Republicans Admit War is About Oil

From a Progress Report this week:

IRAQ – CONSERVATIVES ADMIT WAR IS ABOUT OIL: On the House floor yesterday while debating the president's energy bill, senior Republicans openly admitted that the war in Iraq is about oil. Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the nation needed to pass massive tax cuts for oil companies "instead of constantly fighting over battlefields to defend other people's energy supplies that we depend upon." Similarly, Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) said, "When we look at this [energy] bill, we need to call upon ourselves and ask ourselves what probably is the major duty of a Member of Congress. It is probably to prevent a war. And how do you prevent wars? You prevent wars by removing the cause of wars... Lack of energy causes wars." He said, "George Bush's father sent 450,000 kids to a desert; that was a battle for energy [to] keep them from getting a bad man's, Saddam Hussein, foot, on half the known energy resources in the world."

Their Own Letter Comes Back to Haunt Them

CLAIM:

"This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda.”
– President Bush, 6/17/04

FACT:

"Bush and Cheney also have sought to tie Iraq specifically to the 9/11 attacks. In a letter to Congress on March 19, 2003 — the day the war in Iraq began — Bush said that the war was permitted under legislation authorizing force against those who 'planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.'"
- USA Today, 6/16/04

Sign the Petition to Remove Ashcroft

American Progress has launched an online petition calling for the removal of Attorney General John Ashcroft...it is at www.americanprogress.org/ashcroft

In case you needed a reminder about why this guy has to go, see this item from the Progress Report:

CIVIL LIBERTIES – ASHCROFT MISLED PUBLIC ON LIBRARY SEARCHES: New memos released today show the Justice Department deceived Congress and the public about its use of controversial Patriot Act provisions that give investigators easy access to people's business and library records. As the WP reports, four weeks after Attorney General John Ashcroft said the provisions had never been used, "The FBI asked the Justice Department to seek permission from a secret federal court to use" them. Last year, when Congress considered bipartisan legislation restricting these sections of the Patriot Act, Ashcroft deployed his top spokesman, Mark Corallo, to attack librarians and lawmakers and claim their concerns were not based in reality. He said their concerns that library searches were going on were "a ruse being used by critics to scare the public." He said, "The idea of the FBI snooping around the library to see what John Q. Public is reading is absurd." He continued making such comments, even after the 11/1/03 newsletter of the American Library Association revealed that FBI agents in the summer of 2003 "formally contacted 14 libraries with requests for patron-record information." Sign the petition to remove Ashcroft.

Another Vote for the List

In keeping with the spirit of my most recent In These Times column that tracks congressional votes people should know about for the 2004 election, check out this one:

"Republicans Wednesday blocked an effort by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Judiciary ranking member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to create stiffer criminal penalties for war profiteering. The Leahy/Daschle amendment to the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill would have created new penalties -- including up to 20 years in jail -- for government contractors convicted of inflating the cost of goods or services. It was defeated 52-46...A clearly uncomfortable Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., rallied Republicans against the amendment."
- CongressDaily, 6/17/04

See how your Senator voted here.

Remember, this vote comes just days after "new testimony by congressional auditors and former Halliburton workers revealed millions of dollars worth of wasteful practices, major over billing and virtually no oversight of the company's work."

Do Fries and Ketchup Constitute a Salad?

The Bush administration today acknowledged that it has re-designated frozen french fries as "fresh vegetables." This follows President Reagan's edict that ketchup is a vegetable.

By this logic, is a plate of ketchup and fries considered a "salad?"

If You Ever Needed Evidence of Conservative Media Bias...

Check out this AP lead from today:

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that Saddam Hussein had "long-established ties" with al Qaeda, an assertion that has been repeatedly challenged by some policy experts and lawmakers.

Last I checked, this hasn't been "challenged by some" - it has NEVER BEEN PROVEN WITH ANY EVIDENCE AT ALL. Cheney has not provided one shred of actual evidence to substantiate his charge and has been reprimanded by the CIA for citing inaccurate documents to "prove" his charge. Yet, Cheney's charge is allowed to fly out there, and the AP makes it seem as if only a smattering of wonks disagree. Here is Knight-Ridder's more accurate story from March:

"Nearly a year after U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq, no evidence has turned up to verify allegations of Saddam's links with al-Qaida, and several key parts of the administration's case have either proved false or seem increasingly doubtful. Senior U.S. officials now say there never was any evidence that Saddam's secular police state and Osama bin Laden's Islamic terrorism network were in league."
- Knight-Ridder, 3/02/04

For more, see the Claim vs. Fact database and look at the topic "Iraq-Al Qaeda links"

Right-Wing Calls AIDS a "Smaller Issue"

Despite AIDS having killed or infected 58 million people worldwide, and despite the CIA billing the spread of the disease a serious national security threat, the major right-wing think tanks are still downplaying its significance. Check out this quote from the conservative Media Research Center:

"Liberals like to attack [Reagan] on a range of smaller issues, like AIDS and homelessness and so-called budget cuts."
- Media Research Center, 6/14/04

None of these issues are "small," especially AIDS. The country has every right to criticize at the Reagan administration's malicious disregard for the disease. And make no mistake about it - it was not just harmless ignorance. Top Reagan officials regularly joked about the disease, even as it was killing thousands of Americans. See the transcripts of Reagan's top spokesman joking with reporters about AIDS.

Drug Card Companies Under Scrutiny

With Bush in Missouri today to tout the Medicare prescription drug discount cards, ABC News ran a piece on how 20 of the companies he approved to administer the program have been involved in fraud. See the full report that the ABC News piece was based on.

See a high-res/larger Windows Media File version of the ABC News piece, or a low-res/smaller Windows Media file.