INDEX - DOMESTIC POLITICS

www.islandbreath.org

---

SUBJECT: RNC FEELING THE HEAT

SOURCE: JUAN WILSON juanwilson@mac.com

POSTED: 9 March 2004 - 7:30am

Bush Squirms over MoveOn.org Ads

GWB caricature by French cartoonist Loisif For those that are subscribers, www.Salon.com has a good political columns on the 2004 election called the War Room. I grabbed a piece that refers to the Republican National Committee efforts to intimidate braodcasters from airing ani-Bush ads from MoveOn.org TV spots. Remember that ad contest we covered back in January that was sponsored by MoveOn.org? Well it's bearing fruit and frightening the RNC enough to try to stop the ads with crude threats.   RNC Misleading Local Stations From Salon.com by Geraldine Sealey 8 March 2004 MoveOn.org's anti-Bush ads, which began last Thursday, were timed to counteract the president's own $4.5 million ad blitz that began late last week. MoveOn.org initially spent $1.9 million on the ad buy, and planned to spend another $1 million. But the Republican National Committee is apparently doing what it can to make sure only one side is heard. CNN reported on Sunday that "the Republican National Committee is warning television stations across the country not to run ads from the MoveOn.org Voter Fund that criticize President Bush, charging that the left-leaning political group is paying for them with money raised in violation of the new campaign-finance law. 'As a broadcaster licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, you have a responsibility to the viewing public, and to your licensing agency, to refrain from complicity in any illegal activity,' said the RNC's chief counsel, Jill Holtzman Vogel, in a letter sent to about 250 stations Friday. 'Now that you have been apprised of the law, to prevent further violations of federal law, we urge you to remove these advertisements from your station's broadcast rotation.'" In response, MoveOn.org's lawyer, Joseph Sandler, said in a statement that the ads were funded legally, calling the RNC's letter "a complete misrepresentation of the law." "The federal campaign laws have permitted precisely this use of money for advertising for the past 25 years," he said. Here's the RNC statement on MoveOn.org's "recent activities," which along with indicting MoveOn's ad campaign as illicit, also casts suspicion on the group's involvement with a 9/11 family organization that opposes the Bush ads. Likeminded groups working together is not, as the RNC statement admits, illegal.

---

SUBJECT: YIKES! GEORGE W. BUSH

SOURCE: CHRIS RAMMACHER warrenpeace@alltel.net

His Gift To Us

3 March 2004 - 11:30am


G.W. Bush Jr. caricature © Jon Berkele

His Gift To Us an anecdote by Bill Hangley Jr. from 2001 (Bill Hangley is a Philadelphia writer who writes for Philly Tonite, the Weekly Press, City Paper, and others) So when the President was here on July 4, I had the opportunity to shake his hand. I wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not but I did it anyway, and said to him, "Mr President, I hope you only serve four years. I'm very disappointed in your work so far." He kept smiling and shaking my hand but answered, "Who cares what you think?" His face stayed photo-op perfect but his eyes gave me a look that said, if we'd been drinking in some frathouse inTexas, he'd've happily answered, "let's take it outside." A nasty little gleam. But he was (fortunately) constrained by Presidential propriety. But that was the end of it, until I turned away and started scribbling the quote down in my notepad, so as to remember The Gift forever. When he saw me do that he got excited and craned his neck over the rubberneckers to shout at me, "Who are you with? Who are you with?" People started looking so he made a joke: "Make sure you get it right." But he kept at it: "Who do you write for?" I told him I wasn't "with" anybody and pointed to one of his staff people, who knows me a little, and said, "Ask him, he'll tell you." Then I split. Half an hour later, my boss (who had helped organize the event we were at) came up to me and said, "Did you really tell the President that he was doing a 'lousy fucking job'?" No way, I said, I was very polite, I just told him what I thought. Fortunately, he believed me. He wasn't happy with me, but he believed me. But anyway, if you ever wondered if the Prez really was kind of a jerk, I'm here to tell you, he is, and I got The Gift to prove it. I'm thinking of making up t-shirts so we can share The Gift with everyone: "Who cares what you think?" - President George W. Bush   President Bush is going on the air with his first campaign ads of the season. I've joined MoveOn PAC's campaign to fight back -- a massive grassroots-driven effort to take back our country in November. I'm hoping you will, too -- you can sign up right now at: http://www.moveon.org/pac/pledge/ President Bush has already raised hundreds of millions for his bid. Our great hope is in our collective power to get out the vote. We'll work via the Internet, the telephone, and face-to-face conversations with voters. And we'll take back our democracy, city by city, block by block, and voter by voter. Are you in? Please join me and thousands of others in pledging to help defeat Bush this fall.

Alfred Dubya Bush: A case where two heads are not better than one.

RESUME OF GEORGE W. BUSH LAW ENFORCEMENT: I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been "lost" and is not available. MILITARY: I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use.  By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam. COLLEGE: I graduated from Yale University. I earned a lot of "gentleman's C's," which means F's that are turned into C's for sons of prominent Americans. PAST WORK EXPERIENCE: I ran for U.S. Congress and lost. I began my career in the oil business in Midland, Texas in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock. I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. With the help of my father and our right-wing friends in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Kenneth Lay), I was elected Governor of Texas. ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR: I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union. During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America. I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money. I set the record for the most executions by any Governor in American history. With the help of my brother, the Governor of Florida, and my father's appointments to the Supreme court, I became President after losing by over 500,000 votes. ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT: I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week. I am the first president in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record. I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.| I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history. I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period. I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market. I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one year period. In my first year in office, after taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history, resulting in the disaster of 9-11. I am supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a WMD. In my State Of The Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq, then blamed the lies on our British friends. I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. president. In my first year in office more than 2-million Americans lost their jobs, and that trend continues every month. I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period. I appointed more convicted criminals to my administration than any president in U.S. history. I set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television. I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history, and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed. I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history. I have cut health care benefits for war veterans, and I support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families in war time. Internationally, I have set the all-time record for the most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind. I have broken more international treaties than any president in U.S history. I am proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her. I am the first president in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the world community. I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States government. I am the first president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission. I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law. I refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. prisoners of war detainees, and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention. I am the first president in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors. (during the 2000 U.S. presidential election). I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations. My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. history, causing hundreds of thousands of Americans to lose their retirement funds. My political party used the Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision. I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation, or prosecution. In the meantime, more time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history. I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history. I am first president in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security. I changed U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts. RECORDS AND REFERENCES: All records of my tenure as Governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed, and unavailable for public view. All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view. All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review. Please consider my experience when voting in 2004. Send this to every voter you know.

www.islandbreath.org

Pau