Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues &
Strategy Bulletin of December31, 2001
RED CHINA’S TOP LOBBYIST FOR
HUTCHISON WHAMPOA NAMED BY BUSH TO BE DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND
BUDGET
According to The Wall Street Journal (p. 1, 11/30/01)
"Cheney hand Nancy Dorn is expected to get the No. 2 job at the White House Office of
Management and Budget. With budget director Daniels at odds with Congress’ GOP
leaders, Dorn offers good Capitol ties: The Cheney staffer once worked for House Speaker
Hastert. Former budget deputy Sean O’Keefe also was a Cheney ally."
As reported in HPISB #664, February 28, 2001, "Mrs. Dorn, whose husband
was on the staff of Bob Dole, was previously hired to be national security adviser to GOP
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, despite the fact that she had served as a registered foreign
agent for the Chinese-controlled company, Hutchison Whampoa."
RUMSFELD MERITS THANKS FOR HIS ROLE
IN BUSH’S DECISION TO EXIT ABM
"The [ABM] decision ends a raging debate within the administration
over the wisdom of withdrawing from the treaty, and marks a major policy defeat for
Secretary Powell. He has long maintained that it was still possible to negotiate an
agreement with Russia that would allow the Pentagon to move forward with the kind of tests
it insists are necessary to develop an antiballistic missile system initially capable of
handling the launch of a handful of nuclear weapons at the United States.
"At the same time, Mr. Bush’s decision was a major victory for Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, fresh from the success of the military campaign against the
Taliban and Al Qaeda. Mr. Rumsfeld has countered that there is no technologically
satisfying way to amend the accord that President Richard M. Nixon signed with the former
Soviet Union nearly three decades ago."
CONDI RICE BACKED RUMMY
"In the end, Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza
Rice, sided with Mr. Rumsfeld, several administration and congressional officials said
today. …"
ARTIFICIAL BARRIERS TO TESTING WILL
BE REVIEWED
"The treaty allows either signatory to withdraw with six
months’ notice. If Mr. Bush goes ahead with his announcement this week - possibly on
Wednesday or Thursday - it would mean that the administration would be free to conduct any
type of test it wants by mid-June. The Pentagon plans to start construction on silos and a
missile defense command center at Fort Greely, Alaska, in late April or early May. The
silos and center would initially be used for testing allowed by the treaty. But Russian
officials note that part of the plan is for the ‘test bed’ to become part of an
operational missile-defense system. For that reason, some ABM experts contend that the
work would violate the treaty.
"Pentagon officials have also said they want to schedule tests in which ship-based
radars track long-range missiles early next year. Such tests are not allowed under the
treaty. …"
BUSH VERSION OF SDI WOULD NOT
PROTECT AGAINST A RUSSIAN ICBM STRIKE
"Another official said this evening, ‘In a way, the bigger
question is how the Chinese will react.’ While China is not a signatory to the
treaty, its arsenal of strategic nuclear weapons is so small - only 20 or so weapons can
reach American shores - that Chinese officials fear that the arsenal would be neutralized
by a modest American antimissile system built in Alaska or deployed on ships in the
Pacific. That could prompt China to speed the modernization of its nuclear forces,
something the White House believes it will do anyway. In contrast, even when Russia
reduces its nuclear arsenal to 1,500 or so weapons, a goal Mr. Putin has set, Russia would
be able to overwhelm any antimissile system now on the Pentagon’s drawing
boards." Source: New York Times, 12/12/01, pp. 1, 14
BUSH OFFERS BEIJING THE OPPORTUNITY
TO FIELD A NEW GENERATION OF MOBILE, MULTIPLE WARHEAD MISSILES
According to Mike Allen (Washington Post, 9/2/01, p.
1), "The United States plans to offer China an advance look at plans for testing
President Bush’s proposed missile defense shield, part of an emerging effort to
soften Beijing’s opposition to the plan, Bush administration officials said
yesterday.
"National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the United States will begin
intensive talks over the next several weeks to try to convince China it would not be
threatened by the shield and should not accelerate a buildup of nuclear missiles pointed
at the United States. …
"Another administration official said that as a sweetener for China, the United
States will signal that it recognizes both sides might want to resume nuclear weapons
testing in the future. Such tests, now precluded by a voluntary worldwide moratorium,
could allow China to field a new generation of mobile, multiple-warhead missiles.
…
"A missile defense shield, a system that would allow the United States to
intercept enemy missiles, is one of Bush’s most earnestly sought goals. … The
administration maintains that the shield is designed not to defend against world powers
such as China, but to offer protection against terrorists and rogue states such as Iraq,
Iran and North Korea. …"
WILL CHINA HAVE 240 MISSILES AIMED
AT U.S. - OR 2400?
"China has about two dozen missiles pointed at the United States,
and scholars expect that number to increase tenfold over the next decade. Rice said that
because of the ongoing buildup, opponents of a missile defense shield should not argue
that it ‘is somehow going to drive an arms race.’ …
"Conservatives warned the administration against giving too much ground for the
sake of the missile shield. Kenneth Adelman, who was President Ronald Reagan’s arms
control director, said he disagreed with the notion that ‘if you act very sweetly
toward the Chinese, the Chinese will reciprocate.’
" ‘My experience over many years of negotiating with the Chinese is that
they take what you give and give almost nothing in return,’ Adelman said."
BUSH MAY LIFT BAN ON MILITARY
TRANSFERS TO RED CHINA
Steven Mufson and Philip Pan write (Washington Post, 10/17/01, p.
1) that "The Bush administration, seeking to promote exchanges of anti-terrorist
intelligence with China, is considering a waiver on sanctions that bar the sale of
military-related equipment to Chinese security forces, government sources said yesterday.
"The U.S. move on the sanctions, which were imposed after the 1989 crackdown on
Tiananmen Square demonstrators, would clear the way for the sale of spare parts of Black
Hawk helicopters the United States sold to China during the 1980s. The helicopters are
designed for use at high altitudes typical of much of China, including its border with
Afghanistan."
BUSH AGREES WITH CLINTON: PRC NOW
HIS STRATEGIC "PARTNER"
"The waiver would signal a further thaw in U.S.-China relations on
the eve of President Bush’s departure today for Shanghai for a meeting of the Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation group. …
"Having come into office calling China a ‘strategic competitor,’ Bush
now is focusing on Beijing as a potential partner in the war against terrorism.
…"
BUSH EMBRACES "ONE CHINA"
"When Bush and Jiang meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit, the
highlights are expected to include a reiteration by Bush of U.S. support for a ‘one
China’ policy, which holds there is only one China and the self-governing island
Taiwan is part of it. It also is expected to include a joint statement on terrorism and
Chinese agreement to a U.S. request to open an FBI office in Beijing.
"The U.S. focus on terrorism will probably prevent criticism of China’s
tough stance toward Uighur separatists in the largely Muslim region of Xinjiang.
