United States News Digest
Cheney Booed Again, This Time in Ohio
It's not just New Yorkers who don't like the Vice President. According to Bob Schieffer of the Sunday morning program "Face the Nation," in his discussion with Republican Party Chairman Marc Racicot July 4, the Vice President was booed July 3 during his campaign tour of Ohio.
Apparently the protests and booing occurred despite the fact that Cheney is being toured around on a bus, and kept as far away as possible from ordinary people, except for private meetings of "hand-picked loyal Republican supporters." A reporter with the Vice President reported that the Veep is only being put in front of "very loyal supporters," because they don't want any conflict.
Surprises at the Conventions?
In a feature article in the New York Times "Week in Review" July 4, before Democratic presumed nominee John Kerry chose Sen. John Edwards as his running mate, author Richard L. Berke was spinning out scenarios about possible surprises at the Democratic Party convention: Kerry choosing Sen. Hillary Clinton, or Sen. John McCain, or even Al Gore as a Veep candidate, just to spice things up.
At the conclusion of the boring article about Kerry's likely boring choices, however, Berke turned to what Bush can do:
"After all, Mr. Bush could always dump Mr. Cheney. How about Vice President [Colin] Powell? Or, even, Vice President [John] McCain?
"Improbable? Highly. Impossible? No."
Police, Firefighters Announce Picket Plans for Boston
Boston Police and Firefighters' unions' wage dispute with the city, and its Democratic Mayor Thomas Menino, is not likely to be settled in the time remaining before the Democratic Convention. Boston Police Patrolmen's Association president James Barry told the press on July 3 that the two unions do not plan to throw up picket lines around the Convention when it is concerned with "the nomination or the business that needs to be done at the Convention." However, Barry said, the unions will picket the 29 welcoming parties for delegatessince Menino is the official host of thoseand will picket Menino's welcoming address to the delegates assembled as a whole.
The Boston Globe on July 3 reported on a round of calls to delegates nationally, all of whom said they would not cross such picket lines. So the potential for confusion at the beginning of the Convention, with delegates milling outside, is created.
Waxman Blasts GOP Leaders
Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Calif) described, in a Washington Post op-ed July 6, the absurd level of investigation into President Clinton's every move by the Republican-run House, and the refusal now to investigate the Wilson/Plame case; false claims about WMD and terrorist links in Iraq; the actual costs of Medicare when they were ramming through a bill; and Abu Ghraib torture and the memos. He quoted one Republican committee chairman on the torture: "America's reputation has been dealt a blow ... by the actions of a select few. The last thing our nation needs now is for others to enflame this hatred by providing fodder and sound bites for our enemies." He quoted Republican Rep. Ray LaHood on the blocking of investigations: "Our party controls the levers of government. We're not about to go out and look beneath a bunch of rocks to try to cause heartburn."
Waxman, who has taken the lead in numerous fights in the past months in the House, wrote that the "lack of accountability has contributed to a series of phenomenal misjudgments that have damaged Bush, imperiled our international standing, and saddled our nation with mounting debts."
GOP Aids Nader, But Ballot Status Still Elusive
Independent Presidential candidate Ralph Nader is making a renewed attempt to get on the Oregon ballot, with open support from the Republican Party in that state, reported USA Today on July 6. It is generally reported that the GOP is helping Nader's ballot-access efforts in half a dozen states.
At the moment, Nader has not qualified for any state's November ballot. He withdrew from the attempt to get on the Arizona ballot, in the face of a Democratic Party lawsuit. He seems close to ballot status in Washington State and Colorado. The Reform Party (national) has nominated him as their candidate, and has ballot slots in seven states, but each state's Reform Party can accept or reject him.
Tennessee Governor Asks for Health-Care Cuts
Saying he faces a state budget crisis, Tennessee's Governor, Democrat Phil Bredesen, is proposing possibly murderous changes to the state's medical coverage to the poor. The "least costly" treatments, rather than standard good medical practice, would be the new rule of thumb for state coverage for the poor. The number of doctor visits and the number of prescriptions per person would be arbitrarily limited. Certain classes of prescription drugs, such as antihistamines, would be prohibited in the program as being too costly, and would be replaced by over-the-counter drugs at the patient's expense.
Other states are said to be watching the outcome, perhaps to follow the same drastic route. Bresdesen says he'll have to end the state coverage for the poor altogether unless that coverage is cut back. Bredesen will ask the Bush Administration for waivers from the Medicaid law to be able to put this proposal into effect in January.
Phil Bredesen himself became a millionaire in the HMO business before becoming Governor in 2002. His fellow Democrats control the Tennessee Legislature, and Tennessee's Bill Frist, the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate, supports the Bredesen austerity proposal.
