What the hell is up with the cast from The Sopranos?

It is interesting how life sometimes mirrors fiction. I was looking at the news this week and read about Lilloo Brancato Jr.’s murder acquittal and was thinking about the fact that this is not the first time I have seen someone in the news from The Sopranos lately. Here is a quick rundown of what has been going on since the show began a few years ago:

In 2008 John Costelloe was found dead, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Lilloo Brancato Jr. was acquitted of the murder of a police officer, but found guilty of the lesser charge of attempted burglary for a botched robbery involving drugs 3 years ago. . (One might also note that he was arrested a few years ago for heroin possession.) Also Joe Pantoliano spoke out about depression while promoting an organization he founded two years ago to address the stigma attached to mental illness. His group is called: “No Kidding, Me Too!”.

This was all preceeded by the arrest of John Ventimiglia on charges of DUI and cocaine possession in 2006 and the arrest of Louis Gross same year for assaulting a Manhattan merchant.

In 2005 Vincent Pastore plead guilty to assaulting his girlfriend. Not to be outdone, Louis Gross found himself in trouble with the law for breaking and entering.

In 2002, Robert Iler, who plays Tony Soprano’s son plead guilty to robbing tourists.

Possibly most interesting, Tony Sirico, who played Paulie Gualtieri has been reported to have been an associate of the Colombo crime family prior to working as an actor. While that is not a proven fact, it is well known that he has a record including 28 arrests and served 13 months in prison for felony weapons possession.

So I have to ask myself once more: “What the hell is up with the cast of the Sopranos”.
Read more!

Turks apologize for Armenian massacres

You might wonder why I would be bringing this up in a forum for people in Buenos Aires. Although the United Nations acknowledge the genocide of the Armenians in 1973, calling it "The first genocide of the 20th century" and U.S. Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan acknowledged it, in 1985 Argentina became the first country to acknowledge the genocide of the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1917. Additionally, as of 2007 there are about 130,000 Armenians living in Argentina making it the 8th largest group outside of Armenia.

Here is an article I read this evening:

Turks apologize for Armenian massacres
Prominent intellectuals show regret online for World War I-era atrocities

ANKARA, Turkey - A group of about 200 Turkish intellectuals on Monday issued an apology on the Internet for the World War I-era massacres of Armenians in Turkey.

The group of prominent academics, journalists, writers and artists avoided using the contentious term "genocide" in the apology, using the less explosive "Great Catastrophe" instead.

"My conscience does not accept that (we) remain insensitive toward and deny the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected in 1915," read the apology. "I reject this injustice, share in the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers, and apologize to them."

The apology is a sign that many in Turkey are ready to break a long-held taboo against acknowledging Turkish culpability for the deaths.

Historians estimate that, in the last days of the Ottoman Empire, up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks in what is widely regarded as the first genocide of the 20th century. Armenians have long pushed for the deaths to be recognized as genocide.

While Turkey does not deny that many died in that era, the country has rejected the term genocide, saying the death toll is inflated and the deaths resulted from civil unrest during the Ottoman Empire's collapse.

Online apology
Nearly 2,500 members of the public also signed the online apology, giving their support to the intellectuals.

Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted after he commented on the mass killings in 2005. Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian journalist was shot outside his Istanbul office in 2007, following his prosecution for comments he made about the killings of Armenians.

Turkish nationalists have criticized the online apology and on Monday a group of some 60 retired Turkish diplomats described the move "as unfair, wrong and unfavorable to national interests."

"Such an incorrect and one-sided attempt would mean disrespecting our history," the diplomats said.

Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Action Party said: "No one has the right to insult our ancestors, to present them as criminals and to ask for an apology."

By late Monday, there were no public threats of legal action over the petition.

"Many in Turkey today, in good faith, believe that nothing happened to the Armenians. For many years, the official line has been that this was a secondary event that occurred in the conditions of World War I. But the truth is not so," Cengiz Aktar, a professor at Istanbul's Bahcesehir University and one of the petition's organizers told Vatan newspaper in an interview.

Voice from the conscience
"It is a voice from the conscience. Those who want to apologize can, those who don't want to don't have to," he said.

Gila Benmayor, a journalist and columnist for Turkey's mass-circulation Hurriyet newspaper said she signed the petition because she believes "the time has come for change."

"Some things need to spoken, need to be discussed and expressed in an open way," she told The Associated Press.

She said she did not hesitate to sign the petition because the wording was not controversial.

"The words were carefully chosen so as not to upset any side," she said. "We are not betraying anyone. We are merely telling the Armenians that we share their grief."

The apology comes at a time when Turkey and Armenia have taken steps toward repairing ties. The two neighbors have no diplomatic relations and their shared border has been closed since 1993, when Turkey protested Armenia's occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey backs Azerbaijan's claims to the disputed region, which has a high number of ethnic Armenian residents but is located within Azerbaijan's borders.

In September, however, President Abdullah Gul became the first Turkish leader to visit Armenia, where he and Armenian President Serge Sarkisian watched their countries' football teams play a World Cup qualifying match. Read more!

Argentine Strikes Destroying Tourism?

Well it seems that a blend of the world's economic times, routine Kirchner government incompetence and public revolt are now destroying the stability of the tourism industry here.

Strikes in particular are expected to create many issues with tourists. On Thursday the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires advised tourists to take the massive demonstrations here into account when making travel plans.
As many of you know, yesterday the subway workers were on strike for higher wages. Gas station owners and over 100,000 bank employees are expected to go on strike next week. Taxi drivers have announced that they are going to strike on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

With the seizure of the nation's pension fund, inflation sitting just about at 30% and annual growth of only about 1.5% (as contrasted to the 8% the last several years) and an estimate by UBA economist Jarvier Kulesz that the economy will only grow by about 0.3% next year, I would imagine that this is merely the beginning.

Hang on, it should prove to be an interesting ride. In the mean time I hear the beaches in Uruguay are great this time of year, and guess what.... no Kirchners, no D'Elia and no strikes......... Read more!

John McCain's Palin: A Collage of Perspectives

The Republican Perspective

Colin Powell, President Bush’s former Secretary of State, said that her unreadiness to be president was a significant factor in his endorsement of the Democrat last week. Ken Adelman, a Republican hawk and former close friend of Dick Cheney who has become disillusioned with the Bush Administration, is backing Mr Obama. He said that the choice of Mrs Palin had made him switch sides.

The Ethical Perspective Part 1

The Governor of Alaska spoke hours before giving a sworn deposition in the Troopergate inquiry in a hotel in St Louis, Missouri, as a second investigation opened into whether she abused her office by trying to have a state policeman fired to settle a personal score. A first report issued earlier this month concluded that she violated ethics laws in attempts to get her former brother-in-law sacked.

The Voter Perspective

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll on Wednesday asked voters what concerns them about the Republican ticket, and Mrs Palin was the No 1 worry for them; 47 per cent had a negative impression of her, while only 38 per cent saw her in a positive light. Her inexperience and faltering responses to foreign policy questions has also helped to erase the “Palin bounce” that boosted the ticket in the fortnight after she was chosen: 55 per cent now think that she is unqualified to be president, a troublesome number given Mr McCain’s age.


The Ethical Perspective Part 2

Meanwhile a Republican election worker who claimed that a black man had carved a “B” into her cheek after seeing a McCain bumper sticker on her car has confessed that she invented the story. Mrs Palin telephoned Ashley Todd, 20, a white college student from Texas, expressing her concern. Last night Pittsburgh police arrested and charged the woman with making a false report.

The Venezuelan Perspective

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said US vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is a confused "beauty queen". "I saw the vice presidential candidate, there she was talking about 'the dictator Hugo Chavez.' The poor thing, you just feel sorry for her," he said during a televised broadcast. "She's a beauty queen that they've pulled out to be a figurehead. We need to say as Christ did: Forgive her, she knows not what she's saying," he said.

The Ethical Perspective Part 3

New reports of Palin's misspending government funds for personal financial benefit emerged from an Associated Press investigation this week. Palin charged taxpayers over $20,000 to pay for her daughters to travel with her to events to which they were not invited, including 64 one-way and 12 round-trip tickets, as well as the girls' own expensive hotel rooms. In all, previous reports have estimated Palin charged taxpayers more than $43,000 in travel expenses for family members.
If that weren't enough, it seems Palin lied on official reimbursement forms, saying the girls were invited when, according to organizers of the events, they were not. But it doesn't stop there. Apparently, after she was tapped as Sen. John McCain's running mate, Palin went back and amended the expense reports with language to make the travel sound like official business, as is necessary for reimbursement under Alaska state law.

The United States as a Union Perspective

The Alaska Independence Party calls itself the third largest organization in the United States. Its platform calls for the defense of "states rights," to "seek the complete repatriation of the public lands, held by the federal government, to the state and people of Alaska in conformance with Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17, of the federal constitution." Basically, the AIP wants a vote on secession. The AIP says that Gov. Sarah Palin used to be a member of the party. Earlier this year, Palin recorded a welcoming address to the AIP's convention. At the AIP's meeting, the AIP's vice chairman, Dexter Carter, extols Gov. Palin's virtues. He went on to recall Palin's service as a member of the party.

The Ethical Perspective Part 4

Gov. Sarah Palin is campaigning as a budget watchdog eager to shave frivolous government spending. That image took a hit Tuesday when The Washington Post reported the governor charges the state for travel expenses while living at her Wasilla home, and the Palin camp defended her conservative credentials. The newspaper reported that Palin billed the state for meal money while spending more than 300 nights at her Valley home during her first 19 months in office. The money is supposed to be used for when an official travels on state business, not for a commute from an Anchorage office to a home in Wasilla.

The Cosmetic/Hairstylist/Garment Industry Perspective

After Sarah Palin came under scrutiny for her wardrobe expenses, new details have emerged, which show that US Republican presidential candidate John McCain's campaign paid 3 makeup artists a total of $52,000 over 6 weeks.

It also emerged that the highest-paid McCain staff member for the first two weeks of this month was Mrs Palin’s make-up artist. Amy Strozzi, who once did make-up work on the television show So You Think You Can Dance?, received $22,800 for that fortnight, more than the candidate’s chief foreign policy adviser.

Palin's traveling hair stylist Angela Lew, the fourth highest paid individual during that time, was paid $10,000 over two weeks in October for what the campaign called "communications consulting."

Palin has come under scrutiny this week when it was disclosed the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 on her wardrobe at high-end department stores like Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. Palin argued the clothes were bought for the Republican National Convention. Read more!

