BERRIEN COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY

UNDER THE RADAR

What the Republicans don't want YOU to know

(Click the blue text to link to the source.)

Bu$h's 2009 budget "will total more than $3 trillion, the first time that barrier has been broken."

"The budget plan projects big increases in federal budget deficits, to about $400 billion for both fiscal 2008

and fiscal 2009." Bush's "trail of deficits and debt" will "sharply constrain his successor."

Key 9/11 Commission staffer held secret meetings with Karl Rove and scaled back criticisms of the White House

in the report.

A new report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found that eight of 11 rebuilding projects

assigned to embattled American contracting company Parsons "were terminated by the United States before they

were completed."

House Judiciary Committee invites former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell to testify about voter suppression

and irregularities in Ohio in 2004.

In his State of the Union Address, Bu$h ignored Afgan school violence.  Bu$h did not mention the violence that

has killed 147 students and teachers, and closed 590 schools in the last year -- almost as many as the 680 the

U.S. has built."

Nearly five years after the invasion of Iraq, allied countries have paid just 16 percent of "what they pledged

to help rebuild the war-torn country," according to a new report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

The biggest shortfalls in pledges are from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

“Violent crime rose by double-digit percentages in cities across the country over the last two years, reversing

the declines of the mid-to-late 1990s,” according to a report by the Police Executive Research Forum. “There are

pockets of crime in this country that are astounding,” said Chuck Wexler, the group's executive director.

According to the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, "if the President's tax cuts are made

permanent, households in the top 1 percent of the population (currently those with incomes over $400,000) will

receive tax cuts averaging $67,000 a year by 2012. In today's dollars, that amount is larger than the entire

income of the typical American household."

New Orleans has yet to rebuild a single fire station more than two years after Katrina.

A McKinsey report finds, "at an oil price of $70 a barrel, the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council would

earn a cumulative $6.2 trillion by 2020, or more than triple the amount they earned from 1993 through 2006.

Decisions by Gulf leaders on how to use this wealth will have global repercussions for decades"
 

200,000: Number of U.S. veterans who are homeless, including approximately 500-1,000 who have served in

Iraq and Afghanistan.

Escalation Doubled:  A report released February 1 by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

shows that the real troop increase associated with President Bu$h’s escalation policy could be as high as

48,000, more than double the 21,500 soldiers that Bu$h has claimed. Moreover, despite administration assertions

that the escalation would cost $5.6 billion, the CBO report estimates that "costs would range from $9 billion to

$13 billion for a four-month deployment and from $20 billion to $27 billion for a 12-month deployment." The new

facts about escalation come just as Congress is set to receive a long-delayed National Intelligence Estimate (NIE)

on Iraq, the first such document from the U.S. intelligence community since 2002. According to the Washington

Post, the NIE "outlines an increasingly perilous situation in which the United States has little control and there is

a strong possibility of further deterioration."

The Army and Marine Corps "are short thousands of vehicles, armor kits and other equipment needed

to supply" the extra 21,500 troops President Bu$h plans to send to Iraq. "It's inevitable that that has to happen,

unless five brigades of up-armored Humvees fall out of the sky," one senior Army official said.

HALIBURTON, DAN QUAYLE, PRIVATIZATION & WALTER REED HOSPITAL: On March 2, the House

Oversight and Government Reform Committee headed by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) released an internal memo

from Sept. 2006 describing how the Army's decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed was causing an

exodus of "highly skilled and experienced personnel," placing the entire hospital and its patient care services "at risk

of mission failure." In Jan. 2006, against the wishes of numerous progressive members of Congress, Walter Reed

finalized a five-year, $120-million "cost-plus" contract to IAP Worldwide Services for hospital support services, including

facilities management. IAP is led by Al Neffgen, a former senior Halliburton official who testified in 2004 "in defense of

Halliburton's exorbitant charges for fuel delivery and troop support in Iraq," and former Vice President Dan Quayle

serves on the board. IAP has "grown exponentially in recent years in part because of contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq,"

in 2005, it received a contract to deliver desperately-needed ice to victims of Hurricane Katrina, but "millions of pounds

of ice were sent to storage, some as far away as Maine." As Waxman writes, "It would be reprehensible if the deplorable

conditions were caused or aggravated by an ideological commitment to privatize government services regardless of the

costs to taxpayers and the consequences for wounded soldiers."