Bush Administration Issues Alarm for Madrid-Style U.S. Terror
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge called a press conference July 8, to announce that "credible reporting now indicates that al-Qaeda is moving forward with its plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States in an effort to disrupt our democratic process." Based on the attack in Madrid, plus recent interdictions in England, Jordan, and Italy, "we know that they have the capability to succeed," declared the man in charge of ensuring no such incident does succeed.
Ridge announced that the Democratic and Republican Party conventions are considered targets, and so have been designated "national special security events," under which the U.S. Secret Service becomes the lead agency for securing these sites. Asked specifically whether the Administration had "any specific, credible intelligence that terrorists are targetting" the conventions, Ridge replied flatly: "We do not."
Ridge's press conference was the culmination of a series of hush-hush "threat briefings" to Congress, which began Tuesday night (July 6), with a special briefing given to the House and Senate leadersHastert and Pelosi, Frist and Daschlein the White House's secured Situation Room. Senate Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist emerged from the briefing to tell reporters that they discussed "homeland security issues" related to the party conventions. Present at the briefing in addition to Ridge and his deputy, Asa Hutchinson, were Vice President Dick Cheney, Attorney General John Ashcroft, CIA chief George Tenet, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and Terrorist Threat Integration Center director John Brennan. Members of the House then received a classified briefing from FBI, CIA, and Homeland Security officials on the terrorist election threat the next morning, while the briefing to the full Senate took place on July 8, before Ridge's public press conference.
Election Chief Demands Guidelines for Cancelling Vote
Forest DeSoaries, the Republican chairman of the Election Assistance Commission, sent letters last Aprilthe same month that former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar warned of Madrid-style terrorism in the U.S.to Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, urging that Federal guidelines be developed for cancelling or suspending the election, in case of a major terrorist incident, AP reported June 25. Whether the elections are cancelled, or not cancelled, he said, has major political implications, and so it is necessary to discuss "who makes the call, under what circumstances the call is made, what are the constitutional implications?" Since he has gotten no answer, Soaries is now going public with his demand that this be discussed.
Ridge, when asked about the proposal at his July 8 press conference, answered that while he had read the letter, "I don't exactly agree with his conclusion. But there are constitutional and security questions that are certainly involved, and we're working on them. And certainly he will be involved inthat individual in that group will be involved in the process."
The "Election Assistance Commission" is a new "independent, bipartisan" body, created out of the same 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) which mandated electronic voting machines in elections. The Commission's purported job is to serve as a "national clearinghouse and resource for the compilation of information and review of procedures with respect to the administration of Federal elections," with such vague powers as to "promote the effective administration of Federal elections," and develop voluntary voting system guidelines, etc. For his part, Soaries, who was Secretary of State of New Jersey for several years, is no big shot, a black politician who started as a Democrat working with Jesse Jackson's PUSH operation, then became an independent, and then a Republican, pushing "empowerment." Whoever he is, the issue of cancelling the elections has now been placed on the table.
U.S. Soldiers Untrained for Many Assignments
The stress placed on the Army by the demands of the Iraq war, was the major topic of discussion at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee July 7, with concerns expressed from both sides of the aisle. Ranking Democrat Ike Skelton (Mo), noting that units are returning to Iraq for second tours less than a year after the first time around, and noting the call-up of the Individual Ready Reserves, the use of stop-loss orders, and so forth, said, "Each of these measures is a concern ... but, taken together, they pose for me a serious alarm. We're managing this conflict with stop-gap measures as if the end is near." He added, "The demand is so high I think we're taxing our part-time soldiers in the Guard and Reserve nearly to the breaking point."
Lt. General Norton Schwartz, director of operations for the Joint Staff, presented to the Committee the Pentagon's plans for the next rotation into Iraq, the bulk of which will occur between November of 2004 and March of 2005 a rotation which, notionally, will be slightly smaller, down from the present 140,000 troops to 135,000, but will be heavier, with more tanks and armored vehicles than the present force. It will also include a slightly higher percentage of National Guard and Reserve troops, and will see the return of the 3rd Infantry Division and the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment for second tours. Second-tour troops will make up 55% of the rotation.
General Richard Cody, the Army's new vice chief of staff, agreed with Skelton that the Army is, indeed, stretched thin. He also reported that there are units in Iraq doing tasks for which they weren't trainedand not just National Guard and Reserve units, either. "Our entire force is doing that," he said. He noted that multiple-launch-rocket battalions are doing ammunition-handling missions and air defense artillery formations are doing cordon-and-searches, and that this is going on across the active duty, National Guard, and Reserve units.
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