Karma bites O.J. Simpson in the Ass

Instant karmas gonna get you
Gonna look you right in the face
Better get yourself together darlin
Join the human race
How in the world you gonna see
Laughin at fools like me
Who in the hell do you think you are
A super star
Well, right you are

John Lennon, "Instant Karma"

Karma is one of the Eastern World's mystic concepts that is most known in the Western World. Karma is defined by Wikipedia as the concept of "action" or "deed" in Indian religions understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect (i.e., the cycle called samsāra) originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist philosophies. Sir Issac Newton demonstrated the concept through his Third Law of Motion which states "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction". It has been encorporated into American idiom through the saying "What goes around comes around". Saint Paul spoke of it to the Galatians: "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap". Boy George sang of it in "Karma Chameleon", David Bowie in "Karma Man", Alicia Keys in "Karma".

If anyone looked at the AP Newswire Service from October 4, 2008 they would find a fine example of "Karma in Action" through the following:

Thirteen years to the day after being acquitted of killing his wife and her friend in Los Angeles, O.J. Simpson was found guilty of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room.

The 61-year-old former football star was convicted of all 12 counts late Friday after jurors deliberated for more than 13 hours. He released a heavy sigh as the charges were read and was immediately taken into custody.

Simpson, who went from American sports idol to celebrity-in-exile after his murder acquittal, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Read more!

Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2008

Moscow is the world’s most expensive city for expatriates for the third consecutive year, according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer. Tokyo is in second position climbing two places since last year, whereas London drops one place to rank third. Oslo climbs six places to 4th place and is followed by Seoul in 5th. Asunción in Paraguay is the least expensive city in the ranking for the sixth year running. Dublin remains the world's 16th most expensive city and Europe's 8th most expensive.

Mercer’s survey covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. It is the world’s most comprehensive cost of living survey and is used to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.

Buenos Aires ranked as the 138th cheapest city for expats in the world (with only 5 cities coming in as cheaper than here).

source
source Read more!

Argentina's Uncertain Economic Future

El Presidenta is going to have several problems to deal with moving forwards. Obviously a lack on industrialization in this country is going to continue to plague the country but unfortunately the problems confronting Argentina are far more serious than that.

The government is spending up its foreign reserves at an alarming rate to keep the peso artificially low. They are having a bit of a reprieve currently since the dollar is weak, but they are still spending a fortune to keep it as high as it is here. Looking at this in the long term, internationally the dollar has depreciated by more than 40% since 2001. Here in Argentina an increase of 300% was realized.

La Nacion recently talked about the lack of investor confidence and the necessity to continue this pattern of purchasing dollars to devaluate the peso: "The loss of confidence has been enormous; the loss of banking deposits and the increased purchases of dollars shows the authorities’ limitations, and in any case the odds increase of Argentina selling reserves to make the dollar go down because they cannot do anything else”, according to another businessman.

Then you have to consider Argentina’s decision to limit its food commodity exports on items such as meat, wheat, corn and the like. The intended result was the containment of internal inflation, yet Argentina now has an inflationary problem far worse than they had two years ago. This situation in turn has been exacerbated by the fact that they no longer have the export revenues they once did due to this policy.

Investments have all but dried up in the country and recently it was given the investment grade of a country “not to be trusted”. According to La Nación: “The uncertainty with respect to the evolution of this situation in Argentine has affected businessmen at the highest levels. `Curiously, nobody in the highest levels of government seems to know what will happen in next the 12 hours', says an executive that used to have good rapport with the administration of the Kirchners”.

And to top all of that off, the country actively engages in publishing false statistics regarding the state of the economy and inflation in particular. This in turn has deteriorated investor confidence to the point that virtually no one wants to invest any money here.

So what does the government intend to do? The Economist noted that rather than moving to correct the problems, the Kirchners have simply “whitewashed the effects of inflation” by canceling the publication of official poverty statistics. The Economist’s Intelligence Unit has also observed that Cristina has continued her husband’s “commitment to a weak currency policy... and to heterodox measures such as price caps, cross-subsidies and export taxes”. On June 10th Argentina updated the method by which it determines its Consumer Price Index. According to this new system every time a product’s price rises too sharply, it will simply be removed from the index on the theory that consumers will switch to other goods after being deterred by the new cost.

Energy is going to be one of the largest issues plaguing Argentine stability. Nestor put a freeze on prices about six years ago in an attempt to level inflation in other areas he could not control. This prize freeze has had two long term effects:

• The industry has pretty much halted research & development and the expansion of facilities and services;
• Investment, particularly foreign, has dried up in that sector.

Next we have issues regarding the petroleum industry. The penguins have been actively controlling internal prices. Why? Again, they are trying to artificially manipulate inflation in the country by putting price caps on items they can control hoping that once the overall cost of living is averaged out inflation will remain at a manageable level. Of course this is not working out as well as hoped.

At the heart of this matter is the fact that the price for a barrel of oil is around U$S40 dollars internally while imported oil is going for nearly U$S 140. The only solution to this situation seems to be either raising the internal price of oil to match that of international rates or to raise taxes so that the government can subsidize the oil industry.

La Nación recently noted: “In Buenos Aires Province the situation has been repeated in several locations. In Bolívar, a town of 30,000 inhabitants 300 kilometers from Capital Federal, there are 12 service stations that have not sold any gasoline or diesel since last Sunday. In La Plata, as much as 90% of the service stations were out of fuel as of yesterday. Meanwhile, Mar del Plata is also experiencing fuel shortages. In San Juan the fuel shortage worsened with gas rising to about 30 pesos. Recently in San Salvador, a municipality of Jujuy, a state of emergency was declared regarding transportation services due to a lack of diesel. In Mendoza diesel is selling at the price of 30 to 50 pesos, and Tucuman is experiencing long lines in stations in the capital to purchase fuel, fuel that many stations no longer have. In many of the interior zones such as Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero and Chaco more than 50 percent of the stations are shut down”.

The interesting thing is that at a time of international food shortages and increasing prices, Argentina is potentially in the best economic situation it has found itself in for decades. Yet the political climate here is such that it is very probable that Argentina could find itself continuing its cycle of “boom or bust”.

I certainly hope not. Read more!

Cocktail Party July 30th

Good Morning Buenos Aires is proud to announce it is hosting a cocktail party to show its appreciation to the International Community of Buenos Aires.

This is no cover charge for this event. Good Morning Buenos Aires does not profit in any way. No kick-backs, no inflated prices, no fuss, no muss, no wrinkles...

There will be drink and food specials until closing time and several items will be raffled for free.

Several organizations and companies are co-hosting this event to include: the BA Insider Magazine, Buenos Aires International Newcomers Downtown Group, CULTOUR turismo con identidad, Democrats Abroad Argentina, EleBaires Spanish Experience Program, Freak Restaurant and Cocktails, InterNations. org, Sugar & Spice, Wynn Woods Solutions, yanquimike. com. ar and more to be announced later....

For more information click here, or go to Good Morning Buenos Aires


- 2 for 1 drink specials all night
- 20% discount on all food items

- BA Insider Magazines
- Democrats Abroad Argentina membership drive
- InterNations.org membership drive

- A special Sugar & Spice raffle
- CulTour Cultural Tour raffle
- Raffle for dinner at Freak Resto*
- Raffling 10 free drinks at Freak*

more to be announced later

DATE: Wednesday, July 30th
TIME: 9 p.m. until closing
PLACE: Freak Restaurant
Fitz Roy 171, Palermo
@Honduras & El Salvador

I hope to see you all there.

regards,

samuel

*to be used on your next visit Read more!

A "Country in Crisis" or a bunch of "Twits on the Loose"?

I think that the current farm crisis is a complex issue and one that has politics at its origins and not economics. So, I think to truly understand this conflict one has to look beyond the mere numbers.

However, if one does want to look at the numbers and the economics there are two clearly valid arguments. And I am not particularly taking a side in this matter either way. I see weaknesses not only regarding the positions of each side, but also in their methodology.

Going back a few years, Menem's government slashed farm taxes. In 2002 Nestor reinstated them starting them at 10%, and then quickly raised them to 24%, then 35% and now they sit at about 44%. So, certainly one can understand the frustration of the farmers.

The initial reason the government gave for the imposition of the new taxes was to avoid the "soyization" of the economy, meaning they were hoping that by increasing the level of taxes on soy, this would in turn compel farmers to turn to increased production of other commodities such as wheat, corn, dairy and meat. Now, the problem with this thinking has to do with timing. With Argentina as the number one supplier in the world of soy meal and soy oil, and number three in soybeans behind the United States and Brazil AND with international prices for soy on the rise, the question has to be asked: is this really the time to seek to limit soy production?

A couple of weeks ago, the government then changed its story and said the taxes were created to more fairly "redistribute the wealth" in the nation through Cristina's announcement a week ago last Monday of her "Plan for Social Redistribution". In an obvious ploy to manipulate public sentiment she announced the new taxes would be used to fund 30 new hospitals, erect public housing and make roadway improvements.

Now this raises several questions and Alfredo de Angeli, president of the Agrarian Federation in the Province of Entre Rios (and recent detainee) put it best when he raised the question: why was the government so determined to change things on March 11th through increasing the farm tax so dramatically if things were going as well as the government maintains. “Low unemployment, a multi-year cycle of economic growth, commercial and fiscal surpluses” seems to be the mantra of this administration.

The simple truth is that in this scenario, the only possible answer could be that this new "redistribution of the wealth" program is nothing more than an apparent need to have access to more funding to maintain political stability. The government itself has admitted that its claimed fears of "soyization" were not true. Will it step up and admit that this new "Plan for Social Redistribution" is a joke as well?

Okay, so let's take a look at the other side of the fence. And luckily this one is much easier to explain (or at least I am going to do so more briefly).

The government has been artificially setting the rate of exchange of the peso low (deliberately devaluing it) to increase the desirability of purchasing Argentine commodities on the international market. I believe it was January of this year that the government purchased a billion US dollars to achieve that goal. I know last year they were purchasing dollars by the hundreds of millions to achieve this aim. Speaking metaphorically, dinner has been served and the bill has arrived. As the farmers have been eating at this table of plenty, the government (and with good cause) wants them to chip in on the tab. After all it is they, who have been benefiting the most from the demand for Argentine commodities stimulated by a deliberately weakened peso. Can they really cry foul in the face of high demand for their products, created by government spending to devalue the currency? If the farmers are not going to ante up, who then is expected to refill the coffers of Argentina’s foreign reserves?

