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http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/07/03/sprj.irq.main/index.html

Attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq wounded at least 10 soldiers Thursday -- a day after Bush challenged Iraqis opposed to the American-led occupation to "bring 'em on" -- and another U.S. soldier died in a non-combat incident, the U.S. Central Command said.

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http://asia.news.yahoo.com/030704/afp/030704150134int.html

BAGHDAD (AFP) - American hopes for a "grand style" US Independence Day for troops in Iraq were shattered by more deadly violence and the broadcast of a tape purported to be of Saddam Hussein warning that cells of fighters had been established throughout the country to fight coalition forces. Saddam, in a taped message dated June 14 and broadcast on Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite television station, said "jihad cells made up of Iraqi male and female fighters have been formed on a large scale" throughout Iraq to fight US-led forces occupying the country.

...Action film muscleman Arnold Schwarzenegger made a lightning visit in Baghdad to cheer US soldiers at Camp Victory on the Baghdad airport road... At Baghdad Airport, troops [were] be treated to a "burger giveaway" for lunch.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-732230,00.html

“This is what the Iraqis think of us,” the captain said, stamping out the last of the fires after the daylight attack at a busy crossroads... What is worrying is that in suburbs such as al-Mustansiriya, a moderate, middle class enclave of academics and businessmen, there was little apparent sympathy for the victims. Mohammed Alawi, 19, who claimed to have seen the attack, said: “What do the Americans expect after what they have done to us? There will be more attacks like this until they leave.”

...Less than 24 hours after Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, insisted that Iraq was not a new Vietnam, a day of spiralling violence saw at least four serious armed assaults on US patrols.

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by the way

http://slate.msn.com/id/2085169/

In Tuesday's Washington Post, an editorial urging President Bush to send peacekeepers to civil war-wracked Liberia noted that the country was "founded by freed U.S. slaves." Is that true? Not quite. Although some freed American slaves did settle there, Liberia was actually founded by the American Colonization Society, a group of white Americans—including some slaveholders—that had what certainly can be described as mixed motives. In 1817, in Washington, D.C., the ACS established the new colony (on a tract of land in West Africa purchased from local tribes) in hopes that slaves, once emancipated, would move there.

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oh and by the way

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-07-04-experts-to-liberia_x.htm

President Bush is sending military experts to Liberia to assess whether U.S. troops should help enforce a fragile cease-fire in that war-torn land... The U.S. military commander in Europe, Gen. James Jones, has been ordered to begin planning for possible American intervention. Options on the table range from sending no troops to sending thousands, defense officials said.

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http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/07/04_blodgett.html

Jeff Blodgett was the Campaign Manager for the late Senator Paul Wellstone's '90, '96, and 2002 Minnesota campaigns. He also served as State Director on Wellstone's staff from 1991-1996. After the tragic events of last fall, Jeff, along with Wellstone's two sons, Mark and David, decided it was important to keep fighting for the ideals and values that separated Paul Wellstone from other elected officials. So, they created "Wellstone Action." Wellstone Action is a non-partisan, tax-exempt organization that works with progressives around the country.

Blodgett: "...You can pay attention to our organization and to our web site [http://www.wellstone.org]. We have an e-mail network, and we plan on putting on dozens of these Camp Wellstones around the country so that most people who are interested in going to them will be able to attend. And you can stay in touch with that through our Wellstone Action Network.

"...There's exciting national activity going on. There's an effort to do serious base organizing and mobilizing in key states around the country. And people may want to get involved in those efforts. The Partnership for America's Families is one effort that's doing great work as is the Campaign for America's Future. MoveOn.org is another great one. A lot of these groups are in conversation about really linking up in a better way. So if you can get on a couple of e-mail networks you'll be right in the middle of big national activity going on. But then I would also look for local activity and local organizing. People and organizations that look like they're on the ball in terms of ongoing organizing with people around issues and effective electoral work as well. I think people should be on the lookout for local opportunities to get involved, because ultimately, that's where we have to make the differences on the ground in many, many states."

