free care.

Free care is care provided by a hospital to low-income, uninsured people for which the hospital does not expect to be paid. For people who have no health insurance and little money, free care is often the only way they can get necessary medical treatment.

Michael Moore’s <i>Stupid White Men</i> saga

Amazon.com:
“Stupid White Men, Michael Moore’s screed against “Thief-in-Chief” George Bush’s power elite, hit No. 1 at Amazon.com within days of publication. Why? It’s as fulminating and crammed with infuriating facts as any right-wing bestseller, as irreverent as The Onion, and as noisily entertaining as a wrestling smackdown.”

Tom Paulin:
“It’s the funniest book I’ve read in a long time. Absolutely amazing satirical wit, great journalism, great research. It’s like Samson tearing down the mausoleum - wonderful Swiftean rage but a generosity at the same time. Extraordinary man - it’s a great book. It pulls the place apart.”

Bonnie Greer:

Ethics and equity in Columbus urban education

In my mind the basic tenet of determining what is or is not ethical behavior is, whether if placed in a similar circumstance one would feel that they were treated fairly and in a dignified manner. If I apply this micro-definition to the state of urban education in America it doesn't take the proverbial rocket scientist to figure out that ethics and equity has long been missing in action. The state of urban education is abysmal. The efforts to reform urban education across the country is meant (for the most part) with contempt and extreme resistance to change. The de-valuing of the urban child, in favor of the suburban and sometimes rural (if not Appalachian) is a malady that strikes at the heart of one of this nation's most valuable assets, its children.

Yes, that really was the President of the United States

One has to go back to the lesser Roman emperors of the second century to find an imperial suzerain as dismal as Bush. Tuesday's speech was surely the worst State of the Union address to Congress in the past 30 years, as the commander-in-chief stumbled through a thicket of brazen fictions toward the proposed rendezvous with destiny on Feb. 5, the day Secretary of State Colin Powell is scheduled to make his way to the United Nations to present the administration's latest "intelligence" confection on the topic of Saddam's deceits.

If you want to get a taste of how these ramshackle "intelligence" reports are assembled, take a look at "Apparatus of Lies: Saddam's Disinformation and Propaganda, 1990-2003," recently issued by the White House and invoked Tuesday night by the 43rd president.

By way of illustrating the all-around deviousness of Saddam's propaganda machine, the White House document cites on page 23 the Pakistani news outlet Inqilab as having reported on Jan. 27, 1991, that "The American pop star Madonna was in Saudi Arabia, entertaining U.S. troops." The White

State of the Union

AUSTIN, Texas -- The state of the union is that money talks and public policy is sold to the highest bidder. Those who give money in political contributions -- less than one-tenth of one percent of the U.S. population gave 83 percent of all campaign contributions in the 2002 elections -- get back billions in tax breaks, subsidies and the right to exploit public land at ridiculously low prices.

This system in turn costs ordinary Americans billions of dollars, not to mention the costs to health, safety and the environment, and the cost of not having enough money for good schools.

Public Campaign, the group working for public financing of political campaigns, has put together some of the salient information in the form of a poster, available at www.publiccampaign.org -- and perhaps the most depressing thing about it is the size of the payoffs for relatively small investments in political campaigns.

For example, the top corporations that paid zero taxes from 1996 to 1998 --including AT&T, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chase Manhattan, Enron,

Campaign donations and the State of the Union

AUSTIN, Texas -- The state of the union is that money talks and public policy is sold to the highest bidder. Those who give money in political contributions -- less than one-tenth of one percent of the U.S. population gave 83 percent of all campaign contributions in the 2002 elections -- get back billions in tax breaks, subsidies and the right to exploit public land at ridiculously low prices.

This system in turn costs ordinary Americans billions of dollars, not to mention the costs to health, safety and the environment, and the cost of not having enough money for good schools.

Public Campaign, the group working for public financing of political campaigns, has put together some of the salient information in the form of a poster, available at www.publiccampaign.org -- and perhaps the most depressing thing about it is the size of the payoffs for relatively small investments in political campaigns.

For example, the top corporations that paid zero taxes from 1996 to 1998 --including AT&T, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chase Manhattan, Enron,

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