As the U.N. drug agency predicted a “cancer of insurgency” in Afghanistan could “drive the 2007 opium poppy

harvest to record levels,” NATO troops “troops launched their largest offensive yet against Taliban militants, focusing

on the same southern region where U.S.-led forces carried out an even bigger operation less than a year ago.”

One of the greatest dangers we face in America is a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists being shipped

through an American port. And, even though 1 Wal-Mart container arrives in a U.S. port every 45 seconds, Wal-Mart

opposes 100% scanning of cargo containers bound for the United States. Click to view video.

For the first time in history, "more of America's poor are living in the suburbs than the cities -- 1.2 million

more, according to a 2005 survey. 'The suburbs have reached a tipping point, says Brookings Institution

analyst Alan Berube."

ECONOMY --  RECORD NUMBER OF AMERICANS LIVING IN SEVERE POVERTY: America's poor have

yet to reap the benefits of the recent economic expansion as the gap between the "haves" and "have-nots" "continues

to widen." In an analysis of 2005 census figures, McClatchy newspapers found that "nearly 16 million Americans are

living near deep or severe poverty," a 32-year high. The analysis revealed that from 2000 to 2005, the number of

severely poor swelled by 26 percent -- the highest growth rate for any other segment of the population. Steven Woolf,

co-author of the study, said the results were the opposite of what his team expected. "We're not seeing as much moderate

poverty as a proportion of the population," he explained. "What we're seeing is a dramatic growth of severe poverty."

The results show a stark rise in income inequality in the United States, as "the share of national income going to corporate

profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries." Washington, D.C. has the highest rate of people living

in extreme poverty -- 10.8 percent. The long-term effects of more children growing up in this poverty will be widespread,

explains the Center for American Progress, including increased crime rates and health care costs. With such high levels

of poverty, the need to invest in resources to reduce poverty such as early childhood education, urban revitalization, and

raising the minimum wage, is more crucial than ever.
 

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency hurriedly bought 145,000 trailers and mobile homes just before

and after Katrina hit, spending $2.7 billion largely through no-bid contracts. Now, it is selling off as many as 41,000

of the homes, netting, so far, about 40 cents on each dollar spent by taxpayers."

PRIVATE CONTRACTORS HAVE BECOME A 'VIRTUAL FOURTH BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT': "Without

a public debate or formal policy decision, contractors have become a virtual fourth branch of government," the New

York Times reported. "On the rise for decades, spending on federal contracts has soared during the Bu$h administration,

to about $400 billion last year from $207 billion in 2000, fueled by the war in Iraq, domestic security and Hurricane Katrina,

but also by a philosophy that encourages outsourcing almost everything government does." Competition for contracts has

"sharply eroded" since 2001, and "the number of government workers overseeing contracts has remained level as spending

has shot up," leading to stark examples of mismanagement. The Washington Post revealed that Lurita Alexis Doan, the

chief of the U.S. General Services Administration, "attempted to give a no-bid contract to a company founded and operated

by a longtime friend, sidestepping federal laws and regulations." The latest report by Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector

General for Iraq Reconstruction, detailed "government's failure to monitor how contractors were spending taxpayer money."

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) will begin hearings focused on

contracts in Iraq and at the Department of Homeland Security. Waxman introduced the "Clean Contracting Act" last year

with the goals of promoting competition, increasing oversight, and deterring corruption.

"After 10 years and $1.7 billion, this is what the Marines Corps got for its investment in a new amphibious vehicle:

A craft that breaks down about an average of once every 4 1/2 hours, leaks and sometimes veers off course," the

Washington Post reported, "And for that, the contractor, General Dynamics of Falls Church, received $80 million

in bonuses."

RUMSFELD REMAINS DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 'CONSULTANT,' OPENS 'TRANSITION OFFICE' NEAR

PENTAGON: Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "has left the Pentagon, but not the Defense Department."

