archived: 28 Mar - 3 Apr, 2004         Back                 Next

                                THE ENEMY WITHIN

                The president has also failed to address a shocking scandal that has occurred on his watch as commander in chief: At least 112 female soldiers have reportedly been the victims of sexual assault or rape during the past 18 months in the war-front Central Command of Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.

                Many of these high-ranking women soldiers, moreover, have reported poor medical treatment, lack of counseling and incomplete criminal investigation by senior military officials. Some say they received threats warning them not to report the rapes.

                Even worse, servicewomen who become pregnant as the result of rape must pay for their own abortions, because these procedures -- for political reasons -- are not covered as part of a soldier's medical care.

                "What does it say about us as a people, as a nation, as the foremost military in the world, when our women soldiers sometimes have more to fear from their fellow soldiers than from the enemy?" asked Sen. Susan Collins, R- Maine, during a hearing last month.

                The military has launched investigations, but President Bush, who has declared himself a war president, has failed to acknowledge and condemn the fact that female soldiers, while risking their lives in combat, simultaneously face sexual terrorism from some American troops.” – LA Times (emphasis added)   

                                REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

                The Republican assault on reproductive rights continues.  “The Senate approved legislation on Thursday making it a separate offense to harm the fetus in a federal crime committed against a pregnant woman, sending the measure to President Bush for his signature.  . . .

                The Senate's action was the second major victory in the Republican controlled Congress for the anti-abortion movement, which had sought this legislation since 1999. Last November, Mr. Bush signed into law a ban on the procedure that critics call partial-birth abortion. He strongly supported the latest legislation, referred to as the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.” – New York Times

                               WOMEN ARISE

                As noted in the article above, the rights of women are under attack by the Bush administration in nearly every facet of citizenship.  Every citizen concerned with the onslaught of the Bush administration should attend the march on Washington scheduled for April.  It is truly a march for women’s lives. 

            It is critical that this march be one of the largest, if not the largest, in American history.  Come to Washington on April 25^th.  Click on the icon below for all the details.

                               ENVIRONMENTAL COLLATERAL DAMAGE             

                Bush’s administration undoubtedly has the worst record of any administration in modern times.  Republicans may reap the collateral damage of their destruction of American’s environment.

Republican House leaders are warning their members that "Democrats will hit us hard on the environment" this election year.

Their advice? Tell voters that global warming has not been proved, that there are no clear links between air pollution and childhood asthma and that America’s rivers and lakes aren’t nearly as polluted as the Environmental Protection Agency says they are.

Moderate Republicans fear the "talking points" in a memo from the House Republican Conference could make their party appear indifferent to the health threats of smoggy skies or mercury-contaminated fish. And that could hurt them in tight races where they must appeal to middle-of-the-road voters.

Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords, who left the Republican Party in 2001 to become an independent partly because he didn’t think the GOP was pro-environment, called the memo "outlandish" and an attempt to deceive voters. He said he hopes moderate Republicans will help thwart the conservatives’ strategy.

Republican House leaders recently sent the memo to GOP press secretaries to use to beat back accusations from Democrats and conservation groups that Republicans are anti-environment. The memo charges Democrats with trying to hype pollution problems to frighten voters into supporting them.

Among the memo’s assertions: "Global warming is not a fact," "links between air quality and asthma in children remain cloudy" and the EPA is exaggerating when it says at least 40 percent of U.S. streams, rivers and lakes are too polluted for drinking, fishing or swimming.  – The Desert Sun   

                More abjectly, the Republican strategy is a damning indictment of how Republicans are making policy that effect all of our lives.  It is the height of anti-intellectualism.

                               NEOCONSERVATIVE RACISM

                The article that follows is much to long to summarize in TPJ fashion.  It is, however, a reflection of some neoconservatives attitudes toward the immigration of Latin Americans into America. 

                In sum, the article articulates the foundation of racist elements of the Republican Party.  The article will both shock and repulse the reader and portends new class warfare in America.

                The neoconservative thesis:

The persistent inflow of Hispanic immigrants threatens to divide the United States into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages. Unlike past immigrant groups, Mexicans and other Latinos have not assimilated into mainstream U.S. culture, forming instead their own political and linguistic enclaves—from Los Angeles to Miami—and rejecting the Anglo-Protestant values that built the American dream. The United States ignores this challenge at its peril. – Foreign Policy  

                The article is simply a must read for progressives who want to clearly understand what the neoconservatives have in store for America.

NEXT - TAR HEEL DEMS

    
 

Last Update: 03/23/2006