Second point: Argentina is an agricultural based economy. There really isn't much other industry developed in the country at the present moment. Sure it seems unfair that historically the farmers have had to fund infrastructure. However, if they don't - who else is there that can pay that bill? There is a lack of any other viable sector in the economy that the government can turn to in regards to such costs. That is unless, GASP PANT PANT PANT, one wants to ask presidents and former presidents to open their foreign bank accounts. LOL

So is there a point to all of this? Probably not. LOL But if there is it is this: as with most arguments, debates, standoffs and crises there are at least two sides to consider. And more often than not, both merit serious consideration. That is why in the end "COMPROMISE" is the key to "saving the day". Hopefully “the forces that be” will come together and get something worked out... In the meantime I am grateful that they produce a lot of malbec wine here.
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Argentina's Farm Crisis: I say “Basta”, meaning “Enough”

Mahatma Gandhi once noted that “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. In the United States we say “two wrongs do not make a right”. The grueling, 3-month-long fight between President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Argentina’s powerful farmers is a prime example of what happens when these principles are ignored.

And the most interesting thing is that Argentina is undergoing its best economic situation in decades, yet because of this stalemate the mood in the streets is one of gloom and doom. "This is the most gratuitous crisis in Argentine history," political analyst Rosendo Fraga noted. "We've never seen a crisis during such favorable world conditions. ... What the president needs to do is resolve this dispute with the farmers today and immediately start rebuilding her support."

So what has the recent stalemate between the government and the farmers created so far?

Well there are over 200 routes cut off in the country, no commercialization of grain, food and fuel shortages, increasing inflation, a rise in interest rates, the Central Bank’s foreign reserves have depleted more than U$S 1.5 billion the last few weeks.

Consumer confidence has decreased by 24% over that of last year. Domestic consumption has lowered by 20%. Real wages are now stagnant at best, and poverty and income inequality are on the rise. A recent poll, take last month by the University of Belgrano found that 69 percent of people in the capital, Buenos Aires, thought another crash was "very probable". Public services costs are on the rise; the national debt is a larger percentage of the country’s GDP than that of 2001, the year of Argentina’s last sovereign default.

This situation has, in turn, led to financial, economic and political uncertainty.

So what does the government intend to do? The Economist noted that rather than moving to correct the problems, the Kirchners have simply “whitewashed the effects of inflation” by cancelling the publication of official poverty statistics. The Economist’s Intelligence Unit has also observed that Cristina has continued her husband’s “commitment to a weak currency policy... and to heterodox measures such as price caps, cross-subsidies and export taxes”. On June 10th Argentina updated the method by which it determines its Consumer Price Index. According to this new system every time a product’s price rises too sharply, it will simply be removed from the index on the theory that consumers will switch to other goods after being deterred by the new cost. Yesterday, after months of blocked highways and food shipments coupled with peaceful demonstrations the Kirchner government responded with police brutality and arrests.

So what is going to happen? Your guess is probably as good as my own. One thing remains certain in Argentina: anything is possible. I personally say: “basta”, meaning “enough”. Instead of continuing its policies of handing out wasteful welfare state handouts and redistributing the wealth, Argentina should look to a combination of real and meaningful economic reform, better monetary policy and limiting the role of government. Until that day, Argentina’s former days of glory will remain ever out of reach.

But that is just my opinion. What do you think?
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Thoughts on crime in the USA

We talk a lot about violent crime here in Buenos Aires; and I think rightly so. Problems with the economy are increasing everyday and so are crime statistics. I was thinking about crime back at home (the USA) after reading a post on a forum here about McDonalds in shady areas. And I wanted to share some of my thoughts about life for me back at home.

Bob Dylan wrote a song on his first album entitled "Talkin' New York" in which he wrote the following line as an observation of the crime there:

A lot of people don't have much food on their table,
But they got a lot of forks n' knives, and they gotta cut somethin'.

I traveled for nearly ten years as project manager for Autozone, a "do-it-yourself" autoparts store. And guess where we put them all: in the worst part of the city. I have worked in South Central L.A., Harlem, Watts, on 8-mile in Detroit, etc.

In parts of Los Angeles you cannot go inside any of the fast food restaurants, convenience stores or service stations. They have armed guards on the premises and they hand you your food, etc. using either a bullet-proof glass turnstyle or something like a bank drawer.

In inner-city Chicago, you can go inside most restaurants and fast food places but they have bullet proof glass seperating the employees from the customers and a similar turnstyle.

In inner-city Detroit the McDonalds have razor wire around them and armed guards on the premise that time your visit there to about ten minutes and then throw you out.

There are other parts of the country that are similar, but these three cities seem the worst from my experience.

I have an interesting footnote to the above. I mentioned working for Autozone as a project manager. Like many companies, Autozone has a color scheme for their employees' uniforms. I worked out of the corporate office and wore white shirts to denote management, blue shirts for new store development, and black shirts for acquisitions and remodels.

In the regular Autozone stores the management also wore white and the hourly employees wore red shirts with black trim.

Well, in South Central L.A., as many of you know, there are major issues with street gangs and they also had colors: blue or black (or a combination of the two) for crips, red for bloods, etc.

So Autozone had to create an alternative scheme for their hourly store employees and they ended up with the same uniforms but in orange. And as a matter of corporate policy, I never wore my blue or black shirts. And believe it or not, they adopted this policy not as an overreaction to fear but as the direct result of so many employees being shot or killed while on the way to work.

I do not know if there is a point to this story, however it is something to consider when contrasting life in the States to life down here.

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." Mahatma Gandhi Read more!

100 Year Occupation in Iraq? 1,000 Years, 10,000 Years?!?

Get this one. The Democratic Party and Moveon.org are running ads criticizing John McCain for saying that he supports a 100 year occupation in Iraq.

"At issue is McCain's answer, in January, to a question about Bush's theory that troops could be in Iraq for 50 years.

McCain said: 'Maybe 100. As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, that'd be fine with me, and I hope it would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaida is training, recruiting, equipping and motivating people every single day.'"

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24434071/

Read more!

Veterans - The Falklands - 21 April 08

One prominent Argentinian writer described the Falklands conflict as "two bald men fighting over a comb". But the war was anything but pointless to the men who fought in it and Al Jazeera met Argentinian veterans for whom the "Malvinas" as they are known, are still an obsession.

To see Part 2 click on the read more link below Part 1.

Veterans - The Falklands - 21 April 08 - Part 1




Veterans - The Falklands - 21 April 08 - Part 2

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American Task Force for Argentina (ATFA): Co-Chair Robert Shapiro Talks

Here are three great videos put out by the Argentine Task Force for Argentina that deals with a lot of the issues surrounding the Paris Group sovereign default by Argentina.

American Task Force for Argentina (ATFA) is an alliance of organizations united for a just and fair reconciliation of the Argentine government's sovereign debt default and restructuring. ATFA Co-Chair Robert Shapiro addresses the First German Bondholders' Society (IGA) in Frankfurt on April 24, 2007.

While you might note this press conference was nearly a year ago, there has been no progress in resolving the issues surrounding Argentina's sovereign default.

Click on the "read more" below to see parts 2 and 3.

Read more!

American Task Force for Argentina Video: The Impact of Argentine Debt

American Task Force for Argentina (ATFA) is an alliance of organizations united for a just and fair reconciliation of the Argentine government's sovereign debt default and restructuring.

for more information and videos click here Read more!

Fernando Peña vs. Luis D'Elía en "El Parquímetro"

"Los odio con todo mi corazón"

Lo estás buscando, y Cynega lo pone a disposición de lectores, a continuación, el clip de audio que preparó la FM Metro a raíz de la discusión entre Fernando Peña y Luis D'Elía en el programa "El Parquímetro".

Clip "Fernando Peña vs Luis D'Elía"
Click here to listen

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Cristina Fernandez and Luis D'Elia: A Match Made in Hell

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has taken an already explosive situation and aggravated it through a seemingly unholy alliance with Luis D’Elia.

City residents took to the streets last week with pots and pans in support of farmers whose tax revolt has paralyzed the country’s grain exports and caused food shortages. In her infinite wisdom, pro-government goons were sent out to confront protesters in front of the government palace. Of course the interesting thing was that the rain that arrived less than an hour later could have accomplished the very same thing without government created and sanctioned violence.

Leading the pro-government goon squad was no less than Luis D’Elia a former government official and close ally of the Kirchner Regime. As to be expected D'Elia denied any such connection saying he was moved to protest because of his visceral hatred for the oligarchy. Of course one must balance the fact that a night later Cristina seated him behind herself during a key speech she made defending higher export taxes on soy and other goods.

"A lot of Argentines just can't digest that much contradiction," wrote Eduardo van der Kooy, a Clarin newspaper columnist. In an editorial headlined “Bad Company” Argentina’s leading daily newspaper La Nacion noted that Cristina is risking her presidency by associating with D’Elia who is a throwback to former authoritarian traditions of using “shock forces” to control the opposition. "How can you tell the difference between the government and D'Elia if he is in charge of keeping public order with intolerably aggressive words and acts?" wrote La Nacion columnist Joaquin Morales Sola. The only official to rebuke D'Elia was the politically insignificant vice president, Julio Cobos.

The partnership of the Kirchners and D’Elia goes back to the 2001-2002 crisis when D’Elia first came to power as a leader of massive street demonstrations against the government. Nestor Kirchner then stepped into power in 2003 in part through forming alliances with leaders such as D’Elia. D’Elia would later go on to solidify Kirchner power by organizing government sponsored marches against companies that went against government price controls. It has been the style of both Kirchners to decree price control and tax policies then to enforce them with threats of boycotts and retaliation against business. Recently Shell was hit with massive daily fines for their initial refusal to lower gasoline prices to pre-October levels.

Nestor Kirchner named D'Elia deputy secretary for land reform during his administration only to fire him after he came out in support of the AMIA bombing (the worst terrorist attack in Argentine history). Interestingly enough media sources note that D'Elia still has an office in a government building to this day.

Fernandez says human rights, strong institutions and social programs are her central policies, but critics say she and her husband have centered power in the presidency, control congress and the judiciary and meddled with official economic data. In the capital, where support for the Kirchners is weak, D'Elia's role last week seems to have been to scare middle-class people who rallied in support of the farm strike.
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Video: Tax Rebellion in Argentina

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Protests Continue in Buenos Aires

This Friday (March 28th) Argentinian farmers announced they would suspended a 16-day strike against higher taxes on grains exports. The farmers noted that they were responding to a speech given on Thursday by Cristina Kirchner, the country's president.

"The objective is to facilitate a meeting with the national government, after which we will evaluate the results, which will be submitted to the rank and file nationwide," the four biggest farming groups said in a statement on Friday.