The Washington Times reported that on Jan. 4, Rumsfeld "opened a government-provided transition office in Arlington

and has seven Pentagon-paid staffers working for him." Rumsfeld is listed as a “nonpaid consultant,” a status

he needs "in order to review secret and top-secret documents, the official said." The Times reports that Rumsfeld

has brought with him close adviser Stephen Cambone, a fierce advocate of the Iraq war and the chief planner of

questionable interrogation tactics at military and CIA detention sites around the world. Though former secretaries

"are entitled to a transition office to sort papers," Rumsfeld's transition office has raised eyebrows inside the Pentagon.

"Some question the size of the staff, which includes two military officers and two enlisted men. They also ask why the

sorting could not have been done from the time Mr. Rumsfeld resigned Nov. 8 to when he left the building Dec. 18."

Rumsfeld’s predecessors, William Cohen and William Perry, both returned to private life immediately after leaving

the Defense Department. Cohen had “two military personnel…sort through his papers for about six weeks,” while

Perry had his papers mailed via compact disk to Stanford University.

Our "representative" Fred Upton dealt a blow to Internet freedom last June.  As millions raised their voices to

defend the free and open Internet, Internet operators like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast spent millions lobbying

the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to kill Net Neutrality. A majority of the House members caved,

voting for a telecommunications law that would give these companies more control over what you see and do online.

Fred Upton:  Doing what's best for big communication companies instead of the people he represents.

Source:  Vote tally on COPE telecommunications law (which guts Net Neutrality), June 8, 2006
Source:  "House Turns Deaf Ear To Net Neutrality," WebProNews.com, June 9, 2006

Our GOP State "Representative" Neal Nitz voted to give tax breaks to companies that outsource jobs.

ADMINISTRATION -- HANDPICKED U.S. ATTORNEYS HAVE STRONG CONSERVATIVE CREDENTIALS,

LACK LOCAL CONNECTIONS: Since last March, nine U.S. attorneys have been pushed out of their jobs and

replaced by conservative loyalists handpicked by the Bu$h administration. Several of these ousted prosecutors

were working on high-profile cases, such as Carol Lam, who ran the investigation into the corruption of former

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA). The San Diego Union-Tribune noted that Lam appeared to be the

"victim of strong-arm political pressure from Washington, where officials apparently wanted to hand her job to

a partisan operative." While some of the newly appointed U.S. attorneys have strong legal credentials, many

have had little experience as prosecutors and "most of them have few, if any, ties to the communities they've

been appointed to serve." For example, Tim Griffin, the U.S. attorney in Arkansas, was a protege of Karl Rove

and an official at the Republican National Committee. Jeff Taylor, U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., was an

aide to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and served as counselor to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and former

Attorney General John Ashcroft. U.S. Attorney in Kansas City John Wood is married to Assistant Secretary of

Homeland Security Julie Myers, whose father is former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Richard B. Myers. Jean

Paul Bradshaw, former U.S. attorney under President George H.W. Bu$h, criticized this administration's

political maneuvering: "Under Reagan and the first Bu$h administration, we worked very hard to push the power

out to the locals."
 

“The annual number of reservists and National Guard members who say they have been reassigned, lost

benefits or been fired from civilian jobs after returning from duty has increased by about 30% since 2002.”

New Orleans remains “full of patients, devoid of doctors.” More than half of the city's hospitals remain

closed, only a quarter of the city’s doctors have returned since the disaster,” and assistance from the federal

government has been scarce.  Source:  Baltimore Sun

While diabetes is the only major disease with a death rate that is still rising, “public health experts say federal

spending on the disease has historically fallen short of what is needed. And now the GOP-controlled government

has cut diabetes funds in the budgets for this year and next, despite the explosive growth of a disease that now

figures in the deaths of 225,000 Americans each year.”  Source:  The New York Times

New study shows that strict voter ID rules "can reduce turnout, particularly among minorities." Turnout in the

2004 elections "was about 4% lower in states that required voters to sign their name or produce documentation.

Hispanic turnout was 10% lower; the difference was about 6% for blacks and Asian-Americans."

