http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/government/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Mon, 02 Jun 2003 11:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/449/the_abcs_of_media_deregulation/ As soon as most people see the words “duopoly,” “cross-ownership rules,” or “FCC” in the headlines their eyes glaze over. But not my friend and many people’s hero, Bob McChesney. Bob eats memos about telecom regulations for breakfast. He has campaigned tirelessly, along with John Nichols, Mark Crispin Miller, Jeff Chester, and others, for reform of our nation’s media regulatory apparatus. But I just had a very eye-opening chat with Michael Powell, head of the FCC. And now I realize that Bob is just getting excited over nothing: He doesn’t grasp how progressive and democratic “market forces” can be, and he fails to understand that letting Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation own as many media outlets as possible will ensure that… government: agencies media Rachel Jefferson Thu, 19 Feb 2004 16:44:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/708/faulty_intelligence/ The commission appointed by President George W. Bush to look into WMD-related “intelligence failures” can be considered “independent” only if the word now means “subordinated and allied.” The members lack the expertise required to uncover what really went wrong, and their limited mandate sidesteps the central question: Did the administration hype intelligence reports to march the United States into war? Rather than allowing Congress to name the members and determine the scope of their investigation, the intelligence commission was established by executive fiat and is a mixture of centrists and right-wing ideologues—suggesting that Bush is less concerned with unraveling the Iraq fiasco than deflecting criticism until after the November elections. Co-chairmen are Laurence Silberman, a retired appeals court judge appointed… government: administration government: agencies government: congress politics war in iraq Rachel Jefferson Mon, 12 Apr 2004 15:34:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/411/outside_the_inside/ Last March, as U.S. troops were preparing to launch the invasion of Iraq, a much quieter war was taking place inside the Pentagon. Karen Kwiatkowski, a lifelong conservative and career military official, was knocking heads with what she called “the neoconservative coup, the hijacking of the Pentagon.” Kwiatkowski recently wrote of the war and occupation in Iraq and what she calls the Bush Doctrine Experiment: “Costs have been high, payoffs unclear and there is no exit strategy in sight.” Can you describe the Bush Doctrine as you saw it operating within the Pentagon, and how is the experiment going? The doctrine as presented in the National Security Strategy is an offshoot of the Project for a New American Century’s “Rebuilding… government: agencies politics war in iraq Rachel Jefferson Thu, 15 Apr 2004 09:09:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/721/incredible_credibility/ Men like Richard Clarke do not, as a rule, write books. Mandarins of the national security establishment who long ago embedded themselves in the bureaucracy, the closest they ever come to anything like public authorship is via the pens of others. They frequently speak to journalists, sometimes on the record as adjuncts of the political master du jour; other times, only on background, perhaps in the service of what they see as sounder policy than the White House does. They consider their import to be their possession of more focused experience and better institutional memory than the strictly politicals they work for; yet by and large they are committed to working within the system, and even in anger rarely consider… government: administration government: agencies government: congress politics Rachel Jefferson Mon, 19 Apr 2004 08:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/722/how_to_live_on_577_a_month/ The Social Security Administration recently informed me that I’ve earned enough “credits” for my child to receive $577 per month in benefits “if you die this year.” Five hundred and seventy-seven dollars a month. It’s funny. I used to get exactly that on welfare: a young broke single mom with her sweet fat baby. Five hundred and seventy-seven dollars. But that was a long time ago—before Newt explained to me “personal responsibility”; before my 21-year-old self was blamed for everything from economic decline to the moral decay of Western Civilization; before Clinton signed welfare reform while getting a blowjob from an intern; before Bush Jr. stole the White House; before my baby morphed into a teenager. Five hundred and seventy-seven… gender government: agencies social justice Rachel Jefferson Fri, 18 Jun 2004 16:46:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/788/roundups_ratcheted/ Federal agents are fanning out across the nation apprehending undocumented immigrants with a green light from the Bush administration. Eight months ago Operation Endgame was placed on the fast track under the auspices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, the newly formed investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security (see “Detention Blues,” p. 20) and one of three new bureaus of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service. With