Nevertheless, there were still many demonstrations nationwide and here in Buenos Aires. I had the opportunity to observe two such marches today and thought I would share some of the photographs with you all.

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Chocolate Mousse Tart with Fresh Fruit

Chocolate Mousse Tart with Fresh Fruit
Servings: 8



Ingredients:

CRUST

1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup macadamia or cashew nuts
¼ cup dates, pitted, chopped
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 pinch cayenne pepper

FILLING

2 medium avocados, peeled and pitted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon sea salt
5 tablespoons cocoa or carob powder
½ cup Rapadura (or regular, unrefined sugar)

FRUIT LAYER

1 pint strawberries, sliced or 2 bananas

Directions:

1. To make the crust place the dry coconut in a food processor and process into a fine powder. Add the nuts, salt and cayenne and blend to a course meal.
2. Add the dates and process until the texture is like a graham cracker crust – it should be loose and crumble but if you squeeze it it should hold together.
3. Press the crust into a 9” ungreased tart pan pressing firmly to get the crust to hold together. Put it in the freezer to set up while you prepare the filling.
4. To make the filling place avocados, vanilla, salt, cocoa and Rapadura in a food processor and process until completely smooth.
5. Divide the filling into two equal parts. Spread the first layer on top of the crust and smooth it out. The spread a layer of strawberries or bananas or both on top of that. Then spread the remaining filling on top. Put the remainder of the strawberries/bananas on the top.
6. Put in refrigerator for an hour to set up before serving.

You can dehydrate the filling in very thins sheets for a few hours, roll the resulting leather and cut it into bite size pieces to make raw tootsie rolls.
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George W. Bush: A Timeline of Failure

January 2001

20th

On his inauguration day, President Bush orders all federal agencies to cease proposing new regulations, withdraw all new regulations not yet posted in the Federal Resister and postpone implementing for 60 days any new regulations that had been published. With a roaring start, the Bush administration's full tilt systematic dismantling of the safeguards that protect our nation's clear air, clean water, national forests and other public lands is full-speed ahead. These safeguards had been put in place over many decades by both Republican and Democratic administrations.

23
On the twenty-eighth anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, Bush reinstates the “global gag rule” barring U.S. funding for abortion counseling abroad.

February 2001

5
Bush suspends Clinton’s “roadless rule” protecting nearly sixty million acres of forests from logging and road-building.

17
Bush signs four anti-union executive orders, including measures to prohibit “project labor agreements” at federal construction sites and to remove job protections for union employees whose companies lose federal contracts.

26
Senate Republicans introduce a bill to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration.

March 2001

7
At the urging of President Bush, Congress repeals ergonomic regulations designed to protect workers from repetitive-stress injuries.

9
Bush issues an executive order to prevent mechanics at Northwest Airlines from going on strike.

14
Bush abandons his campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

20
Bush administration moves to overturn a Clinton regulation reducing the allowable level of arsenic in drinking water.

28
Bush backs out of Kyoto treaty on global warming.

April 2001

4
United States Department of Agriculture proposes lifting a requirement that all beef used in federal school lunch programs must be tested for salmonella; the proposal is dropped two days later.

9
Department of Interior proposes a limit on lawsuits seeking protection of endangered species.

May 2001

4
The Bush administration announces that it will uphold the popular Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protects 58.5 million acres of intact wild forests in our national forest system from most forms of logging and road construction. This law passed with overwhelming public support. However, it was soon to be reversed.

11
Bush administration abandons international effort to crack down on offshore tax havens.

14
The Bush Administration launches a lengthy effort to exempt the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) from some of the nation’s key environmental laws, such as the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Among other things, the far-reaching proposals would give the DOD a free pass to ignore key facets of endangered species recovery. [A Timeline of Failure - The Bush Administration's NW Salmon Policy, 02/04/04]

15
FEMA chief Kenneth Allbaugh tells the Senate Appropriations Committee that FEMA needs downsizing: "Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program and a disincentive to effective state and local risk management," he said. "Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level." [Independent Weekly, 09/22/2004]

16
Vice President Dick Cheney’s task force releases its “National Energy Policy” report, calling for weaker environmental regulations and massive subsidies for the oil and gas, coal, and nuclear power industries.

26
Congress passes $1.35 trillion tax cut.

29
Bush meets with California governor Gray Davis but refuses to impose federal price controls to curtail California’s energy crisis.

June 2001

19
Cheney refuses to release records of energy task force meetings to the General Accounting Office.

21
Bush threatens to veto McCain-Kennedy patients’ bill of rights legislation.

28
Attorney General John Ashcroft announces a policy that would require gun records be destroyed one day after a background check rather than ninety days later.

July 2001

9
Bush administration opposes UN treaty to curb international trafficking in small arms and light weapons.

10
President Bush nominates Mark Rey - a long-time timber industry lobbyist - to oversee the U.S. Forest Service as Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment. After serving 18 years as the logging industry's principle lobbyist, Rey made his name in politics as a staff member with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. There, he was the "key architect" (National Journal, 1997) of the "logging without laws Salvage Rider," which The Washington Post called, "arguably the worst piece of public lands legislation ever." Under the Salvage Rider - with environmental laws suspended and meaningful pubic participation banned - enough trees were cut from America's national forests to fill log trucks lined up for over 6,800 miles.

26
Bush administration rejects international treaty on germ warfare and biological weapons.

August 2001

6
Presidential Daily Briefing warns “Bin Ladin [sic] Determined to Strike in U.S.”

9
Bush limits stem cell research to “existing lines.”

12
The Forest Service - led by Bush-appointed Chief Dale Bosworth - issues a policy that temporarily exempts Alaska's Tongass National Forest and 11 other national forests from the Roadless Rule until all logging industry legal challenges to the rule are resolved. In this policy, Bosworth, in a misuse of authority, allows road building and logging in roadless areas on all other national forests at his discretion while the legal challenges are under review.

16
Despite a recent court decision that federal dams must comply with the Clean Water Act (CWA), the administration allows water temperatures in the lower Snake River to exceed the CWA standard by 10°F, reaching up to 78.4°F. Summer water temperatures approached or exceeded lethal levels for salmon 83% of the migration time in the lower Snake and 85% of the time in the lower Columbia. [A Timeline of Failure - The Bush Administration's NW Salmon Policy, 02/04/04]

September 2001

6
Justice Department drops effort to break up Microsoft, hoping to speed settlement of antitrust lawsuit.

11
Terrorists crash hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing thousands.

20
In an Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, Bush makes this prophetic declaration: "Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated." [White House, 09/20/01]

22
Bush signs $15 billion airline bailout.

October 2001

2
Former logging industry lobbyist Mark Rey is sworn in as Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, giving him the responsibility for managing America's 155 national forests and 19 national grasslands on 192 million acres of public lands.

26
Bush signs the USA Patriot Act.

29
Justice Department acknowledges but won’t identify more than one thousand individuals, mostly immigrants, detained since September 11 attacks.

31
Ashcroft authorizes monitoring of attorney-client conversations in terrorism investigations.

November 2001

1
Bush issues executive order blocking the release of presidential records.

13
Bush orders that “enemy combatants” be tried in military tribunals.

14
Justice Department issues regulations allowing illegal immigrants to be detained indefinitely if their release could pose “serious adverse foreign-policy consequences.”

27
In order to push through one of the largest logging projects in agency history - the Bitterroot National Forest's Burned Area Recovery Plan - Forest Service Chief Bosworth circumvents the public appeals process by having his boss, Mark Rey, sign the massive logging plan. This blatant disregard for public involvement left the 4,400 citizens who commented on the draft plan out in the cold. A federal judge later criticized the Forest Service's move by saying the agency had elected "to take the law into its own hands."

December 2001

11
White House commission recommends privatizing Social Security.

12
Bush informs congressional leaders that he intends to pull out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty unilaterally.

14
The Forest Service announces new guidelines that further reduce protections for roadless areas. Smaller, undeveloped forests adjacent to larger roadless areas are no longer protected from development. The changes also end mandatory environmental impact reviews of logging and road building impacts on roadless areas as well as squash the requirement for public participation in project planning.

18
Congress passes $26.4 billion “No Child Left Behind” Act.

27
Bush repeals “responsible contractor rule” that had required scrutiny of safety and environmental law violations in the awarding of federal contracts.

January 2002

11
First Afghan prisoners arrive at “Camp X-Ray” in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declares them “unlawful combatants” with no rights under the Geneva Convention.

16
Cheney refuses to provide details of his multiple meetings with Enron officials.

18
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, under former industry lobbyist, Gale Norton, concludes that 150 years of logging "has not appreciably affected" spotted owls, despite the fact that 90 percent of the spotted owl's habitat has been destroyed. This opens the floodgates for increased logging in the last ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest.

25
In a memo to the president, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales writes that “the new paradigm” of the war on terror “renders obsolete” the Geneva Conventions’ “strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.”

February 2002

6
President Bush's 2003 budget authorizes the creation of "charter forests" whereby the management of publicly-owned national forestland would be turned over to local private partnerships.

14
White House unveils its “Clear Skies” initiative calling for voluntary reductions of three major pollutants; the plan would delay by a decade reductions required under existing law.

15
Bush approves Yucca Mountain—located ninety miles northwest of Las Vegas—as the nation’s lone repository for high-level nuclear waste.

28
IRS records reveal increases in audits of the working poor; audits of large corporations and the rich drop to all-time lows.

March 2002

1
News reports reveal that Bush activated a “shadow government” after September 11 attacks without telling Congress; civilian administrators are being sequestered in underground bunkers in case of a terrorist attack.

5
Bush’s welfare reform proposal advises paying “workfare” recipients less than the minimum wage.

10
Pentagon’s “Nuclear Posture Review” calls for new, “low-yield” nuclear weapons and lists seven “rogue” nations as possible targets for a nuclear attack.

27
Bush signs McCain-Feingold bill banning soft money behind closed doors, then departs immediately for a fund-raising trip.

April 2002

2
Bush administration opposes the reappointment of climatologist Robert Watson as head on the UN Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change.

5
Office of Management and Budget prevents the EPA from declaring a public health emergency over dangerous asbestos fibers that come from a Montana mine and are used in insulation throughout the country.

12
Bush officials express support for the ouster of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez; a day after Chavez returns to power, White House admits that U.S. officials had met with coup plotters.

A draft report by the U.S. Forest Service reveals that the agency intends to "streamline" rules protecting the environment and limit public challenges to its decisions. Within two years the agency would implement regulations limiting external review of the impacts of projects on endangered species.

17
Administration insiders admit military tactical errors allowed Osama bin Laden to escape December 2001 battle at Tora Bora.

