Europeans view Bush as a thief who has brought shame on AmericaI am American living abroad. Both sides of my family are deeply rooted in America and I have lived in nine states. I love America. I am married to a Canadian who is also a European. I have lived in Europe twice, a total of fourteen years and I have lived in Canada once for five years. Our sons have been educated in European and Canadian schools. I have many European friends, family members, acquaintances and contacts. The Europeans, as do the Canadians, teach me a lot about how America is perceived from the outside. ... ... Why do the Europeans dislike Bush so much? He embodies
the characteristics they find most distasteful in Americans: the fake
smile, the absolute disregard for anything not American, the lack of
curiosity about them as evidenced by his woefully few visits to
Europe, for starters. The callous use of the death penalty is Texas
truly galls almost all Europeans. The politics of reducing taxes for
the rich and allowing forty percent of America to go without health
insurance is considered to be primitive beyond belief. The bombing of
Iraq at a time in history when peace is breaking out all over was
shocking. The selfish and greedy use of the world's resources by
America is a huge concern, as my Dutch class hammered home for
me. ... More (Top)U.S. Makes Amnesty International's List of Nations Guilty of Torture and Ill-Treatment of Non-Heterosexual Groups
The United States has won yet another global black mark. The country
made Amnesty International's list of 30 countries where cases of
torture and ill treatment of lesbians, gays, bisexual and
transgendered people have been documented. Other nations making the
list include Pakistan, Argentina, Russia, and Uganda. In the countries
cited by AI, "There is an overriding tolerance of abuse because
of the social stigma attached to homosexuality and gender norms,"
says William F. Schulz, exec. dir. of AI USA. Seventeen states in the
U.S. still criminalize homosexuality, with no relief in sight under a
Bush administration that is replete with intolerant members of the
right-wing establishment.
(Top) Citizens Summit on Global Warming Convenes While Shrub Remains Lost in Fog of Greenhouse Gases
This week, tired of waiting for Shrub to wake up, a coalition of
community leaders representing over 100 million Americans and at least
$300 billion in annual revenues, convened the Citizens Summit on Climate
Change. Participating organizations included the Union of Concerned
Scientists, the U.S. Catholic Conference, the Business Council for
Sustainable Energy, the National Religious Partnership for the
Environment, Honeywell and Maytag. At the Summit, 12 state petitions
signed by over 800 scientists (the real kind) were sent to Capitol Hill,
calling for stronger leadership and policies on global warming. The
state with the highest number of scientist signers? Florida!
(Top) Action on Smoking and Health Asks US to Withdraw from Tobacco TreatyFor Immediate Release: Contact Information: United States should pull out of tobacco treaty - EU needs new approach Asserting that the tobacco treaty negotiations are being held back and dragged down by the United States, ASH called on the Bush administration to withdraw from the negotiations. Clive Bates, Director of Action on smoking and Health, said: "The US contribution has been entirely negative: weakening, delaying and deleting anything that might have substance. At a meeting last night, ASH pressed for the US delegation to withdraw and let the rest of the world draw up the treaty it wants. "In contrast to the climate treaty and anti-ballistic missile treaty, this is a case where the US is trying to wreck the agreement from the inside. We would be better with them outside. "It's very unlikely that the US will ever ratify a tobacco treaty, so why shape it around what they want?," said Bates. "Any agreement that can get through the Bush administration and Congress will be worthless from a public health point of view. "It would be best if the US goes home from Geneva, adopts its increasingly familiar ostrich and stays out altogether." ASH conceded that the US wasn't the only problem, but insisted that it was the biggest problem. ASH also called for a more constructive approach from the EU. "The progressive European Union member states need to speak out and present the best of Europe to the rest of the world. Some of the best tobacco policies in the European Union aren't getting the airplay they deserve. "As Germany is holding the European Union back, it is important that they are exposed to public scrutiny and pressured to change their negative stance, rather than hiding behind the mirage of EU solidarity." Contact: Clive Bates: +44 77 6879 1237 in Geneva (Top)
April 17, 2001 Under pressure from a U.S. judge, Ecuador has dropped a lawsuit against the major cigarette companies charging that they profited from sales of a dangerous product, the Associated Press reported April 16. The lawsuit had sought unspecified punitive and compensatory damages from cigarette firms, who were charged with unjust enrichment for selling products that are unfit for safe use to Ecuadorians. But the judge in the Miami-Dade County Circuit Court case said that he would dismiss the case unless the parties agreed to do so first. Lawyers for the government of Ecuador said the case was dropped to