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http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/ecassel/

And now, a personal perspective on July 4th in King George's Washington, DC. After completing this post (at about 8 am), I will jump on my bicycle and pedal into the District for my usual July 4th visit to the monuments of Jefferson and George Mason, the Virginian who cared enough about personal freedom to demand the Bill of Rights.

But I will be fenced out today, as I was last year. Double rows of wood fencing have been placed between the people and their monuments, including the mall itself and the banks along the Potomac River where I ride. All citizens must enter through security checkpoints and be scanned and frisked, and their belongings searched, before accessing any part of our national memorials or even the grass on the mall--the area from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument.

The fencing begins along the bike path at National Airport and continues to Georgetown and Key Bridge. The checkpoints begin at that point. If I try to get to the mall by way of a street, I will find Park Police conducting searches of every vehicle--perhaps even my bicycle.

Last year, the first year after 9/11... Denied access to the mall (they were searching for bombs, they said), I reversed my course to return home. Dejected, depressed, with tears in my eyes for the sadness of the day and the memory of the many years of fun and freedom in Washington, DC on Independence Day, my distraction led to a tactical error.

In short, I was the victim of a one-bicycle accident. I spent the day at George Washington University hospital being treated for a badly broken arm. Must be some metaphor there, though I have not figured it out.

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a brief review

http://www.seanet.com/~johnco/bush102.htm

Bush Service Time Line

May 28, 1968: Bush enlists as an Airman Basic in the 147th Fighter-Interceptor Group, Ellington Air Force Base, Houston, and is selected to attend pilot training.

July 12, 1968: A three-member board of officers decides that Bush should get a direct commission as a second lieutenant after competing airman's basic training.

July 14 to Aug. 25, 1968: Bush attends six weeks of basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

Sept. 4, 1968: Bush is commissioned a second lieutenant and takes an 8-week leave to work on a Senate campaign in Florida.

Nov. 25, 1968 to Nov. 28, 1969: Bush attends and graduates from flight school at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia...

December 1969 to June 27, 1970: Bush trains full-time to be an F-102 pilot at Ellington Air Force Base.

Febuary 1970 Bush attends Preint Pilot Training (T-33 ANG112501 5 weeks )

June 1970 his records are not clear... Computer records show last Physical as May 1971. Which also shows him as CR MEM ON FS ("crew member on flight service") not PILOT. During his fifth year as a guardsman, Bush's records show no sign he appeared for duty.

May 24, 1972: Bush, who has moved to Alabama to work on a US Senate race, gets permission to serve with a reserve unit in Alabama. But headquarters decided Bush must serve with a more active unit.

Sept. 5, 1972: Bush is granted permission to do his Guard duty at the 187th Tactical Recon Group in Montgomery. But Bush's record shows no evidence he did the duty, and the unit commander says he never showed up.

November 1972 to April 30, 1973: Bush returns to Houston, but apparently not to his Air Force unit.

May 2, 1973: The two lieutenant colonels in charge of Bush's unit in Houston cannot rate him for the prior 12 months, saying he has not been at the unit in that period.

May to July 1973: Bush, after special orders are issued for him to report for duty, logs 36 days of duty.

July 30, 1973: His last day in uniform, according to his records.

Oct. 1, 1973: A month after Bush starts at Harvard Business School, he is formally discharged from the Texas Air National Guard -- eight months before his six-year term expires.

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check this link!

http://www.costofwar.com/

This webpage is a simple attempt to demonstrate one of the more quantifiable effects of war: the financial burden it places on our tax dollars. To the right you will find a running total of the amount of money spent by the US Government to finance the war in Iraq. This total is based on estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. Below the total are a number of different ways that we could have chosen to use the money. Try clicking on them; you might be surprised to learn what a difference we could have made.

[at 10:39 pm central time, 4th of july, the tally was $70,457,802,938. --mrs. h]

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48545-2003Jun29?language=printer

Finally, we have some solid clues as to the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction... which we'll be forwarding to the appropriate authorities. Here are the top 10 entries, in no particular ranking:

"He changed the invoices and had them shipped to, and stored at, the National Records Center in Suitland, Md. All we need to find them is the right reference number. I believe they are next to the box which has the Ark of the Covenant." -- Alfred H. Novotne, an attorney with the Army at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.