a bigger budget and more agents, the mandate is to catch some of the estimated 400,000 undocumented immigrants who have final removal orders and deport them. “Right now we have more than 20,000 people in ICE custody nationwide,” says ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. Since March, civil rights groups nationwide have… civil liberties government: agencies international affairs Rachel Jefferson Wed, 15 Jun 2005 18:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2159/scott_bloch_sad_saga/ On freedom, the Bush administration speaks with a forked tongue. Executive rhetoric at the start of the second term has taken a welcome turn toward prodding other nations to respect human liberty. But such exhortations ring hollow--if not downright mendacious--in the face of what the president's appointee at the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is doing to undermine civil rights, the rule of law and the legacy of public service here at home. The saga of Scott Bloch and mismanagement at the OSC has persisted for a year and a half--under the radar of the national press. The agency upholds nondiscrimination policy and ensures protection for federal workers who blow the whistle on corruption, waste or abuse. The OSC is… government: administration LGBT Rachel Jefferson Fri, 28 Oct 2005 07:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2371/babes_in_bushworld/ Just before the Republican National Convention came to town in 2004, New York newspapers were buzzing with rumors that the city's high-priced prostitutes and strippers were gearing up for "one grand old party." The reports quickly gained currency, for no one had problems imagining randy GOP types forking over $100 dollar bills in the dark of the night to be serviced by acquiescent, uber-sexualized women--the same women likely to be condemned as moral degenerates on the convention floor the next morning. This is, after all, what passes for sexual abandon in a conservative world--the kind of "Good Old-Fashioned Pleasure" a San Diego escort agency was touting when it changed its name to "GOP" during another such convention eight years before.… gender government: administration Rachel Jefferson Wed, 16 Nov 2005 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2400/voter_disenfranchisement_by_attrition/ When Hurricane Katrina came ashore in New Orleans, it destroyed half the city's voting precincts and scattered 300,000 of the city's residents, most of them black, across the country. With citywide elections still scheduled in February and March for 20 key public offices--including mayor, criminal sheriff, civil sheriff and all city council members--restoring the city's democratic capability might seem an urgent task to some, but not to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). All evacuees who apply for assistance must tell FEMA who they are, where they lived before they were displaced and where they live now. Since early October, Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater, a Democrat, has been dogging the agency for the names and temporary addresses of… government: agencies Rachel Jefferson Fri, 24 Feb 2006 08:00:01 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2539/masking_new_orleans/ On Mardi Gras Day, the nation will be looking to New Orleans to see if we are wearing masks. We'll be wearing them in New Orleans, but they're being worn in Washington D.C. too. That's because the face of our tragedy is being covered up with a big smile--we are having a party and pretending that the poor people can just go away. The poor weren't seen in the years before Katrina. Dark skinned women folded down white hotel sheets for revelers in the French Quarter. Men ported and washed dishes behind the screen doors of restaurants where beer-sodden tourists cheered. Children asked for a quarter to sing and dance as visitors from all over the world eyed them like… government: agencies Rachel Jefferson Wed, 26 Apr 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2617/putting_the_irs_to_political_use/ In September 2005, an Internal Revenue Service auditor darkened the door of Greenpeace, the organization known for its frontline environmental activism against nuclear testing, commercial whaling and destruction of wilderness, and stayed for three months. "There's no doubt there was a political motive behind it," says Carol Gregory, spokeswoman for Greenpeace. According to the group, the auditor confirmed that the investigation was instigated by a letter sent in 2003 to the IRS by Public Interest Watch (PIW), a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization whose motto is "Keeping an eye on the self-appointed guardians of the public interest." PIW asked the agency to investigate the U.S. affiliate of Amsterdam-based Greenpeace for using tax-exempt donations to fund non-tax-exempt activities in violation of U.S.