…
"China has denied it violated that nonproliferation agreement [reached by the
Clinton administration in November] and has asked that the Bush administration lift
sanctions it imposed on China Metallurgical Equipment Corp. … Sources close to the
administration said the administration had urged Beijing to nationalize the company, which
is a private firm with close connections to the government."
PRC’S PROMISES BROKEN WITHOUT
CONSEQUENCES
" ‘Since the sanctions were imposed, there has been no real
response,’ said a senior administration official. ‘They are clearly not abiding
by their November 2000 agreement with the Clinton administration.’
"Administration officials are also frustrated that China has failed to fulfill
a promise made in November to publish a list of missile components barred from export and
establish a system for enforcing it. China might issue that list during Bush’s visit,
U.S. officials said. …"
BUSH HAILS JIANG AS "GREAT
LEADER"
"[S]ince the attacks on New York and Washington, the two men [Bush
and Jiang] have communicated by telephone twice and, according to Chinese sources, Bush
described Jiang as ‘a great leader of a great nation’ in one conversation."
COLIN POWELL SAYS RED CHINA TARGETS
OUR CITIES, NOT OUR DEFENSE FORCES
"Washington: US Secretary of State Colin Powell, fresh from his
talks with Chinese leaders, has said China will continue to keep American cities within
striking distance of its missiles and modernise its nuclear weapons. …"
BEIJING’S STRATEGY DIFFERS
FROM THAT OF MOSCOW
" ‘The Chinese have always kept a relatively small amount of
intercontinental ballistic missiles and they have never viewed them the same way as [the]
Soviet Union did during the Cold War when we were constantly building up,’ Powell
told reporters aboard plane en route home from Shanghai.
" ‘If we put them (missiles) in SSBNS (nuclear submarines), they would put
them in SSBNS. If we had a triad (missiles in the air, on land and at sea), they had a
triad,’ Powell said about the Cold War with erstwhile Soviet Union.
" ‘The Chinese were never part of that competition in the same way. They
built a few first strike intercontinental ballistic missiles. They were not designed to go
after somebody else’s nuclear forces. They were designed to go after something of
enormous value - San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle - and as long as they could do that,
their nuclear forces were serving their purpose,’ he said.
" ‘It is expected that over time one would modernise such a force. Can’t
keep an old force around forever. The Chinese have been working to modernise that force,
which tends to make it way more stable and safe,’ he added." Source: www.timesofindia.com,
10/24/01
BUSH GETS GOP HOUSE LEADERS TO BACK
$582 MILLION UNITED NATIONS "ASSESSMENT" ON U.S. TAXPAYERS
Juliet Eilperin writes that "The House yesterday unanimously
approved legislation that would provide $582 million to pay back dues to the United
Nations, a reflection of how the political landscape has been altered by the terrorist
attacks two weeks ago. …
"During a brief floor debate yesterday afternoon followed by a voice vote, both
Republicans and Democrats said the United States cannot afford to ignore the U.N.’s
needs at a time when Bush administration officials are seeking a broad international
coalition to combat terrorism. White House officials have lobbied behind the scenes for
the money since the attacks."
DeLAY COMPLIES WITHOUT DELAY - THE
CONSTITUTION IS UNREPRESENTED IN CONGRESS
" ‘We’re not going to deny the president the flexibility
he needs in conducting foreign policy,’ DeLay spokesman Jonathan Grella said.
"Although the measure does not wipe out the United States’ entire U.N. debt -
the nation owes $862 million to the international body - it represents a significant step
forward in what has been a contentious legislative process. …
"DeLay, who has been negotiating with White House officials for several weeks,
announced two days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that he
would support the president’s U.N. request." Source: Washington Post,
9/25/01, p. A1
BUSH GIVES CUSHY PATRONAGE JOB TO
PRO-ABORT CLINTON HOLDOVER
"Another Clinton Holdover Re-appointed by Bush - Franz Leichter,
who served 30 years in the New York Legislature, has been re-appointed to a position on
the Federal Housing Finance Board on which he already serves, having been appointed to the
Board by Bill Clinton in 1999. According to the Swarthmore
Bulletin, Leichter ‘exhibits pride when speaking of two legislative
accomplishments that stand as bookends around his career. In 1970, a bill he introduced
made New York the first state to legalize abortion. This was three years before the
U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision and an extremely controversial move
at the time - especially for a newcomer. "It was just the right thing to do,"
says Leichter of his pioneering effort.’ " Source: Republican National Coalition
for Life FaxNotes, P.O. Box 618, Alton, IL 62002, 11/2/01
CARLYLE GROUP TIES TO GOP
ESTABLISHMENT COULD BE A 2004 EMBARRASSMENT FOR GWB
"FBI agents in the United States probing relatives of Saudi-born
terror suspect Osama Bin Laden before September 11 were told to back off soon after George
W Bush became president, the BBC has reported. The BBC’s Newsnight current
affairs programme on Tuesday said that Bush at one point had a number of connections with
Saudi Arabia’s prominent Bin Laden family.
"It added there was a suspicion that the US strategic interest in Saudi Arabia,
which has the world’s biggest oil reserve, blunted its inquiries into individuals
with suspected terrorist connections - so long as the US was safe. …"
THE SAUDI-SALEM BIN LADEN
CONNECTION
"Newsnight said Bush made his first million 20 years ago
with an oil company partly funded by the chief US representative of Salem Bin Laden,
Osama’s brother. Bush also received fees as director of a subsidiary of Carlyle
Corporation, a little-known private company which in just a few years since its
founding has become one of America’s biggest defence contractors, and his father,
George Bush Sr, is also a paid advisor, the programme said.
"The connection became embarrassing when it was revealed that the Bin Ladens
held a stake in Carlyle, sold just after September 11, it added." Source: Agence
France Press, London, 11/7/01
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of
June 15, 2001
IS BUSH’S AMBASSADOR TO THE
PRC A LOBBYIST FOR U.S. CORPORATIONS DOING BUSINESS IN RED CHINA?
"The new U.S. ambassador to China is an old Bush college friend
who has spent the last decade representing U.S. companies in China. Last night, the
President told a Washington audience that he supports ‘free trade’ with China,
but there can be no free trade when one-third of the commerce is with companies controlled
by the People’s Liberation Army. In short, China as a marketplace still seems to come
first, ahead of our national security." Source: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working
Families End of Day, 5/8/01
BUSH AND CONGRESS OVERTURN REAGAN POLICY AND REJOIN UNESCO
"Around the United Nations there was joy and a bit of surprise
last week when Congress allowed to stand a $67 million allocation to rejoin UNESCO, the
U.N. agency from which Washington withdrew in 1984.
"The money was included in an $8.2 billion State Department appropriations
bill....
" ‘I am happy that the funds for UNESCO have been released, and I hope in
time the U.S. will join UNESCO, sooner rather than later,’ U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said last week. ...
