George Bush Stands for Truth, Justice, and the American Way!

Constitutional Guarantees

• A quest to discriminate, by Peter J. Gomes. Boston Globe, October 17, 2004
• Who's Defending the Constitution? By Gordon Prather, AntiWar.com, October 2nd, 2004
  Bush now charges that strictly complying – as Kerry would have done and Bush most certainly did not do – with the "specific statutory authority" Congress gave him would effectively have meant giving foreigners a veto over his launching a war of aggression against Iraq. Perhaps, but by acting without "specific statutory authority" Bush has violated his oath to "defend the Constitution of the United States."
• No balance in branches of government, by Walter Williams, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 29, 2004
• For ignoring constitutional war powers we reap the whirlwind, by Bruce S. Jenkins, U.S. Senior District Judge, for the Salt Lake Tribune, 09/19/2004
• A Radical Assault on the Constitution, New York Times, July 24, 2004
• Crumpling Constitutional Guarantees, by Walter Brasch, June 2002
  "With one word, a federal judge has described not only John Ashcroft's handling of the Department of Justice, but also the Bush administration's policy of citing national security as the reason why it's trying to hide the Constitution from Americans.

Civil Rights/Human Rights/Racial Equality

• Washington failed to reject torture in 'war on terror': U.S. skirting Geneva Conventions in Iraq Daily Star, October 27, 2004
• Comparing Bush and Kerry on Civil Rights: When it comes to comparing the candidates, and their running mates, on civil rights issues, the records speak for themselves. By George E. Curry, The Black Commentator, October 21, 2004.
• America's hidden vote, by Sidney Blumenthal, The Guardian [UK], October 21, 2004
  Passing almost without notice earlier this month, the public release of The Civil Rights Record of the George W Bush Administration - the official staff report prepared by the US Civil Rights Commission - whose submission is required by federal law, was blocked by the Republican commissioners. None the less, it was posted on the commission's website: "This report finds that President Bush has neither exhibited leadership on pressing civil rights issues, nor taken actions that matched his words."
• Bush's bad news on black wealth, by Derrick Z. Jackson, Bopston Globe Columnist, October 19, 2004
• Republican Racism: Racism has become an essential part of the Republican Party’s election strategy. By Mick Youther, Intervention, September 20, 2004
• Swallowing the Elephant, by Henry Louis Gates Jr., New York Times, September 19, 2004
• Should we outsource torture? By Nat Hentoff, Cheboygan Daily Tribune, October 18, 2004
• RACIAL PROFILING: Statement of Curt Goering, Senior Deputy Executive Director, Amnesty International USA, September 13, 2004
• Study: Bush Judges Most Conservative on Rights, by Jeff Franks, Reuters, Sep 9, 2004
• PFAW Criticizes Bush Attack on University of Michigan Affirmative Action Program, People for the American Way, 1/16/2003
• George W. Bush on Civil Rights, Issues2000.org, October 19, 2000

Diversity

• End of the rainbow: In 2000 the Republicans paraded their diversity. But now the party is showing its true colour - white, by Gary Younge, The Guardian [UK], September 6, 2004
• A Party for Some: If the GOP has a big tent, how come so many groups can't get inside? By Joshuah Bearman, LA Weekly, September 3, 2004.

