Bush Calls Iraq War Moral Equivalent Of Allies’ WWII Fight Against the Axis
By Peter Baker and Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, August 31, 2005; Page A07

CORONADO, Calif., Aug. 30 — Invoking the spirit of Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Bush on Tuesday cast the war in Iraq as the modern-day moral equivalent of the struggle against Nazi fascism and Japanese imperialism in World War II….

Although Bush gave his speech only hundreds of yards from the towering hulk of the USS Ronald Reagan at Naval Air Station North Island, the White House made certain the ship was not in the television shot — an image that could remind viewers of the president’s 2003 speech on the Iraq invasion given on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in front of a premature “Mission Accomplished” banner.

President’s Poll Rating Falls to a New Low

By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers

the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey found Bush’s job approval rating at 45 percent, down seven points since January and the lowest ever recorded for the president in Post-ABC surveys. Fifty-three percent disapproved of the job Bush is doing. …

Dissatisfaction is not limited to the president. Fewer than four in 10 Americans — 37 percent — approve of the way the Republican-controlled Congress is doing its job, the lowest rating for lawmakers in nearly eight years.

The survey also provided bad news for Democratic leaders, who are judged as offering Bush only tepid opposition. Slightly more than half of those surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with congressional Democrats for not opposing Bush more aggressively.

New Rules Could Allow Power Plants to Pollute More
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 31, 2005; Page A01

The Bush administration has drafted regulations that would ease pollution controls on older, dirtier power plants and could allow those that modernize to emit more pollution, rather than less.

The language could undercut dozens of pending state and federal lawsuits aimed at forcing coal-fired plants to cut back emissions of harmful pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, said lawyers who worked on the cases.

The draft rules, obtained by The Washington Post from the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group, contradict the position taken by federal lawyers who have prosecuted polluting facilities in the past, and parallel the industry’s line of defense against those suits.

Poverty Rate Rises to 12.7 Percent By JENNIFER C. KERR, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Even with a robust economy that was adding jobs last year, the number of Americans who fell into poverty rose to 37 million _ up 1.1 million from 2003 _ according to Census Bureau figures released Tuesday.

It marks the fourth straight increase in the government’s annual poverty measure.

The Census Bureau also said household income remained flat, and that the number of people without health insurance edged up by about 800,000 to 45.8 million people. …

Overall, the nation’s poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year. Of the 37 million living below the poverty level, close to a third were children.

The last decline in overall poverty was in 2000, during the Clinton administration, when 31.1 million people lived under the threshold. Since then, the number of people in poverty has increased steadily from 32.9 million in 2001, when the economy slipped into recession, to 35.8 million in 2003.

The poverty threshold differs by the size and makeup of a household. For instance, a family of four was considered living in poverty last year if annual income was $19,307 or less. For a family of two, it was $12,334.

Taipei Times – archives

“You are giving hope and encouragement to the enemies of America,” said former California assemblyman Howard Kaloogian, a Republican who co-founded Move America Forward, the group that coordinated the rally. …

At the pro-Bush rally, there were some heated moments when two members of Protest Warrior, a group that frequently holds counter-protests to anti-war rallies, walked in with a sign reading “Say No to War — Unless a Democrat is President.”

Many Bush supporters only saw the top of the sign and believed the men were war protesters, so they began shouting and chasing the pair out. One man tore up their signs.

[Other signs said:
stop aiding our enemies
traitors are not welcome in Texas]

Ellen Goodman – August 26, 2005

[0]ur Knight in Shining Armor Prize goes to George Bush for so many reasons, but especially this one. He didn’t follow his wife’s advice to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court, but he did let her appoint the first woman chef to rule the White House kitchen. Who said there wasn’t progress?

CNN.com – Robertson: Chavez remarks misinterpreted – Aug 24, 2005

CNN) — Conservative religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said Wednesday that his remarks about the removal of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez were taken out of context and that he never called for the killing of the Latin American leader.