"President Reagan withdrew the United States from the Paris-based U.N.
Educational, Scientific Cultural Organization, criticizing it as a corrupt agency with an
anti-Western bias and an ill-defined mandate.
"Britain, under Margaret Thatcher, withdrew at roughly the same time and returned
shortly after Tony Blair was elected prime minister." Source: Washington Times,
5/14/01, p. A13, The U.N.Report, by Betsy Pisik in New York
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of
April 15, 2001
SUPPORT FOR CONTINUATION OF MFN
SHOWS WORLD THAT BUSH LOVES COMMERCE MORE THAN HE LOATHES COMMUNISM
"This incident was good for China because it demonstrated that
America will do anything to avoid confrontation, and will sacrifice its national honor to
accommodate the Chinese.
"What message have we just telegraphed allies in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea?
What about other rogue nations and terrorist groups that may take Americans hostage in the
future?
"For almost two weeks China kept poking us in the eye with an ice pick. ...
"In truth, we should now be ‘very sorry’ for trading with China, opening
up our universities to their students, opening our capital markets to their businesses,
sharing our technology, and helping to make them a great power."
BUSH’S "MEXICO CITY" ABORTION
POLICY DEPENDS ON WHAT THE MEANING OF "IS" IS.
ABORTION AND ABORTION ADVOCACY WILL STILL BE FUNDED
Previously, your editor has pointed out that President G.W.B.’s
decision to restore the Reagan "Mexico City" policy, limiting the provision of
your tax dollars flowing to overseas population control organizations was less significant
than assumed by many well-intentioned pro-life leaders, in that, while the Bush policy
does limit the direct use of U.S. subsidies to perform and promote abortion, nonetheless,
the pro-abortion recipient organizations still get the money to which they are not
Constitutionally or morally entitled, with these funds available to offset their other
expenses, so long as the U.S. Treasury dollars are assigned to a separate bank account.
Now, in reviewing the policy as enunciated in the Federal Register (Vol.
66, No. 61, Thursday, March 29, 2001) Presidential Documents, "Memorandum of March
28, 2001: Restoration of the Mexico City Policy" over the signature of President
Bush, it is clear that this is even less a pro-life victory than first believed.
"FAMILY PLANNING":
YES, "ABORTION": NO --- WITH EXCEPTIONS
GWB: "The Mexico City Policy announced by President Reagan
in 1984 required foreign nongovernmental organizations to agree as a condition of their
receipt of Federal funds for family planning activities that such organizations would
neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other
nations….
"It is my conviction that taxpayer funds appropriated pursuant to the Foreign
Assistance Act should not be given to foreign nongovernmental organizations that perform
abortions or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other
nations…except as otherwise provided below...."
ABORTION FUNDING OK IF NOT
"A METHOD OF FAMILY PLANNING"
"The recipient agrees that it will not furnish assistance for
family planning under this award to any foreign nongovernmental organization that performs
or actively promotes abortion as a method of family planning in USAID-recipient
countries or that provides financial support to any other foreign nongovernmental
organization that conducts such activities. For purposes of this paragraph (e), a foreign
nongovernmental organization is a nongovernmental organization that is not
organized under the laws of any State of the United States, the District of Columbia or
the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. ..."
FUNDING OF
"POST-ABORTION" CARE IS AUTHORIZED
"Abortion is a method of family planning when it is for the
purpose of spacing births. This includes, but is not limited to, abortions performed
for the physical or mental health of the mother, but does not include abortions performed
if the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term or
abortions performed following rape or incest (since abortion under these circumstances is
not a family planning act)."
FUNDING OF POST-ABORTION
SERVICES PERMITTED
"To perform abortions means to operate a facility where abortions
are performed as a method of family planning. Excluded from this definition are clinics or
hospitals that do not include abortion in their family planning programs. Also excluded
from this definition is the treatment of injuries or illnesses caused by legal or illegal
abortions, for example, post-abortion care. ..."
GWB: "SAFE, LEGAL
ABORTION" REFERRAL IS PERMITTED
"([P]assively responding to a question regarding where a safe,
legal abortion may be obtained is not considered active promotion if the question is
specifically asked by a woman who is already pregnant, the woman clearly states that she
has already decided to have a legal abortion, and the family planning counselor reasonably
believes that the ethics of the medical profession in the country requires a response
regarding where it may be obtained safely).…"
GWB OK’S ABORTION
ADVOCACY IF "FAMILY PLANNING" PERSONNEL DO IT ON THEIR LUNCH HOUR
"Action by an individual acting in the individual’s capacity
shall not be attributed to an organization with which the individual is associated,
provided that the organization neither endorses nor provides financial support for the
action and takes reasonable steps to ensure that the individual does not improperly
represent that the individual is acting on behalf of the organization. ..."
SEPARATE BANK ACCOUNTS FOR
ABORTION AND CONTRACEPTION
"The recipient may request USAID’s approval to treat as
separate the family planning activities of two or more organizations, that would not be
considered separate under the preceding sentence, if the recipient believes, and provides
a written justification to USAID therefor, that the family planning activities of the
organizations are sufficiently distinct so as to warrant not imputing the activity of one
to the other."
ALL U.S. FUNDS MUST BE
CLEANLY LAUNDERED
"Assistance for family planning may be furnished under this
award by a recipient, subrecipient or sub-subrecipient to a foreign government even though
the government includes abortion in its family planning program, provided that no
assistance may be furnished in support of the abortion activity of the government and any
funds transferred to the government shall be placed in a segregated account to ensure that
such funds may not be used to support the abortion activity of the government."
DUBYA SAYS USAID SUBSIDIES
WILL FUND CHILD-SPACING ABORTIONS
"The requirements of this paragraph are not applicable to
child spacing assistance furnished to a foreign nongovernmental organization that is
engaged primarily in providing health services if the objective of the assistance is to
finance integrated health care services to mothers and children and child spacing is one
of several health care services being provided by the organization as part of a larger
child survival effort with the objective of reducing infant and child mortality."
BUSH HOMOSEXUALIZES HIS ADMINISTRATION
"Scott Evertz, President Bush’s appointment to head the White
House Office of National AIDS Policy, has voiced opposition to the conservative moral
positions of President Bush and the Republican Party, including legislation prohibiting
the recognition of same-sex marriage."
