United Press International: Figures show ‘hype’ of terror war By Shaun Waterman, UPI

[An] analysis, carried out by statisticians and long-time law enforcement observers at the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse based at Syracuse University, found that in the two years after the Sept. 11 attacks about 6,400 people were referred to prosecutors in connection with terrorism or terrorist offenses. But of the 2,681 cases that had been wrapped up by the end of September 2003, some 879 were convicted of a crime and less than half of those — 373 — were sent to prison. Five received sentences of 20 years or more, which was actually fewer than in the two years before Sept. 11.

The figures analyzed have been repeatedly cited by administration officials to justify their contention that the government is winning the war against terror. …

Tim Edgar of the ACLU told UPI that the data showed the government was “cooking the books” on the war against terror.

In a speech at the FBI academy in Quantico, Va., on Sept. 10, President Bush — ticking off a long list of continuing achievements in the war on terror — said, “More than 260 suspected terrorists have been charged in U.S. courts; more than 140 have already been convicted.”

“This report reveals the gap between that rhetoric and the reality,” said Edgar.

“These figures have been used over and over again by the president and others to make people feel safer and to stifle the debate about whether the administration’s strategy and the new laws they’ve passed are working.”

Op-Ed Columnist: Stalking the Giant Chicken Coop By BOB HERBERT, NYTimes

The Bush administration has mastered the art of legalized banditry, in which tons of government money — the people’s money — are hijacked and handed over to the special interests.

Drug company stock prices soared with the passage of the Medicare bill, a sign that another government vault had been blown open and the big Medicare money was in play. The Republicans are not subtle about these matters. The bill, for example, specifically prohibits the government from negotiating discounts or lower drug prices, and bars the importation of cheaper drugs from abroad. …

[In 1965,] the growls of opposition in the background were muted. Medicare was a desperately needed program, and it grew to be a wildly popular one. But conservatives were outraged by it. Socialized medicine, they snarled. Un-American.
…

Ronald Reagan saw Medicare as the advance wave of socialism, which would ”invade every area of freedom in this country.” …

Newt Gingrich ranted against Medicare in the 1990’s, comparing its operations to “centralized command bureaucracies” in Moscow. …

After nearly four decades, during which Medicare significantly improved the health and economic conditions of the nation’s elderly, this unrelenting hostility can fairly be called an obsession.

Today President Bush will sign into law a prescription drug benefit under Medicare that will introduce the first cold drafts of bitter reality to the G.O.P.’s long dream of dismantling Medicare as we’ve known it.

by Jared Bernstein and Ross Eisenberry, Economic Policy Institute

Ultimately, despite aggressive administration and business arm-twisting, both ouses of Congress voted to block the new rule [cutting overtime pay eligibility for 8 million workers].

Historically, when both houses agree that a rule is unacceptable, the administration drops it. … But not with this administration. This rule is so important to their friends and funders in the business world … that they decided to buck history as well as the wishes of both houses of Congress. They’re pushing the rule through anyway. …

[T]he Bush administration decided it didn’t like the outcome and would therefore ignore the bipartisan wishes of the nation’s representatives. That’s undemocratic….

www.epinet.org

Guantánamo Chaplain and His Wife Speak Out By SARAH KERSHAW, NYTimes

Captain Yee was held in solitary confinement in a South Carolina Navy brig for nearly three months while he was under investigation, permitted only two 15-minute telephone calls a day after a month and, his lawyers said, barred from speaking Arabic to his wife, whom he met while studying Islam in Syria in 1997.

He was released last week without any espionage charges brought against him. But in a twist that Mrs. Yee said was more devastating than the espionage investigation, the military has charged him with adultery — a violation of military code — and possession of pornography, in addition to charges that he had disobeyed orders by taking classified information home. …

Captain Yee’s supporters say the government has charged him with adultery and keeping pornography — a fairly unusual move by the military justice system — to save face and trump up what has always been a weak case.

“He was defamed and smeared and accused of being a spy,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington advocacy group whose Seattle chapter was in close contact with Captain Yee’s relatives during his detainment. “Then all of sudden, they’re not even sorry. They’re saying, `You can go now, and for good measure we’ll throw in a few charges to further damage your reputation.’ It’s a very suspicious scenario that developed.”

Op-Ed Columnist: Looting the Future By PAUL KRUGMAN, NYTimes

The prevailing theory among grown-up Republicans — yes, they still exist — seems to be that Mr. Bush is simply doing whatever it takes to win the next election. After that, he’ll put the political operatives in their place, bring in the policy experts and finally get down to the business of running the country.

But I think they’re in denial. Everything we know suggests that Mr. Bush’s people have given as little thought to running America after the election as they gave to running Iraq after the fall of Baghdad. And they will have no idea what to do when things fall apart.

IS DEMOCRACY PORK? By William F. Buckley Jr., Yahoo! News

The Republican Party’s spokesmen don’t much bother to defend their votes. We have a Republican president who pledged to reduce public spending, and we have a Republican-dominated Congress with appropriations committee heads also pledged to reduce discretionary spending. They will tell you, on the hustings, that the spending increases are owing to the defense against terrorism. And they are right, in part — military spending is up 34 percent in the last two fiscal years. Yet as a share of the economy, defense spending remains well below its highs of the 1980s. Then, the military took 6 percent of the GDP; now, only 3.8 percent. …

There is demoralization in the scene. Never mind that George W. promised to reduce federal spending: The fact of the matter is that he has not done so. What he has reduced is the use of the veto, reduced it to zero, the veto being the presidential instrument usable for good causes and bad, but indispensable to curb capricious exploitation of the public purse. …

But there is something else to look out for, which is the credibility of democratic practice. If everybody preaches A while condoning B, you get not only inflated costs, but deflated confidence in democratic government.

Note well that if Bush wins in 2004 and the Republicans maintain congressional control, the hard right will push harder for their goal: starve the beast (kill most federal spending except for the military). mjh

U.S. Proposes Easing Rules on Emissions of Mercury By JENNIFER 8. LEE, NYTimes

The Bush administration is proposing that mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants should not be regulated in the same way as some of the most toxic air pollutants, reversing a stance on air pollution control taken by the Clinton administration in 2000. …

The agency is suggesting that mercury emissions be removed from the most stringent regulations of the Clean Air Act that have been used to limit the most toxic air pollutants. Among those are asbestos, chromium and lead, which have been known to cause cancers and neurological disorders. …

Environmental groups criticize the market-based proposal, saying it would allow hot spots of mercury contamination to build up. Mercury, a known neurotoxin, accumulates in the environment and builds up in the tissue of fish and the species, including humans, that eat them. It is considered particularly hazardous for pregnant women because of the developmental effects on fetuses.

“Mercury is a serious public health threat,” said Carol M. Browner, who served as E.P.A. administrator under President Bill Clinton. …

This is the administration’s second major policy shift on power plant regulations in the last month, both of which have come after extensive industry lobbying. In November, E.P.A.’s chief of enforcement, J. P. Suarez, told his staff that the agency would stop pursuing Clean Air Act enforcement cases against coal-burning power plants.