Progress Report: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil

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Fri, 13 May 2005 18:05:01 -0700 (PDT)

Progress Report: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil

 

 

The Progress Report

 

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

with Nico Pitney and Mipe Okunseinde

 

http://www.progressreport.org

4/22/2005

 

For news and updates throughout the day, check out our new blog at

ThinkProgress.org.

 

IRAQ

 

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil

 

America's most important foreign policy venture is teetering on the

edge of civil war, and new evidence shows the Bush administration

likely fixed intelligence to justify war. But you might not have heard

much about it. Though print media outlets have provided some coverage

of the major stories in recent weeks, television media – still the

primary source of news for most Americans – is failing miserably.

America is being kept in the dark.

 

THE CARNAGE THEY WON'T COVER: Violence in Iraq is sky-rocketing. The

number of brutal suicide bombings in Iraq recently reached a record

high, " with more than 67 insurgents blowing themselves up in the month

of April alone. " Newsday reports that insurgents are " effectively

encircling the [capital city of Baghdad] and trying to cut it off from

the north, south and west. " And Pat Lang, the former top Middle East

intelligence official at the Pentagon, says, " It's just political

rhetoric to say we are not in a civil war. We've been in a civil war

for a long time. " But according to ABC News, our television media

simply doesn't care. The network's morning briefing yesterday noted,

" We say with all the genuine apolitical and non-partisan human concern

that we can muster that the death and carnage in Iraq is truly

staggering. And/but we are sort of resigned to the Notion that it

simply isn't going to break through to American news organizations,

or, for the most part, Americans.... What is hands down the biggest

story every day in the world will get almost no coverage. "

 

THE MEMO THEY WON'T DISCUSS: Last week, a British newspaper released

top-secret documents suggesting that " President Bush and Prime

Minister Tony Blair had conditionally agreed by July 2002 to invade

Iraq. " In one memo from July '02, Britain's top intelligence official

states that " he had returned from Washington, where there had been a

'perceptible shift in attitude. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through

military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and

[weapons of mass destruction]. But the intelligence and the facts were

being fixed around the policy.' " The memo seemed to provide powerful

new evidence that the Bush administration was willing to consciously

manipulate intelligence to push forward its invasion plans. Since its

release, however, the U.S. press has stayed silent. Days after its

release, Salon columnist Joe Conason asked, " Are Americans so jaded

about the deceptions perpetrated by our own government to lead us into

war in Iraq that we are no longer interested in fresh and damning

evidence of those lies? Or are the editors and producers who oversee

the American news industry simply too timid to report that proof on

the evening broadcasts and front pages? " According to media watchdog

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, " As far as the media are

concerned, the answer to Conason's second question would seem to be yes. "

 

THE ISSUE THEY WON'T RAISE: " Are we, or are we not, building permanent

military bases in Iraq? Yes or no? " So asks national security expert

and former Sen. Gary Hart this week, noting that " the press has been

unaccountably lax in pursuing this question, " despite its central role

in the larger picture of U.S. goals in Iraq. If the goal of the war

was to " dominate the behavior of the region (including securing oil

supplies), then you build permanent bases for some kind of permanent

American military presence. If the goal was to spread democracy and

freedom, then you don't. " Brookings Institution scholar Michael

O'Hanlon echoed Hart. To push for permanent bases now, he says, " would

politically hurt those we should want to strengthen, and reinforce the

image of America as occupier that has already cost us so dearly in the

Iraq operation. " O'Hanlon continues " the issue has received remarkably

little sustained attention to date but demands it. " And Susan Rice

adds, " It is astonishing that the Administration has not been held

accountable by Congress (or the press) to provide a black and white

response to this enormously important question. "

 

THE " VICTORY STRATEGY " THEY WON'T QUESTION: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld

claims the U.S. has a " victory strategy " for Iraq, the goal of which

is " to help the Iraqi Forces develop the skills and the capacity to

provide their own security. " But the Government Accountability Office

reported recently that coalition leadership has still failed " to

develop a system to assess the readiness of Iraqi military and police

forces so they can identify weaknesses and provide them with effective

support. " Moreover, the GAO states, " U.S. government agencies do not

report reliable data on the extent to which Iraqi security forces are

trained and equipped, " and the high number of security forces

frequently touted by senior White House officials " overstates the

number actually serving, " probably by " tens of thousands. " Yet days

after this GAO report was released, Secretary Rumsfeld appeared on two

Sunday news programs and repeated his inflated numbers with impunity.