DUBYA PROFESSES OPPOSITION TO
"SAME SEX MARRIAGE" BUT HIRES AN ADVOCATE
"Evertz, an open homosexual, is a founding member and president of
the Wisconsin chapter of the homosexual advocacy organization Log Cabin Republicans. He
has been associated with various other homosexual advocacy organizations as well,
including the Log Cabin Society and Amnesty International Members for Lesbian and Gay
Concerns. …
"[W]hen Evertz was head of the Log Cabin Society, he opposed efforts by Wisconsin
State Rep. Dean Kaufert to introduce a bill barring Wisconsin officials from recognizing
counterfeit marriages that are legally recognized in other states. As reported in the Capital
Times (Madison, Wis.), Evertz and other homosexual groups ‘blast[ed] the
proposal,’ calling it ‘a waste of taxpayer time and money.’ Evertz lamented
that ‘[t]he last time I checked, gay men and lesbians couldn’t even get married
in this state.’ "
EVERTZ OPPOSES RIGHT OF CHRISTIANS
TO DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM PERVERSION
"That same year, Evertz also led a session at the Amnesty
International Regional Conference in Madison, in which he represented Amnesty
International Members for Lesbian and Gay Concerns. According to the Capital Times,
Evertz advised the audience ‘to use Wisconsin as a model in promoting gay rights
around the world.’ In 1982, Wisconsin became the first state to enact statewide
homosexual rights legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of ‘sexual
orientation.’ "
SPECIAL STATUS FOR ANAL SEX
PRACTITIONERS IN EXECUTIVE BRANCH
"The Log Cabin Republicans officially supports former President
Clinton’s Executive Order 13087, which grants special status to government employees
on the basis of their ‘sexual orientation.’ This places sexual behavior on a par
with immutable characteristics such as race and national origin, as well as
constitutionally protected freedoms such as religious belief. …"
USE OF FEDERAL EDUCATION DOLLARS
FOR SAFE SODOMY SEX ED IS NOW BUSH AGENDA
"Evertz also opposes abstinence-only sex education to curb the
spread of AIDS among teens. Evertz supports ‘safe sex’ instruction in public
schools, which includes ‘counseling teens to use condoms if they choose to reject
their parent’s [sic] advice.’ Public school ‘safe sex’ instruction
has been criticized for exposing children to explicit and graphic discussion about
sexuality issues such as homosexuality, which are often presented outside of a
framework of moral and religious values."
CHRISTIAN LEADERS PROTEST IN VAIN
TO THEIR MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE
"Dr. James Dobson, President of Focus on the Family, criticized the
appointment of an open homosexual to the White House AIDS office: ‘For the
administration to appoint Mr. Evertz to this position is to advance a fundamental
misunderstanding of what causes AIDS in this country. AIDS is primarily spread by
promiscuous sexual behavior, and such behavior is rampant among male homosexuals. This
appointment sends a disturbing message that the problem of AIDS can be resolved without
dealing with the promiscuity of many in the homosexual life.’ " (Source: Family
Research Council’s Culturefacts, 4/13/01)
BUSH WANTS SODOMITES IN HIS COALITION
Jill Lawrence writes (USA Today, 4/17/01, p. 8A) that
"President Bush’s choice of a gay man to head the White House AIDS office is the
latest sign of a warming trend between gays and the GOP."
CLINTON’S PRO-HOMO EXECUTIVE
ORDER KEPT
"Bush named four openly gay people to help with his transition,
and aides are interviewing more than a dozen for key jobs. Bush has moved to reverse
some of former president Bill Clinton’s policies on abortion, labor and the
environment, but he has left in place a 1998 order banning discrimination against gays
in 1.7 million federal civil service jobs. ..."
"GAY" ACTIVISTS
COMFORTABLE WITH BUSH CABINET
"The AIDS office amounts to an advocacy post, and ‘even Bill
Clinton did not name a prominent gay activist’ to head it, says Richard Lessner of
American Renewal, a lobbying group. ‘Increasingly, we’re seeing gestures from
the president that are strikingly inconsistent with his repeated assertions that he stands
for marriage and the family.’ ...
"[G]ay people ... are encouraged by other appointments, including Health and Human
Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Rod
Paige. All have worked with gay activists. ...
"Bush directed Thompson, his platform chairman, to eliminate planks opposing gay
marriage, gays in the military and civil rights protections for gays and lesbians. When
the platform committee outvoted Thompson, he protested on TV. ...
"Mary Cheney, a lesbian, was her father’s chief campaign travel aide. She
and her partner, Heather Poe, sat with other relatives on the VIP stand at the
Inauguration."
BUSH BRAGS ABOUT BUDGET BOOSTS FOR
UNCONSTITUTIONAL PROGRAMS
THE PRESIDENT: "Good morning. I’m discussing the budget
we’re sending to the Hill today, with my Cabinet. It’s a budget that protects
tax payers, protects children, protects our surplus. It represents compassionate
conservatism. It’s a budget that sets priorities. It’s a budget that
recognizes there are some good programs here in Washington that need to be funded.
"For example, the budget provides a $21 million increase for food safety
programs, $1 billion increase for Pell Grants for low income students, $350 million
increase for child care. We help children whose parents are in prison with a $67 million
mentoring program. We increase funding available to prevent child abuse by 66 percent. We
fight crime, $87 million increase for front line prosecutors. We give $75 million for
project Child Safe, which is a program that provides gun safety locks for families."
(Source: Transcript, White House Cabinet photo-session, 4/9/01)
BUSH’S 5.6% SPENDING HIKE OUTPACES
CLINTON’S 3.5% AVERAGE
Robert Pear writes (New York Times, 4/10/01, p. 1) that
"Under Mr. Bush’s proposal, federal spending would rise by $104 billion, or 5.6
percent, to a total of $1.96 trillion in the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1. By
contrast, in the last eight years, under President Bill Clinton, federal spending grew an
average of 3.5 percent a year...."
BUSH POLICY BASED ON NIXON, CLINTON
EXECUTIVE ORDERS PUSHING RACIAL AND ETHNIC QUOTAS
"There are three Executive Orders that support the provision of
training grants to the educational institutions targeted in this priority area:
"(1) Executive Order 13021 of October 19, 1969....
"(2) Executive Order 12876 of November 1, 1993, Historically Black Colleges and
Universities which requires strengthening the capacity of Historical Black Colleges and
Universities to provide quality education and increased opportunities to participate in
and benefit from Federal programs.
"(3) Executive Order 12900 of December 5, 1994, Educational Excellence for
Hispanic Americans that requires the provision of quality education and increased
education and increased opportunities to participate in and benefit from Federal
programs."
Is this any business of the Federal government anyway?
$305.6 BILLION IS TOTAL OF FEDERAL
GRANTS TO STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
Of general interest in the HHS issuance is the observation of the
Office of Management and Budget that "It is estimated that in 2001 the Federal
Government will outlay $305.6 billion in grants to State and local governments" (Federal
Register, 4/6/01, p. 18392), in effect making them agents of the Federal government,
accountable to the Federal bureaucracy rather than to state and local citizens.
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy
Bulletin of February 28, 2001
CHENEY HIRES HUTCHISON WHAMPOA’S
FOREIGN AGENT
In what could be a serious blow to the continuing campaign of The
Conservative Caucus and allied organizations to restore a U.S. military presence in Panama
and challenge control of port facilities at the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the Panama
Canal by a company closely linked to the Chinese Communist government, Vice President Dick
Cheney has hired Nancy Dorn to be a key member of his Capitol Hill staff.
