United States News Digest
Are Cheneys Trying To Deflect New Scandal About Lynne's Lesbian Book?
Is Lynne Cheney's 1981 lesbian porn novel Sisters the real reason for the Vice President's belated outrage over Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry's reference to the Cheneys' daughter Mary, in his answer to a question about gay marriage, during the Oct. 13 debate? Another question is: Did someone in the White House decide to turn this into a big attack on Kerry, lest Lynne Cheney's lesbian fantasy-book become a major topic?
The fact that Vice President Dick Cheney quietly acceptedand even thankedJohn Edwards for his polite, but very extended discussion of the Cheney daughter's lesbianism during the Oct. 8 Vice Presidential debate, and then went ballistic on Oct. 14, after Kerry mentioned the same thing, possibly has nothing to do with daughter Mary, but everything to do with wife Lynne's 1981 book. EIR recently obtained the book, and has reviewed its contents, verifying that it has graphic, detailed scenes of lesbian sex.
On Oct. 13, Lynne Cheney was the first to complain about Kerry's remarks, at a rally of Republicans, after the debate in Arizona. Mrs. Cheney described herself as a "distraught Mom," and said Kerry is "not a good man." The following day, Dick Cheney repeatedly attacked Kerry for mentioning his family.
A well-connected Washington insider told EIR that Cheney's "delayed reaction" over the mention of his daughter's lesbianismwhich is not a secrethas become a hot topic in Washington. But when informed about Lynne Cheney's book, the source said, "People should know about this," first of all, because Lynne Cheney is known as the "book banner," for her role in the campus censorship organization, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). And, secondly, because George W. Bush has been so insistently self-righteous about saying that he is protecting the institution of marriage as only between a "man and a woman" from activist judges making court decisions.
In April 2004, Newsweek ran a short article by reporter Holly Bailey, called "Cheney: 'Sisters' Gets Outed." The article says, "April 5 issueIn 1981, long before her husband was elected Vice President, Lynne Cheney wrote Sisters, a steamy bodice-ripper set in the 19th-century American West, featuring vivid tales of whorehouses, attempted rapes, a suspicious murder and several lesbian love affairs, of which Cheney writes approvingly. The paperback, published in Canada, has been out of print for nearly two decades.
"But on April 6, the book is scheduled to be released for the first time in the United States. Many of the novel's most lurid details have already been unearthed on the Internet and by gay-rights activists, who believe Cheney's treatment of lesbian relationships in the book is at odds with the Bush Administration's stance against gay marriage. (Cheney's been silent about gay marriage, although her daughter Mary is openly gay.)"
Subsequently, the new publication of the book was cancelled, reportedly due to White House intervention.
Three Intelligence Chiefs Criticize Intelligence Czar
As the Bush Administration pushes for a "photo op" to sign an intelligence reform bill into law before the election, three of the Bush Administration's intelligence agency leadersformer Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, and current officers, Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, head of the National Security Agency, and Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper, Jr., head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (satellite-based surveillance and mapping for the CIA and Defense Dept.)told an industry conference that reshuffling top management of intelligence agencies will not improve security against terrorist attacks.
While they did not attack the legislation, the remarks were believed to refer to the pending intelligence reorganization bill, which is now in a Senate-House conference committee. If it is rammed through, then Porter Goss will likely be named the "National Intelligence Director" by Bush.
But Bush's grandstanding about a new "czar" will not improve security, said the intelligence chiefs. What is needed is improved cooperation among "rank-and-file analysts, spies, investigators, and military officers" across the agencies. They were speaking at an industry conference of the U.S. Geo-Spatial-Intelligence Foundation, a private group. Tenet said, "Speed and agility are key to the war on terrorism, not more levels of bureaucracy in Washington. We must not create another level of bureaucracy between the head of American intelligence and the people doing the work." Tenet had not allowed reporters in to hear his speech, but reporters for the New York Times heard a "complete recording of his remarks."