Freedom of Speech and Democratic Process

• You Can't Stop This Democracy: Will John Ashcroft be able to stop the democracy movement that's stirring with his powers under Help America Act? Not likely. By Laura Flanders, Air America Radio, November 2, 2004
  A new democracy movement is stirring in America and the Bush Cheney crew are trying to kill it. There's something big going on here and it's not just about Nov. 2. It's about democracy in America.
• Voters claim abuse of electoral rolls: Students say they were conned into registering twice, by Greg Palast, The Observer [UK], October 31, 2004
• G.O.P. to the Poor: Don't Vote, New York Times, October 30, 2004
• Ohio Lawmakers Call for Secretary of State Blackwell to Resign, Democracy Now!, October 29th, 2004
  As a federal judge in Ohio temporarily blocks the GOP from challenging the voting rights of 35,000 people ahead of the election, we go to Ohio to speak with State Sen. Teresa Fedor, one of the lawmakers leading the calls for Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell to resign.
• Bush Administration Attempts To Overturn Decades of Legal Precedents & Block Voting Rights Lawsuits From Voters, Democracy Now!, October 29th, 2004
  Bush administration lawyers are now attempting to overturn decades of legal precedence by claiming that under the Help America Vote Act only Attorney General John Ashcroft -- and not individual voters - have a right to ask federal courts to enforce voting rights.
• One Nation Under Bush: At a campaign rally, Republicans recite the "Bush Pledge." By Chris Suellentrop, Slate, Oct. 28, 2004
  "I want you to stand, raise your right hands," and recite "the Bush Pledge," said Florida state Sen. Ken Pruitt. The assembled mass of about 2,000 in this Treasure Coast town about an hour north of West Palm Beach dutifully rose, arms aloft, and repeated after Pruitt: "I care about freedom and liberty. I care about my family. I care about my country. Because I care, I promise to work hard to re-elect, re-elect George W. Bush as president of the United States."
• King George abuses 1st Amendment, by John Nichols, Capital Times, October 28, 2004
  The Bush-Cheney campaign rented the local high school and applied the divine right of kings - or at least one ill-prepared and inarticulate boy king - to what had been a public school. Richland Center students were informed that they could attend the audience with His Highness only if they donned approved apparel: a Bush for President T-shirt or so-called "neutral clothing." What they could not wear was any clothing that promoted the cause of any dissenter to the rule of King George.
• New Florida vote scandal feared, by Greg Palast, BBC's Newsnight, October 26, 2004
  A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals.
• GOP Voter Drive Accused of Tossing Cards, by Deborah Hastings, The Guardian [UK], October 22, 2004,
  In several battleground states across the country, a consulting firm funded by the Republican National Committee has been accused of deceiving would-be voters and destroying Democratic voter registration cards.
• Bush's Empty Rhetoric on Democracy, by Jonathan Chait, LA Times, October 22nd, 2004
  It's ironic that while Republicans have mocked Kerry for claiming the support of foreign leaders, it is Bush who has reaped the only two actual foreign leader endorsements. The deeper irony is who's endorsing him. (Russia and Iran)
• GOP Pressures Rock the Vote to Stop Talking About the Draft, Democracy Now!, October 19, 2004
• Dirty tricks return to the sunshine state: US election begins with voting in Florida dogged by controversy over faulty machines and disenfranchised voters, by Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian, October 19, 2004
• Allegations of Electoral Crimes, New York Times, October 18, 2004
• Protesters can't be searched Court rules terror fears not reason to search demonstrators, By C.G. WALLACE, The Associated Press, Oct 17, 2004
• Report: Jeb Bush ignored advice to 'pull the plug' on flawed felon voter list, SFGate.com, October 16, 2004
• A Look at Lawsuits, Voting Problems, Associated Press, October 16, 2004 3:46 AM
• Republican Dirty Tricks: Republican operative Nathan Sproul's company is under investigation for allegedly destroying voter registration forms signed by Democrats. Now comes new evidence about Sproul's connections to the Bush-Cheney campaign. By Max Blumenthal, AlterNet, October 15, 2004.
• Block the Vote, by Paul Krugman, New York Times, October 15, 2004
  arlier this week former employees of Sproul & Associates (operating under the name Voters Outreach of America), a firm hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters, told a Nevada TV station that their supervisors systematically tore up Democratic registrations.
• Trashing democracy: Voters Outreach of America, an outfit largely funded by the GOP, is accused of trashing registration forms of hundreds of Democrats in Nevada, by Bill Berkowitz, WorkingForChange.com, 10.14.04
• Voter's Outreach Connection to Nader Campaign, Brian Allen, KLASTV.com, October 13, 2004
• 21st Century Book-Burning: Mrs. Cheney, there's more to U.S. history than heroes. By Steven J. Ross, LA Times, October 13, 2004
• Pushing to Be Counted in Fla.: Groups Say That Blacks May Not Be Heard at Polls, by Jo Becker, Washington Post, October 13, 2004
• The Home Front, by Hans Johnson, In These Times, October 4, 2004
  On September 17, it came to pass in New Jersey that party faithful applauding a chipper talk about the war by Laura Bush shouted down a mother in their midst and made sure she was arrested.
• Operation American Repression? An Army officer in Iraq who wrote a highly critical article on the administration's conduct of the war is being investigated for disloyalty -- if charged and convicted, he could get 20 years. By Eric Boehlert, Salon, Sept. 29, 2004
  • Why We Cannot Win, by Al Lorentz, former state chairman of the Constitution Party of Texas and is a reservist currently serving with the US Army in Iraq, September 20, 2004
• The Bush Definition of Democracy: Be it in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Bush administration has a track record of fixing elections to produce the winner it desires. By Rahul Mahajan, AlterNet, September 28, 2004
• How Florida Republicans Keep Blacks From Voting, by Ann Louise Bardach, LA Times, September 26, 2004
• Bush rallies are by invitation only, by Helen Thomas, Hearst Newspapers, September 24, 2004
  "At Bush-Cheney campaign rallies around the nation, the only people welcome to attend are Bush supporters, volunteers and undecided voters who lean toward Bush politically."
• Blocking the Latino Ballot?, by Harold Meyerson, New York Times, September 22, 2004
• Pentagon blocks site for voters outside U.S., by Jennifer Joan Lee, International Herald Tribune, September 20, 2004