As you will recall from previous editions of HPISB, Mrs. Dorn, whose husband
was on the staff of Bob Dole, was previously hired to be national security adviser to GOP
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, despite the fact that she had served as a registered foreign
agent for the Chinese-controlled company, Hutchison Whampoa.
According to an article by Eric Schmitt in The New York Times (2/3/01, p.
A8), "To help track Congress and tend to lawmakers’ needs, [Vice President Dick]
Cheney has hired Nancy P. Dorn, [House Speaker Dennis] Hastert’s former foreign
policy adviser...."
SECRETARY POWELL DISCOUNTS IMPORTANCE OF
GROWING RED CHINESE INFLUENCE AT PANAMA CANAL
Bill Gertz writes (Washington Times, 2/7/01, p. A7) that "Secretary of
State Colin Powell said yesterday he is not concerned about China’s influence in
the Panama Canal....
" ‘The Chinese presence in the Panama Canal has been written about and spoken
of, but it isn’t...I have not found that the so-called "presence" in the
form of shipping companies and the like have created any danger to the Panamanian people,
the Panamanian government, or to the canal itself,’ Mr. Powell said at a press
conference. ..."
POWELL UNAWARE OF COLOMBIA-CHINA TALKS
"The secretary of state was asked about a recent visit to Beijing by a senior
Colombian government official who was seeking Chinese assistance in agricultural
development aid for northeastern Colombia. Mr. Powell said he was unaware of the request.
...
"Concerns about Chinese influence in Panama were raised by the leasing of two
ports near both ends of the canal by a Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa in
1997.
"The company’s chairman, Li Ka-Shing, has close ties to the Chinese
government, according to declassified U.S. military intelligence documents.
"A 1998 Army intelligence report stated that Mr. Li ‘is planning to take
control of Panama Canal operations when the U.S. transfers it to Panama in Dec. 99.’
" ‘Li is directly connected to Beijing and is willing to use his business
influence to further the aims of the Chinese government,’ one of the documents
stated."
RED CHINESE CRIME SYNDICATES EXPLOIT PORT
CONTROL IN PANAMA
"A U.S. Southern Command intelligence report from October 1999
called the leases of Balboa and Cristobal by Panama Ports Co., a subsidiary of Hutchison
Whampoa, ‘a potential threat.’
"The Southern Command report stated that China is not likely to
sabotage the Panama Canal but could use the port facilities as ‘a conduit for illegal
shipments of technology’ to China, or to ‘facilitate the movement of arms and
other prohibited items into the Americas.’
"Pentagon officials have said China could use its access to the ports to disrupt
shipping if a conflict erupts between China and Taiwan, and the U.S. military was called
in to defend the island.
"Organized Chinese crime groups are also using Panama as a base for the
smuggling of narcotics, illegal aliens and arms, according to a U.S. Customs Service
intelligence report."
BEIJING ALSO TARGETS CUBA AND
VENEZUELA
"China also has increased military ties with Cuba and has begun
developing closer relations with the leftist government of Venezuela."
COLIN POWELL REASSURES PERMANENT STATE DEPARTMENT
BUREAUCRACY
Jane Perlez writes (New York Times, 1/23/01, p. A4) that "To improve
sagging morale, General [Colin] Powell said he would try to ‘empower’ the
professional diplomats. ‘I was the head of my own transition team, and we only
brought a few people in here,’ he said. ‘We didn’t want to come in with
strike teams racing all over the building to rip up everything you have done.’
"The welcome was organized by the American Foreign Service Association, the union
for diplomats, which dispensed blue lapel ribbons cut with a symbolic slash to suggest
that there should be no more blue ribbon commissions to study department reform. Instead,
the union says that General Powell should take action. ..."
POWELL CHECKS IN WITH CARLUCCI AND CFR
"Among those the general met with today were Frank C. Carlucci, a secretary of
defense in the Reagan era and one of the general’s earliest mentors in government,
and Leslie H. Gelb, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations. The pair presented
General Powell with what Mr. Carlucci called an ‘action document’ that
summarized nearly half a dozen reports in the last several years on how to reform the
State Department."
THE "NEW BROOM" WON’T SWEEP CLEAN
"While General Powell stressed last week at his hearing and again today that he
would try to keep the number of political appointees under control, he will soon be
faced with candidates from the White House, notable Republican Party supporters, who want
prime ambassadorial posts.
"In most administrations, about 30 percent of the ambassadors are chosen from
among hefty contributors or tireless workers from the president’s campaign. Some of
the plum posts – Paris, Rome, London, Tokyo – are now, or will soon be,
available for such appointees, department officials said."
POWELL PREDICTS EXTENDED U.S. STAY IN BOSNIA
AND KOSOVO
Jonathan Wright reports for Reuters (dailynews.yahoo.com, 2/4/01)
that "NATO troops will probably stay in the Balkans for years and U.S. troops will
not leave Bosnia or Kosovo ‘in the immediate future,’ Secretary of State Colin
Powell (news – web sites) said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
" ‘There is no exit date for the whole force either in Bosnia [or] Kosovo.
Those will be long-term commitments,’ he told ABC’s ‘This Week’
program. ...
"His comments were another indication that the administration of U.S. President
George W. Bush (news – web sites) has had second thoughts about any abrupt
withdrawal from Bosnia and Kosovo, where U. S. troops are part of NATO-led
peacekeeping forces. ..."
IS SDI TO BE NEGOTIATED, NOT
IMPLEMENTED?
"Powell, giving his first lengthy television interview since taking
office on Jan. 20, was also conciliatory toward Europe on U.S. plans for a national
missile defense (NMD) opposed by Russia, China and some of Washington’s European
allies."
" ‘It is not something that is going to happen without full consultation with
our friends and allies and full consultation with the Russians, and beyond that, full
consultation with other nations that have an interest in this is Asia – Japan, Korea
and China,’ he said."
COLIN POWELL PROMISES KOFI ANNAN
"STRONG SUPPORT" FOR U.N. BY BUSH ADMINISTRATION
Barbara Crossette writes (The New York Times,
2/15/01, p. A10) that "Stepping into the heart of an organization grown wary of
Republicans, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell sought today to assure Secretary General
Kofi Annan that he could count on the strong support of the Bush Administration across a
wide spectrum of United Nations activities. …
"The secretary of state … went further than most Republicans in pledging
to cooperate with the United Nations in working on social and economic problems."
WOULD CONDI RICE AND COLIN POWELL BE "PRO-CHOICE" ON SLAVERY?
"Condoleeza Rice, Bush's much-expected pick as national security
adviser, has described herself as ‘reluctantly pro-choice.’