30
The Bush Administration refuses to defend critical habitat designations – a key component of endangered species recovery – for 19 salmon and steelhead species up and down the west coast in a lawsuit filed by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Instead, the Bush Administration agrees to a deal for NAHB that eliminates the habitat protections in over 150 river basins covering four states. [A Timeline of Failure - The Bush Administration's NW Salmon Policy, 02/04/04]

May 2002

3
EPA alters its definition of “fill material” to allow coal companies to dump rubble from “mountaintop removal” mining into valleys and streams.

6
Bush voids the U.S. signature on the treaty to establish an International Criminal Court.

21
The Bush Administration lifts a mining ban on 1.2 million acres in southwest Oregon, 90% of which is in the Siskiyou National Forest. This area contains five National Wild and Scenic Rivers and has the largest concentration of wild, undammed watersheds on the west coast. [A Timeline of Failure - The Bush Administration's NW Salmon Policy, 02/04/2004]

23
Senate joins the House in approving “fast-track” trade authority for the president.

30
Ashcroft removes restrictions on domestic spying by the FBI in counterterrorism investigations; new guidelines permit monitoring of political and religious groups without probable cause.

June 2002

1
President unveils “Bush doctrine” of preemptive war in a speech at West Point.

5
National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration weakens standards on under-inflated tires despite problems at Firestone that caused hundreds of deaths.

10
Ashcroft announces that alleged “dirty bomber” José Padilla, an American citizen arrested a month earlier at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, is being held indefinitely as an “enemy combatant.”

July 2002

14
SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt says he’ll release the entire files on the investigation into Bush’s sale of $800,000 in Harken Energy stock if asked by the president; the president doesn’t ask.

15
Bush administration unveils the “Terrorism Information and Prevention System,” or Operation TIPS, a toll-free hotline encouraging meter readers and truck drivers to report “suspicious activity.”

22
State Department announces it will withhold $34 million in international family planning funds from the United Nations.

25
Bush threatens to veto Homeland Security bill unless workers in the new department are stripped of civil service protections.

August 2002

9
Bush administration issues new medical privacy regulations that don’t require patient consent to share records with insurance and pharmaceutical companies or restrict use of medical information for marketing purposes.

22
President Bush unveils the so-called "Healthy Forests Initiative," which would limit citizen involvement and undermine the nation's environmental laws in order to dramatically increase logging in national forests. Predictably, the logging industry - which has given more than $10 million in campaign contributions to Bush and the Republican Party since the 2000 election cycle - hails the initiative as the best thing since the invention of the chainsaw and the perfect way to restore "forest health."

26
In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Cheney says there is “no doubt” Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq could have nuclear weapons “fairly soon.”

30
Allan Fitzsimmons is handpicked by the Bush administration to serve as Wildlands Fuel Coordinator for the Department of Interior. Fitzsimmons has published articles denying the existence of ecosystems and stated that the extinction of the nation's 1,200 threatened and endangered species, "would be a disconcerting loss but would not constitute a crisis." Fitzsimmons not only lacks experience in the field of forest ecology and fire management, but also considers efforts to manage ecosystems to be an opportunity for new federal controls that infringe on economic activity and property rights.

September 2002

5
Bush administration presents “Healthy Forests Initiative” that would allow more logging of old-growth forests by limiting environmental impact reviews and public comment.

17
At East Literature Magnet School in Nashville, Tennesse, Bush ad libs: "There's a lot of talk about Iraq on our TV screens, and there should be, because we're trying to figure out how best to make the world a peaceful place. There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again." [White House, 09/17/02]

19
Bush asks Congress for authority to use “all means that he determines to be appropriate” against Iraq.

30
Reacting to a federal court ruling halting timber sales in the Pacific Northwest ancient forests, the Bush administration proposes to eliminate those regulations because the government had failed to comply with environmental regulations.

October 2002

5
North Korea admits to having secret nuclear weapons program; Bush officials don’t publicly disclose the news until Oct. 16.

8
Bush invokes the Taft-Hartley Act to end an 11-day lockout of longshore workers that has shut down West Coast ports.

November 2002

5
Harvey Pitt resigns after failing to disclose that newly appointed accounting oversight board chairman William Webster had headed the audit committee of a firm accused of accounting improprieties and fraud.

20
Pentagon defends development of the “Total Information Awareness” system, a scheme developed by Iran-contra veteran John Poindexter to mine private data for terrorism clues.

26
The Bush administration proposes a radical rewrite of the regulations implementing the National Forest Management Act. The rewrite would eliminate habitat protection, public participation and scientific review in order to increase logging, mining, grazing, drilling and other commercial activities on 192 million acres of national forests.

27
Bush names Henry Kissinger to head independent commission investigating September 11 attacks.

December 2002

6
Bush dismisses treasury secretary Paul O’Neill and economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey as the unemployment rate hits 6 percent.

11
The Bush administration proposes "streamlining" rules by eliminating environmental regulations on logging projects whenever the Forest Service claims that the purpose of the logging is to reduce fire risk. The change includes limiting the ability of the public to challenge illegal logging projects on public lands, despite the fact that a recent Department of Agriculture report found, "The removal of large, merchantable trees from forests does not reduce fire risk and may, in fact, increase such risk."

17
Bush orders initial missile defense system to be in place by 2004.

19
Office of Management and Budget instructs Environmental Protection Agency to value the lives of senior citizens at 63 percent that of younger Americans in a cost-benefit analysis of imposing new air pollution regulations.

January 2003

9
Transportation Security Administration bars 56,000 airport screeners from unionizing.

10
Bush administration issues guidelines that could exempt up to twenty million acres of “isolated” wetlands and seasonal streams from protection under the Clean Water Act.

15
Bush denounces affirmative action policies at the University of Michigan as an unconstitutional “quota system.”

27
Under the guise of "fuel reduction," the U.S. Forest Service issues a draft plan to resume the logging of giant ancient sequoia trees in the Giant Sequoia National Monument and two national forests in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. The plan would sidestep wildlife and watershed protections to allow logging companies to cut down enough of the nation's oldest and grandest trees to fill more than 2,000 log trucks every year.

29
Bush claims in his State of the Union speech that Saddam Hussein “recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

30
Bush administration seeks exemptions to international treaty banning the ozone-depleting chemical methyl bromide for use on golf courses, among other things.

February 2003

5
Secretary of State Colin Powell appears before the UN Security Council to make the case for war with Iraq.

28
The Bush administration completes a court-ordered analysis of potential wilderness areas on the Tongass National Forest in Alaska - part of the world's largest remaining coastal temperate rainforest. The Bush administration eliminates protections for the 9.8 million remaining acres of intact ancient temperate rainforest, opening them to road construction and logging.

March 2003

6
President Bush holds his last prewar news conference. The New York Observer writes that he interchanged Iraq with the attacks of 9/11 eight times, “and eight times he was unchallenged.” The ABC News White House correspondent, Terry Moran, says the Washington press corps was left “looking like zombies.”

7
Appearing before the United Nations Security Council on the same day that the United States and three allies (Britain, Spain and Bulgaria) put forth their resolution demanding that Iraq disarm by March 17, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, reports there is “no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq.”. He adds that documents “which formed the basis for the report of recent uranium transaction between Iraq and Niger are in fact not authentic.” None of the three broadcast networks’ evening newscasts mention his findings.

8
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awards no-bid contract with a $7 billion limit to a Halliburton subsidiary for fighting possible oil well fires in Iraq.

19
War on Iraq begins.

12
A senior military planner tells The Daily News “an attack on Iraq could last as few as seven days.”
“Isn’t it more likely that antipathy toward the United States in the Islamic world might diminish amid the demonstrations of jubilant Iraqis celebrating the end of a regime that has few equals in its ruthlessness?” - John McCain [N.Y. Times op-ed, sub required]

14
Senator John D. Rockefeller, Democrat of West Virginia, asks the F.B.I. to investigate the forged documents cited a week earlier by ElBaradei and alleging an Iraq-Niger uranium transaction: “There is a possibility that the fabrication of these documents may be part of a larger deception campaign aimed at manipulating public opinion and foreign policy regarding Iraq.”

16
On “Meet the Press,” Dick Cheney says that American troops will be “greeted as liberators,” that Saddam “has a longstanding relationship with various terrorist groups, including the Al Qaeda organization,” and that it is an “overstatement” to suggest that several hundred thousand troops will be needed in Iraq after it is liberated. Asked by Tim Russert about ElBaradei’s statement that Iraq does not have a nuclear program, the vice president says, “I think Mr. ElBaradei frankly is wrong.”

18
Barbara Bush tells Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she will not watch televised coverage of the war: “Why should we hear about body bags and deaths, and how many, what day it’s going to happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it’s, it’s not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”

27
Department of Labor proposes new overtime rules that could strip millions of extra pay by increasing the number of exempt “white-collar” workers.

30
Donald Rumsfeld states: “We know where [the weapons of mass destruction] are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.” [ABC This Week, 3/30/03]

April 2003

1
Jessica Lynch recovered by U.S. forces. What the Pentagon framed as a heroic rescue was later revealed to have been staged. [Guardian, 5/15/03]

7
Education Secretary Rod Paige says he prefers schools that have a “strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community.”

12
Congress approves Bush’s request for $79 billion to fund the Iraq War and reconstruction.

28
Bush administration refuses to sign international anti-tobacco treaty without a “reservation clause” allowing any country to opt out of portions it doesn’t like.

May 2003

1
Aboard an aircraft carrier—with a banner touting “Mission Accomplished” as his backdrop—Bush declares victory in Iraq.

20
During a White House ceremony, President Bush urges the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the "Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003." This deceptively-named bill restricts citizen involvement, circumvents key environmental laws, ties the hands of judges and increases taxpayer subsidies by $125 million. Moreover, the bill includes no specific provisions or resources to help rural homeowners protect themselves from wildfire.

22
Bush issues an executive order shielding oil companies in Iraq from legal liability.

27
One third of the prevention funds in the $15 billion AIDS bill signed by Bush are earmarked for abstinence education.

The Bush administration allows logging companies in Oregon to stop requiring federal land managers to survey for sensitive plant and animal species before allowing logging in ancient, old-growth forests.

28
Bush signs $350 billion tax cut-half the size of his original proposal-slashing tax rates on dividends and capital gains.

29
On a trip to Poland, Bush says: “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories … for those who say we haven’t found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they’re wrong, we found them.”

30
The Bush administration puts new regulations in place exempting the Forest Service from analyzing environmental impacts on logging projects of up to 1,000 acres. Incredibly, the administration claims that logging an area the size of 930 football fields will result in "no significant environmental impact." The exemptions apply to projects throughout national forests, including the remote backcountry.

