Did You Know?

Did You Know...

Civil Liberties :   "For two-and-a-half years, the administration has held U.S. citizen Yaser Hamdi incommunicado on a naval brig in South Carolina, where he has been denied access to his lawyers, subjected to interrogation and completely cut off from the outside world. Just four months ago, the administration told the Supreme Court that the extraordinary conditions of Hamdi's confinement...were 'crucial to national security and the war on terror'" But after the Supreme Court ruled that 'a state of war is not a blank check for the president' and rejected the administration's position, the Justice Department is singing an entirely different tune. Rather than trying to charge Hamdi with a crime, 'administration lawyers told a judge Wednesday that they were negotiating arrangements to send him back to his family.'....The administration is trying to get Hamdi 'to agree not to sue the federal government over whether his civil rights were violated' as a condition of his release...The government is also considering requiring Hamdi, who is also a citizen of Saudi Arabia, to renounce his U.S. citizenship." (8/24/04, Center for American Progress)

Overtime Pay:   In effect as of 8/23/04, Bush's new overtime rules called "comp time and flex time" are changing previous overtime pay laws in adverse ways for people who work hourly jobs. "(T)he proposals would allow businesses to have their employees work more than 40 hours a week without getting paid overtime....'Comp time' would allow the employee to "choose" to substitute the extra pay for additional time off. It opens the door for employers to pressure workers to 'accept time off instead of overtime pay.' Even absent explicit pressure, employers would be free to 'channel overtime work to those who were willing to take comp time.'  Moreover, 'employees would have to take their earned time off when it suits their employer rather than when it suited the employee.'....Bush's other proposal - 'flex time', would allow employers to set work schedules on an 80-hour, two-week period. This is essentially a mechanism for employers to schedule overtime without providing any overtime compensation. Like comp time, it promotes irregular work weeks that may reduce workers' income or reduce leisure time." (8/6/04, Center for American Progress)

Environment: "Bush's Environmental Protection Agency has halted work on sixty-two environmental standards, the federal Department of Agriculture has stopped work on fifty-seven standards, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has halted twenty-one new standards. The EPA completed just two major rules -- both under court order and both watered down at industry request -- compared to twenty-three completed by the Clinton administration and fourteen by the Bush Sr. administration in their first two years." ("Crimes Against Nature" by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Rolling Stone, 12/11/03)

"Moving aggressively to compensate for Washington's unwillingness to tackle the threat of global warming, New York, seven other states and New York City filed suit last week against five of the country's largest power companies...The lawsuit is the first by local governments aimed at forcing companies outside their jurisdictions to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the gas believed to be largely responsible for the warming trend. The list of defendants reads like a who's who of the industry: the American Electric Power Company, the Southern Company, the Tennessee Valley Authority, Xcel Energy and the Cinergy Corporation. Together, they own or operate 174 power plants in 20 states that emit almost a quarter of the utility industry's carbon dioxide emissions and about 10 percent of the nation's total emissions." ("A Novel Tactic on Warming", 7/28/04, The New York Times )

"Over the course of 10 days in mid-April, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued three 'guidance' and one directive -- all legally binding interpretations of law -- that threaten to seriously dilute the meaning of the word 'organic' and discredit the department's National Organic Program. The changes -- which would allow the use of antibiotics on organic dairy cows, synthetic pesticides on organic farms, and more -- were made with zero input from the public or the National Organic Standards Board, the advisory group that worked for more than a decade to help craft the first federal organic standards, put in place in October 2002." ("Organic: Friend or Faux?" by Amanda Griscom, Grist Magazine . 5/24/04)

Lobbyists and National Policies:   "More than 1,300 registered lobbyists have given slightly more than $1.8 million to President George W. Bush over the last six years, according to a Center for Public Integrity study comparing the donations of all registered lobbyists from 1998 through March 2004. Sen. John Kerry received $520,000 from 442 lobbyists during the same period."   Read the full article that lists all corporation donations to both the candidates, go to www.publicintegrity.org/bop2004/report.aspx?aid=273   ("The Buying of the President 2004" by Alex Knott, 5/6/04, Center for Public Integrity)  

Voting and the Elections: " Gov. Jeb Bush has insisted that touch screen machines in Florida are reliable and has vehemently opposed efforts to have the devices print paper records so the results can be audited. But the Florida Republican party that he leads is sending a different message to its members. A flier by the party cautions Florida Republicans that 'the new electronic voting machines do not have a paper ballot to verify your vote in case of a recount.' The flier continues: ' Make sure your vote counts. Order your absentee ballot today .'" (7/29/04, Center for American Progress)

"In November, San Francisco will become the first U.S. city to adopt the [instant voter runoff] method since a short-lived experiment three decades ago in Michigan. Under the system, voters will rank their top three candidates in order of preference. If no one wins 50% of the votes when first choices are tallied, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated. The second choice of those voters is then added to the remaining candidates' tallies. The process...continues until a majority winner emerges....Backers say the system also gives voters greater choice - and influence - by encouraging participation of minor candidates. Rather than throw away votes on candidates who are certain to lose, they say, residents now can still be heard when their second choices are tallied." ("San Francisco Takes the Lead in New Voting Method" , by Lee Romney,   Los Angeles Times ,  8/8/04)   