avoid damaging future lawsuits. Netherlands to Open Drive-Thru Drug ShopsMay 4, 2001 Next year, Venlo, located in the Netherlands, will have two drive-thru shops where "drug tourists" can purchase marijuana and hashish, the Associated Press reported May 2. Dutch officials said the two drive-thrus would make it easier on Germans who visit the southern Dutch border town to buy drugs. The drive-thrus also would prevent "drug tourists" from staying in the Netherlands, where soft drugs are legally sold in small quantities. "The new coffee shops need to be outside the city and they need to be easily accessible," said Venlo spokeswoman Tamira Hankman. "Our city center has been flooded with these tourists and the plan is part of an offensive to make it safer." Marijuana and hashish are illegal in the Netherlands, but authorities tolerate their use, and the drugs are openly sold in small amounts. Hankman explained that drug tourists attract street dealers selling illicit harder drugs, creating "an environment that generally makes ordinary people feel unsafe." The proposal needs the approval of the Venlo City Council. Switzerland Takes Steps to Legalize Marijuana, HashishThe Swiss government submitted a bill to parliament that would legalize the consumption of marijuana and hashish and enable a small number of retail drug shops to open, Reuters reported March 9. "Decriminalizing the consumption of cannabis and the acts leading up to this takes account of social reality and unburdens police and the courts," the government said in a statement. According to a government-commissioned poll conducted last month, one in four people aged 15 to 24 regularly smoke marijuana. "A certain number of shops could be tolerated as well as the
growing of hemp and the production of cannabis products, to the extent
that conditions laid down by government decree are fulfilled," the
government said. Belgium Decriminalizes MarijaunaIt is no longer a crime to possess cannabis for person use in Belgium, Reuters reported Jan. 19. Under the new policy, cannabis will be treated like alcohol and nicotine in terms of the health risks it poses. "This is a policy that is being followed in many of the countries in the European Union. We are not penalizing individual users of cannabis, but we are concentrating on production, distribution or problematic use," said Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. Verhofstadt stressed that the production, supply, sale and ownership of larger quantities of cannabis will continue to be actively prosecuted. In addition, cases of cannabis use that lead to unsociable behavior will be prosecuted. Health Minister Magda Alvoet said the new policy was a recognition that
the judiciary should no longer intervene in the personal use of cannabis.
"The criminal judge won't interfere any more in lives of people who
use cannabis on a personal basis and who do not create harm or do not
become dependent," she stated. "We want to create an extra space
of liberty, but we want to do it in a controlled manner." Proposal Would Revise Drug-Certification LawThe U.S. drug-certification program would get a major overhaul under a measure under consideration in the U.S. Congress, the Associated Press reported April 3. Under the current program, which has been criticized by Mexico and other nations, the U.S. grades foreign countries on their commitment to combat drug trafficking. Countries not fully cooperating with the United States in anti-drug efforts could lose U.S. aid. The new proposal, which was unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would remove the report-card system. Specifically, it would eliminate the requirement that nations be "fully cooperating with the United States" to receive certification and foreign aid. Instead, the president would single out the worst offenders among major drug-transit and drug-producing countries. The new law also would shift the assumption from one of guilty until
proven innocent to that of innocent until proven guilty. Nation-By-Nation Report Card on Drug PoliciesAn international report provides the Western Hemisphere's 34 nations with a nation-by-nation report card on drug policies, the Associated Press reported Feb. 1. The Organization of American States (OAS) report found that most of the nations in the Western Hemisphere need to build up their drug prevention efforts, determine the number of citizens who use illegal drugs, and evaluate the cost of fighting drug use. "It will become increasingly apparent to policy people in the hemisphere that our national interests are better served by this evaluation mechanism than by a system based on confrontation," said Edward H. Jurith, acting director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy. Officials in the U.S. and Latin America want the OAS study, called the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism, to eventually replace the U.S. drug-certification system. "This is a totally different process from that of certification," said OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria. "It will have a lot more legitimacy because it's a result of the work of a lot of nations." The report found that 25 of 34 Western Hemisphere nations must strengthen their drug prevention efforts, while 28 nations need to implement a system to estimate drug consumption. Furthermore, the report showed that 29 nations lack the ability to estimate the cost of their drug problem. The report will be distributed to hemispheric leaders at the April