  Note: if anyone knows any Americans abroad who are having difficulty voting, send them to http://www.overseasvote2004.com. They'll still need to fax in their materials, but at least they'll be able to register and vote.

• Arrests at GOP Convention Are Criticized: Many in N.Y. Released Without Facing Charges, by Michael Powell and Michelle Garcia, Washington Post, September 20, 2004
• Killing Democracy One Vote at a Time, One Thousand Reasons, Sept. 20th, 2004
• No Stars, Just Cuffs, by Maureen Dowd, New York Times, September 19, 2004
• Our rights are at risk, Capital Times, September 18, 2004
• Moulton woman says she lost job for sporting Kerry sticker on car, by Clyde L. Stancil, Decatur Daily, September 12th, 2004
• Secret Service Not Coddling Hecklers, by Dana Milbank, Washington Post, September 10, 2004
• RNC Aftermath: A Look at Undercover Cops, Preemptive Detention and Police Surveillance, Democracy Now, September 8th, 2004
• The President’s Coming! Goodbye Bill of Rights: When George Bush comes to town, the Constitution leaves town. It's Orwellian 2004. By Regis T. Sabol, Intervention Magazine, September 7, 2004
• GOP Convention Detainees Describe Lockup, by Larry Neumeister, Associated Press, Sep 2, 2004
• Pier 57 Likened To Guantanamo: Protestors Have Been Taken There For Processing, Associated Press, Sep 1, 2004
• NYC Police Arrest 250 in Bicycle Protest, ASSOCIATED PRESS, August 28, 2004
• The FBI's Pre-Emptive Interrogations Of "Possible" Demonstrators: Chilling Political Speech, by Bob Barr, FindLaw, August 25, 2004
• Voting While Black, by Bob Herbert, New York Times, August 20, 2004
• Let There Be Protests, The Washington Post, August 19, 2004
• FBI, police track potential trouble as event draws near, by Tom Hays, The Associated Press, August 17, 2004
• Editorial: Squelching protest/The great American hush-up, Star Tribune, August 17, 2004
• Interrogating the Protesters, New York Times, August 17, 2004
• F.B.I. Goes Knocking for Political Troublemakers, by Eric Lichtblau, New York Times, August 16, 2004
• Suppress the Vote? By Bob herbert, New York Times, August 16, 2004
• Bush's Own Goal, by Paul Krugman, New York Times Editorial, August 13, 2004
• CIA author gagged on intel reform, by Shaun Waterman, UPI, August 7th, 2004
• Republicans Sign Along the Dotted Line: Admittance to Cheney rally only after signing "loyalty oath", by Dana Milbank, Washington Post, August 1, 2004
• Some Democrats seeking Cheney tickets had to sign oath, by Richard Benke, Associated Press Writer, July 30, 2004
• Silencing dissent in America, by Frank Van den Bosch, Unknown News, July 30, 2004
• Council apologizes to anti-Bush protesters, CNN, July 20, 2004
• ‘We weren’t doing anything wrong’ Couple in anti-Bush T-shirts were arrested at president’s speech , By Tara Tuckwiller for the Charleston Gazette, July 13, 2004
  "Police took Nicole and Jeff Rank away in handcuffs from the event, which was billed as a presidential appearance, not a campaign rally. They were wearing T-shirts that read, “Love America, Hate Bush.”
• “Free-Speech Zone”: The administration quarantines dissent. by James Bovard for The American Conservative, 12.15.2003
• Keeping dissent invisible: How the Secret Service and the White House keep protesters safely out of Bush's sight -- and off TV, by Dave Lindorff, Oct. 16, 2003
• Is America Becoming Fascist? By Anis Shivani, Counterpunch, October 26, 2002
• Military Filming Protesters at D.C. Demonstrations (27-29 Sept 2002) Government filming of a peaceful protest is a probable violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.
• Who Is George W. Bush? , by Toby Rogers and Nick Mamatas, 1/30/2000
• Thin skinned: Bush tries to stifle his critics
• GWBush.com In April 1999, ®TMark co-constructed GWBush.com, a website that at first glance appeared to be that of Republican Presidential candidate George W. Bush (his website is GeorgeWBush.com). The first version incurred Bush's wrath, and his lawyers sent a threatening letter. But it didn't end there.

