United States News Digest
Dems Can't Win by Trying To Sound Like Republicans
The Democrats can't win when they try to sound like Republicans, is the conclusion of a thoughtful post-Election Day note from leading Texas Democrat David Van Os, who was defeated in a statewide campaign for judge. Van Os was writing in response to a Nov. 3 Washington Post article, "For Bush and GOP, a Validation," by staff writer John Harris, which argues that the election outcome is a vindication for Bush's strategy, based on appealing to his "conservative base," and governing "based more often on trying to vanquish political adversaries rather than split the difference with them."
Van Os begins by saying it is a validation, "that if you give the voters a choice between a real Republican and a Democrat trying to sound like a Republican, most of them will choose the real thing. It was the height of foolishness for Kerry to build his campaign around national security and terrorism. That played to Bush's strength and gave Bush his choice of ground to fight on. There are so, so many examples of Bush's Administration and indeed his entire career being built on lies and deceit, yet Kerry consciously gave Bush a free pass on 99% of it.
"To [Kerry's] Democratic base, George W. Bush himself was the real issuehis fraudulence, his politics of deception and deceit, his arrogance ... his love affair with theocracy, his suppression of dissent, his suppression of democracy ... his imperialism. Yet Kerry and his patrician political consultants insisted on campaigning on the basis of, 'We agree with Bush's foreign policies but we can do it in a more competent manner' and ignoring the real issues that had the Democratic base charged up."
Van Os then took up the problem of the Democratic Party deployment going into the election. "Personally, I think they [the GOP] probably stole it with voter suppression tactics and rigged voting machines, but we had to have margins that rendered it not close enough to steal. It is incredible that Kerry actually designed his message to create a tight election." He accused Kerry of not trying "to expand the Democratic base, while Bush designed his campaign to expand the Republican base by getting more people charged up about the things that charge up the Republican base."
Van Os concluded by writing that the Democratic Party "must never, ever again build its campaigns around appeasement."
Lyndon LaRouche said he found Van Os's report to be "a very interesting and competent assessment of the problem," adding that we "were not able to get our brother Democrats to come to their senses in time, so we didn't have enough of a margin to overcome dirty tricks."
Kissinger Updates NSSM 200 for Anglo-American Empire
Henry Kissinger issued one of his diatribes in the Nov. 8 issue of Newsweek, on global challenges the next President will face. After repeating his spin on why 9/11 ended the era of sovereign nation-states, initiated by the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, as well as on the need for preemptive war (if moderated on the surface by clever diplomacy), and the need to crush North Korea and Iran, after finishing off Iraq, Kissinger then gets to the point: "The equitable management of access to energy and raw materials is beyond the capacity of the international system as presently constituted. If nothing is done, there is the real risk of a return to the rivalries of the colonial erathe contest over the direction of pipelines replacing the contest over territoryand a commodity pricing crisis that could drive the world into general recession.... All this brings us back to Atlantic relations."
Kissinger ends by comparing the "dilemma of our age" to that confronted by Immanuel Kant in his Perpetual Peace, which, as Henry well knows, is actually a call for perpetual war and global dictatorship.
Rehnquist Too Ill To Return to Court
Chief Justice William Rehnquist failed to return to the Supreme Court Nov. 1, as expected. All press accounts featured the evaluations of medical experts and cancer specialists, to the effect that Rehnquist appears to be suffering from the most severe form of thyroid cancer, one which progresses very rapidly, and is nearly always fatal. President Bush has already indicated that, should an opening on the Court arise, he will appoint an ultra-rightwinger, on the model of Clarence Thomas or Antonin Scalia.
Hollinger Sues Richard Perle for $22.6 Million
Hollinger International, Inc. added former Defense Policy Board chairman Richard Perle as a defendant in the lawsuit it has filed alleging that former Hollinger CEO Conrad Black and chief operating officer David Radler looted the company of hundreds of millions of dollars. The suit holds Perle jointly liable, with Black and Radler, for damages Hollinger suffered due to actions of the executive committee, of which Perle was a member. Perle is accused of breaching his fiduciary duties, by improperly approving a loan to Black's holding company, as well as signing consent forms for illegal transactions through which Black and Radler reaped financial gain. Hollinger is seeking disgorgement of $5.4 million in pay, plus up to $17.2 million in damages from Perle.
Army Corps of Engineers Official Scores Halliburton's Contract Abuse
Army Corps of Engineers contracting official Bunny Greenhouse called Halliburton "the worst case of contracting abuse she has ever seen," in an interviewer with NBC's Nightly News. "It was misconduct, and part of that misconduct was blatant," she said. Her comments came as U.S. government memos revealed that the Pentagon extended a Halliburton contract for 11 months beyond its expiration, despite warnings that the company was "out of control" in providing troop support in the Balkans.
