The American Prospect articles from March 2005

The American Prospect archives from March 2005

Bush's tipping point.(George W. Bush)
March 1, 2005... THE GREAT SOCIAL SECURITY BATTLE OF 2005 COULD well be remembered as the tipping point that ended George W. Bush's remarkable winning streak. It's now clear that Democrats are not about to provide Bush bipartisan cover for privatization. Even...

More Moore.(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... ALTHOUGH HE MILDLY rebukes their conclusions, Mark Leon Goldberg's piece ["Is Moore Less?" February 2005] about the Republicans' and conservative Democrats' attempts to demonize Michael Moore gives credence to irrational arguments and ignores...

Uncivilized.(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... THE UNITED STATES HAS always prided itself on being a civilized nation, but your February issue proves the citizens have brainwashed themselves. "Ethics Delayed" by Sam Rosenfeld gave an account of the Republican-led House of...

Bloody great.(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... READ NORMA COHEN'S article "A Bloody Mess" [February]. It was very illuminating. I find it quite surprising that the British mess has not received more coverage in connection with our own debate on Social Security. Is the press, or...

Law and border.(border security)
March 1, 2005... LET'S SAY YOU'RE Michael Chertoff, and you want to build a fence. What would you need? According to the House of Representatives, anything you want. As the Real ID Act, passed by a 261-to-161 margin on February 10, says, "[T]he...

A ladies' first?(women donors)
March 1, 2005... OF THE MANY GENDER gaps in the political arena, one of the most persistent has been the donor gap. As recently as 2000, women donors were responsible for just one-quarter of hard-money contributions greater than $200 to political candidates,...

On beyond data.(federal budget)
March 1, 2005... "IT'S A BUDGET THAT FOcuses on results," President Bush told reporters on the day he sent his $2.57 trillion budget to Congress. "Taxpayers in America don't want us spending their money on something that's not achieving results." Of...

Chlorine plants release an estimated 100 tons of mercury.(Dossier: air, land, and sea)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Chlorine plants release an estimated 100 tons of mercury a year in the United States...

Women of childbearing age.(possess mercury levels)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Centers for Disease Control has found that 8 percent of women of childbearing age have levels of mercury in their blood that could endanger their offspring...

Eliminated.(mercury pollutions)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... In 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) eliminated a 28-year requirement that set a cap on mercury emissions from chlorine plants...

Improper sewage treatment.(leads to gastrointestinal illness among swimmers)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Swimmers experience 3,500 to 5,500 cases of "highly credible gastrointestinal illness" each year because of improper sewage treatment...

According to a 2003 University of Michigan study.(swimmers to develop cysts or diarrhea)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... According to a 2003 University of Michigan study, swimmers in waterways containing blended sewage are 100 times more likely to develop cysts or diarrhea...

"Blending".(sewage treatment)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... As of press time, the EPA is poised to allow the routine release of inadequately treated sewage into waterways as long as it is diluted with treated sewage, a process called "blending"...

Coal-fired.(coal-fired power plants)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... 1,100 coal-fired power plants account for almost 25 percent of the nation's nitrogen-oxide pollution and 70 percent of its sulfur-dioxide pollution...

Dirtiest.(electric utilities)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... 30 utility companies own the dirtiest U.S. power plants...

$6.6 million.(companies gives $6.6 million to George W. Bush and Republican Party)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Over the last five years, those companies have given a combined $6.6 million to President Bush and the Republican Party...

Unhealthy.(Dossier: air, land, and sea)(unhealthy air)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... From 2000 to 2002, the number of warnings in which air in U.S. cities was declared unhealthy increased by 32 percent...

Clean-air inspections.(Dossier: air, land, and sea)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... There has been a 52-percent decrease in EPA clean-air inspections at refineries since 2001...

Federal lawsuits.(Dossier: air, land, and sea)(for violating national environmental laws)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... In the first three years of the Bush administration, EPA data document a 75-percent decline, as compared with the last three years of the Clinton administration, in the number of federal lawsuits filed against companies violating national...

Civil citations.(Dossier: air, land, and sea)(for polluters)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Civil citations for polluters are down 57 percent since 2001...

Criminal prosecutions.(Dossier: air, land, and sea)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Criminal prosecutions have fallen 17 percent in that time

President Bill Clinton designated 9.5 million acres.(Dossier: air, land, and sea)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... ... President Bill Clinton designated 9.5 million acres as wilderness...

Since taking office.(Dossier: air, land, and sea)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Since taking office, President George W. Bush has designated 530,000 acres of wilderness...

The average number of species per year that federal officials added to the endangered species.(Dossier: air, land, and sea)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The average number of species per year that federal officials added to the endangered species list under George Bush Senior was 59; under Clinton, 65; under Bush Junior, 9.5...

