To GW Bush, words are one thing and actions are another

January 23, 2001 | As Bush roundly celebrated his coronation with a raft of corporate parties, jarring images conflicted with the accompanying words; the theme of reconciliation that the news anchors positively burbled was hardly in evidence.
 

The strange case of the spooky professor

January 23, 2001 | Former CIA Inspector General Frederick P. Hitz, responsible for covering up the CIA's involvement in delivering crack cocaine to American inner cities, has been rewarded with a prestigious teaching position, the Goldman Sachs Chair, at Princeton University.
 

Satyagraha to end apartheid in Palestine

January 23, 2001 | In 1993 the world witnessed the beginning of the end of apartheid in South Africa, vindicating names like Mandela, Tutu, Biko, and the millions of others who fought tirelessly in that struggle. Yet the same year saw a new beginning, a new life for an apartheid regime in Palestine, hailed and supported as a peace process—the Oslo Accords.
 

Media and protests—Part Three
Who are the fringe people?

January 22, 2001 | In GW Bush's inaugural speech, which he did not write, he spoke glowingly of our nation's fate being led by angels in whirlwinds (or was it sugarplum fairies?) and of including all Americans. However, in an MSNBC interview aired the night before the inaugural, Bush dismissed the vast number of Americans opposed to Ashcroft and other Cabinet nominations, describing his opponents as "fringe people" (his exact words).
 

On the front lines of eco-defense

January 22, 2001 | I sat glued in front of my TV, watching the presidential motorcade as it moved slowly toward its destination at the White House. I couldn't help but wonder what our new president was thinking, as he passed by the many shouting protesters who lined the street. There was a great diversity of signs that were held up in hopes of catching the president's eye. One slogan, "Hail to the Thief," seemed to be a message which was repeated often, as the Inaugural parade continued on its course.
 

What would happen if David Duke were appointed to Bush's Cabinet?

Well, Bush hasn't appointed Duke; he has appointed his spiritual first cousin Ashcroft. Faced with a holier-than-thou attorney who lied several times over the course of three days of testimony, the Democrats (with the exception of Kennedy, Leahy and Durbin) performed in their usual stumbling Hamlet fashion. Ashcroft generously offered them the opportunity to catch him in his prevaricating, but the ever-congenial Democrats chose not to avail themselves of the offer.
 

Who is Hooverizing Jesse Jackson?

January 20, 2001 | In light of the recent media furor about Jesse Jackson's extramarital affair and "love child," I am reminded of G. K. Chesterton's comment, "A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things." The situation also brings to mind the widely known and clearly documented fact that during the 1960s, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI attempted to stop Martin Luther King's political activities by threatening to make his private sexual escapades public.
 

Bringing down Jesse Jackson: Vain attempt at high tech lynching

January 18, 2001 | One month after the most racist election in modern history, and two days before nationwide protests of the Bush inaugural, National Enquirer headlines are blaring the news that the Reverend Jesse Jackson fathered a child out of wedlock.
 

You got to have "heart": A BuzzFlash editorial commentary on John Ashcroft

It's all come to down to this for Dubya: forget that Ashcroft yearns for the blissful days of the Confederacy, that he's a ruthless opportunist who has lied to advance his career, that he's opposed on religious grounds to laws that he will have to enforce as Attorney General, that he was a draft dodger.
 

W.'s drinking the Kool-aid

January 19, 2001—People who have invested deeply in a way of thinking tend to believe that their "Kool-aid" offers the best possible solution for a wide range of problems. Perhaps the most ridiculous recent example is Microsoft proposing to provide a technical "Kool-aid" to prevent any future election problems; hey, aren't these the same guys who brought us Windows98 . . . CRASH! . . . and the "Blue Screen of Death"?
 

Ashcroft: Clear and present danger

January 19, 2001 | Why does John Ashcroft threaten danger? Because he could hurt people with all that police power wielded by ideological and religious judgment. He won't do it in an obvious way, but in a subtle gradually eroding way.
 

Media Beat
Ashcroft and racism: Breaking the code

A surreal mixup disrupted CNN programming for a few moments on Jan. 17 when the network switched to live coverage of Colin Powell. While the retired general appeared on the screen, the audio was the voice of Sen. Edward Kennedy at another Senate hearing—as the senior senator from Massachusetts railed against John Ashcroft's record of opposing civil rights.
 

It's a cakewalk for Ashcroft and other Bush picks, as Senate Democrats roll over again

January 18, 2001 | Even before he began asking his questions, Senator Herbert Kohl, the Democrat from Wisconsin, said to John Ashcroft, "You are likely to be confirmed, as we well know."

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W. Takes Over Family Business

It seemed less like an inauguration and more like the succession in a privately held company like Cargill.

Democrats.com co-founder David Lytel's Speech at VoterMarch.org Rally

"I am here with a very simple message today. We are on our own now. Just as a new government is being formed down the street a new opposition is being formed in the streets. If we are to successfully counteract the extremist urges that are being built into the Bush presidency we need build an effective progressive coalition and create bold and confident new leadership. I am deeply sorry that Jesse Jackson's powerful voice is not going to be heard today. And I worked for Al Gore at the White House, proudly display his picture in my home and I wish Al Gore all the best. But I am also no longer looking to Al Gore to lead us to the progressive victories we can achieve in the next two years. If progressives are to prevail we will have to get fearlessly out in front of all our politicians and reach back and pull them with us. We are the leaders that we have been waiting for."

Florida's 'Disappeared Voters': Disfranchised by the GOP

In Latin America they might have called them votantes desaparecidos, "disappeared voters." On November 7 tens of thousands of eligible Florida voters were wrongly prevented from casting their ballots--some purged from the voter registries and others blocked from registering in the first instance. Nearly all were Democrats, nearly half of them African-American. The systematic program that disfranchised these legal voters, directed by the offices of Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris, was so quiet, subtle and intricate that if not for George W. Bush's 500-vote eyelash margin of victory, certified by Harris, the chance of the purge's discovery would have been vanishingly small.

None Dare Call It Treason

In the December 12 ruling by the US Supreme Court handing the election to George Bush, the Court committed the unpardonable sin of being a knowing surrogate for the Republican Party instead of being an impartial arbiter of the law. 

The President Elect Sails into the Storm

Is George Bush setting a course directly into a storm that could be his undoing? Recently he gathered a group of religious leaders in Austin, Texas. On the agenda was a proposal close to his heart: providing direct federal support for religious groups that educate children, combat drug abuse, and address a host of social ills.