Check Out The News Page!!   Bush Scandles Continue   * Sadly we must add domestic wiretapping to Bush's crimes, a felony. He did this despite the fact there was a legal method to do the very same wiretapping.    * President Bush is also implicated in the Jack Abramoff scandles. According to USA Today, May 7, 2005 "In President Bush's first 10 months, GOP fundraiser Jack Abramoff and his lobbying team logged nearly 200 contacts with the new administration as they pressed for friendly hires at federal agencies and sought to keep the Northern Mariana Islands exempt from the minimum wage and other laws, records show." The story also noted that Abramoff raised $100,000 for Bush.   The Bush Record: Top Five Scandals From: http://www.wvdemocrats.com/stories/stories_bush_scandal.php Across the board, the Bush Administration continues to mislead the American people with his Republican, ill-concieved agenda. The following are the top five scandals of the Bush Adminstration: Scandal #1 : Misleading the Nation Into War In his public speeches leading up the war with Iraq, President Bush insisted that Iraq was developing an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction that included biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. No evidence of such programs has been found. According to chief weapons inspector David Kay, "we were almost all wrong," about the Iraqi weapons threat. (1) Scandal #2 : Lying to the Nation During the State of the Union During his 2003 State of the Union address, Bush claimed, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." In March 2002, both the CIA and State Department learned that evidence linking Iraq to the African nation of Niger was unfounded. In October 2002, CIA Director Tenet personally intervened with Condoleezza Rice's deputy National Security Advisor to have the charge removed from Bush's speech to the nation. Rice herself was sent a memo debunking the claim. In January 2003, just days before Bush uttered the false charge in his State of the Union, CIA officials again tried to remove the language, but the White House insisted it remain -- with officials arguing that they had received the information from British sources. (2) Scandal #3 : Exposing a Covert CIA Agent for Revenge Ambassador Joseph Wilson publicly disclosed in July 2003 that he had investigated and debunked intelligence linking Iraqi nuclear ambitions to the African nation of Niger. Wilson's investigation concluded in March 2002, nearly a year before Bush made the assertion in his State of the Union address that Iraq sought uranium in Africa. Days after Wilson went public, columnist Robert Novak revealed that his wife was a CIA operative. The Washington Post reported that "a senior administration official said that before Novak's column ran, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife." President Bush later told reporters: "I don't know if we're going to find out the senior administration official...I have no idea whether we'll find out who the leaker is." He claimed he had ordered his staff to "cooperate fully" in the investigation of the leak. (3) Scandal #4 : Halliburton and Dick Cheney As the Iraq war began in March 2003, the Pentagon awarded Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), the construction wing of Halliburton, a no-bid contract to help rebuild Iraqi oil fields and conduct "operation of facilities and distribution of products." The initial deal was thought to be worth as much as $7 billion. In postwar Iraq, Halliburton is the largest private contractor, with potential deals totaling over $11 billion. (4) While Vice President Cheney served as chairman and chief executive of Halliburton, the company acquired two subsidiaries, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co., which had signed contracts to sell oil production equipment to Iraq under the oil-for-food program for more than $73 million. (5) The military investigated Halliburton and found that it overcharged for gas it imported into Iraq from Kuwait by as much as $61 million. In March 2003, the Pentagon announced it would withhold nearly $300 million in payments to Halliburton due to the company's overcharging on food contracts. "Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said the company disagreed with the decision and hoped to persuade the Pentagon to drop its plans." (6) In his retirement package from Halliburton, Cheney was granted deferred compensation that paid out his salary from 1999 over a five-year period and his bonus from that year in 2001. Following his departure from Halliburton, Cheney retained possession of 433,333 options of Halliburton stock. The Cheneys announced they were committing the options to three charities. The Congressional Research Service released a report saying that federal ethics laws consider both Cheney's deferred compensation and his unexercised stock options as a lingering financial interest in the company. (7) Scandal #5: Lying About Medicare Costs and Threatening Whistleblowers The Bush Administration relied upon the Medicare drug plan's alleged $400 billion pricetag to win over skeptical conservatives in Congress. Within weeks of the bills passage, however, the White House admitted it had underestimated the cost by $135 billion (35 percent). Medicare Chief Actuary Richard Foster was threatened with losing his job if he told Congress the true cost. "We can't let that out," Foster recalls Medicare chief Tom Scully telling him. Scully was quoted in June 2003 as saying that he would only release the analysis "if I feel like