"Critical habitat".(Dossier: air, land, and sea)(of protected wildlife species)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... 36 percent of federally protected wildlife species have a designated "critical habitat"...

Cut.(Dossier: air, land, and sea)(critical habitat)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Between 2001 and 2003, 42 million acres of critical habitat were cut from the 83 million acres proposed for threatened and endangered species...

Loosen.(Dossier: air, land, and sea)(Endangered Species Act restrictions)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The number of foreign species affected by a 2003 Bush administration proposal to loosen Endangered Species Act restrictions on importing endangered species from other countries is 560...

Safari Club International.(Dossier: air, land, and sea)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Safari Club International, a leading proponent of the change, contributed $158,900 to Republican candidates in 2004.

Hitchy 'n' Horowitz.(Devil in the Details)
March 1, 2005... BACK IN AUGUST 1999, when he was promoting his soon-to-be-released book, Hating Whitey and Other Progressive Causes, left-wing radical turned right-wing radical David Horowitz observed that "it is precisely because Bush is perceived as a...

President Bush, speaking on February 4, 2005, in Tampa, Florida.(Transcript)
March 1, 2005... President Bush, speaking on February 4, 2005, in Tampa, Florida: Because the--all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise...

Jesus is coming! And he's bringing his own label maker.(A Divine Intervention Comic)
March 1, 2005... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Maybe it was all the talk of "moral values". and of "doing His Work", but Somehow the Story about Stickers in School books... just made something in Him STICKERS? YOU WANT LABELS? I WARNED YOU...

To convict one doctor, zealots at DEA tore up pain guidelines developed over four years.(William Hurwitz)(Advertisement)
March 1, 2005... Last August, after an historic collaboration between the Drug Enforcement Administration and the University of Wisconsin's Pain & Policy Studies Group, the PEA published new and widely applauded Pain Management Guidelines intended to protect...

Squeeze time: the biggest budget battle since the famous Clinton-Gingrich face-off isn't just about cuts. It's about the GOP's real goal: permanent cuts.(Dispatches)
March 1, 2005... "ALL BUDGETS HAVE GOT TO BE based on priorities," George W. Bush said on February 8, "and mine are clear." He wasn't lying. The president's $2.57 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2006 calls for a 16-percent cut in all non-homeland...

A listless party: the RNC inherited the Bush campaign's list of donors and volunteers, but on the Democratic side, the Kerry list belongs to ... John Kerry.(Dispatches)(post-election organizing, communications)
March 1, 2005... LIKE OTHER JOURNALISTS, I FIRST heard of the Democratic Senate opposition agenda, proposed by Minority Leader Harry Reid in late January, by e-mail--specifically, an e-mail that came from Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Ken...

A temporary fix: a rapidly growing contingent workforce could benefit from labor and management partnerships, but the NLRB stands in the way.(Dispatches)(National Labor Relations Board)
March 1, 2005... WITH THE WHITE HOUSE AND congressional conservatives ramping up to make the coming four years as memorable as the last, it is easy to miss some of their less conspicuous exploits. Many of those have taken place at the National Labor Relations...

That other forum: the agenda at the World Social Forum was--well, 268 pages long. But the road from Davos to Porto Alegre appears to be a long one.(Dispatches)
March 1, 2005... PORTO ALEGRE, BRAZIL -- WHAT DO BILL GATES, TONY Blair, and Sharon Stone have in common? All spent the last week of January hanging out in Davos, the exclusive Swiss resort town that for the last three decades has been home to the World...

A double-barreled attack.(The Taxonomist)
March 1, 2005... GEORGE W. BUSH'S SOCIAL SECURITY PROPOSALS have come under heavy and deserved attack over the past few months. But a few key points should be made clearer. First, repeat after me: Cutting Social Security benefits does not mean "saving" Social...

The liberal uses of power: clarity in dealing with terrorism, yes; and also in living up to our highest ideals.
March 1, 2005... IT IS A SHAME THERE WILL NEVER BE A DEBATE ABOUT FOREIGN POLICY BETWEEN the George W. Bush who ran for president in 2000 and the one who now occupies the office. As a candidate five years ago, Bush said that the United States should act as a...

Theocracy now: what will the Shia parties want once they have power in Iraq? Exactly what America doesn't want.
March 1, 2005... NOT SINCE THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION OF 1979 has the Middle East witnessed a political upheaval of the magnitude of the Iraqi election held on January 30. The Shia majority has now come decisively to power in the new parliament, and it may make the...

Against the neocons: "the fact remains that the Iraqi operation has gravely undermined American global credibility.".(Zbigniew Brzezinski)(Interview)
March 1, 2005... AN INTERVIEW WITH ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI, PRESIDENT CARTER'S national-security adviser and the author, most recently, of The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership, spoke with Michael Tomasky on January 31 about the...