"Saddam Hussein's stockpiles of weapons have been ground into radioactive bird feed in order to raise a species of super chickens capable of scratching out simple subtraction problems in the dirt. These new chickens will be known as Capons of Math Deduction." -- Lewis Roth, assistant executive director of Americans for Peace Now.

"He gave them to Martha Stewart to conceal. She hand-gilded the shells and used her hot-glue gun to attach them to wreaths and swags. Surrounded by tinted seed-pods, dried hydrangea blossoms and sprigs of eucalyptus, they hang now upon doors and over windows across New England and the mid-Atlantic." -- Brenda Clough, financial manager of the U.S. Army Warrant Officers Association.

"I saw them in a white van with a ladder rack, somewhere on the road in the D.C. region. Maybe Chief Moose can help us find it." -- John Raffetto, a vice president at Infotech Strategies, a D.C. public relations firm.

"They're hiding the WMD in the Boston Red Sox bullpen: Those guys are getting paid a lot of money to protect something, and it ain't leads." -- Keith Cunningham, a senior analyst with the General Accounting Office.

"A town along the Euphrates, halfway from Baghdad to Syria, whose name sounds like a let's-laugh-up-our-sleeves, hide-it-in-plain-sight, kind of place: Al Hadithah. That would be how someone with a southern accent (perhaps a Texan?) might say, 'I'll hide it there.' " -- the Rev. Peter W. Rehwaldt, coordinator, office of institutional research at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif.

"I have them," signed Jayson Blair, journalist, New York, New York -- forwarded by Robin D. Grove, an environmental consultant in Maryland.

"At the Lost and Found/Bell Captain's Desk of the hotel in Baghdad where Donald Rumsfeld stayed in Dec. 1983." -- Byron Sigel, director, Japan Program, the Nature Conservancy, Tokyo.

"Saddam lost them to Bill Bennett in a high-stakes game of Caribbean Poker." -- Notre Dame student John T. Long of Daytona Beach, Fla.

"WMD will be found lying on the ground in a walkway behind Saddam Hussein's house, probably next to an ill-fitting glove." -- Sara Ulyanova, an English teacher in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

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Jim McDermott is a Democratic congressman from Washington State's 7th District.

http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/webfeatures/2003/07/mcdermott-j-07-01.html

Long before I was elected to Congress, I served as a U.S. Navy Medical Corps psychiatrist... I treated the walking wounded of the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1970. Our brave troops, who endured lies from our leaders in addition to the usual horrors of war, suffered from fear, anger, sleep disorders and depression, among other things. These symptoms came to be known as post-traumatic stress disorder. On September 11, Americans suffered a horrible trauma, and... the administration's calculated campaign to raise and maintain fear and anxiety in America has been an effective tool in prolonging the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder caused by 9-11.

...Here's how it works: Throw a hundred claims against the wall and poll every night to see what sticks. Leak stories that are later discredited. Get a graduate student's dissertation and plagiarize it. Lift paragraphs from a war-industry magazine. Every so often, raise the danger level to code "yellow" or "orange." Give the people a rest. Then start all over again. Mix it all up and put an official seal on it. Now it seems true.

...What are the next steps? Let's look to history for a clue. In 1941 we rounded up Japanese Americans and sent them to internment camps... The Bush Terror Posse already has required 18-to-45-year-old noncitizen males from Arab and predominantly Muslim countries to register with the U.S. government. If another terrorist attack should occur, don't be surprised if Bush and Co. issue orders to round up these men and intern them. Details leaked about the proposed Patriot Act II do nothing to reassure us.

...I'm not sure how much more of this our country can take. Memories of conversations with veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder haunt me. I know I'm not alone: I've talked with other veterans who have had recent flare-ups. The nightmares are coming back.