This is another example of the leaks about Bush's intelligence and policy failures that are deluging the White House. Porter Goss was supposed to stop the leaking, but it's not happening, and the CIA just awarded its highest honor to Buzzy Krongard, the CIA Executive Director just fired by Goss.
GOP Gears Up Vote-Suppression Dirty Tricks
With record numbers of new voter registrations being filed in many states, the Ashcroft/GOP vote-suppression operation is moving into high gear.
* In Colorado, Republican Gov. Bill Owens and other officials are screaming that many of the more than 100,000 new voter registrations are fraudulent; this is the subject of a front-page story in the Oct. 13 Washington Times.
* In Nevada, a former head of the Republican Party is demanding that state officials strike 17,000 Democrats from the voter rolls as "inactive."
* In Oregon and Nevada, officials are investigating allegations that a GOP-linked private voter-registration organization has discarded Democratic voter registrations, shredding them and throwing them in the trash.
* In Florida, several labor unions are suing the Secretary of State over her rejection of thousands of voter registration forms on the grounds they are "incomplete."
* In Ohio, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has ordered local election boards not to issue provisional ballots unless voters are in the correct precincta violation of Federal law, which requires only that a voter be in the correct county. His decision is being challenged in Federal court. A Case Western University professor calculates that this could affect the outcome of the race, not only in Ohio, but perhaps nationally, given Ohio's crucial importance.
New Scandal Breaks During Iraq Donors Conference
During a donors' conference in Tokyo on Oct. 13, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh called on participants to fulfill their promises of aid to help rebuild Iraq, and accused the United Nations of failing to provide crucial support. Of the $13.6 billion in grants and loans promised last year by nations and lending institutions, only about $1 billion has been deposited in World Bank and UN funds for Iraq.
"Development and stability in Iraq cannot be driven through the barrels of guns," Saleh said in an impassioned speech to open the two-day conference. "Assistance and aid in the short term is the key to destroying the causes of terrorism. It is also the only way we can build a sustainable, long-term future for our people."
Saleh said Iraq's wealth had been "utterly squandered by tyranny" before the U.S.-led invasion. "Please do not delaythe time to make firm commitments is now. Honor your pledges now," he said.
While the U.S.-backed Iraqis were begging for money, the story broke on the front page of the Guardian, that James Baker III, the same man named by Bush as a special envoy to negotiate precisely such debt relief, has been working secretly with a consortium, to get Iraqi payments made to Kuwait! Baker's Carlyle Group was apparently part of a consortium which has been trying to collect $27 billion on behalf of Kuwait.
The Guardian published several letters concerning the consortium's proposal to Kuwait, to get funds back. A preliminary reading of the letters shows that the consortium first threatened Kuwait, that it wouldn't get a penny if it didn't move fast, then promised it that the money would be forthcoming.
In the wake of the story breaking, the Carlyle group came forward to claim that it had never signed a memorandum of understanding with the consortium, and that the consortium had misused its name.
Open Letter Calls for Urgent Change in U.S. Foreign Policy
As of Oct. 12, 698 foreign affairs specialists had signed an open letter calling for an urgent change in American foreign and national security policy, which was posted on the website www.sensibleforeignpolicy.net. The open letter, circulated by the non-partisan Security Scholars for a Sensible Foreign Policy, calls the current course in Iraq "the most misguided one since the Vietnam period, one which harms the cause of the struggle against extreme Islamic terrorists."
The argument of the open letter is much like that made by Presidential candidate John Kerry:
* The initial focus on destroying al-Qaeda in Afghanistan was diverted;
* The justifications for war have been proven untrue;
* Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan pose a much greater risk of nuclear proliferation than did Iraq;
* Policy errors during the occupation have made things worse;
* Military voices like former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki were ignored.
* American actions in Iraqincluding but not limited to Abu Ghraibhave harmed the U.S.'s reputation, making Osama bin Laden more popular than President Bush in some Middle Eastern countries.