Ritual abuse: Abu Ghraib was supposed to be the end of U.S. torture, once the scandal was exposed. But what if it was just the beginning?
March 1, 2005... THE WALLS AND CEILING WERE PAINTED BLACK. Acid rock blared around the clock. It was cold in the tiled room, located in a building outside Baghdad International Airport, on January 1, 2004. But despite the chilly temperature, Mohamed (he asked...

An ocean apart: the United States and Europe have vital shared interests, but is the Bush administration serious about finding common ground?
March 1, 2005... HISTORY WILL SURELY JUDGE US NOT BY OUR old disagreements but by our new achievements," Condoleezza Rice told a Paris audience on February 8, speaking on her first European trip as secretary of' state. If the Bush administration is truly...

Pulpit bullies: you might think the doings in one small-town mosque don't amount to much. You would be very wrong.(American Muslim community)
March 1, 2005... "And we have raised, from among them, leaders... "--Koran, al-Sajdah, "The Prostration," 32:24 JUST BEFORE MIDNIGHT ONE FRIDAY LAST DECEMBER, an Egyptian American professor of electrical engineering at West Virginia University, clad in a...

China as no. 1: Bush wants freedom everywhere. But the world's biggest dictatorship is now one of America's biggest creditors. Guess who has the leverage on whom?
March 1, 2005... IN THE 15TH CENTURY, VENICE WAS ONE OF THE WORLD'S richest cities and ranked among the great powers because its navy controlled the Mediterranean and its merchants controlled the trade in goods, especially spices. Then Portuguese Captain Vasco...

Neo-economics: the neoconservatives have measured American power solely by military might. They've left out something important.(world economic stewardship)
March 1, 2005... IN LATE JANUARY, AFTER WEEKS OF WAITING FOR A SIGN that the Bush administration would lead a coordinated effort to try to prevent the dollar's recent slide from turning into a full-fledged crash, the world finally seemed to get the message....

The Middle East: thinking big: president Bush's several policies don't connect. Here's a better way to bring greater security, democracy, and development to the region.
March 1, 2005... ONE CERTAINLY CANNOT FAULT GEORGE W. BUSH for lacking what his father famously called "the vision thing." Immediately after the September 11 attacks, the president announced a war on all terrorists "with global reach," and warned state sponsors...

The gravest danger: the president who invaded Iraq citing fear of nuclear blackmail has been cavalier about preventing it elsewhere.
March 1, 2005... WHEN ASKED IN THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL Debate of 2004 what constitutes the "single most serious threat to American national security," there was a brief instant of agreement between President Bush and Senator Kerry. Both answered, "Nuclear...

Disconnected: there are progressive foreign-policy thinkers, and they even produce ideas. So why aren't Democratic politicians?
March 1, 2005... ON THE EVENING OF JANUARY 4, I HAD DINNER with a small group of progressive intellectuals at a Capitol Hill restaurant. The question at hand, though unstated, was obvious: What ails the Democrats, and what's to be done about it? As wine was...

The good book: the America portrayed by Sinclair Lewis in Elmer Gantry used to be a distant memory. But the novel's surprising lessons are relevant again.(Culture)
March 1, 2005... IT HAS BEEN ALMOST 80 YEARS SINCE novelist Sinclair Lewis set his most iconic fictional creation, a hell-raiser turned hellfire preacher named Elmer Gantry, loose on an unsuspecting America. For a clergyman in his 70s, Gantry has proven to be...

The fat and the fire.(Generation Large: Rescuing Our Children From The Epidemic of Obesity)(Our Overweight Children: What Parents, Schools, and Communities can do to Control the Fatness Epidemic)(Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood)(Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health)(The Weight Of It: A Story Of Two Sisters)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... GENERATION EXTRA LARGE: RESCUING OUR CHILDREN FROM THE EPIDEMIC OF OBESITY BY LISA TARTAMELLA, ELAINE HERSCHER, AND CHRIS WOOLSTON Basic Books, 272 pages, $25.00 OUR OVERWEIGHT CHILDREN: WHAT PARENTS, SCHOOLS, AND COMMUNITIES CAN DO TO...

Within our Ken.
March 1, 2005... JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH: HIS LIFE, HIS POLITICS, HIS ECONOMICS BY RICHARD PARKER Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 832 pages, $35.00 THE STORY OF OUR TIMES IS THE ongoing rise of American conservatism, and to read a biography of John Kenneth...

Mangling Franklin.(The Last Word)(Franklin D. Roosevelt)
March 1, 2005... WHEN I APPEARED ON FOX NEWS' THE BIG STORY on February 4, anchor John Gibson asserted that Franklin D. Roosevelt anticipated George W. Bush's privatization plan, quoting FDR as saying in 1935 that Social Security "ought ultimately to be...