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http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&expire=&urlID=6791066&fb=Y&partnerID=1660

Plagued by tight budgets and fatigued officers — and still frustrated by a lack of specific information from the U.S. government about threats — officials nationwide are cutting back their responses to federal terrorism alerts. Some officials, questioning the value of the federal alerts, are designing their own regional warning systems that kick into gear only when there is a specific threat to their area.

...That general approach... has caused some concern in the nation's capital. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and other U.S. officials worry that national security will suffer if cities and states stop taking the alerts seriously... For many law enforcement officials, the nationwide alerts have been unfocused scrambles, a guessing game over what to guard based on slivers of information of unknown reliability.

...Big-city police chiefs who met in Idaho last month used part of their session to vent their exasperation. "They are frustrated with the lack of specificity in the threat information being passed on, and how they should respond," Miami Police Chief John Timoney says. "...Some (chiefs) are saying they are not going to do anything differently any more when a new threat alert goes out."

...Ridge says U.S. authorities are trying to be as specific as possible in describing terrorism alerts, and he says he wants state and local governments to eventually devise regional alert systems. But local authorities also should heed warnings from Washington, he says. "God forbid something happens in a major city and you didn't go up" to a higher alert level, Ridge told reporters last month.

...In Seattle, [Police Chief Gil] Kerlikowske says his department is struggling with "a perfect storm" of conflicting economic and security needs. During the last budget period, Seattle officials cut 25 officers and 50 support positions from the 1,900-member police force. Meanwhile, crime is creeping up from the record low levels of the 1990s, when the economy was rolling. So far this year, burglary, larceny and auto theft are up by 18%. So when the U.S. government passes on terrorism intelligence reports that don't include much detail but call for a heightened alert status, Kerlikowske isn't necessarily moved to action.

...In Portland, Police Chief Mark Kroeker says police are tailoring their responses to alerts based on the specificity of intelligence reports. When the alert level was raised at the start of the war in Iraq, Kroeker says, the city went to "full orange deployment" to monitor anti-war protests in the city. The overtime costs from 12-hour police shifts totaled $1,200,000.00. During a federal Code Orange alert in May, with no specific threat to Portland, police dramatically scaled back their response. Their overtime bill for the alert: $6,000.00. "You take the orange (alert) with a grain of salt," Kroeker says. "It's a pragmatic approach mixed with the current fiscal crisis."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has provided about $2,200,000,000.00 to help state and local governments cover security costs. But much of the money has not reached local police and sheriff's departments because of the circuitous way in which it is distributed. The money is first delivered to states, which take a portion for their security costs before passing the remaining money to localities [just like other social services --mrs. h]. Arizona's allotment was $28,000,000.00. Of that, Phoenix expects to get $1,200,000.00 sometime this month, police officials say. [and so on.]

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http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0327/lee.php

Sharpshooters will man the rooftops. Counterterrorism agents will patrol in civilian guise. Bomb squads will case subway tunnels. At least this much will be certain when the Republican National Convention comes to Madison Square Garden next year, say two former NYPD officials who helped oversee previous conventions there. And while he won't divulge specifics, police spokesperson Michael Collins says plans are forming more than a year in advance to ensure "the highest levels of security this city has ever seen" when President George W. Bush arrives to be renominated in September 2004.

...The Bush administration's policies have roused hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to some of the most heated agitation the city has seen in decades... A look at the activist scene today reveals a number of challenges that together form a multipronged effort to free the streets. New Yorkers want their right to protest to be as firmly entrenched as the police presence will be come 2004.

...Unjustified arrests and rough treatment were always to be found at anti-police-brutality rallies and events like Harlem's Million Youth March, claims activist Wol-san Liem. She and some 80 members of a racially diverse group were arrested this May during three days of planned civil disobedience, dubbed Operation Homeland Resistance. In shifts, they blocked the entrance to 26 Federal Plaza, which houses immigration authorities, in an effort to highlight "the war at home" against the undocumented. "It's interesting to hear white, middle-class protesters talk about how unbelievable it is to them that they were not treated humanely. People of color daily deal with police brutality, and they resist it routinely—that's what the Diallo protests were about," she says.