The signators are leading professors, and heads of international affairs and political science departments in prestigious universities around the U.S.A.
Virginia Elementary School Rejects Testing
The principal of Bailey's Elementary School in Falls Church, Va. has sent a letter to every parent defying the so-called "No Child Left Behind" law, the centerpiece of President Bush's education policy, the Washington Post reported Oct 12. The letter says that teachers are forced to spend "valuable instructional time preparing students to take the Standards of Learning (SOL) tests, to the exclusion of activities that extend and deepen student learning...." Principal Jean Frey says she wants children to learn how to think like scientists and historians, but "this is not what standardized tests measure or encourage."
The No Child Left Behind mandate states that if children fail, the county can fire all the teachers and give parents the right to transfer the children to other schools. "It's an ax hanging over our heads," Frey said. "The test is enormously time consuming.... As a citizen, I want these kids to grow up to be literate problem solvers.... We give up over two weeks in May to the tests. So the rest of the year, we try very hard not to do 'SOL Prep Time,' like many schools do. How important is knowing how to fill in ABCD? I don't do that very often as an adult."
Hackworth Says Rumsfeld Is Wrong About the Draft
Retired Col. David Hackworth, who runs a website for military and their families to tell the truth about the mess in the military, wrote in his Defense Watch column Oct. 4, that "Rummy has been flat wrong on every major call regarding Iraq.... With both our regular and the reserve soldiers stretched beyond the breaking point, our all-volunteer force is tapping out." Neither the regulars nor the reserves will get their quotas, as the word is rapidly spreading. "It's a no-brainer that there will be a draft by 2005 or 2006."
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), who has proposed to renew the draft, wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal saying essentially the same thing.
If Congress Knew Then What It Knows Now...
Pete Coors, Republican candidate for Senate in Colorado, said on NBC's Meet the Press on Oct. 10 that if Congress knew then what it knows now about the war in Iraq, it would not have voted to authorize the war. Coors was scheduled to host President Bush at a fundraiser the following day. Coors is currently in a tight race with the state attorney general, Democrat Ken Salazar, who was also critical of Bush's handling of the war, citing the recent comments of three Republican Senators. The Senate seat they are fighting for became vacant when the popular incumbent, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R), dropped out of the race after his office became the target of a Federal investigation involving alleged "kickbacks."
Senate Passes Corporate Windfall Tax Bill
What started out as an effort to repeal a $4 billion-per-year tax break that was ruled an illegal subsidy by the World Trade Organization, wound up as a $140 billion corporate tax giveaway bill, when it passed the Senate on Oct. 11 by a vote of 69-17. The Senate began work on what was then an approximately 30-page bill to repeal the subsidy and replace it with equivalent tax breaks that would not be considered subsidies, in September 2003.
What emerged from the conference committee, on Oct. 7, came in at 650 pages, and included 276 provisions that benefit everyone from restaurant owners to makers of bows and arrows to importers of Chinese ceiling fans. The central provision is a reduction of the corporate tax rate from 35% to 32%, worth $76.5 billion over 10 years. House Democrats complained that it would actually increase benefits to corporations that move their operations offshore, thus costing another $42 billion over ten years. The "manufacturing benefit" in the bill will be extended to oil and gas producers, corporate farms (but not family farms), electric generators, engineering and construction firms, and private water utilities. The House Democratic critique announces that "Christmas will come before Nov. 2, this year, since this legislation contains so many unrelated tax breaks."
The conference report passed the House by a vote of 280-141 on Oct. 7, but was held up in the Senate by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La) who wanted to include tax breaks for employers who keep activated National Guard and reservists on their payrolls (those tax breaks were passed as part of a separate bill). It's been derided in the Senate by members of both parties. Despite all the criticism, however, there was little effort to actually kill the bill, and the White House has indicated that Bush will sign it.
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