20-22 summit in Quebec, Canada. Report: DEA Used Bad Data to Tout Success of Drug OperationAn investigation shows that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) used inaccurate data to publicize its success in Operation Libertador, Knight Ridder Newspapers reported Jan. 31. Last fall's Operation Libertador resulted in what the DEA termed a "major takedown" of drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Latin America. But according to a Knight Ridder investigation, the DEA claimed 2,876 arrests in the operation, yet agency officials have no evidence to support hundreds of them. Michael S. Vigil, who headed the DEA's regional office in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the time, acknowledged there were some discrepancies. But he added that Operation Libertador was a "tremendous success." "The key here is that we have 36 countries that put aside cultural, political and economic differences to come together," said Vigil, who now heads the agency's international operations. "You can't argue with the success of these operations, and the fact that we're developing international coalitions, I think, speaks for itself." According to internal documents for Operation Libertador, the agency could not account for 375 of the 2,876 arrests attributed to the operation. As a rule, the DEA accepted the information provided by the countries involved in the initiative and did not require information on those arrested, the outcomes of their cases, or what happened to their drugs and cash. "Everything was done properly and aboveboard," said DEA
spokesman Michael Chapman. He added that the agency would "stick by
the reported arrests, because those were the numbers that were called
in" by foreign law-enforcement officials. Drug War Strategy Under ScrutinyAlthough coca production in Colombia has dropped and CIA-sponsored surveillance flights in Peru has stopped numerous drug flights, sharp criticisms about the overall U.S. drug campaign continue to be voiced, the Associated Press reported April 24. The recent incident where an American missionary plane was mistaken for a drug flight and was shot down by the Peruvian air force has added to the criticism. But over the past six years, the CIA-sponsored program -- under which U.S. surveillance planes track suspected drug flights and alert the Peruvian air force -- has stopped 30 drug flights. Other results have been mixed. For instance, coca production in Colombia saw an 11 percent increase last year, but that was a drop from the usual 20-plus percent jump annually. Critics say that initiatives in Colombia, Peru and elsewhere have done little to impact the price or availability of cocaine in the United States. "Our national and international drug control strategy is not working," said a coalition of 39 religious and other groups in a February letter to President Bush. In response, the Bush administration is urging patience, saying the anti-drug fight is just beginning. According to Bush, the U.S. goal is to help the Colombian government
"protect its people, fight the drug trade, halt the momentum of the
guerrillas and bring about a sensible and peaceful resolution" to
Colombia's long-running civil war.
Lawmakers Question Peru's Drug-Interdiction PolicySeveral U.S. lawmakers are questioning Peru's drug-interdiction policy, which allows aircraft to be shot down without determining through a judicial process whether drug traffickers are on board, Reuters reported May 2. "The Peruvian shoot-down policy would never be permitted as a domestic United States policy precisely because it goes against one of our most sacred due-process principles, mainly that all persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty," said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) Members of the U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform subcommittee are holding a hearing on the policy after the Peruvian air force shot down a planeload of missionaries mistaken for drug smugglers. An American woman and her baby were killed. Government officials told the subcommittee that the shoot-down policy
has been successful in decreasing the production of drugs, which
ultimately end up in the United States. "We view air interdiction in
Peru as having been the single-most contributing factor to the dramatic
drop in cultivation of coca in the area" since 1996, said John Crow,
director of Latin American and Caribbean Programs at the Bureau for
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs at the State
Department. "We also believe that air interdiction is essential to
sustaining the success of Peru's counter-narcotics strategy," he
added.
