Joe Scott 3: The Body Politic

Bush Budget: What About Justice?

08 February 2006 |permalink | email article

Say a long goodbye to President Bush as a ìcompassionate conservative,î the promise he made on taking office in January 2001. That month the Congressional Budget Office projected that the federal budget would run a huge surplus, in excess of $5.6 trillion between 2002 and 2011.

This week, as Bush releases his new budget plan, the budget office predicts deficits for the five years starting Oct. 1 totaling more than $2.2 trillion. Making tax cuts permanent, 9/11, a recession and dramatic increases in on national security are the reason.

The priorities in the presidentís $2.77 trillion plan, increased spending on the military and domestic security, come at the expense of addressing the huge budget deficit by deeply slashing domestic programs, including health and human services and education.

His obsessive mantra of ìprotecting our citizens and our homelandî may assuage fiscal conservatives by slowing the rate of spending but the larger question is whether, in a midterm election with control of Congress by Republicans at stake, voters will buy his package in November. Or decide W. has his priorities confused.

I mean, the discretionary military budget is up 6.9% and does not include supplemental appropriations of at least $50 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007 and an increase of 1.3 % for homeland security. Consider big funding drops in vocational education, slowing the growth of Medicare and eliminating a food program for low-income women, infants, children and people over 60.

ìA budget is a statement of moral choices, and this budget makes the wrong choices,î said John Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

I recall the warm embrace of Bush and Bono of U2 at the recent National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. The Irish rock star said:

ìHereís some good news for the president. After 9/11 we were told America would have no time for the worldís poor. America would be taken up with itís own problems of safety. And itís true these are dangerous times, but America has not drawn the blinds and double-locked the doors.î

In complimenting America, Bono made clear help was not about charity but about justice. I question whether Bush understands the distinction.

White House Confidential

06 February 2006 |permalink | email article

ìFleischer recalled that Libby ëadded something along the lines of, you know, this is hush hush, nobody knows about this.î

The noir language echoes ìL.A. Confidential,î James Ellroyís crime novel about LAPD and Hollywood corruption in the late 1940s. The quote, from then White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, refers to his lunch with I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Vice President Dick Cheneyís then chief of staff, on July 7, 2003.

Itís fact, not fiction, part of newly released pages of a formerly secret legal opinion by a federal appeals judge about the identity of a CIA officer at the heart of the criminal leak case involving Libby, as reported by the New York Times.

Judge David S. Tatel ës written opinion disclosed that Libby acknowledged to prosecutors that he had heard directly from Cheney about Valerie Wilson, married to Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador who criticized the Bush administrationís about Iraq policy. That was more than a month before the columnist Robert Novak first disclosed her identity on July 14, 2003.

The new material amplified and provided new details outlined in the October 2005 indictment of Libby which accused him of falsely telling reporters that he had first learned about Ms. Wilson from reporters when, in fact, according to the charging document he learned about it from government officials like Cheney. (Libbyís lawyers hint his defense strategy may be that his preoccupation with affairs of state may have led to ìimperfect recall.î)

Judge Tatelís formerly secret opinion were reportedly largely drawn from affidavits supplied by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special counsel in the case who is the U.S. Attorney in Chicago.

The new information includes the lunch at which Libby told Fleischer about Ms. Wilson and that she had sent her husband to Africa to examine intelligence reports indicating that Iraq sought to buy uranium ore from Niger. Judge Tatel wrote that Fleischer described the lunch to prosecutors as ìkind of weird,î noting that Libby ìoperated in a very closed-lip fashion.î

Several pages of the opinion, said to contain information about Fitzgeraldís investigation of Karl Rove, the senior White House political adviser, remained under seal. Rove has not been charged but remains under investigation.

Credit release of the new material to lawyers for the Wall Street Journal - a major First Amendment ruling for the right of public access to court records. It raises fresh questions about the hush hush world of the shadowy Cheney, principal architect of the decision to attack Iraq without evidence of WMD ñ or any uranium ore from Niger.

Super Bowl 40: L.A. Bid Stalls

05 February 2006 |permalink | email article

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue told his annual pre-Super Bowl news conference that negotiations between the league and the players union about a new collective-bargaining agreement are not going well. Without a deal, rumors about a special ownersí huddle before their March meeting to consider a Los Angeles franchise are now DOA.

It is known while L. A. is on the agenda for discussion in Orlando, Tagliabueís priority is a new collective bargaining agreement next month. Given recent rhetoric by the NFL Players Association he acknowledged that the labor issue is a complication which must be resolved prior to putting a franchise in the City of Angels.

Without an extension, the commissioner said relative to L.A., ìissues of how to ensure the proper private financing for a stadium and related issues would be very difficult to resolve.” Still, he added, ìa lot of things get done at the 11th hour and 59th minute.î

Sundayís Super Bowl is the 40th since the first played in the Los Angeles Coliseum. It was a time when professional football was still a game, not a billion-dollar business, and when John Q. Public could afford a couple of tickets. If the NFL and the players union ever get real MAYBE the city can field a team before 2010.