" ‘What if I described myself as reluctantly
pro-slavery?’ [Douglas] Scott [President of Life Decisions International] retorted.
‘I mean, we are all reluctant to make hard choices.’ ...
"Judie Brown of American Life League was blunt: ‘Bush's pro-life honeymoon
will end in divorce. He passed up an enormous opportunity to say something profound in his
acceptance speech.’ Instead, says Brown, ‘Gonzales as White House counsel is not
pro-life. Rice is not held to a pro-life standard. Powell is pro-abortion. What is borne
out in these appointments is that Bush is not truly pro-life. Presidents listen to their
inner circle; Bush's actions contradict his rhetoric.’ Brown was particularly
frustrated with Powell: ‘The Secretary of State is in agreement with population
control. He will oversee population-control dollars.’ American foreign aid comes
under the auspices of the secretary of state." Source: Mary Jo Anderson, WorldNetDaily.com,
12/22/00
FOR DOD: HELP IS NOT YET ON THE WAY
Joseph Curl and Rowan Scarborough report (The Washington Times,
2/13/01, p. A1) that "Mr. Bush has been criticized by pro-defense lawmakers for
refusing to immediately submit to Congress the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s request for $7
billion in emergency funds in the 2001 budget.
"Despite the criticism, the president, who campaigned on a theme of
‘help is on the way’ to the armed forces, has not backed off his resistance to
funding emergency items such as spare parts, fuel and ammunition. He says any substantial
boost to future defense budgets must await his ordered ‘top to bottom’ review of
force structure to meet shifting post-Cold War threats. …"
BOOSTS IN PAY, HOUSING, AND HEALTH
CARE A GOOD FIRST STEP
" ‘I commend President Bush for proposing to dedicate $5.7
billion for increases in pay and improvements in housing and health care,’ the
Virginia Republican [Senator John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee]
said. ‘This is an excellent first step in the effort to keep faith with the men and
women in uniform and their families. I support strongly the president’s initiative to
pursue strategic assessments. I continue to believe, however, that there is a necessity
to have a supplemental appropriations bill before July 4 to address immediate personnel
and readiness needs.’ …
" ‘Now that he is in the White House, President Bush seems content to tell
our fighting forces not that help is on the way, but that the check is in the mail,’
[former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Senator Joseph] Lieberman said. ‘I am
today sending a letter to the president urging him to reconsider his decision regarding
defense spending.’ "
THE WORLD WON’T WAIT FOR U.S. TO
COMPLETE STRATEGIC REVIEW
Ike Skelton writes (USA Today, 2/14/01, p. 14A) that
"For the most part, Congress looks at national defense with a bipartisan eye.
That’s why we were encouraged to see both candidates for president urging increases
in funding for national defense. And that’s why Vice President Cheney’s
declaration that ‘help is on the way’ sounded welcome to many congressional
ears.
"And that’s also why it doesn’t sit too well with us to hear that
President Bush has now decided that no increase is needed, either for next year’s
budget or to pay the bills already clogging the Pentagon’s in-box.
"It probably doesn’t sit too well with a lot of the retired military
officers who broke tradition to publicly endorse the president, either. Instead of putting
money on the table, he has put egg on their faces. …
"An immediate supplemental appropriation to cover last year’s activity and a
responsible budget to meet the nation’s needs in the year ahead are both part of the
price of American leadership.
"Delay paying that bill, and training stops. Ammunition runs out. And good
people decide to say goodbye to the service. …
"[I]t’s not realistic for him to say, ‘Stop the world -- America
wants to get off.’ the world won’t wait for our strategic review. Neither will
the creditors, whom the men and women in uniform owe."
BUSH ON TRACK TO UNILATERALLY DISARM U.S.
NUCLEAR FORCE
Steven Lee Myers reports (New York Times, 2/9/01, p. 1) that
"President Bush will order a comprehensive review of the nation’s nuclear
arsenal, a first step toward the unilateral cuts in warheads and missiles that he promised
during last year’s campaign, senior military and administration officials said today.
..."
TWO-THIRDS REDUCTION IS PLANNED
"The nation’s arsenal as of last year included 7,519
nuclear warheads on missiles, submarines or bombers, compared with Russia’s 6,464.
But the review is expected to lead to cuts below the 2,000 to 2,500 warheads proposed by
the United States and Russia in 1997 as a goal for a third round of strategic arms
reduction talks, or Start III."
GOAL IS TO ASSUAGE CONCERNS OF
MOSCOW AND BEIJING
"Significant reductions in the American arsenal could smooth
anxieties among opponents about the administration’s pursuit of a missile shield. At
the same time, they could expose new differences between Mr. Bush and the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, who were dismayed by Mr. Bush’s decision not to propose an immediate infusion
into their budget.
"Last year, when President Clinton was considering ways to cut nuclear warheads
below the Start III proposals, the chiefs publicly warned against it. The Air
Force’s chief of staff, Gen. Michael E. Ryan, and the Chief of Naval Operations at
the time, Adm. Jay L. Johnson, both said they would be ‘uncomfortable’ with an
arsenal that low."
BUSH WILL OPEN U.S. BORDERS TO MEXICAN
TRUCKS
According to Paul Blustein (Washington Post, 2/7/01, p. E1),
"The Bush administration signaled yesterday that it will open the U.S. border at
least partially to Mexican trucks, after an arbitration panel ruled that Washington’s
ban on such vehicles violates the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement."
BUSH LIBERALIZES CLINTON’S
NAFTA POLICY
"The administration’s stance marks a sharp departure from
that of the Clinton White House concerning one of the most controversial aspects of NAFTA.
And although administration officials declined to say how or when the border might be
opened, the prospect of Mexican trucks rolling onto U.S. highways triggered an outpouring
of warnings from the Teamsters union and other groups that argue that public safety would
be endangered."
LESS SAFETY, MORE DRUGS, AND MORE
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
"The 1993 free-trade agreement, which reduced or eliminated
barriers to U.S.-Mexico trade in a host of sectors, contained a phased-in provision
allowing Mexican trucks to haul goods directly into the United States provided they meet
U.S. safety standards. While President Bill Clinton championed NAFTA, he bowed to pressure
from the Teamsters by refusing to open the border, asserting that Mexican trucks
couldn’t be adequately monitored for safety problems.
"Yesterday, however, a U.S. trade official told reporters that President Bush
‘has made clear he believes the NAFTA trucking provisions should be implemented, and
we intend to do that.’ As governor of Texas, where trade with Mexico looms large in
the local economy, Bush favored allowing entry to Mexican trucks, and he has consistently
maintained that rigorous inspections would protect the driving public. ...
"Until the rules are changed, Mexican trucks cannot venture beyond a 20-mile zone
at the U.S. border; they go to giant lots and transfer their cargo to American trucks. ...
"But the Teamsters scheduled a news conference for their president, James P.