it." (8) Bush said on January 30, 2004, that he first learned of the higher estimates in mid-January. "The president is always very clear with the American people in the decisions that we are making and very upfront with them about the information that we have," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters. But the New York Time reported that Bush spokesman Trent Duffy "said no White House official had instructed Mr. Foster or Mr. Scully to withhold information from Congress. But Mr. Duffy acknowledged that the actuary's cost estimates had been sent to White House officials, including Doug Badger, a special assistant to President Bush who negotiated with Congress on the Medicare bill." (9) Sources: (1) Washington Post, 8/10/03; Kay Testimony, 1/28/04; (2) Bush State of the Union, 1/28/03; Time, 7/21/03 Issue; Hadley/Bartlett Gaggle, 7/22/03; New York Times, 7/13/03; Washington Post, 7/20/03; National Public Radio, 6/19/03; (3) Washington Post, 9/28/03; Bush Media Availability, 10/7/03; (4) Los Angeles Times, 5/7/03; Washington Post, 2/10/04; (5) Washington Post, 6/23/01; Petroleum Economist, 6/93; (6) Associated Press, 2/9/04; Reuters, 2/23/04; Associated Press, 3/17/04; (7) "Income: Type and amount," Schedule A, Standard Form 278, Richard B. Cheney Personal Financial Disclosure, May 15, 2002; May 15, 2003; White House Press Release, 4/13/01; Washington Post, 9/26/03; (8) Boston Globe, 1/30/04; Los Angeles Times, 1/31/04; New York Times, 3/14/04; Wall Street Journal, 3/15/04; AP, 6/26/03; (9) Los Angeles Times, 1/31/04; New York Times, 3/20/04   5 WAYS TO ENCOURAGE DEMOCRATIC ACTIVISM               1. Educate Yourself About The Issues.              * Find a good news website for daily use such as the "Center for American Progress" <http://www.americanprogress.org/>. Get their news E-mails!         * Listen to and support public radio, public television, C-Span, "Air America Radio" <http://www.airamericaradio.com/> and Democracy Now <http://www.democracynow.org/>.         * Check out Salon.com <http://www.salon.com/>, The Nation <http://www.thenation.com/>, The New Republic <http://www.thenewrepublic.com/>, Truthout <http://www.truthout.org/>, Alternet <http://www.alternet.org/>, and American Prospect <http://www.prospect.org/>         * Learn how to "frame" progressive issues          - read "Don't Think of an Elephant" by G. Lakoff (order at <http://www.chelseagreen.com/>)          - watch DVD "How Democrats and Progressives Can Win" (order at <http://www.winwithlanguage.com/>)                * Keep election integrity issues on the "front burner" for the next four years (BlackBoxVoting.org <http://www.blackboxvoting.org/>).                2. Understand What Is First Rate News Coverage And Speak Out When You Don't Get It              * This is the key to having a truthful debate about the issues and it is crucial to our freedom.         * Emails to newspapers, TV or Radio stations, FCC, etc. helps create a truthful debate.         * Check out factcheck.org <http://www.factcheck.org/>, mediamatters.org <http://www.mediamatters.org/>, fair.org <http://www.fair.org/>, and spinsanity.com <http://www.spinsanity.com/>         * Watch "Outfoxed" video (order from <http://www.outfoxed.org/>) and share it with others         * Read "All the President's Spin" by Fritz, Keefer and Nyhar.       3. Organize Locally         * Encourage local Democrats and Progressive groups to expand email lists and have a website.         * Start your own political email chain and encourage others to do the same. You will be amazed at how quickly the list grows.         * Model "positive progressive activism" whenever you can with relatives, friends and neighbors.               4. Support Progressive Organizations              * Not getting involved gives the power to others.         * Support progressive political parties and candidates at the local, state, and national levels         * Check out True Majority <http://www.truemajority.org/>, Moveon.org <http://www.moveon.org/>, Act For Victory, <http://www.actforvictory.org/> Democracy for America <http://www.democracyforamerica.com/>, Sojourners  <http://www.sojo.org/>) InterFaithAlliance <http://www.interfaithalliance.org/>, Progressive Democrats of America (<http://www.pdamerica.org/>)and Veterans For Common Sense <http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/>, Union of Concerned Scientists <http://www.ucsusa.org/>                     5. Stay Positive And Committed               * Speak out with short comments, humor, and "reframing" whenever you hear incorrect spin about the issues. For example, remind people that the "elite" in this country are now the "conservative elite" since they control the government, the corporations, and the news conglomerates.         * write an email to CNN, the local newspaper, etc. to demand the complete story not conservative spin.         * email these ideas to others.         * carry voter registration forms in your car.      If we want opportunities for all, not just the rich and powerful, we must stand up and be counted. Please make use of these ideas in any way you can to encourage activism. I plan to start sharing them with any group that will listen. During the campaign in Pennsylvania, I found that many still do not know about the Center for American Progress, Air America, etc. I feel that the Internet, talk-radio, and individuals are important in presenting a positive progressive message and responding to conservatives.          Tom Ulrich, Sellersville, PA <tomulrich@mybluelight.com> (comments, etc.)