THE IRAQ SINKHOLE: Among the 81 percent of experts who believe the world is becoming "more dangerous"

to the United States, a large plurality identified the Iraq war as the primary cause. These results are supported by

the findings of the National Intelligence Estimate released last fall, which stated that "the Iraq jihad is shaping a new

generation of terrorist leaders and operatives," and that Iraq "has become the “cause celebre” for jihadists." The result,

the NIE stated, is that "activists identifying themselves as jihadists...are increasing in both number and geographic

dispersion." Sixty-six percent of respondents believe that Bu$h's escalation strategy is a bad idea. Perhaps more

importantly, 92 percent said that the Bu$h administration’s performance on Iraq has been below average, with nearly

6 in 10 experts of all political stripes saying the Bu$h administration is doing the “worst possible job” in Iraq. Fully 88

percent of the experts believe the war in Iraq is undermining U.S. national security.

MILITARY STRAINED: The Baltimore Sun reported recently that "thousands of troops that President Bu$h

is expected to order to Iraq will join the fight largely without the protection of the latest armored vehicles that

withstand bomb blasts far better than the Humvees in wide use." According to a recent report from the Government

Accountability Office, "Continued and repeated deployments to Iraq have strained the U.S. military to the point

where training is being shorted, equipment is in disrepair and the force is increasingly unready to fight other

conflicts." Comptroller General David Walker wrote that the cost of replacing military equipment "has risen

substantially" and "troop readiness levels and the availability of reserve personnel" has been reduced. Before

we send more troops into Iraq, we must ensure that our existing troops receive adequate resources.

FORMER INTERIOR SECRETARY CASHES IN: GOP Gale Norton, who until recently was Bu$h's

Secretary of the Interior has taken a high-paying position with oil giant Shell. Norton will be "general

counsel for exploration, production and unconventional resources."

"The U.S. military has sold forbidden equipment at least a half-dozen times to middlemen for countries,

including Iran and China, who exploited security flaws in the Defense Department's surplus auctions,"

the AP reports.
 

IRAN -- TOP IRANIAN LEADERS CALLED FOR TALKS WITH U.S. IN 2003 MEMO:  The Washington

Post reported that a 2003 memo sent to U.S. officials via the Swiss ambassador confirms that "an Iranian

proposal for comprehensive talks with the United States had been reviewed and approved by Iran's supreme

religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; then-President Mohammad Khatami; and then-Foreign Minister Kamal

Kharrazi." The memo, provided by an unnamed source, included a "roadmap" that proposed "putting on the table"

long-time demands of the Bu$h administration, including "such issues as an end to Iran's support for anti-Israeli

militants, action against terrorist groups on Iranian soil and acceptance of Israel's right to exist." According to the

Post, their source disclosed the memo in response to feelings that former deputy secretary of state Richard L.

Armitage had "mischaracterized" the memo's contents. According to Newsweek, Armitage said: "We couldn't

determine what [in the proposal] was the Iranians' and what was the Swiss ambassador's," adding that he felt the

Iranians "were trying to put too much on the table." In addition, a spokesman from the State Department called the

document "a creative exercise on the part of the Swiss ambassador." Despite such doubts, Hillary Mann, the

administration's former National Security Council director for Iran and Persian Gulf Affairs compared the memo's

significance to the "'two-page document' that Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger received from Beijing in 1971,

indicating Mao Zedong's interest in opening China." In response to questions about this missed opportunity,

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied ever seeing such a proposal.

“The number of waivers granted to Army recruits with criminal backgrounds has grown about 65 percent

in the last three years, increasing to 8,129 in 2006 from 4,918 in 2003.”
 

SCIENCE -- OIL LOBBY OFFERS $10,000 PAYMENTS TO GLOBAL WARMING DENIERS TO REBUT

THE FACTS: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the most authoritative group on global

warming, reports that human activities were "very likely" the main cause of warming in the past 50 years.