Hosts on both programs failed to question Rumsfeld about the report.

 

HOUSING

 

The Debt Society

 

Today, President Bush will address the National Association of

Realtors in Washington to tout his housing record. Here is what the

president won't tell you: families own less of their homes than ever

before. By the end of 2004, the average middle-class family owned just

56 percent of their home, down from about 60 percent in the 1990s.

What explains this trend? The combination of stagnant wages and rising

costs for education and health care has forced many families to borrow

against the value of their homes to make ends meet. In the society

Bush is creating, the bank owns the house and you own the debt. The

result is that while home ownership rates have continued to rise,

middle-class families enjoy fewer of the long-term benefits of

homeownership. Find out more in this new report from American Progress.

 

GROWTH IN HOMEOWNERSHIP HAS DECLINED UNDER BUSH: President Bush loves

to talk about home ownership rates during his presidency. In a March

10, 2005, speech in Alabama he bragged, " Do you realize the home

ownership rate is at an all-time high in America? " Here is what the

president won't tell you: growth in home ownership has slowed during

his presidency. From 1995-2000 America's home ownership rate grew by

2.27 percent per year, but in the last four years it has grown at an

annual rate just 1.6 percent – that's a 25 percent decline in the rate

of growth. Bush also likes to note that " more minorities own a home

than ever before in our nation's history. " But among minorities, the

slowdown in home ownership growth during Bush's presidency is

especially pronounced. From 1995-2000 the rate of African-American

homeownership grew by 3.27 each year; over the last four years it has

grown by just 1.9 percent per year – a 40 percent decline in the rate

of growth. For Hispanics, growth in homeownership has declined by

almost 50 percent from 3.4 percentage points to 1.8 percentage points.

 

BUSH'S ATTACK ON PUBLIC HOUSING: As low-income Americans struggle to

keep up with rising housing costs, the Bush administration has a plan

to make a bad situation worse. An administration proposal,

euphemistically named " The Flexible Voucher Program, " was recently

introduced in Congress by Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO). Under the proposal

" nearly every current protection for low-income families ... would be

weakened or eliminated, and housing agencies would receive a set

amount of funding each year with no adjustment for changes in actual

.... costs. " The proposal would " allow local housing agencies to raise

rent burdens of low-income families. " Many localities would do so

after " [f]unding provided to local housing agencies for public housing

has been cut repeatedly in recent years. "

 

DON'T BELIEVE THE BUZZWORDS: A statement by the Department of Housing

and Urban Development (HUD) insists the proposal provides " greater

program flexibility " by allocating funding through block grants, which

it would have needed " regardless of budget pressures. " But HUD's

tactic is one " the Bush administration has used in other areas as it

tries to halt open-ended commitments for federal funds in favor of set

block grants. A 'block grant,' however, is simply a cut by another

name. Neither the poor nor the local housing authorities have the

power to make rents conform " to HUD's inflexible caps.

 

COMMUNITIES ALREADY SUFFERING UNDER BUSH POLICY: The Bush

administration's deep cuts in Section 8 public housing funds are

rocking communities across the nation. In King County, Washington, for

example, " 4,100 low-income families and individuals ... are being

dropped from a waiting list for federal rent assistance because of

deep cuts in the Section 8 housing program. " Stephen Norman, the

executive director for the King County housing authority, called the

news " a sad day in King County for low-income seniors, people with

disabilities and poor working families. "

 

Under the Radar

 

ETHICS – CASINO ROYALE: A February 2003 visit to London by Rep. Bob

Ney (R-OH), chairman of the House Administration Committee, is raising

ethical flags. Ney traveled to London for a three-day trip that was

" paid for by FN Aviation, " a group whose director, Nigel Winfield, is

" a three-time convicted felon who spent more than six years in prison

… cheated on his taxes and was involved in a deal to swindle Elvis

Presley. " Winfield met with Ney to discuss his most recent business

venture, selling planes in the Middle East, and see what the

congressman could do. Later on, Ney held a meeting at a London casino

with another FN Aviation director, a Syrian-born businessman who

happens to be " one of London's biggest gamblers. " That year, Ney

" reported that he won $34,000 at the very same London casino. " Former

House Ethics Committee counsel says that " [t]he ethical problem will

be: did the trip consist of something connected to his official

duties, or was it simply a foreign romp to go gambling. " House rules

prohibit members from accepting travel for substantially recreational

purposes.