"It's election night, and early returns suggest trouble for the incumbent. Then, mysteriously, the vote count stops and observers from the challenger's campaign see employees of a voting-machine company, one wearing a badge that identifies him as a county official, typing instructions at computers with access to the vote-tabulating software.  When the count resumes, the incumbent pulls ahead. The challenger demands an investigation. But there are no ballots to recount, and election officials allied with the incumbent refuse to release data that could shed light on whether there was tampering with the electronic records. This isn't a paranoid fantasy. It's a true account of a recent election in Riverside County, Calif., reported by Andrew Gumbel of the British newspaper The Independent. Mr. Gumbel's full-length report, printed in Los Angeles City Beat, makes hair-raising reading not just because it reinforces concerns about touch-screen voting, but also because it shows how easily officials can stonewall after a suspect election." ("Fear of Fraud" by Paul Krugman, The New York Times , 7/27/04)

Iraq: "According to a new report by a London-based think tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, 'Al-Qaeda remains a viable and effective 'network of networks' and has been galvanized by the war in Iraq.' According to conservative intelligence estimates quoted by the IISS, 'the group is present in more than 60 countries and has '18,000 potential terrorists at large'.' It turns out the war in Iraq 'focused the energies and resources of al-Qaeda and its followers, while diluting those of the global counter-terrorism coalition.'" (5/25/04, Center for American Progress)

Death Penalty: "[F]or the first time since the 1980s, Democrats will not be campaigning on a pro-death penalty program....Kerry was a cosponsor of the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2001 and of the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2003.   'I know something about killing,' Kerry says, referencing his service in Vietnam as a swift-boat commander. 'I don't like killing. That's just a personal belief I have.'....It is notable, however, that, in addition to Kerry's home state of Massachusetts, eleven other states bar executions. Among them are a number of the battleground states that could decide the November election, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Maine and West Virginia." ("Taking the Ultimate Penalty Off the Table", by John Nichols , The Nation , 7/28/04)

Torture:   "[T]he House quietly passed a renewed appropriation that keeps open the U.S.'s most infamous torture-teaching institution, known as the School of the Americas (SOA), where the illegal physical and psychological abuse of prisoners of the kind the world condemned at Abu Ghraib and worse has been routinely taught for years." ("Teaching Torture" by Doug Ireland, LA Weekly , 7/22/04)

Gun Control: "The AK-47, the M-16 and other so-called 'small arms' are responsible for the deaths of half a million people each year. About 300,000 people - mostly civilians - are killed in wars, coups d'etat and other armed conflicts each year by small arms. Another 200,000 people are killed each year in homicides, suicides, unintentional shootings and shootings by law enforcement officers using these weapons. In addition to those killed, an estimated 1.5 million people are wounded by small arms annually. If we take into account their cumulative impact, small arms are truly weapons of mass destruction. These lethal weapons are cheap, portable and easily concealed, making them ideal weapons for terrorists. They are hard to destroy and so simple to operate that even an eight-year old can carry and use them. In all, the global small arms stockpile is estimated at 639 million guns. Almost 60 percent of this arsenal is in the hands of civilians - over 377 million weapons. State-controlled military forces, police, insurgents and other militias own the remainder." ("Mass Destruction in Small Packages", by Frida Berrigan, World Policy Institute, 7/21/04)

On Tennessee: "Based on the new 2004 data from Congressional Quarterly, Morgan Quinto Press, and others, Tennessee is still at the bottom nationally in rankings across the board. The budget crisis has not gone away, it's just gone from the headlines. Meanwhile, Tennessee citizens continue so suffer and go without. [Tennessee is] 50th in home and community based care; 49th in total education spending per capita; 48th in public high school graduation rates; 47th in library holdings per capita; 42nd in high tech jobs; 42nd in environmental spending per capita; 45th in state spending for the arts; 46th in the "Most Livable State" index; 43rd in the "Condition of Children" index; 49th in state and local taxes per capita. Despite having the nation's highest average state and local sales tax, Tennessee cannot keep up. Until Tennessee adopts meaningful tax reform, including enactment of a broad-based state income tax, repeal of the food tax, and reduction of the sales tax, Tennessee will remain at the bottom." (taken from an email set out by Tennesseans for Fair Taxation on July 23, 2004, www.yourtax.org)

Public Safety: "On Saturday, the NYT highlighted a controversial regulation published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration forbidding the release of some data relating to unsafe motor vehicles. Following the lead of auto company lobbyists, the administration said 'publicizing the information would cause 'substantial competitive harm' to manufacturers,' even though it might help consumers choose safer cars. Chief spokesman Ray Tyson said he was sure the now-suppressed information, which includes 'warranty-claim information, industry reports on safety issues and consumer complaints,' would not be 'of much interest to the general public.' Last week, The New York Times documented how the administration is trying to rewrite coal regulations in favor of owners, rescinding 'more than a half-dozen proposals intended to make coal miners' jobs safer, including steps to limit miners' exposure to toxic chemicals.'" (8/24/04, Center for American Progress)

Bush and Saudis:"According to Knight Ridder, the Saudi royal family showered the Bush family and top Bush officials with '$127,600 in jewelry and other presents' in 2003. Though there remain serious questions about the Saudi government's financial ties to al Qaeda , the Bush family nonetheless accepted $95,500 worth of diamond-and-sapphire jewelry for first lady Laura Bush, two sets of diamond and white-gold jewelry and an $8,500 mantel clock 'elaborately detailed in silver and gold vermeil.' At the very same time U.S. law enforcement officials were expressing ' deep frustration ' with the Saudis' unwillingness to cooperate in the war on terror, White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice accepted two ornamental daggers; Secretary of State Colin Powell accepted an ornamental sword; and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accepted a small golden statue." (8/5/04, Center for American Progress)

Submitted by Robin Hille