Campaign Launched For Congress To Censure Bush

How could we make President Bush take responsibility on misleading us into war? Even before taking position in office, President Bush was planning for war with Iraq. That decision having been made, the president ran a campaign of misinformation, hype and hysteria that led America into an unnecessary war. Before the war, Bush was repeatedly told there was no definitive evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. He knew Iraq was not a nuclear threat. He knew there was no Iraq connection to 9/11. Iraq posed no imminent danger to the United States. There was no case for a pre-emptive war. Yet he relentlessly led us into a war that has cost hundreds of American lives and wasted tens of billions of dollars. Our Senators must act to censure President Bush.

Shigeru Sasaki

Mad Cow: The Killer Among Us

Your article does not mention that the Washington "mad cow" was not a downer, according to testimony of the owners and workers. Downer testing is not sufficient. We need to have what Japan does. Test every beef. Then do not feed them waste from pig and chicken processing, which is a perfect circle for putting BSE back into the cows.

Max Nigh

Biopirates Of The Antarctic

Josh Stevens and Sam Johnson are misusing the term, "biopiracy." The term should properly refer only to the illegal and immoral practice of claiming discovery of a material from sources already known to indigenous peoples as a traditional medicine or technology. These compounds properly belong to the people who have been using them, whose ancestors discovered and passed on that knowledge and use as a cultural legacy. Such people should be rightly compensated when the world at large uses these materials -- in other words, the patent holders should be the people whose ancestors discovered them.

But their opinions that commercial efforts to discover useful biological materials from the Antarctic should belong to the world as a whole goes against hundreds of years of tested and proven intellectual property policy. The modern system of patents allows an individual or firm to "invent or discover" a material, mechanism, or process. In return for making this public, a limited- time monopoly is granted. The time limit on the monopoly is only 20 years, just long enough to profit from the discovery. After that time everyone can freely use the discovery. To demand that biological materials discovered in the wild to be shared, to demand that no one may be granted any limited monopoly, is to invite either the retaining of the discovery as a trade secret forever or to destroy all private investment. The only ones who would go out to discover anything would be the public- funded scientist -- and we know how little investment is being made in that area today. To set aside this time- tested policy of patents for the Antarctic is just a bad idea. The authors are all wet -- cold and wet.

Candice H. Brown Elliott

Why is Bush Stonewalling 9/11 Probe?

"There are some who say that the Bush administration allowed the attacks to happen, knowing the political gain that would come from it. That President Bush allowed the attacks to happen can't be proven ..."

Balderdash!!! What standard of "proof" do you require? A time machine so we can all go back and monitor Bush 24 hours a day and see with our own eyes? Bush twice stated he saw the first collision of a plane into the WTC in real time. So, who had cameras trained on the WTC and why? There was the one firemen recording that came to light the next day. Why were airforce interceptors stood down? How did both WTCs (and WTC7) all manage to come straight down, after they were only weakened on one side where the planes actually hit? Why did the WTCs burn for 100 days? How could jet fuel have caused puddles of molten WTC steel? The list of questions continues on and on.

Exploiting events to scream, "We are under attack" has been a policy long established as effective to rally populations to their governments' waging wars. No people want war except in urgent self defense, so they must be tricked.

Put me on that jury and I'll find sufficient "proof" to convict everyone in BushCo of aggravated first degree murder.

Archie Ward Julien (Australia)

Per Bush seeing the first plane crash into the World Trade Center: At a town-hall meeting in Dec. 2001, Bush was asked to recall where he was at the time. "I was sitting outside the classroom, waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly myself, and I said, 'Well, there's one terrible pilot.'" The president told essentially the same story a month later at another town-hall meeting. But no TV was on at the elementary school he was visiting, and no footage of the first plane hitting the tower was broadcast until later that evening, according to the March 22, 2004 Wall St. Journal. After being told that a second plane had hit, Bush remained in the classroom for another 7 minutes, listening to children read aloud as the two remaining hijacked jets continued to fly.

-- Editor

Bush Cronies Hit $8 Billion Jackpot In Iraq, Afghanistan

Upon signing the $87 billion emergency supplemental bill to fund military and reconstruction costs in Iraq, President Bush released a statement announcing that the Inspector General in Iraq, "shall refrain from initiating, carrying out or completing an audit or investigation or from issuing a subpoena which requires access to sensitive operation plans" due to reasons of national security.

Congress created the Inspector General position in Iraq to help ease the public's concern about how reconstruction contracts are being awarded. By reducing the authority of the Inspector General to access necessary information, President Bush undermines the will of Congress.

We're talking about close to $20 billion in taxpayer funds being spent to rebuild Iraq. We need an Inspector General to ensure those funds aren't being wasted or going into the pockets of corrupt contractors.

Daria Nagrodzka

Let Them Eat Cake, Or Anything Else On The Dessert Cart

On Wednesday, March 25th, George W. Bush attended the annual Radio and Television Correspondents' dinner, where the well-paid, out-of-touch members of Washington society get together to tell themselves how wonderful they are. Mr. Bush used the occasion to joke about not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq with a slide show showing pictures of him searching the Oval Office.