...Indeed, the city's protester population has recently burgeoned with additions from across the political spectrum. The numbers promise a rowdier convention than the several Democratic gatherings the city has hosted in the past. "Back then, we were pretty laid-back," says Miami police chief John Timoney, who commanded NYPD operations during the 1992 Democratic convention... The traditional convention-protest area, Eighth Avenue between 31st and 33rd streets, holds a maximum of about 5,000 bodies, says Timoney. Bush policies have propelled hundreds of thousands into city streets this year.

"People are going to be as angry or angrier about the Bush administration as they are now. The fact that there is some possibility of getting rid of this guy will draw a lot of people," predicts Leslie Cagan, lead organizer of United for Peace and Justice. Accused by police of not planning its February 15 anti-war demonstration far enough in advance, UFPJ has already submitted two permit requests for a march and a rally during convention week. The NYCLU [ny civil liberties union] asked the police a month ago to begin negotiations for convention protest, says executive director Lieberman... She says the NYPD's response to current criticism of its protest tactics is a key indicator. "The refusal to acknowledge mistakes will be the single biggest cause for pessimism as we move ahead."

The mass arrests and political questioning have already had a chilling effect, according to some activists. Liem says immigrants, especially, find themselves weighing their desire to demonstrate against the risk of detention and even deportation, to themselves and, by association, family and friends. No one, says ACT UP/NY's Milano, should have to "be afraid just to come out to a street protest."

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got a job? read this

http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/briefingpapers_flsa_jun03

On March 31, 2003, the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed regulatory changes, which if adopted, could make more than eight million white-collar employees ineligible for overtime pay. Under the current Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations adopted in 1938, most workers—an estimated 79% as of 1999—are guaranteed the right to overtime pay, or time and a half, for every hour worked beyond the normal 40-hour workweek.

...Under current law, each of the following three tests must be met to classify an employee as... ineligible for overtime.

First, the "salary-level" test stipulates that employees earning less than a certain [pay] level each week cannot be exempt.

Second, the "salary basis" test states that employees must be paid a set salary—not an hourly wage—in order to be exempt.

Finally, the third screening test is the "duties test," which states that a worker [can be denied overtime pay if] his or her duties are primarily "administrative," "professional," or "executive" in nature.

The DOL's proposed regulations would raise the salary level under which all employees are protected to $425 per week [i.e., earning more than $425 per week? no overtime for you.]... This proposed increase is sorely needed and would raise the number of workers entitled to overtime pay... However, earnings of $425 per week equal an annual salary of just $22,100, and because the level is not indexed for inflation, it will protect fewer and fewer workers over time.

...The DOL proposes a new exemption that will deny overtime pay to white-collar employees who earn $65,000 or more a year, even if they do not meet the definition of executive, administrative, or professional employees. [note: according to these authors, the $425/week-or-less rule would give overtime pay to an extra 1.3 million workers. the $65,000/year-or-less rule will deny overtime pay to an extra 1.3 million workers. --mrs. henry]

...[Other] changes to the three duties tests would dramatically increase the number of workers who would be classified as "professional," "administrative," or "executive." Current law stipulates that employees who do not... exercise discretion or independent judgment in their work may not be so classified and should, therefore, be entitled to overtime pay. Under the proposed regulations, this requirement would be eliminated, and hundreds of thousands of editors, reporters, health technicians, and others who are currently entitled to overtime pay will lose it.

Equally significant, education levels required to be considered a professional or administrative employee are diluted, allowing employers to deny overtime pay to paralegals, emergency medical technicians, licensed practical nurses, draftsmen, surveyors, and many others who currently have the law's protection.

Changes in the primary duty test and the redefinition of "executive" will allow employers to deny overtime pay to workers who do a very low level of supervising and a great deal of manual or routine work, including employees who do set-up work in factories and industrial plants. Employees who can only recommend—but not carry out—the hiring or firing of the two employees they "supervise" will be exempted as "executives."