 

MEDIA – CONGRESSMEN CALL FOR PROBE OF CPB ACTIVITIES: Two congressmen

are doing their best to ensure that the increasingly partisan

Corporation for Public Broadcasting and its conservative Chairman

Kenneth Tomlinson respect the independence of programming on the

Public Broadcasting System. Rep. David Obey (D-WI) and Rep. John

Dingell (D-MI), who both serve " on committees that have oversight of

public television, " have called for " an investigation into recent

activities by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting " to examine

whether it has stayed in accordance with federal laws. Specifically,

the congressmen have " asked CPB Inspector General Kenneth A. Konz to

investigate the contracting, hiring and policies of the corporation. "

Obey and Dingell write, " If CPB is moving in the direction of

censorship of public affairs content based on partisanship and

political views this will severely erode the public trust that public

broadcasting heretofore has enjoyed. "

 

BOLTON – TO THE FLOOR, WITH NO RECOMMENDATION: For " only the third

time in 22 years, " the Senate Foreign Relations Committee " has sent a

nomination to the Senate without a favorable recommendation. " Sending

John Bolton to the Senate with no recommendation was a " highly unusual

move " that capped an equally unusual nomination hearing. Although Sen.

George Voinovich (R-OH) voted in favor of sending the nomination

forward, he delivered impassioned testimony against Bolton – pointing

out that the nominee has " serious deficiencies in the areas that are

critical to be a good ambassador " – and concluded that " the United

States can do better than John Bolton. " However, the nomination vote

has been placed on hold by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) who still awaits

" State Department Documents … involving Mr. Bolton's dealings with

American intelligence agencies over Syria. "

 

HOMELAND SECURITY – D.C. KEPT IN THE DARK DURING SCARE: Yesterday,

reporters grilled White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan on the

handling of Wednesday's plane scare, which led to the evacuation of

both the White House and the Capitol building. It seems President Bush

was not the only one kept in the dark about the situation; D.C. police

officials " had no idea that fighter jets and helicopters were being

deployed over Washington to intercept [the] errant plane. " Although

the D.C. police have a " sergeant in the nation's homeland security

command center, " word about the crisis did not get to police

commanders " until the scare was nearly over. " Furthermore, back at

police headquarters, " someone had disconnected a phone line that would

have provided emergency communications from the Federal Aviation

Administration. "

 

GAY RIGHTS – OVERTURN OF NEBRASKA BAN ON SAME SEX MARRIAGE: Federal

District Court Judge Joseph Bataillon has struck down the same-sex

marriage ban, which was amended to the Nebraska Constitution in 2000,

" saying the measure interfered not only with the rights of gay couples

but also with those of foster parents, adopted children and people in

a variety of other living arrangements. " More than just " [imposing]

significant burdens on both the expressive and intimate associational

rights of gay men and lesbians, " the federal judge ruled that the ban

ultimately goes " far beyond merely defining marriage as between a man

and a woman. " Unfortunately, conservatives in Congress have been quick

to latch onto the ruling – " the first in which a federal court has

struck down a state ban on same-sex marriage " – as " evidence of the

need for a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. "

 

GOOD NEWS

 

Yesterday's Progress Report noted that an adviser of a federal safety

study of controversial stun guns was a paid consultant of Taser

International, the leading seller of the gun, which has reportedly

killed dozens of people. Following the report, the consultant was

removed from the study.

 

DON'T MISS

 

TALKING POINTS: The Truth About Housing

 

BOLTON: Bush rebuffed as Senate committee refuses to recommend Bolton.

Steve Clemons offers thoughts on what comes next.

 

DELAY: Conservatives salute corrupt House leader. ThinkProgress was there.

 

MEDIA: Washington press corps takes steps to loosen the Bush team's grip.

 

MEDIA: Hacktacular Robert Novak backs out of debate with Eric Alterman.

 

DAILY GRILL

 

" We must pay respect to the Constitution of the United States of

America, and that is advice and consent, and that means up-or-down votes. "

 

-- Sen. Bill Frist, 3/1/05 (Lexis)

 

VERSUS

 

" The question: Does the Constitution say that every nominee of the

President deserves an up-or-down vote? And the ABC is - the answer is:

no, the language is not there. "

 

-- Sen. Bill Frist, 5/12/05, in response to a question from Sen.

Robert Byrd

 

DAILY OUTRAGE

 

Wal-Mart is pushing a proposition that would overturn a ban on big-box

retailers in Flagstaff, Arizona, with an add featuring " a photo of

Nazi book-burning taken from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and a

close-up of a person's mouth covered with tape. "

 

© Copyright 2005 by American Progress Action Fund. All rights reserved.