Bob Herbert: Refusing to save AfricansTuesday, June 12, 2001 By BOB HERBERT, New York Times News Service Giving the back of his hand to the suffering of millions, a key Bush administration official is opposing any extensive use of the life-extending anti-AIDS drugs in Africa, insisting that the health care infrastructure is too primitive and that Africans, in most cases, are incapable of following the regimen. As head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Andrew Natsios is the administration's point man on foreign aid. In an interview with The Boston Globe, he said the money raised by a new global fund to fight AIDS should be used almost entirely for prevention services, not for the antiretroviral drugs that have been so successful in extending the lives of people infected with HIV. Painting with a very broad brush, Natsios said attempting to get the drugs to Africans any time soon would not be worth the effort because of the difficulties posed by a lack of roads, shortages of doctors and hospitals, wars and other problems. According to Natsios, the problems extend to the Africans themselves. Many Africans, he told The Globe, "don't know what Western time is. You have to take these (AIDS) drugs a certain number of hours each day, or they don't work. Many people in Africa have never seen a clock or a watch their entire lives. And if you say, one o'clock in the afternoon, they do not know what you are talking about. They know morning, they know noon, they know evening, they know the darkness at night." This view of Africans as so ignorant they can't master the concept of taking their medicine on time has become a touchstone of the Bush administration. Back in April, The New York Times' Joseph Kahn reported on concerns voiced by an unnamed senior Treasury Department official: "He said Africans lacked a requisite 'concept of time,' implying that they would not benefit from drugs that must be administered on tight time schedules." Africans may be dying by the millions from AIDS, but the brutal stereotyping of the Dark Continent lives on, encouraged by U.S. government officials who should know better. Natsios' primary response to the epidemic that is roaring like a fireball across southern Africa is to just say no. "Just keep talking about prevention," he told The Globe. "That is the strategy we're using — even though I'll be beaten up and get bruises all over me from the fights on the subject." Natsios may not realize it, but just talking about prevention has failed. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 25 million people are infected with HIV, and more than 17 million have already died. In South Africa, which is being brought to its knees by this epidemic, the rate of infection for all people 15 to 45 years old has nearly reached 20 percent. The United States, a rich and healthy nation, cannot close its eyes to suffering on such a colossal scale. There is medication available to ease the suffering and its cost is coming down. Now the steps must be taken to get the medicine to the people in need. I spoke with Natsios last Thursday. He conceded that in South Africa and the country with the worst outbreak of AIDS in the world, Botswana, the health care infrastructure is, in fact, pretty good. As for the difficulty Africans or anyone else might have following the daily antiretroviral regimen, now might be a good time to burst a widely held misconception. Antiretroviral therapy does not always require patients to take dozens of pills a day. "Our patients take two pills in the morning and two pills in the evening. That's it," said Toby Kasper, an official with Doctors Without Borders, which recently established an antiretroviral therapy program for patients in a village in South Africa. The trend in drug therapies — in the United States and elsewhere — is toward newer, more consolidated regimens that are easier to follow. Natsios reluctantly acknowledged that some limited use of antiretroviral treatment in Africa may be OK, and he said he didn't mean to offend anyone with his comments about African concepts of time. The truth is that both prevention and drug therapy are desperately needed in Africa. No one believes antiretrovirals can be effectively administered in countries that are at war, or in areas devoid of doctors and hospitals or clinics. But there is a role for antiretroviral therapy to play in the catastrophe in sub-Saharan Africa. And it would be to the everlasting shame of the United States if its officials proved to be a barrier to that kind of life-saving treatment. U.S. Criticized for Fighting International Tobacco TreatyThe United States has come under fire for hindering progress towards an international tobacco-control treaty, the Associated Press reported May 4. "The U.S. contribution has been entirely negative -- weakening, delaying and deleting anything that might have substance," said Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). Bates made the comments as weeklong negotiations over the treaty came to a close in Geneva, Switzerland. The treaty, sponsored by the United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO), is aimed at curbing the increase in tobacco-related deaths worldwide. Bates stated that the U.S. should withdraw from the negotiations rather than forcing other countries to weaken the treaty to the point where it would not be ratified. U.S. negotiators denied Bates' accusations. "The administration feels strongly focused on public health -- especially prevention in kids and stopping smuggling," said U.S. delegation chief Tom Novotny. But Vince Willmore of the U.S.-based Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, sided with Bates, stating that the U.S. delegation was trying to weaken several treaty provisions, including a ban on "low-tar," "light," and "mild" labeling claims; an end to duty-free sales; and a ban on smoking in public places. The United States is home to Philip Morris Inc., the world's largest tobacco company. In addition, President Bush is perceived to be more sympathetic to Big Tobacco than the Clinton administration. "We are concerned that the United States and Japan are adopting
positions which would clearly benefit the tobacco companies," said
Ricardo Navarro of the Network for Accountability for Tobacco
Transnationals. Bush visit June 2001
Swedish Protests Turn Ugly as Anti-Bush Activists Rumble with Riot
Squads
Angry Swedes hurled cobblestones and bottles at police lines in
Gothenberg, Sweden outside the 18th-century castle where the EU summit
was held. Inside, as oblivious as ever to everything in the universe but
himself, Shrub blathered hollow platitudes with his supposedly charming
(if you're not too bright you might think so, anyway) smirks and
pleasantries. In addition, he dismissed the Kyoto treaty - which
represents YEARS of painstaking research and negotiations - as
"unrealistic and not based on science" (i.e., not on oil
industry science). This destructive man is so stupid and shallow, he
appears not to have noticed or cared about anything going on around him
on his trip except maybe what was on the menu for lunch. Meanwhile,
Swedish PM Persson assured Swedes that the EU planned to act as the one
counterbalance to American world domination.