...Employers will not have to convert hourly workers to salaried, but the financial incentive—the option to require that employees work overtime without having to pay for it—combined with competitive pressure will ensure that most will do so. The DOL recognizes that this conversion from hourly to salaried will occur, but it woefully underestimates how significant the change in the workforce will likely be.

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http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/6205913.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

The Bush administration on Monday repealed a requirement that employers report repetitive stress injuries.

...Labor unions had fought for the requirement, claiming that tracking repetitive strain injuries, also known as ergonomic injuries, would help identify potentially hazardous jobs and provide a better understanding of injury rates and trends... Employers would have been required to record ergonomic-related injuries, which include disorders of the muscles, nerves, tendons, ligaments, joints, cartilage and spinal discs, except those caused by slips, trips, falls, motor vehicle accidents or other similar accidents. That requirement would have taken effect in 2001, but was delayed that year after the GOP-controlled Congress repealed regulations issued by the Clinton administration that would have required businesses to make changes to work stations and pay employees with such injuries.

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Michael Getler is The [Washington] Post's ombudsman.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43466-2003Jun27.html

The original Post front-page story on April 3 was headlined "She Was Fighting to the Death." It reported, based on unnamed U.S. officials, that [Pvt. Jessica] Lynch fought fiercely after her unit was ambushed, shot several enemy soldiers and continued firing until running out of ammunition and even after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds. She also was stabbed when Iraqi forces closed in on her position, the story said.

None of that actually happened... But readers didn't find this out on the front-page portion of [the Post's corrected June 17th story]; it was in the continuation on Page A16.

...The front-page segment of the June 17 Post story did refer to "initial news reports, including those in The Washington Post, which cited unnamed U.S. officials . . ." That made it appear that The Post was not alone on the initial story. But The Post story was exclusive. The rest of the world's media picked it up from The Post, which put this tale into the public domain.

...The new Post account described itself as a "more thorough but inconclusive cut at history." That is accurate. But it did not address the issues that eat away at the trust of large numbers of readers, many of whom have called or e-mailed to complain. Why did the information in that first story, which was wrong in its most compelling aspects, remain unchallenged for so long? What were the motivations (and even the identities) of the leakers and sustainers of this myth, and why didn't reporters dig deeper into it more quickly? The story had an odor to it almost from the beginning.

...The strong and skeptical reader reaction to the initial Lynch story did not come instantly. Certainly, the events described could have taken place. The reaction came [on May 23rd], when Col. David Rubenstein, commander of the Army hospital at Landstuhl, Germany, where Lynch had been taken, was widely quoted as saying that medical evidence did "not suggest that any of her wounds were caused by either gunshots or stabbing." The Post put a reference to what he said on Page A27, deep inside a story about soldiers killed in the ambush. We now know that Rubenstein spoke the truth, but he has disappeared from print.

...This was the single most memorable story of the war, and it had huge propaganda value. It was false, but it didn't get knocked down until it didn't matter quite so much.

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/04/1057179161923.html

Australian and United States officials meeting in Brisbane next week will discuss an aggressive military operation to force down aircraft and board ships suspected of carrying prohibited weapons from North Korea, Iran, Syria and Libya. "This is something very different from what we've done before," the US Under Secretary for Arms Control, John Bolton, said in Washington before leaving for the Brisbane meeting. "It's a much more robust approach."

...He played down the legal concerns. "We're not going to engage in an endless seminar about what our authority is. We're going to try and define it and move in the areas where we think we've got clear authority."

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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=BFCM54HXIQY2KCRBAEZSFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3040300

President Bush said on Friday the United States is still at war and vowed to attack any "terrorist group or outlaw regime" that threatens the United States with mass murder. Bush's tough message came as he marked the July 4 Independence Day holiday with a flag-waving speech.

..."The United States will not stand by and wait for another attack or trust in the restraint and good intentions of evil men," Bush said on a sun-scorched day in the U.S. heartland...A giant American flag provided the backdrop for Bush on a makeshift stage set up on a base airfield. It was flanked by bomber, fighter and attack aircraft.

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