“I didn’t say ‘assassination.’ I said our special forces should ‘take him out.’ And ‘take him out’ can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP [Associated Press], but that happens all the time,” Robertson said on “The 700 Club” program.

The controversy began Monday when Robertson called Chavez “a terrific danger” bent on exporting Communism and Islamic extremism across the Americas.

“If he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it,” said Robertson on Monday’s program. “It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war.”

“We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability,” he said. “We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one strong-arm dictator. It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.”

Robertson Apologizes for Calling for Assassination

Robertson, 75, at first responded by insisting that his remarks had been misinterpreted by the news media.

“Wait a minute, I didn’t say ‘assassination.’ I said our Special Forces should ‘take him out,’ and ‘take him out’ can be a number of things, including kidnapping,” he said on yesterday’s edition of his flagship show on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Yesterday evening, however, Robertson issued a written clarification acknowledging that he had used the word “assassination.” He said he had ad-libbed his original comments Monday, which included the sentence “I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it.”

Robertson’s clarification went on to say: “Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him.”

Robertson Calls for Chavez Assassination By Alan Cooperman, Washington Post Staff Writer

Robertson, 75, made a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988. Although his influence among evangelical Christians appears to have waned in recent years, he still has a substantial personal following in Virginia Beach, where he founded Regent University in 1978, and on television. He made his remarks on “The 700 Club,” a news show that claims to have a million daily viewers.

He has sparked controversy in the past by praying for God to create vacancies on the Supreme Court; calling Muhammad, the Muslim prophet, a “robber and brigand”; defending Liberian warlord Charles Taylor; and agreeing with Jerry Falwell that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were God’s punishment for “pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians, the ACLU and the People for the American Way.”

Pat Robertson’s Gift

WE WON’T even pretend to have given television evangelist Pat Robertson’s latest obnoxious utterance much thought, considering his long history of pious bloviations that have made him come across to most Americans as, well, witless. …

[W]e would have preferred to allow the Christian Coalition’s founder to continue his slide from America’s mainstream into the obscurity he has so richly earned. … an act of stupidity only he could outdo …

But Mr. Robertson’s slide from the mountain peak of evangelical pontification was not because of his politics but because of his mouth. When his words were not ill-advised, they were moronic; when not callow, downright loopy, as in: predicting God would curse Orlando with a hurricane if gay-pride events were celebrated at Disney World; wishing a nuclear bomb would be dropped on the State Department; and suggesting that America had it coming on Sept. 11 because God had been insulted “at the highest level of our government.” …

Still, it is curious how some of Mr. Robertson’s fellow travelers have not been able to locate their tongues over this latest Robertson-inspired international disturbance. The Family Research Council and Traditional Values Coalition spare no moments in rushing forth to denounce irresponsibility on the part of those they dislike. Not so with Mr. Robertson, who only called for the United States to murder a foreign head of state. Even the Bush administration can’t bring itself to censure a fellow conservative who publicly calls for his country to break the law. “Inappropriate,” the State Department managed to say. The White House, embarrassed by Mr. Robertson yet again but too afraid to mix it up with his narrow but loyal base of support, simply averts its gaze. …

New York Daily News – Home – Bush’s truth decay
Less than 1/2 of nation finds W honest: poll
By KENNETH R. BAZINET
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON – One of President Bush’s most attractive traits has been his reputation for straight talk, but a new poll yesterday found that fewer than half of Americans think he’s honest.

Only 48% of respondents to an AP-Ipsos survey think he’s honest, while 50% do not, the poll indicated. That is a five-point drop from January, when 53% of Americans thought Bush was an honest President.

Moreover, some 56% of Americans think he’s too cocky, up from the 49% in January who said they view Bush’s confidence as arrogance.

A solid majority still see Bush as likable and a strong leader, but Bush’s overall job approval was at 42%, with 55% disapproving.

Ipsos News Center – Polls, Public Opinion, Research & News
President Bush’s Approval Ratings