Hoffa, today on Capitol Hill ‘to denounce the ruling,’ which they said
‘would allow unsafe trucks to freely cross the border.’ And Public Citizen, an
activist group founded by Ralph Nader that opposes free-trade pacts, issued a report
asserting that Mexico’s truck-safety regulations are ‘virtually
nonexistent’ and that the United States lacks enough inspectors to check incoming
trucks. ...
"Bret Caldwell, a Teamsters spokesman, conceded: ‘It certainly appears that
the administration is looking to move forward with opening the border.’ During his
presidential campaign, Bush told Hoffa that he intended to do so, Caldwell said. Still,
‘we will continue discussions with the administration, to delay [the opening] as long
as possible,’ he said."
LEST WE FORGET THOSE RESPONSIBLE
Those Senators who voted to enact NAFTA in 1993 (Senate Roll Call no.
395, passed 61-38, 11/20/93), and who continue to serve in the U.S. Senate are:
| Murkowski (R-Alaska), McCain (R-Ariz.), Dodd and
Lieberman (D-Conn.), Biden (D-Del.), Graham (D-Fla.), Lugar (R-Ind.), Grassley
(R-Iowa) and Harkin (D-Iowa), McConnell (R-Ky.), Breaux (D-La.), Kennedy and Kerry
(D-Mass.), Cochran and Lott (R-Miss.), Bond (R-Mo.), Baucus
(D-Mont.), Gregg (R-N.H.), Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Domenici (R-N.M.), Nickles
(R-Okla.), Specter (R-Penn.), Daschle (D-S.D.), Gramm and Hutchison
(R-Tex.), Bennett and Hatch (R-Utah), Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jeffords
(R-Vt.), Warner (R-Va.), and Murray (D-Wash.). |
Senate opponents of NAFTA still in office include:
| Shelby (R-Ala.), Stevens (R-Alaska), Boxer and Feinstein (D-Calif.),
Campbell (R-Colo.), Akaka and Inouye (D-Hawaii), Craig (R-Idaho), Mikulski and Sarbanes
(D-Md.), Levin (D-Mich.), Wellstone (D-Minn.), Burns (R-Mont.), Reid (D-Nev.), Smith
(R-N.H.), Helms (R-N.C.), Conrad (D-N.D.), Hollings (D-S.C.) and Thurmond (R-S.C.), Byrd
and Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), and Feingold and Kohl (D-Wisc.). |
TED OLSON IS A LOYAL REPUBLICAN AND IDEOLOGICAL
MAVERICK
Tony Mauro and Jonathan Ringel say (Legal Times, 2/5/01, p. 1) it’s
a good bet that Theodore Olson will be named Solicitor General in the new Bush
administration.
"Olson’s days as head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal
Counsel under former President Ronald Reagan suggest he does not always toe the Republican
line. ... [T]he solicitor general is a disinterested advocate who will defend the laws of
Congress – liberal or conservative – if a plausible defense can be made, and
won’t necessarily advance the administration’s social agenda. ...
" ‘What happens if Ashcroft says to Ted, "I want you to challenge Roe
v. Wade"?’ says Tim O’Brien, a close friend of Olson’s who used to
cover the Supreme Court for ABC News. ‘I don’t know the answer to that question.
I think Ted would not like to argue that case,’ says O’Brien, now a visiting
professor at St. Thomas University Law School in Miami. ...
" ‘Ted made life difficult for us,’ says Michael Horowitz, then general
counsel at the budget office and now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. ..."
OLSON WORKED TO STRIP BOB JONES OF
TAX-EXEMPT STATUS
"Some of Olson’s opinions on hot-button topics include:
" • A 1981 holding that the Internal Revenue Service was authorized to defend
its decision to strip Bob Jones University ... of its tax-exempt status."
OLSON IS SOFT ON SODOMY AND
ABORTION
" • A 1981 decision that the Peace Corps could not fund a
volunteer’s abortion but was required to pay for a participant’s travel and per
diem medical expenses, whether or not an abortion was involved.
" • A 1983 opinion that an assistant federal prosecutor could not be fired
solely because the lawyer was homosexual."
OLSON WAS ARMAND HAMMER’S
LAWYER
During the presidency of George H.W. Bush (#41), Olson successfully
represented Soviet agent Armand Hammer in securing a Presidential pardon for his felony
conviction. Hammer was a major financial contributor to causes favored by Mrs. Nancy
Reagan as well as by the Bush administration.
LYNNE CHENEY ADDS FEMINIST INFLUENCE TO BUSH-CHENEY
WHITE HOUSE
Melinda Henneberger writes (New York Times, 2/6/01, p. 1) that though Lynne Cheney,
"is intentionally keeping a low profile, she has also already influenced some key
staffing decisions in the administration and has helped bring in a number of women,
including former President George Bush’s campaign aide Mary Matalin, a friend from
CNN, where both appeared on ‘Crossfire.’
"Her old friend Alan K. Simpson, the former Wyoming senator, laughed when asked
what role he expected her to take. ‘Whatever she says it will be, it will be
bigger,’ he said, describing her as ‘just a whirlwind of a woman, and a
believer, boy – she’s a piece of work.’ ...
"[S]ome of Mrs. Cheney’s own writings could pass as required reading in a
women’s studies program. ‘Sisters,’ her 1981 novel, is set, as the cover
says, in the 19th-century American West, ‘when men were men, and women
were property.’
"It includes accounts of a marital rape, a tender love affair between two women
and an arrogant male doctor....
"A love letter in the book from a woman to her female lover reads: ‘Let us
go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. There will be only the
two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the
evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitching by the firelight. And
then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl.’
"Mrs. Cheney said she did not remember why she wrote about a lesbian love
affair. ...
"[H]ead of the National Endowment for the Humanities in the Reagan and Bush
administrations....
Later, she ended up campaigning against the very national history standards she had
championed and commissioned there."
November 15, 2000
ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICAN CAMP-FOLLOWERS REDUCED
THEIR POLICY STANDARDS TO THE LEVEL OF BUSH'S "BIG GOVERNMENT", "NEW WORLD
ORDER" CONSERVATISM
Here are some of the Bush policy stances to which
"establishment" Christians and conservatives gave their assent:
- Permanent Most Favored Nation status for Communist China;
- Continued membership in, and additional subsidies for, the United Nations;
- Continued participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA);
- Billions of dollars in additional funding for Federal intervention in education;
- Hundreds of millions of dollars in annual subsidies for the Legal Services
Corporation;
- Increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts;
- Massive annual increases in Federal taxes and spending;
- Additional billions of dollars in foreign aid;
- The $17.9 billion bailout of the International Monetary Fund (IMF);
- Creation of FTAA (Free Trade Alliance of the Americas);
- Unilateral destruction of a major portion of America's nuclear arsenal;
- Extension of NATO to the borders of the former Soviet Union;
- "Fast track" trade authority for the President;
- Hundreds of millions of dollars in "AIDS education" subsidies to the
homosexual movement;
- Acquiescence in the distribution of RU-486 (the poison pill);
- Refusal to acknowledge the personhood of the unborn;
- No pro-life litmus test for Federal judges;
- No effort to reverse Roe v. Wade, pending changes in public opinion;
- Abortions permissible in cases of rape and incest;
- Failure to support efforts to restore a U.S. military presence in Panama or to
challenge Red Chinese control of the ports at both ends of the Panama Canal;
- Opposition to setting a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Kosovo;
- Increased government regulation and control of health care;
- Additional, unconstitutional Federal land grabs;
- Exception to the Second Amendment which would deny persons under the age of 21
the right to keep and bear arms and require trigger locks on home defense weapons;
- Federal funding and regulation of "faith-based institutions";
- and more.