Europe Humiliates Bush over Global Warming; Bush Humiliates Himself by Opening his Mouth
In a stunning defeat for Bush, the European Union announced it
"will stick to the Kyoto Protocol and go for a ratification
process." Europeans are furious at Bush for opposing Kyoto, since
the US produces 25% of the world's greenhouse gases. The Kyoto Protocol
does not go into effect until countries producing 55% of the world's
greenhouse gases ratify it. Without the US, Japan would have to
participate to reach 55%, but Japan is following the lead of the US.
Bush humiliated himself by declaring that "Africa is a
nation." And while discussing expansion of NATO and the EU, he said
there ought to be "more countries" in Europe.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
6/14/01 (DemDaily democrats.com)
With Cameras Running, Bush Discusses the Stolen Election
Shrub has NEVER discussed how he stole the Presidency - and the US
media has never asked him to do so. But during a photo op with Swedish
Prime Minister Goran Persson - with the cameras running - Bush
admitted "I wasn't exactly a landslide winner this time
around." Hey George - you weren't the winner at all! Referring to
the successful Clinton-Gore administrations, he also admitted, "I
was running against peace and prosperity and incumbency." Hey
George - why didn't you have the "character" and
"integrity" to give Clinton and Gore the credit they
deserved during your campaign? And when will the US media ask Bush to
explain how he can be President if he lost the popular vote nationally
- and lost Florida too?
http://dailynews.yahoo.com
(demdailynews democrats.dom)
Bush Seeks Settlement in Tobacco Lawsuit The Bush administration wants to settle the government's civil lawsuit against the tobacco industry, the Associated Press reported June 19. Tobacco companies, who feel the lawsuit is without merit in the first place, are not that supportive of a settlement. "We will not settle this lawsuit for any amount of money," said Seth Moskowitz, a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department said that President Bush's proposed budget does not include enough funds to continue the federal government's lawsuit against the tobacco industry, Reuters reported April 25. According to lawyers involved in the tobacco litigation, an estimated $57.6 million is needed in the next fiscal year to continue the lawsuit against the tobacco industry. Bush's tobacco-litigation budget is just $1.8 million. The Justice Department filed the lawsuit in 1999 against Philip
Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Loews
Corp's Lorillard Tobacco Co. Inc., Vector Group Ltd's Liggett Group
Inc., the Council for Tobacco Research U.S.A. Inc., and the Tobacco
Institute Inc. Toxic Metal Contamination Levels on Alaskan Mining Road Worse than Most Polluted Sites in Eastern Europe
Canada Inches Towards Decriminalizing MarijuanaThe Canadian government has proposed several initiatives that would expand medicinal use of marijuana and minimize punishment for marijuana possession and use, the Associated Press reported May 29. Justice Minister Anne McLellan has urged a study on marijuana policy, while a new Parliament committee on drug matters will review decriminalization. No
Second Chances: Bush's Business Bosses Work to Shut Down the Chance to
Start Again By Paul Loeb Using rhetoric of compassion, a president who owes his career to unearned breaks is defining his presidency as the regime of no second chances. Not for individuals, nor for the planet, nor for anyone except the wealthy and well-connected. Think back to his bankruptcy bill, pushed through, on the eve of a recession, by credit card companies that gleefully send cards to your dog, cat, and 12-year-old, but don't want you to be able to make a fresh start if you lose your job or have a medical crisis. If you went bankrupt under the old system, you paid some costs, but at least you could get out from under. Now, thanks to these key Bush funders, if your luck runs bad, you're indentured for life. The bankruptcy bill set a pattern-one that threatens to persist unless the Democrats act far more aggressively than they did before the Jeffords switch. Those with power have long believed that whatever damage they do to individual lives or communities, they themselves can skate through, exempt from costs. But the Bush administration is giving the wealthy get more chances and subsidies than ever, and creating ever-harsher policies for the rest of us, left to scavenge in the ruins. If we mess up, we're left with only empty phrases. When Bush proposed cutting funding for abused children, after-school programs, low-income childcare, health