The Guardian reports that there is a well-heeled orchestrated movement going on below the radar to confuse

the public about the IPCC's report. The oil lobby is so desperate to push back on the new climate change study

that it has been offering to pay global warming skeptics to speak out. The Guardian reports, "Scientists and

economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies

to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today. ... The letters were sent by Kenneth Green,

a visiting scholar at [American Enterprise Institute], who confirmed that the organization had approached scientists,

economists and policy analysts to write articles for an independent review that would highlight the strengths and

weaknesses of the IPCC report." AEI has received more than $1.6 million from ExxonMobil. As Al Gore's An

Inconvenient Truth noted, there have been no peer-reviewed scientific articles published in recent years that

express any doubt that humans are contributing to climate change. Yet more than 50 percent of news media

coverage of the issue includes the oil industry's position on the subject.

ADMINISTRATION -- POLITICS PUSHING OUT U.S. ATTORNEYS: As many as eight U.S. Attorneys are

leaving or being pushed out of their positions by the Bu$h administration. Several of these prosecutors are

working on high-profile cases, such as Kevin V. Ryan, "whose San Francisco office is overseeing the

investigation of backdating of stock options," and Carol Lam, who successfully investigated the corruption

of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA). Yesterday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) confirmed that "a

high-ranking administration official" in the Bu$h administration asked Lam to resign. While Lam's critics

have pointed to her "failure to more aggressively prosecute illegal-immigrant smugglers" and her "lax

prosecutorial standard" as reasons for her departure, others point to the right-wing politics of the Bu$h

administration. In an editorial today, the San Diego Union-Tribune noted, "Lam had justifiably earned the

respect of the law enforcement community and the gratitude of all of San Diego. Her resignation yesterday

cannot paper over the disquieting truth that she was the victim of strong-arm political pressure from Washington,

where officials apparently wanted to hand her job to a partisan operative." U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins was

pushed out by the Bu$h administration in December, and replaced with a "37-year-old protege of White

House political adviser Karl Rove." Yesterday on the Senate floor, Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) pointed out that

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may be creating these vacancies to appoint interim replacements

and "potentially avoid Senate confirmation." A little-noticed provision in the Patriot Act allows Gonzales to

appoint a replacement for an indefinite period of time.

NEGOTIATING FOR LOWER DRUG PRICES: Prescription drugs under Bu$h's Medicare program

remain unnecessarily expensive, since his administration refuses to negotiate for lower prices with drug

makers. In November, White House counselor Dan Bartlett stated that Medicare didn't need to get lower

prices because he felt the system was "working" and "benefiting America's seniors." But in reality, taxpayers

"could save as much as $190 billion over the next 10 years" if Medicare negotiated prices with drug makers.

Instead of benefiting seniors, the Medicare program has been "a financial windfall [for big drug companies]

larger than even the most optimistic Wall Street analysts had predicted." Part of Congress's 100-hour agenda

plans to empower Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies, rather than through private health plans.

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 85 percent of Americans favor this approach. States are

already taking steps to reduce drug prices and increased care for their residents. There are now five operating

multi-state "bulk buying pools," which allow groups of states to buy prescription drugs "in bulk" at lower prices.

"A laboratory that has tested most of the nation's electronic voting systems has been temporarily barred

from approving new machines after federal officials found that it was not following its quality-control procedures

and could not document that it was conducting all the required tests."

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS -- WHITE HOUSE 'QUIETLY' UNDERMINING SYRIAN GOVERNMENT:

According to a classified two-page document, the Bu$h administration "has been quietly nurturing individuals

and parties opposed to the Syrian government in an effort to undermine the regime of President Bashar Assad."

The document notes that the United States is already "supporting regular meetings of internal and diaspora

Syrian activists" in Europe" and hopes that "these meetings will facilitate a more coherent strategy and plan of

actions for all anti-Assad activists." In preparation for Syria's March 2007 legislative elections, the Bu$h

administration is preparing a secret "election monitoring" scheme, which would entail providing activists with

"internet accessible materials" and "surreptitiously giving money to at least one Syrian politician." One democracy

promotion expert observed that it would be "unwise" for the Bu$h administration "to give financial support to a

specific candidate in the election, because of the perceived conflict of interest." Edward P. Djerejian, a former

U.S. ambassador to Syria who worked on the Iraq Study Group (ISG) report, said that this plan by the Bu$h

administration will "only impede the better option of engaging Syria on much more important, fundamental issues

like Iraq, peace with Israel, and the dangerous situation in Lebanon." President Bu$h has opposed opening dialogue

with Iran and Syria, despite the recommendations of the ISG. Americans overwhelmingly support dialogue with

Syria and Iran, according to recent polls. U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Secretaries of State Colin

Powell and James Baker have also criticized the White House's unwillingness to engage in such talks.
 