The Bush administration continues undermining the protection for threatened species with a proposal enabling the Forest Service to avoid consulting federal wildlife agencies during the planning of logging projects and other developments that may jeopardize these species and their habitat.

June 2003

2
FCC increases media ownership cap, allowing one company to own TV stations reaching up to 45 percent of the country, and lifts the ban on a single company’s owning newspapers, TV stations, and radio stations in the same city.

Inspector general finds that the Justice Department violated the civil rights of hundreds of immigrants detained after 9/11.

5
The Bush administration announces it will scrap the current Sierra Nevada Framework - a plan adopted in 2001 following eight years of scientific study - with another that will triple logging levels in 11 national forests in California. The Bush plan opens spotted owl reserves to logging and allows the cutting of fire-resistant trees as large as eight feet in circumference under the guise of "fuel reduction."

9
Mark Rey announces the Bush administration will completely dismantle the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. According to Rey, the administration will settle a lawsuit with the logging industry and remove protection under the Roadless Rule for 14.7 million acres of ancient rainforest in Alaska's Tongass and Chugach National Forests. He also announces the Bush administration will give governors the ability to open national forest wilderness areas in their states to the logging industry.

25
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejects California’s request to cancel $12 billion in long-term contracts signed during the state’s energy crisis despite evidence of market manipulation by energy companies.

July 2003

1
Bush administration suspends military aid to thirty-five countries that refused to grant U.S. citizens immunity before the International Criminal Court.

14
Columnist Robert Novak outs the wife of retired ambassador Joseph Wilson as a CIA agent after discussions with “two senior administration officials.”

15
SEC chairman William Donaldson endorses House bill seeking to limit the ability of state regulators to oversee the securities industry.

23
During a press conference with the media and the logging industry, Mark Rey announces a new regulation allowing the Forest Service to log live trees on 70 acres and dead, dying or diseased trees on 250 acres with absolutely no environmental analysis or public input.

24
Congress publishes report on September 11 attacks, but the White House omits major portions (reportedly about Saudi Arabia) for “national security” reasons.

28
Congress exposes Pentagon plans to create a futures trading market to forecast terrorist attacks.

August 2003

9
EPA inspector general finds that the agency downplayed health risks from the collapse of the World Trade Center under pressure from the White House.

20
Ashcroft begins nationwide tour to promote the Patriot Act.

21
Clearly reveling in the practice of breaking negotiated agreements, the administration announces plans to settle a timber industry lawsuit over the Northwest Forest Plan. The court-approved plan protects old-growth in Pacific Northwest national forests. Although the administration had been chipping away at the plan all year, caving-in on the suit gave them the opportunity to dismantle the plan.

27
EPA repeals “New Source Review” rule that had required electric utilities to install anti-pollution equipment when making major upgrades at coal-fired power plants.

September 2003

1
Job losses over the past three years top 2.7 million.

3
A secret report for the Joint Chiefs of Staff lays the blame for setbacks in Iraq on a flawed and rushed war-planning process that ‘limited the focus’ for preparing for post-Saddam Hussein operations. [Washington Times, 9/3/03]

7
Bush asks Congress for another $87 billion to fund the occupation of Iraq.

17
Bush admits there is no evidence tying Saddam Hussein to September 11 attacks.

22
FCC approves the merger of Univision and Hispanic Broadcasting, handing over 80 percent of the Spanish-language radio and television market to one company.

October 2003

10
The Bush Administration announces a proposal to grant federal dam operators in Oregon a virtual exemption from the Clean Water Act’s protections against water temperatures that are lethal to salmon. The proposal would cripple Columbia Basin salmon recovery efforts and set a dangerous precedent nationwide. [A Timeline of Failure - The Bush Administration's NW Salmon Policy. 02/04/04]

21
Congress bans late-term abortions.

29
U.N. official warns of “a palpable risk that Afghanistan will again turn into a failed state, this time in the hands of drug cartels and narco-terrorists.”

31
13,000 Arab and Muslim immigrants are in deportation proceedings as a result of special registration programs; none has been charged in connection to terrorism.

November 2003

12
The administration and the Forest Service propose one of the largest post-fire logging projects in modern history on the Siskiyou National Forest in Oregon. The "Biscuit Fire Recovery Project" calls for logging over one-half million board feet of timber from the Wild Rivers Area that could result in the disqualification of over 60,000 acres of potential wilderness. This is enough timber to fill logging trucks bumper to bumper from Canada to Mexico.

21
Senate blocks energy bill, a massive boondoggle that traces its origins to Cheney’s secretive energy task force and would provide billions of dollars in subsidies to some of Bush’s biggest supporters in the oil and gas, coal, and electric utility industries.

A so-called "compromise version" of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003 passes the Senate on a "voice vote" after Democrats Feinstein (D-CA) and Wyden (D-OR) cut a deal with Republican backers. The House of Representatives passes the bill later in the day. Some terrible provisions of the bill are watered down, but to quote George Bush Sr., "It's baaad!"

23
FBI admits collecting intelligence on antiwar protesters.

24
Congressional Republicans and the White House agree to a “compromise” media ownership cap of 39 percent—ensuring that neither Viacom nor News Corp. will be forced to sell any television stations.

Species Protection Exemptions Signed into Law - President Bush signs into law a bill that exempts the U.S. Department of Defense from key species protection provisions in the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, setting a dangerous precedent for future federal exemptions. [A Timeline of Failure - The Bush Administration's NW Salmon Policy, 02/04/04]

25
Senate passes $400 billion, Bush-backed Medicare bill, which guarantees a prescription drug benefit starting in 2006 but prevents the government from negotiating lower prices with pharmaceutical companies.

26
Bush continues his sleazy tactic of announcing anti-environment rule changes when the media will be inattentive. On the day before Thanksgiving, plans are revealed to gut the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) which has guided planning on 155 national forests since 1976.

December 2003

3
Medicare chief Tom Scully announces he’s stepping down to consider job offers from three lobbying and two investment firms.

4
With great fanfare and Feinstein and Wyden nowhere in sight, Bush signs the deceptively named, "Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003."

8
Shortly after President Bush signed the so-called “Healthy Forest Act” into law, the Bush Administration finalized regulations that gut key endangered species protections on public lands in the name of forest fire prevention. The new regulations allow the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to decide for themselves whether their logging projects under the National Fire Plan will jeopardize threatened or endangered species, essentially cutting wildlife management agencies out of the process. [A Timeline of Failure - The Bush Administration's NW Salmon Policy, o2/04/04]

23
For Christmas, Bush decided to give the timber industry much of the best remaining old-growth in Alaska's Tongass National Forest. The Tongass was exempted from the Roadless Area Conservation Rule and the lower 48 states are next on the chopping block.

30
After first case of “mad cow” disease is detected in the United States, USDA bans sale of “downer” cattle—a measure quashed by the agency just weeks earlier.

January 2004

5
Cheney and Justice Antonin Scalia go duck hunting together three weeks after the Supreme Court agrees to hear a case about the vice president’s energy task force records.

16
During a congressional recess, Bush appoints Charles Pickering—whose nomination has been blocked twice by the Senate—to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

22
Interior Department opens nearly nine million acres of wilderness on Alaska’s North Slope to oil drilling.

The Sierra Nevada Framework ensured sound management practices in 11.5 million acres of the Sierra Nevada National Forest. The Bush administration significantly changes the Sierra Nevada Framework to allow increased logging which triples the levels of logging in the region and allows cutting of large, old-growth trees.

CIA officers in Iraq are warning that the country may be on a path to civil war, current and former U.S. officials said Wednesday, starkly contradicting the upbeat assessment that President Bush gave in his State of the Union address. [Knight-Ridder, 1/22/04]

23
Chief U.S. weapons inspector David Kay resigns, saying he doesn’t believe Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction ever existed.

29
Bush administration reports that the new Medicare law will cost at least $530 billion over 10 years, 30 percent more than Congress was told it would cost.

February 2004

6
Bush relents and appoints commission on pre-war intelligence, calls for it to report findings after the presidential election.

9
President’s Council of Economic Advisers suggests positions at fast-food restaurants should be counted as manufacturing jobs.

18
A group of 60 top U.S. scientists, including a dozen Nobel Prize winners, accuses the Bush administration of “misrepresenting and suppressing scientific knowledge for political purposes.”

23
Rod Paige calls the National Education Association a “terrorist organization.”

March 2004

10
Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card make nighttime visit to bedside of ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft to get DOJ approval of a domestic spying program that is up for renewal. Acting Attorney General James Comey later describes in testimony before Congress (in May 2007) how Ashcroft rejected the request: "He [Ashcroft] lifted his head off the pillow and in very strong terms expressed his view of the matter, rich in both substance and fact, which stunned me -- drawn from the hourlong meeting we'd had a week earlier -- and in very strong terms expressed himself, and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spent, and said to them, 'But that doesn't matter, because I'm not the attorney general.'" [S.F. Chronicle, 05/16/2007]

12
Medicare actuary says Bush administration threatened to fire him if he told Congress that the White House Medicare plan would cost more than $400 billion.

23
To further demonstrate its ability to overlook water quality, wildlife and fisheries in favor of giving industry more trees to log, the Bush administration overhauls the Northwest Forest Plan's Aquatic Conservation Strategy and exempts logging projects from complying with existing water quality objectives. It also eliminates the "Survey and Management" provisions of the plan which required consideration of logging effects on over 500 imperiled species.

24
At the Radio and Television Correspondents’ dinner Bush presents slides of himself looking under tables and out the windows of the Oval Office while commenting “Those weapons of mass destruction must be somewhere!” and “Nope, no weapons over there!”

April 2004

1
Bush signs the “Unborn Victims of Violence Act.”

2
Bush and Cheney appear at a private retreat for the more than five hundred “Rangers” and “Pioneers” who have collected at least $100,000 for the president’s campaign.

10
After two years of stonewalling, Bush releases declassified version of the Aug. 6, 2001, Presidential Daily Briefing warning “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in U.S.”

13
In just the third prime-time press conference of his term, Bush is stumped when asked to name one mistake he’s committed since September 11. He replies, “I’m sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hasn’t yet.”

28
CBS television airs first images of torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz tells Congress the number of U.S soldiers who have died in Iraq is “approximately 500, of which—I can get the exact numbers—approximately 350 are combat deaths.” The actual figures: 722 soldiers killed, 521 of them in combat.

The Bush administration decides to count hatchery-bred (incubated then let free into the wild) fish during the same time it decides stream-bred wild salmon are entitled to protection under the Endangered Species Act. Will the Administration's next assault on the ESA entail counting factory-farmed salmon?