Freedom of the Press

• Team Bush declares war on the New York Times: The Bush White House's attacks on one of America's grandest newspapers mark a clear break with Republican tradition, by Eric Boehlert, The Guardian [UK], October 19, 2004
• US seizes independent media sites: The FBI has shut down some 20 sites which were part of an alternative media network known as Indymedia. BBC News, 11 October, 2004
• New 'Security' Target: the Press, LA Times, September 30, 2004
• A Leak Probe Gone Awry, New York Times, September 27, 2004
• Setbacks on Press Protections Are Seen, by Jaques Steinberg, New York Times, August 18, 2004
• Bush camp solicits race of Star staffer, by C.J. Karamargin, ARIZONA DAILY STAR, 7/31/2004
• White House complains to Irish embassy about "disrespectful" interview, by Miriam Lord, Irish Independent, June 26, 2004
• News Media Let White House Approve and Change Quotes in Articles, letter from a Washington Post reporter sent to Poynter Online, a news and opinion Website about the media for the media (3/13/2003)
• Deleted Article: CIA Official Calls for "Sending SWAT Teams into Journalists’ Homes", July 27, 2002

Freedom of Religion

• Americans United Opposes Employee Religious Freedom Bill In Congress, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, June 22, 2004

Jurisprudence

• To Bush, courts don't matter, by Robyn E. Blumner, St. Petersburg Times, October 31, 2004
• A Bench Tilting Right, by Cass R. Sunstein and David Schkade, Washington Post, October 30, 2004
• Guantanamo Stonewall, LA Times, October 30, 2004
  Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 600 foreign terror suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base were entitled to lawyers and the chance to challenge their imprisonment. But in the months since, Pentagon and Justice Department officials have simply acted as if the high court's decision didn't exist, blocking efforts by detainees to meet with their lawyers and insisting on onerous conditions for those meetings.
• U.S. Action Bars Right of Some Captured in Iraq, by Douglas Jehl, New York Times, October 26, 2004
• The CIA's Disappeared, Washington Post, October 26, 2004
• After Terror, a Secret Rewriting of Military Law, by Tim Golden, New York Times, October 24, 2004
• Prisoners who disappear, by Reed Brody, International Herald Tribune, October 12, 2004
  "In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration has violated the most basic legal norms in its treatment of security detainees."
• The Myth of Activist Judges: Flogging the courts to score political points wounds democracy. By Dahlia Lithwick, LA Times, October 12, 2004
• The Myth of America's 'Lawsuit Crisis', by Stephanie Mencimer, Washington Monthly, October 5, 2004
  How the media helps the insurance industry and the GOP with wildly exaggerated tales of Americans' overarching sense of legal entitlement.
• House tries power grab: The Republican-led House of Representatives has tried yet again to undermine more than 200 years of separation-of-powers precedent by voting to take away the judicial branch's power to hold laws to constitutional review. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 27, 2004
• Strip This Bill, Washington Post, September 23, 2004
  "THE HOUSE is scheduled today to take up the Republican leadership's latest attack on the federal courts. In July the House passed a bill to strip the courts of the power to hear challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that ensures that states do not have to recognize gay marriages performed in other states."
• Crying Wolf in the War Against Terror: The feds face a stunning blow to credibility by releasing a long-jailed U.S. citizen, by Andrew Cohen, LA Times, August 16, 2004
• JUSTICE AND THE WAR ON TERRORISM: Extend high court rulings to all U.S. detainees, by Robert Gard, Deborah Pearlstein. San Francisco Chronicle, July 15, 2004
• Portland cases fuel rights debate, The Brandon Mayfield and Portland Seven cases are used to illustrate the benefits and perils of federal investigative powers, by Mark Larabee, The Oregonian, May 31, 2004
• US says it doesn't know how many detainees in Cuba , Reuters, 12 Aug 2003, 11:21 AM
• Amnesty International Alleges Violations of International Law in U.S. Detention of Immigrants after 9/11 by Carl R. Baldwin, March 19, 2002