It's bad enough that the event itself showcases how incestuous Washington DC has become; the cozy relationship between the media, the politicians, the lobbyists and the corporations they represent. But when a sitting President uses American soldiers as a photo-op and a shield against accountability, and almost in the same breath mocks the very reason they are risking their lives to begin with, is disgraceful. And to have the press, the people who are supposed to keep us informed about what our government and business leaders are doing, laugh along with the joke while those soldiers are still in danger, well, there are no words to express the outrage.

I am not a particularly religious man. I do not believe in supernatural retribution for sins on such a massive scale. But what is happening in Washington simply cannot be allowed to continue. There is a seething anger in this country, an anger almost no one in the Washington establishment is aware of or even cares about, being filled with their own ambitions and unconcerned as they are with the lot of the unwashed masses. It's an anger that's greater than the phony outrages generated by radio talk-show hosts. It's the kind of anger that, once unleashed, cannot be controlled, an anger that makes the kind of history that people will remember for thousands of years.

Joseph Vecchio

Storming Seattle

I just read the Seattle WTO online book by Paul de Armond. It is a great piece, and contributes greatly to available info on the subject. I was at the anti-WTO protest, but after reading the Armond story I can see much deeper into my own experience. I hope it continues to be hosted on your servers. Tell Mr. de Armond I have the highest regard for his writing.

Lance Miller

Bush "No Child Left Behind" Built On Fraud

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is based on the "Houston Miracle", the largest fraudulent manipulation of school data in U.S. history. As a Houston ISD counselor from 1993-2001 before being demoted for blowing the whistle on corrupt administrators, I was an eyewitness to the devasting effects of pre-NCLB fraud that enhanced Bush's chances to win the White House. Although informed Texans knew the "Houston Miracle" was really the "Houston Nightmare," the Texas Republican party made sure school fraud was under-reported and uninvestigated. Hundreds of my students were misplaced in special education and ESL classes to cover up and shield the principal from blame. Miseducated, they became high school dropouts. What educators know about NCLB fraud is that once a school district goes bad deciding to "cook the books" they no longer have to educate the kids.

Face it, cheaters know their NCLB school report cards will be favorable, no matter how mismanaged the school is. Taxpayers are paying for fake data. The lion's share of NCLB ends up in the pockets of the cheaters. Texas Republicans complain about school efficiency, but never mention school fraud. The big issue is why would a nation allow its schoolchildren to be exploited in a devious way for political gain. It scare me. All Americans should be concerned that a horrific crime was committed against schoolchildren and so many knew about it and enabled it.

Jon Dansby (Houston)

Santa's Little Sweatshop

At the end of the article about Nike and Michael Jordan endorsing the shoes, you said that a letter writing campaign is underway to ask Jordan for help with this problem. I was wondering if you are giving out any more information on how to participate in that letter writing campaign. Is there an address where I can write a letter? Or a website to go to to help?

Becky Weisberg

Michael Jordan was a spokesman for Nike when our 1996 feature on sweatshops appeared, but he is no longer an endorser for the brand. You can, however, write him via his official web site and ask why he refused to comment on the controversy. The Nike boycott campaign is still active.

-- Editor

Bush's Sordid 9/11 Scam

I just want to express my total agreement with this article. Keep hammering these points home. The corrupt and treasonous Bush administration needs to be exposed for what it is! Israel's role also needs to be exposed with regard to 9/11. Keep up the excellent work!

Terry Dumke

Bush Plays Pope on Gay Marriage

I believe we should learn from history. When Hitler came into power he did so slowly taking one right after another all in the pretext of helping his people. By the time he achieved full power, people were killed if they disagreed at all with him. In fear of prosecution the German people committed the worse crimes against humanity imaginable. We are a free nation, but our freedoms and rights are now slowly being taken away one by one. Don't let Bush dictate his beliefs on us. We have the right to determine for ourselves what marriage means to us and who should be included. Let us make our own descions and do so without fear or harassment.

Gloria Allen

Demand Your Right To Cheap Oil

Time to wake up and smell the coffee America, Like it or not the day-to-day health of our country is based on the price of oil at the pump. Until we can place some control on that price of oil, America no longer has the ability to control our own financial growth. We have the means and the technology right now to take this control and the only thing stopping us is our elected officials who fail to grasp the responsibility of what is required. We have the technology to build super heater solar boilers that can separate hydrogen from water to run generators for electric power as well our transportation as a substitute for oil. We have massive oil reserves in Alaska that could be used to flood the market with American oil and force down the cost of the crude to a standard of maybe $20 per barrel. All we get from Democrats as well the Republicans is finger pointing while we are drained to death paying utilities bills and outrageous prices at the pump. Nothing will change unless you sit down and start calling your representative and demand action or vote them out of office and replace them with someone who is willing to make the call required to move us to freedom. If you are not demanding action from your elected officials you deserve to pay that $2.00 per gallon at the pump and $300 a month power bill. Keep on blaming Bush all you want but in a couple of years you will be paying double the cost again what you are paying today and blaming yet another President for real change that can only come from the people demanding change.

Phillip Hurbace (Las Vegas)

Kissinger Encouraged Chile's Brutal Repression, New Documents Show

How is it possible that Kissinger won the Nobel Prize exactly in 1973? Was the U.S. government too strong or was the Nobel Prize committee too stupid? I do not know. Probably, when he received the Nobel Prize, in the evening he was encouraging the assassination of some dissident in Santiago.

Antonio Napoli (Italy)