The London Independent Oct. 31 reported, "Ms. Greenhouse has already demanded an investigation into the contracts that last year were granted to Halliburton, the energy services firm run by Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995-2000. According to her attorney, the FBI has since asked her for an interview on the matter. The Bureau has launched a criminal investigation of the work. A spokesman for President Bush on Friday [Oct. 29] said he expects a full investigation into allegations of wrongdoing in how Iraq-related contracts were awarded to Halliburton."
Greenhouse denied that she was trying to influence the U.S. elections by coming out with her charges when she did, or that she was blaming Cheney.
Regarding the Balkans, Greenhouse had told Corps of Engineers commander Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, that it should not have halted plans for open competition for a successor Balkans contract. Corps officials initially said a "compelling emergency" would exist if Halliburton's work were interrupted, and bidding should be stopped. But when she challenged this argument and sought an explanation of the emergency, Corps officials shifted gears and said that Halliburton subsidiary KBR was the "one and only" company that could do the job.
Iraq War Has Psychological Costs, Too
The Nov. 1 Washington Post profiles an Army Reserve lieutenant who is simultaneously being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder and under court martial for checking into a psychiatric hospital without requesting leave, during a mental breakdown. Lt. Julian Woodrum spent three months running convoys across Iraq last year, before being medically evacuated for psychiatric reasons.
While certain aspects of Woodrum's case are undoubtedly unique (his PTSD apparently has its origins in the 1991 Gulf War, when he was serving in the Navy as a gunner's mate onboard the USS Missouri, which was nearly hit by an Iraqi missile), the psychiatric cost Woodrum is paying is not. According to the Army's own medical statistics, more than 10% of all non-battle disease evacuations of Army soldiers, 8,117 as of Sept. 30, have been for psychiatric conditions. And, the psychological effects of the war may be going under-reported. Not only is there stigma among soldiers associated with seeking psychiatric treatment, but it has been suggested to EIR that the Defense Department does not want to carry the costs of treating such individuals. The Department of Veterans Affairs, in a document dated July 22 on the utilization of VA health services by Iraq war veterans, reported that almost 20% of those individuals sought treatment for mental disorders, a significant difference from what the Army is reporting.
Troops in Iraq Still Lack Armor, Other Essentials of War
Yet another story on the shortages of armor, radios, ammunition, and other critical items appeared on Oct. 31 when CBS News' "60 Minutes" ran a story focussing on an Oregon National Guard unit in Iraq that still puts sandbags and plywood in its trucks for protection, uses store-bought walkie-talkies for communications, and relies on Vietnam-era M-16 rifles, for which there is not enough ammunition.
Oregon Guard commander Gen. Ray Byrne told "60 Minutes," after being shown pictures of his men's humvees and trucks armored with plywood and sandbags, "If you have nothing, then that's better than nothing. The question becomes then again ... when are they going to receive the full-up armored humvees? And I don't have the answer." He added, "It distresses me greatly that they do not have the equipment. I don't have control over it. The soldiers don't have control over it." He confirmed stories that families in Oregon are buying their sons and daughters radio equipment, body armor, GPS gear, and night vision goggles, because they weren't being issued.
The "60 Minutes" report fails to nail the real culprits for this disaster: the Bush Administration's incompetent war policy, and 40 years of post-industrial economic policies, and instead blames it on pork-barrel spending by the Congress, quoting Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) to that effect.
House Democrats: Use Science and Technology for Jobs
In a report prepared for Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn), by the House Science Committee Minority Staff, the Bush Administration is scored on its use of resources in science and technology. The grades range from C- to F in eight policy areas.
Avoiding the trap of buzzword single-issue science questions, like stem-cell research, the first policy area in the report is "supporting technological innovation to create good-paying jobs." The second is "leadership in manufacturing at the Department of Commerce." Stressing that the manufacturing sector has lost 2.5 million jobs, especially in small and medium-sized firms, the Democrats report that the Bush Administration has cut back or eliminated Federal programs that provide technical assistance to thousands of small businesses that could otherwise not afford it, and funds for companies commercializing new technologies. In addition to funding these programs, the Democrats propose establishing a National Manufacturing Agenda, technological education programs, and an Undersecretary of Manufacturing at Commerce to oversee Federal policies and programs.
Issue number seven is "protecting the right to vote." The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) mandated that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recommend standards and guidelines relating to voting equipment. But the Bush Administration never requested funding for NIST to do this, and it began to implement HAVA's requirements after it was "too late to improve the quality of voting equipment to be used in the 2004 election," the report states. HAVA must be implemented, because "the greatest democracy in the world cannot afford to hold elections in which there is widespread disenfranchisement due to failure or manipulation of technology."
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