care, and housing, he did so with kind and gentle words-in part to give an extra $53,000 per year to those one in a hundred Americans whose annual incomes average a million. If you grow up in poverty, however, you're now even more likely to stay there. Is the pace or design of your workplace leaving you crippled? Wave good-bye to ergonomics standards that took a decade to craft, but have now been gutted. Hunger-relief lobbyists worked for years to get Congress to oppose user fees in international aid programs, which prevented people without money from getting health care or going to school unless they paid the institutions that served them. Bush has now reversed the stand. The Clinton administration belatedly passed a rule making it more difficult for corporations that consistently violated laws to bid for federal contracts. That too is gone. Bush is also denying a second chance for the earth--the chance to learn from the blind paths of the past. Instead, he's sandbagged the Kyoto global warming treaty, reversed his stand on limiting carbon dioxide emissions, cut alternative energy research and international family planning funds, proposed unlimited oil drilling, nominated a timber industry shill to head the forest service, and resurrected the rancid corpse of the nuclear power industry. Given the accelerating pace of global climate change, species extinctions, and population pressures, he's risking the chance for recovery of the planet. All this comes from a president whose career has consisted of unearned breaks and forgiven mistakes: launching a succession of failed oil companies, losing millions of his father's friends' dollars, and walking away with more money each time; partying through Andover and Yale, bypassing a hundred thousand others to get into the Texas National Guard, and then ducking out on a year of service once he entered; being bailed out by connections every time. Now, Bush has revived a previously dormant law denying federal financial aid to college students with drug convictions. If you grow up wealthy, you don't need the aid, so you can be as "young and irresponsible" as you want and you'll be fine. But if you're broke and get busted, that's it-even if you change your ways. Of course GW would never have entered the White House were it not for the most profound elimination of second chances in our society-the banning of 1.4 million ex-felons from the voting rolls. In Florida alone, 650,000 people were banned from voting for this reason, including one in three African-American men. Tens of thousands more were knocked out through letters purging them from the rolls for convictions that never applied under Florida law-or never existed. Rules barring ex-felons proliferated a century ago, spearheaded by former Confederate states restricting black voting and establishing racial segregation. They've disenfranchised far more people in the wake of bi-partisan mandatory sentencing laws and other measures that have left us leading the world in the percentage of our citizens in jail. No other advanced industrial democracy bars former prisoners for life: Many actually encourage current inmates to vote. But our laws "elected" GW, even before all the discarded ballots and cancelled recounts. The ethic of no second chances threatens to dominate the next fifty years if Bush appoints enough judges like those who installed him in office. Are you a cancer patient on chemotherapy, who needs medical marijuana to keep down your medication and food? The Supreme Court overrides the will of local voters and calls that illegal. Are you an Alabama prison guard with asthma, wanting to be protected against working in a smoke-filled environment that destroys your chances of recovery, or a nursing home employee demoted for taking time off for cancer treatments? Too bad, say the Justices: The American with Disability Act doesn't apply to state employees. Are you a Texas mother who neglects to fasten your children's seat belts? The police can now handcuff and arrest you in front of them-you'll get no sympathy here. In the worldview of the Bush team, exemption is contingent on class. If you're rich and contribute to Republican coffers, you deserve every forgiveness and reward. If you're not, but are struggling with the downside of the American dream, you just don't have what it takes. We've not quite revived workhouses and debtor's prisons, but they seem close on the horizon, cloaked in words of compassion. Paul Loeb is the author of Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time (St Martin's 1999). See www.soulofacitizen.org. (from Democrats.com)
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