29
Bush and Cheney appear together behind closed doors in the Oval Office to answer questions from commissioners on the September 11 attacks panel.

30
Sinclair Broadcasting refuses to air “Nightline” broadcast reading the names of the U.S. dead in Iraq on its ABC affiliates.

May 2004

4
Army acknowledges it is investigating at least thirty-five cases of abuse or torture of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

6
FDA blocks RU-486, the “morning after pill,” from being sold over the counter.

19
General Accounting Office rules that taxpayer-funded “video news releases” touting the Medicare bill are illegal covert propaganda.

20
Bush campaign fundraising haul hits the $200 million mark.

June 2004

3
CIA Director George Tenet resigns because of the “well-being of my wonderful family—nothing more, nothing less.”

8
John Ashcroft refuses to give the Senate Judiciary Committee a Justice Department memo outlining a legal justification for the torture of suspected terrorists.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: “for the first time in 37 years, federal budget cuts have all but stopped major work on the New Orleans area's east bank hurricane levees, a complex network of concrete walls, metal gates and giant earthen berms that won't be finished for at least another decade.” [Times-Picayune, 06/08/07]

16
U.S. commission investigating September 11 finds “no credible evidence” linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks; Dick Cheney continues to claim “overwhelming evidence” of a connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

24
Supreme Court rules that Dick Cheney doesn’t have to give up records of secretive energy task force, sends case back to a lower court.

28
In a secret ceremony—held two days ahead of schedule to thwart attacks—United States hands over formal sovereignty of Iraq to interim government; U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer declares Iraq “a much better place” and immediately leaves the country.

28
Supreme Court rules against the Bush administration, insisting that “enemy combatants”—whether U.S. citizen or foreigners—must be allowed to challenge their imprisonment before an American judge.

July 2004

8
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warns that Al Qaeda may strike on Election Day, seeks advice from Justice Department on necessary steps to postpone the election in case of a terrorist attack.

15
Republican-controlled National Labor Relations Board reverses earlier decision and rules that graduate teaching assistants at private universities do not have the right to organize unions.

20
Bush administration lawyers move to block lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies and medical device makers, arguing that consumers may not seek damages for injuries received from products approved by the FDA.

22
Congress passes resolution declaring that genocide is taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan; Washington Post characterizes action taken by the Bush administration to stop the killing as “murderously modest.”

28
After 24 years in Afghanistan, the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders pulls out of the country; the group criticizes U.S. forces for endangering aid workers by using humanitarian assistance as “a support for its military and political ambitions.”

30
Republican Party requires a signed endorsement of the president before giving out tickets to New Mexico campaign rally starring Dick Cheney.

30
Bush issues 20 recess appointments, skirting Senate approval to install, among others, a new head of the Federal Trade Commission, a new manufacturing czar, and three new ambassadors—two of whom are major Bush fundraisers.

August 2004

1
Two days after the Democratic convention, Tom Ridge raises terror alert level to “orange” for New York and Washington; heightened security based on three- to four-year-old intelligence.

5
At a ceremony to sign a $417 billion Defense appropriations bill, Bush tells the assembled Pentagon brass: “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

11
With two months left in the fiscal year, federal deficit hits a record $395.8 billion.

15
FBI acknowledges interviewing dozens of people in at least six states about protests planned for the Republican National Convention; officials insist they’re only targeting crimes, not political dissent.

24
Bush-Cheney campaign’s top outside counsel admits advising the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

27
For third consecutive year, more Americans in poverty and without health insurance; national poverty rate hits 12.5 percent, 45 million people lack health coverage.

September 2004

7
Dick Cheney declares at a campaign stop in Iowa: “It’s absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, that we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we’ll get hit again.”

8
1,001 U.S. soldiers killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

13
President Bush and House Republicans allow the federal ban on assault weapons to expire.

Iranian official announces that the country could resume uranium enrichment “within a few months”; Britain’s Royal Institute of International Affairs concludes “the real long-term geopolitical winner of the ‘War on Terror’ could be Iran.”

23
Donald Rumsfeld hints that Iraqi election may be limited to three-fourths of the country because of increasing violence. “If there were to be an area where the extremists focused during the election period, so be it,” he testifies before the Senate. “You have the rest of the election and you go on. Life’s not perfect.”

23
Standing beside Prime Minister Allawi in the Rose Garden, Bush claims “nearly 100,000 fully trained and equipped Iraqi soldiers, police officers, and other security personnel are working today”; Pentagon documents show only 8,169 have completed full, eight-week training.

25
Iraqi Health Ministry statistics show U.S. and allied forces and Iraqi police are killing twice the number of Iraqis—mostly civilians—as the insurgents; officials announce that Health Ministry will no longer provide casualty statistics to reporters.

October 2004

2
One-third of “individual ready reserve” soldiers called up by the Army to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan fail to report for duty.

6
Chief U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer reports that Iraq had no biological or chemical weapons and no nuclear program before the U.S. invasion; in fact, Duelfer finds no evidence that Iraq had produced any WMDs after 1991.

11
International Atomic Energy Agency reports that equipment and low-level radioactive materials that could be used to build nuclear weapons have disappeared from Iraq during the U.S. occupation.

21
Program on International Policy Attitudes shows that vast majorities of Bush supporters believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and gave Al Qaeda “substantial support” or was directly involved in September 11. Bush backers also think the majority of the world supported the U.S. invasion.

22
Aboard Air Force One, with no public ceremony, Bush signs $136 billion corporate tax cut bill—which includes special pork-barrel earmarks for tobacco companies, oil refineries, SUV buyers, Home Depot ceiling fans and much, much more.

24
Iraqi interim government announces that 380 tons of explosives vanished from the Al Qaqaa facility after the U.S. invasion, when the site was not secured despite warnings from U.N. weapons inspectors.

January 2005

12
WMD search in Iraq is declared over [CNN, 1/12/05]

30
The CPA provided less than adequate controls for approximately $8.8 billion of Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) funds provided to Iraqi ministries through the national budget process. [CPA Report, 1/30/05]

March 2005

2
Death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq hits 1,500 [London Telegraph, 3/3/05]

May 2005

1
Downing Street Memo revealed - Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. [Downing Street Memo, 7/23/02]

30
Dick Cheney: I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency. [CNN Larry King Live, 5/30/05]

August 2005

29
7AM CDT — KATRINA MAKES LANDFALL AS A CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE [CNN]

11AM CDT — BUSH VISITS ARIZONA RESORT TO PROMOTE MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT: [White House]
11:13 AM CDT - WHITE HOUSE CIRCULATES INTERNAL MEMO ABOUT LEVEE BREACH: “Flooding is significant throughout the region and a levee in New Orleans has reportedly been breached sending 6-8 feet of water throughout the 9th ward area of the city.” [AP]

4:30PM CDT — BUSH TRAVELS TO CALIFORNIA SENIOR CENTER TO DISCUSS MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT: “We’ve got some folks up here who are concerned about their Social Security or Medicare. Joan Geist is with us. … I could tell — she was looking at me when I first walked in the room to meet her, she was wondering whether or not old George W. is going to take away her Social Security check.” [White House]

8PM CDT — GOV. BLANCO AGAIN REQUESTS ASSISTANCE FROM BUSH: “Mr. President, we need your help. We need everything you’ve got.” [Newsweek]

LATE PM — BUSH GOES TO BED WITHOUT ACTING ON BLANCO’S REQUESTS [Newsweek]

30
MIDDAY — CHERTOFF CLAIMS HE FINALLY BECOMES AWARE THAT LEVEE HAS FAILED: “It was on Tuesday that the levee–may have been overnight Monday to Tuesday–that the levee started to break. And it was midday Tuesday that I became aware of the fact that there was no possibility of plugging the gap and that essentially the lake was going to start to drain into the city.” But later reports note that the Bush administration learned of the levee breach on Aug. 29. [Meet the Press, 9/4/05; AP]

2PM CDT — PRESIDENT BUSH PLAYS GUITAR WITH COUNTRY SINGER MARK WILLIS [AP]
BUSH RETURNS TO CRAWFORD FOR FINAL NIGHT OF VACATION [AP]

31
PRESIDENT BUSH FINALLY ORGANIZES TASK FORCE TO COORDINATE FEDERAL RESPONSE: Bush says on Tuesday he will “fly to Washington to begin work…with a task force that will coordinate the work of 14 federal agencies involved in the relief effort.” [New York Times, 8/31/05]

EARLY AM — BLANCO AGAIN TRIES TO REQUEST HELP FROM BUSH: “She was transferred around the White House for a while until she ended up on the phone with Fran Townsend, the president’s Homeland Security adviser, who tried to reassure her but did not have many specifics. Hours later, Blanco called back and insisted on speaking to the president. When he came on the line, the governor recalled, “I just asked him for help, ‘whatever you have’.” She asked for 40,000 troops.” [Newsweek]

4PM CDT — BUSH GIVES FIRST MAJOR ADDRESS ON KATRINA: “Nothing about the president’s demeanor… — which seemed casual to the point of carelessness — suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.” [New York Times]

September 2005

1
7AM CDT — BUSH CLAIMS NO ONE EXPECTED LEVEES TO BREAK: “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” However, as former FEMA Director Michael Brown told CNN, “the president knew from our earlier conversations that that was one of my concerns, that the levees could actually breach.” [Situation Room, 3/2/06]

2
EARLY AM — BUSH WATCHES DVD OF THE WEEK’S NEWSCASTS CREATED BY STAFF WHO THOUGHT BUSH “NEEDED TO SEE THE HORRIFIC REPORTS”: “The reality, say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because it might displease the president, did not really sink in until Thursday night. Some White House staffers were watching the evening news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports coming out of New Orleans. Counselor Bartlett made up a DVD of the newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to the Gulf Coast the next morning on Air Force One.” [Newsweek]

BUSH USES 50 FIREFIGHTERS AS PROPS IN DISASTER AREA PHOTO-OP: A group of 1,000 firefighters convened in Atlanta to volunteer with the Katrina relief efforts. Of those, “a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew’s first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.” [Salt Lake Tribune; Reuters]

BUSH COMMENTS ON SEN. TRENT LOTT’S HOUSE: “Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house — he’s lost his entire house — there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch.” Time called the remarks “astonishingly tone-deaf to the homeless black citizens still trapped in the postapocalyptic water world of New Orleans.” [White House; Time]

5
FORMER FIRST LADY PATRONIZES POOR REFUGEES: Former First Lady Barbara Bush says, “Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them.” [American Public Media, 9/5/05]