AL QAEDA'S RISE: A declassified National Intelligence Estimate warned the war in Iraq has become a

“cause célèbre” for Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. that probably will get worse

before it gets better. According to Bu$h, "Al Qaeda is still active in Iraq" where it is attempting to make it

home base in the Anbar Province. In Afghanistan, the home base of al Qaeda prior to 9/11, attacks have

surged 200 percent December alone. A U.S. military intelligence officer said that since the peace deal went

into effect Sept. 5 the number of attacks in the border area has grown by 300 percent. Last June, Sen. Russ

Feingold (D-WI) warned, "While we were bogged down in Iraq, all focused on Iraq as the be all and end all of

our American foreign policy, we are losing the battle to al Qaeda. … We’ve spent $2 million in Somalia in the

last year while we’re spending $2 billion a week in Iraq." Recent weeks have unfortunately vindicated Feingold's

remarks. Having ignored Somalia for years, the administration was forced recently to undertake military

operations "to root out operatives for al Qaeda in the country." As the U.S. expands its military operations,

it leaves behind more failed states that disintegrate into the type of chaotic disorderly morass that gives rise to

extremism. Defense Intelligence Director Michael Maples told Congress earlier this month that al Qaeda "has

consistently recovered from losses of senior leadership," and that its "increasing cooperation with like-minded

groups has improved its ability to facilitate, support and direct its objectives."

34,452: Number of Iraqi civilians killed in 2006, according to the United Nations.

INVESTMENT IN STEM CELL RESEARCH 'WILL PAY FOR ITSELF': Bu$h has vetoed just one bill

during his presidency -- a bill to increase federal funding for stem cell research. Congress has promised

to reverse Bu$h's veto, with the backing of 56 percent of the American public. As the New York Times notes,

"Bu$h's veto of legislation to expand federally financed embryonic stem cell research has had the unintended

consequence of drawing state money into the contentious field." As New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) noted in

his State of the State address yesterday, an investment in stem cell research "will pay for itself many times

over in increased jobs, economic activity, and improved health." He proposed a $2-billion state fund to fund

stem cell and other medical research. This year, Connecticut will be doling out $20 million to 21 research projects

"to take the most controversial form of stem-cell research, that involving tissue from human embryos, from the

political arena to the laboratory." In November, voters in Missouri approved a constitutional amendment that

guaranteed that any federally allowed stem cell research and treatments could occur. "Soon California will begin

to decide how to distribute nearly $150 million. New Jersey has already awarded nearly $10 million, though most

of the research projects there do not involve embryonic cells [and] Maryland and Illinois have also agreed to finance

stem-cell research."

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dislikes being the country's leader and wishes he could leave his job.

"I wish I could be done with it even before the end of this term. I didn't want to take this position," he told the

Wall Street Journal.

The AFL-CIO has sued the Department of Labor to compel it to issue a rule requiring employers to pay

for protective equipment used by an estimated 20 million workers to protect them from job hazards. By the

department's own estimates, "400,000 workers have been injured and 50 have died due to the absence of

this rule, since 1999 when the rule was first proposed."

"Only six of 75 U.S. metropolitan areas won the highest grades for their emergency agencies' ability to

communicate during a disaster, five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks," according to a new

Department of Homeland Security report.

Six months ago, U.S. forces in Diyala province "hoped security would improve" with the death of Abu Musab

Zarqawi. "Instead, security has collapsed" in the area and "attacks have more than doubled in the last year."

"Violence has devastated the provincial police force and brought reconstruction to a virtual standstill."

$53.4 million. The 2006 bonus for Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein. The bonus is the

highest ever paid to a Wall Street executive and comes on top of his $600,000 salary.

$5.4 billion: The amount CEO's from America's 500 biggest companies earned last year, a 6 percent raise

from the previous year. See who the Top 25 earners were here.