EMBRACING CLINTON-GORE POLICIES IN A NEW SUIT OF
CLOTHES
In deciding to support George Bush, Christian and conservative leaders
were buying a continuation of Clinton-Gore policies with a Republican label.
Bush and Gore both favor some kind of gun control. Bush says he
favors trigger locks. He says you should not be able to carry a weapon until you are 21. I
do not know if he intended to disarm all of those members of the U.S. armed forces under
the age of 21. He did not make that clear, but he, nonetheless, regards the Second
Amendment as having exceptions.
Bush and Gore called each other liars about tax policy. This is one case
where I can agree with both of them because neither one was, in fact, advocating a
reduction in taxes. Each of them was advocating ways of rearranging the ways in which each
year, more taxes are to be extracted from us. When they talk about "spending
cuts", they are talking about reducing the increase in spending. When they say
"tax cuts", they are really talking about reducing the increase in taxes.
In fact, since the Republicans gained control of Congress in 1994, our
taxes have gone up from $1.3 trillion per year to $2 trillion per year, and spending
at the Federal level has risen from $1.4 trillion annually to $2 trillion annually.
The Republicans agree with the Democrats on an expanded Federal role in
education. Indeed, the Republicans have doubled Federal spending for the Department of
Education since gaining control of Congress in 1994.
Both support socialized medicine. The Republicans rejected it when
it was called "Hillary Care", but they voted for it when it was called the
"Dole-Kennedy-Kassenbaum" bill and in other incremental ways.
On the question of abortion, Mr. Bush, like Mr. Gore, said he did not
think there was anything he could do about the distribution of RU-486 and this, of course,
manifests an extraordinary ignorance of his duties as President and as to the fact that,
under the Constitution, regulatory agencies cannot legislate.
He said he would have no litmus test for judges. In Texas if there was a
litmus test, it was apparently pro-abortion, given the decisions of his appointees against
parental notification.
Bush, like Gore, supports Planned Parenthood funding.
Bush told Tim Russert that he would not support the overturn of Roe vs.
Wade until there was a change in public sentiment. He supports abortion in the case of
exceptions. He supports funding of the United Nations and its population control
activities.
He refuses to assert the personhood of the unborn child, and he apparently
intends to name as Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is 100 percent pro-abortion.
IF YOU VOTE AGAINST YOUR PRINCIPLES, YOU'RE SURE
TO WIN
Randy Cohen writes (The Ethicist, New York Times Sunday Magazine,
10/22/00, pp. 45-46) that Eugene V. Debs "ran for president five times as the
Socialist candidate. While he was campaigning in 1908, a man in the crowd shouted that to
vote for Debs was to waste your vote. Debs replied: 'You argue that you are throwing your
vote away. That's right. Don't vote for freedom -- you might not get it. Vote for
slavery -- you have a cinch on that.'"
BUSH REASSURES PRO-ABORTS
David Broder writes (Washington Post, 10/22/00, p. B7) that "Wavering
independents I have interviewed fret more about handing control of the domestic agenda to
an assertive Republican Congress and a complaisant Republican president than they do about
a continuation of gridlock under Gore.
"But their real bugaboo is what Bush might do to the Supreme Court --
especially on the abortion issue. Inexplicably, Gore did not raise the issue with Bush in
either of the last two debates. But Tim Russert did, in an interview for NBC's 'Today'
show, taped here late Wednesday night.
"Bush's answer is important. And he gave it twice: 'Abortion is
not going to be outlawed until a lot of minds are changed.' He said he would sign a
ban on so-called partial-birth abortions, passed repeatedly by Congress and vetoed by
President Clinton. He said he hoped 'I will be able to work with people to reduce the
number of abortions.'
"But when Russert pressed by asking, 'in a Bush presidency,
abortion would not be outlawed?' Bush added to his 'not until a lot of people change their
minds,' the comment that 'there's going to be abortions one way or the other, and ...
we got to convince people that adoption is better.... But that's going to require
leadership that doesn't use the issue as a political club.'
"Those comments -- taken together with Bush's earlier statement
that he would not attempt to overturn FDA approval of the RU-486 abortion pill --
strengthens my belief that abortion rights are not high on his agenda."
DOES BUSH AGREE WITH CONDI RICE ABOUT PERMANENT
U.N. POLICE FORCE?
Elaine Sciolino reports (New York Times, 11/17/00, p. A7) that
"Condoleezza Rice, the top national security adviser to Gov. George W. Bush,
said...that it might be necessary to set up international police forces to carry out
peacekeeping functions that are now the responsibility of soldiers."
WILL HE FURTHER SLASH U.S. NUCLEAR ARSENAL?
"In a wide-ranging speech at a conference sponsored by the Army, Ms.
Rice also expressed interest in Russia's recent suggestion that Moscow is ready to
negotiate amendments to a treaty banning missile defenses if both the United States and
Russia agree to deeper cuts in offensive nuclear weapons. ...
"Asked in a later telephone interview whether she was advocating
multinational police forces in which the United States and its allies would have a role,
Ms. Rice was vague, saying: 'I wasn't designating who would be part of it. I'm not saying
the United States should field these forces, or the allies. I'm not proposing any
solution. I wanted to identify a gap in capability, not to suggest that I have a
particular answer.' ...
"Some in the audience today, most of whom were military officers,
said they found her remarks troubling. ...
"With American soldiers still in Bosnia and Kosovo, the American
military has become concerned that its troops are increasingly called upon to carry out
police functions, which many are not trained for. And many countries have often been
reluctant to send their police officers on risky missions."
JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN SAYS A CONSTITUTIONAL POLICY
IS "NAÏVE"
"In a speech earlier at the same conference, Gen. Henry H. Shelton,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defended the military's role in peacekeeping and
other noncombat missions. He added that the United States must continue to prepare the
military for a wide range of missions -- from peacekeeping to fighting major wars --
saying, 'It is naïve to think that the military will become involved in only those areas
that affect our vital national interests.'"
2000 Bush Watch |