9
Colin Powell, on his pre-war speech to the UN: "It’s a blot. I’m the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and [it] will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It’s painful now." [ABC News, 9/9/05]

October 2005

13
A review by former intelligence officers has concluded that the Bush administration ‘apparently paid little or no attention’ to prewar assessments by the Central Intelligence Agency that warned of major cultural and political obstacles to stability in postwar Iraq. [NYT, 10/13/05]

26
American military death toll reaches 2,000 [MSNBC.com, 10/26/05]

November 2005

8
Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004 [Independent, 11/8/05]

December 2005

17
Lieberman: "The last two weeks have been critically important and I believe may be seen as a turning point in the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism." [AP, 12/17/05]

January 2006

12
PRESIDENT BUSH TRAVELS TO NEW ORLEANS; SPENDS LESS THAN 24 HOURS IN THE REGION: He congratulated Mayor Ray Nagin for getting the city’s infrastructure “back on its feet,” but he met the locals in an area that wasn’t flooded and saw little of the city, save for the view from the interstate as he arrived. “I will tell you, the contrast between when I was last here and today…is pretty dramatic,” he said. “It’s a heck of a place to bring your family.” [WSJ, 01/13/06]

23
The White House acknowledges the existence of photos showing President Bush meeting Abramoff but refuses to release them. [U.S. News and World Report, A timeline of events in the Jack Abramoff case, 3/29/06]

24
WHITE HOUSE REFUSES TO COOPERATE WITH A SENATE INVESTIGATION OF KATRINA: “The Bush administration, citing the confidentiality of executive branch communications, said Tuesday that it did not plan to turn over certain documents about Hurricane Katrina or make senior White House officials available for sworn testimony before two Congressional committees investigating the storm response.” [New York Times, 1/24/06]

25
ADMINISTRATION REJECTS RECONSTRUCTION PLAN: The White House rejects a Congressional reconstruction plan — the “most broadly supported plan for rebuilding communities,” and instead backs $6.2 billion in block grants that Congress provided last year, which Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) called “unacceptable.” [Times-Picayune, 1/25/06]

31
PRESIDENT BUSH DOES NOT MENTION KATRINA ONCE IN HIS STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS [Bush, 1/31/06]

February 2006

2
"Is Iraq going to be a long war?" Rumsfeld: “No, I don’t believe it is.” [Washington Times, 2/2/06]

28
Another report reveals - The Bush administration never drew up a comprehensive plan for rebuilding Iraq after the March 2003 invasion. [Washington Times, 2/28/06]

March 2006

9
Bush signs U.S.A. Patriot Act Reauthorization but, after the signing ceremony, he quietly issues a statement saying he isn't going to inform Congress about how the FBI is using its expanded police powers, as the Act requires. [Boston Globe, 03/24/06]

19
Time Magazine reveals that U.S. Marines killed at least 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha the previous November - "According to eyewitnesses and local officials interviewed over the past 10 weeks, the civilians who died in Haditha on Nov. 19 were killed not by a roadside bomb but by the Marines themselves, who went on a rampage in the village after the attack, killing 15 unarmed Iraqis in their homes, including seven women and three children." [Time, 3/19/06]

April 2006

18
Facing calls for Rumsfeld to resign, Bush declares: "I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense." [source: CNN.com, April 18, 2006]

23
A former top CIA official, Tyler Drumheller, reveals evidence that Bush was told before the war by a high-level Iraqi informant that Iraq did not possess WMD [CBS News, 4/23/06]

June 2006
Number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq reaches 2,500 [Reuters, 6/15/06]

September 2006

24
New York Times: “A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.” [New York Times, 9/24/2006]

November 2006

8
Donald Rumsfeld resigns as Secretary of Defense. One day after the midterm elections that turned control of Congress over to the Democrats, Bush announced Rumsfeld would step down and be replaced by former CIA Director Robert Gates. [CNN, 11/8/2006]

27
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales meets with top Justice Department officials and signs off on plan to fire several U.S. attorneys for purely political reasons. [AP, via HuffPo, 03/23/07]

28
A classified Marine Corps intelligence report concludes that in Western Iraq, “the social and political situation has deteriorated to a point” where U.S. and Iraqi troops “are no longer capable of militarily defeating the insurgency in al-Anbar.” [Washington Post, 11/27/2006]

December 2006

4
Deputy White House Counsel William K. Kelley e-mails Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson, authorizing the dismissal of seven U.S. Attorneys. "We're a go for the US Attny plan. WH leg, political, and communications have signed off and acknowledged that we have to be committed to following through once the pressure comes." [Timeline: The Firing of U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, 03/18/07]

7
The Justice Department fires Carol Lam [prosecutor of Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham] and six other U.S. attorneys. [Timeline: The Firing of U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, 03/18/07]

19
11 percent of Americans support escalating the war in Iraq by adding at least 20,000 additional U.S. forces. [CNN, 12/19/2006]

January 2007

10
“The thousands of troops that President Bush is expected to order to Iraq will join the fight largely without the protection of the latest armored vehicles that withstand bomb blasts far better than the Humvees in wide use, military officers said.” [Baltimore Sun, 1/10/2007]

30
The Army and Marine Corps “are short thousands of vehicles, armor kits and other equipment needed to supply” the extra 21,500 troops President Bush plans to send to Iraq. “It’s inevitable that that has to happen, unless five brigades of up-armored Humvees fall out of the sky,” one senior Army official said. [Washington Post, 1/30/2007]

"Federal Climate Scientists Report at Least 435 Incidents of Inappropriate Interference with Their Work
A survey conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the Government Accountability Project (GAP) bolsters allegations that the Bush administration is pressuring climate scientists to produce material that does not contradict its position on global warming. The survey was distributed to 1,600 climate scientists at seven federal agencies. Of those, 279 responded. [...] 150 climate scientists said they personally experienced political interference in the past five years, for a total of at least 435 incidents." [Union of Concerned Scientists, 1/30/2007 ; Reuters, 1/30/2007]

February 2007

2
National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq declares Iraq is worse than a civil war. The document states that the term civil war “accurately describes key elements of the Iraqi conflict,” though it “does not adequately capture the complexity of the conflict.” [Washington Post, 2/3/2007]

18
A Washington Post investigation reveals that returning soldiers face deplorable conditions at Walter Reed’s outpatient center - "The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses." [Washington Post, 2/18/2007]

A longitudinal study by Donald Shields (Professor Emeritus, Department of Communication, University of Missouri-St. Louis) and John F. Cragan (Professor Emeritus, Department of Communication, Illinois State University) indicates "that the offices of the U.S. Attorneys across the nation investigate seven (7) times as many Democratic officials as they investigate Republican officials, a number that exceeds even the racial profiling of African Americans in traffic stops." [The Political Profiling of Elected Democratic Officials: When Rhetorical Vision Participation Runs Amok, ePluribusMedia, 02/18/2007]

26
Laura Bush: “Many parts of Iraq are stable. But of course what we see on television is the one bombing a day that discourages everyone.” [Larry King Live,” Feb. 26, 2007]

March 2007

14
The Pentagon acknowledges Iraq is a civil war - “In its bleakest assessment of the war to date, a quarterly Pentagon report said that last October through December was the most violent three-month period since 2003. Attacks and casualties suffered by coalition and Iraqi forces and civilians were higher than any other similar time span, said the report.” [AP, 3/14/07]

19
New York Times reports: "A House committee [House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform] released documents Monday that showed hundreds of instances in which a White House official who was previously an oil industry lobbyist edited government climate reports to play up uncertainty of a human role in global warming or play down evidence of such a role." [New York Times, 02/20/07]

20
DOJ fails to release all documents related to attorney firings: "In DOJ documents that were publicly posted by the House Judiciary Committee, there is a gap from mid-November to early December in e-mails and other memos, which was a critical period as the White House and Justice Department reviewed, then approved, which U.S. attorneys would be fired while also developing a political and communications strategy for countering any fallout from the firings." [The Politico, 03/21/07]

21
Summarizing his March 6th testimony before Congress, fired U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias writes in the New York Times: "Politics entered my life with two phone calls that I received last fall, just before the November election. One came from Representative Heather Wilson and the other from Senator Domenici, both Republicans from my state, New Mexico. Ms. Wilson asked me about sealed indictments pertaining to a politically charged corruption case widely reported in the news media involving local Democrats. Her question instantly put me on guard. Prosecutors may not legally talk about indictments, so I was evasive. Shortly after speaking to Ms. Wilson, I received a call from Senator Domenici at my home. The senator wanted to know whether I was going to file corruption charges — the cases Ms. Wilson had been asking about — before November. When I told him that I didn’t think so, he said, 'I am very sorry to hear that,' and the line went dead.
A few weeks after those phone calls, my name was added to a list of United States attorneys who would be asked to resign — even though I had excellent office evaluations, the biggest political corruption prosecutions in New Mexico history, a record number of overall prosecutions and a 95 percent conviction rate." [Why I was Fired, New York Times, 03/21/07]

29
House Oversight Committee asks White House to explain why White House staffers and officials access political e-mail accounts to circumvent the automatically-archived White House e-mail system. [House Oversight Committee letter, 03/29/07]

April 2007
12
CREW [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington] learns "that the Executive Office of the President (EOP) has lost over FIVE MILLION emails generated between March 2003 and October 2005. The White House counsel’s office was advised of these problems in 2005 and CREW has been told that the White House was given a plan of action to recover these emails, but to date nothing has been done to rectify this significant loss of records." [ CREW, 04/12/07]

18
The Supreme Court upholds a federal law "banning a controversial abortion procedure, giving the anti-abortion movement one of its biggest legal victories in years." [N.Y. Times, 04/18/07]

24
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduces resolution impeaching Richard B. Cheney [Kucinich web site, 04/25/2007]

May 2007

1
Julie MacDonald, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, submits resignation, just "a week before House Congressional Oversight Committee was to hold a hearing on accusations that she violated the Endangered Species Act, censored science and mistreated staff of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service." [AP, 05/02/2007]

July 2007

1
George W. Bush commutes 30-month sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.[Seattle Times, 07/01/2007]

August 2007

27
Attorney General Gonzales, his tenure "marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress," resigns [N.Y. Times, 08/27/2007]

September 2007

17
Iraq cancels "the licence of the private security firm, Blackwater USA, after it was involved in a gunfight in which at least eight civilians died." [BBC News, 09/17/2007]

SOURCES:

http://www.inthesetimes.com
http://thinkprogress.org
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org
http://the-bush-disaster-timeline.blogspot.com
http://welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com

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