GOP CONGRESS -- TAX BILL STUFFED WITH TAX BREAKS FOR THE WEALTHY:  In its final day in

session, the 109th GOP-controlled Congress passed a "tax extenders" bill containing "provisions to renew

popular expired tax breaks," including the "research credit, a deduction for tuition and other college expenses,

and a deduction for teachers who spend money out of their own pocket for classroom supplies." Senate Finance

Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) called the tax extenders "no-brainers" that "give continued tax

relief to families paying for college, teachers buying classroom supplies, and producers of clean energy from

sources such as wind." But instead of simply passing the popular tax extenders, the Repugs decided to use the

bill for partisan purposes. The House and Senate attached drilling legislation to the bill, which would open

8.3 million acres of federal land in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling. Additionally, in closed-door final

negotiations of the tax extenders package, "House and Senate negotiators added a tax break benefiting

high-income taxpayers that was never passed by either the full House or Senate." The measure increased the

amount that individuals could contribute to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), "thereby allowing those who could

make these additional contributions to shelter even more of their income from taxation." HSAs are disproportionately

used by high-income individuals. The Government Accountability Office found "that the average income of HSA

users was $133,000 in 2004, compared to $51,000 for all non-elderly tax filers." More facts on HSAs here and here.
 

Though U.S. employees at Wal-Mart have been blocked from unionizing, "Wal-Mart's China headquarters have

set up a Communist Party branch" after the state-sanctioned labor body successfully set up a union earlier this year.

SCIENCE -- MORE POLITICIZATION BY BU$H APPOINTEES AT NASA: Though Bu$h called for a new

emphasis on science in his State of the Union address, the New York Times reports more details on the

politicization of science by White House appointees at NASA's public affairs office. In one case, the Times

reports, a 24-year-old presidential appointee named George Deutsch "told a Web designer working for the

agency to add the word 'theory' after every mention of the Big Bang." The Big Bang is "not proven fact; it is

opinion," Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, "It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as

this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator." Deutch appears to have

no scientific experience: his résumé "says he was an intern in the 'war room' of the 2004 Bu$h-Cheney re-election

campaign" and a 2003 journalism graduate of Texas A&M. Deutch is the same public-affairs officer who warned

NASA's top climatologist of "dire consequences" if he spoke out about global climate change. On a positive note,

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin on Saturday "issued a sharply worded statement" stating that it is "not the job

of public-affairs officers to alter, filter or adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA's technical staff."

HEALTH CARE -- MEDICARE RECIPIENTS SUFFER WHILE DRUG INDUSTRY CONTINUES TO REAP

PROFITS: The administration released a budget that "will propose substantial savings in Medicare" to the tune

of $30 billion to $35 billion over five years. The budget will propose cuts to hospital reimbursement payments and

increased premiums for higher-income individuals. The news comes at a time when the American public is witnessing

the administration's poor implementation of the Medicare prescription drug plan. The White House is receiving

"widespread complaints from beneficiaries, advocates, pharmacists, lawmakers and others that it is too complex,

too cumbersome, too hard to navigate." Bu$h's cutbacks to Medicare won't affect the drug industry's profits. Drug

companies are not complaining about the "$2 billion in extra profits this year" they will receive "because they're no

longer required to pay rebates on drugs bought by the government for the elderly poor."

ADMINISTRATION -- BU$H APPOINTEE COVERS UP FRAUD, WASTE, ABUSE AT NASA: In the midst of

reports that NASA officials have muzzled scientists from speaking out on global warming, an FBI-led watchdog

agency has opened up an investigation into "multiple complaints accusing NASA Inspector General (IG) Robert W.

Cobb of failing to investigate safety violations and retaliating against whistle-blowers." IGs are charged to "prevent

and detect crime, fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement," but according to Cobb's current and former employees,

he has brushed complaints under the rug. Cobb, appointed by Bu$h in 2002, previously worked in the White House

as an ethics lawyer and is one of nine IGs with no audit experience. Employees stated "they believed Cobb was too

friendly with then-NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe" and "suppressed audits, stopped investigations and otherwise

edited IG activities to avoid embarrassing the agency or its leadership."

MASSACHUSETTS: Massachusetts National Guard soldiers have filed a class-action lawsuit over out-of-pocket

expenses -- from food to lodging to body armor -- incurred while serving the nation.

IRAQ -- MORE EVIDENCE EMERGES THAT BU$H MISLED NATION INTO WAR: The National Journal

reports that two classified intelligence briefs delivered directly to President Bu$h prior to the Iraq war "cast

doubt on key public assertions made by the president, Vice President Cheney, and other administration

officials as justifications for invading Iraq." The first report, delivered to Bu$h in October 2002, stated that

the Energy Department and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research believed that Iraq's

aluminum tubes were "intended for conventional weapons," a view contradicting Bu$h's statement that the

aluminum tubes were being used to enrich nuclear weapons. A second report informed Bu$h that "U.S. intelligence

agencies unanimously agreed that it was unlikely that Saddam would try to attack the United States -- except

if 'ongoing military operations risked the imminent demise of his regime.'" This report contradicts claims by

administration officials at the time that Iraq was a "grave and gathering threat."
 

"Four years after the Taliban were ousted from power by the American military, their presence [in Afghanistan]

is bigger and more menacing than ever," the NYT reports.

New Zogby poll shows that "Arab attitudes toward American people, products and culture grew increasingly

negative last year," in large part from U.S. policy toward Iraq and the Palestinian conflict. 

IRAQ -- CHENEY 'DOESN'T WANT TO BE TARRED' WITH THE IRAQ WAR: Vice President Cheney has

been "publicly silent and mostly out of sight " since the Iraq Study Group issued its report. According to U.S.

News and World Report, a former Cheney advisor explained, "I think we'll see less of him than ever. Iraq is now

Bu$h's baby, and Cheney doesn't want to be tarred with it in the eyes of historians." Regardless of the actions

Cheney takes in the future, history will not forget that he has been at the center of the administration's most

egregious attempts to both sell the war ("we believe [Saddam] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons")

and falsely report the situation on the ground ("I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency").

Other sources say Cheney is working hard behind the scenes to convince President Bu$h not to withdraw troops

anytime soon. Once he convinces Bu$h, Cheney will "will go public to sell the president's decision around the country ."

CONTRACT CORRUPTION -- LITTLE-KNOWN CONTRACTOR PULLING IN BIG MONEY FOR SHODDY,

UNFINISHED WORK: In 2002, the National Security Agency (NSA) hired Science Applications International

Corp. (SAIC) "to help it build a state-of-the-art tool for plucking key threats to the nation from a worldwide sea

of digital communication," in a project code-named "Trailblazer." More than three years later, the project has yet

to get off the ground, but has cost taxpayers $1.2 billion. This isn't the first time SAIC has been paid high dollars

by the federal government for unfinished business. SAIC received seven no-bid contracts for Iraq, including an

$82 million no-bid contract to run the country's first post-Saddam TV network, even though the company had no

broadcast experience. A surprise government visit found that while the work had not happened, SAIC had been

paid anyway. Lucky for SAIC, it has friends in high places. Adm. William Owens, for example, went from SAIC

president and CEO to a Secretary Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board. Christopher Henry, former senior vice

president at SAIC, became a key aide to Douglas Feith, who supervised contract work done by SAIC in Iraq.

ADMINISTRATION -- BU$H ADMINISTRATION RESTRICTS NEWS COVERAGE, ONE PHOTO AT A

TIME: Not only does the Bu$h administration screen its audiences at speeches, but it also shuts out media

photographers from many events, instead offering the press only White House-approved photos. "A review of

Associated Press archives found that during the entire eight years of the Clinton administration, only 100 handout

photos of events were released to the press. During the first five years of Bu$h's presidency, more than 500 have

been distributed." Media photojournalists are regularly blocked out of White House events, forced to use official

White House photos. "Would anyone on the word side take a press release and regurgitate it verbatim and publish

it in the newspaper as legitimate news," asked Susan Walsh, an Associated Press photojournalist and president

of the White House News Photographers Association. "Of course not." Other photographers "point out the power

such an arrangement gives the White House to literally control news."