… government: agencies Rachel Jefferson Wed, 05 Jul 2006 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2690/europe_turns_a_blind_eye_to_the_cia/ Thirteen members of an E.U. Parliament probe arrived in Washington on May 10, seeking answers to allegations of CIA-operated secret flights and prisons in Europe. A reported 1,000 CIA flights have secretly crisscrossed Europe since 9/11, often transporting "terror suspects" to be interrogated in other countries, such as Egypt, where prisoners are routinely tortured. But when the Europeans came calling at the nation's capital, only low-level administration officials and four members of Congress (all Democrats) met with them face-to-face. Stonewalling from the Bush administration should be no surprise, but European government officials haven't been any more forthcoming. Javier Solana, the E.U.'s foreign policy chief, told the E.U. Parliament, "I have no information whatsoever that tells me with certainty that any… International Affairs War on Terror Europe Government Agencies Rachel Jefferson Thu, 27 Jul 2006 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2735/a_terrifying_distraction/ The arrest of seven men in Miami last month on specious terrorism charges smells strongly like a case of governmental entrapment. The men, six of whom are of Haitian descent, allegedly planned to blow up various targets--including government buildings and the Sears Tower in Chicago--but officials found no plans, explosives or any equipment whatsoever that could be used to effect the plot. In fact, the FBI informant who infiltrated the group posing as an al-Qaeda representative is the one who initiated the idea of blowing up government buildings. The seven men are charged with two counts of conspiring to support a foreign terrorist organization, one count of conspiring to destroy buildings by use of explosives and one count of conspiring… Government Agencies Civil Liberties Terrorism Race Rachel Jefferson Thu, 03 Aug 2006 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2769/police_torture_and_the_need_for_repair/ When the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) mobilized opposition to a bill naming one Chicago block in honor of the late Fred Hampton, the legislation died, despite vigorous support from African-American activists and politicians. Hampton, a Black Panther killed by police in an infamous 1969 raid, was popular among many in the black community because he aggressively challenged police brutality. Hampton's brazen assassination confirmed his complaint and transformed him into an international martyr. But the FOP said Hampton advocated cop killing and the bill for an honorific street died without any support from the city's white aldermen. More than three decades later, many white Americans remain unconvinced by blacks' complaints of police abuse. Those same differences likely explain why charges… Criminal Justice Government Agencies Race Corruption Rachel Jefferson Tue, 05 Sep 2006 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2779/sick_to_death_of_bush/ Trust me, George Bush says, perched on the remains of Geneva Conventions, the Constitution and habeas corpus. From this moral high ground, the United States is assuring the world that a new facility for researching a horror shop of weaponized infectious diseases will be used purely for defensive purposes. The National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center's (NBACC) $128 million, 160,000-square-foot facility is under construction at Fort Detrick, Md. There, the United States has already weaponized more than a dozen diseases--including anthrax, plague, botulism and ebola--and bioengineered war-friendly "improvements." Scientists are also using DNA-synthesizing techniques to fabricate genetically altered or man-made viruses, and to study the feasibility of creating germ weapons targeting particular ethnicities. "De facto, we are going to make… war and peace government agencies medical and health Rachel Jefferson Wed, 11 Oct 2006 07:40:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2847/halliburton_hearts_congress/ Feces in the soldiers' water. Blood on the mess hall floor. Expired and substandard food. $85,000 trucks with flat tires abandoned in the desert. Embroidered towels for twice the cost. More than $1 billion in "questionable charges." These are just a few of the allegations levied against Halliburton, and its subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), by former employees, soldiers and their families as well as Pentagon and congressional investigators. Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, Halliburton has been working for the Pentagon under the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP)--a multi-billion dollar agreement that guarantees the contractor receives a fixed profit based on the quote the company gives for tasks like food service, provisioning and outfitting of U.S.… Corporations Halliburton Iraq War Congress Government Agencies Military Rachel Jefferson Mon, 20 Nov 2006 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2889/doj_quashes_wiretapping_inquiries/ Though Maine resident Doug Cowie just celebrated his 75th birthday in October, it was only this past January that he retired from the Maine Public Utility Commission (PUC) where he worked for 18 years. It would be easy to think of Cowie as an innocuous grandfatherly type--particularly after his response when I told him some of his e-mails ended up in my spam folder: "Your what folder?"--but he is one of a growing number of Americans who are acting, in lieu of Congress, as the only check and balance on the Bush administration's domestic spying program. When USA Today published an article on May 11 alleging that the National Security Agency (NSA) had teamed up with major telecommunications companies to… Government Agencies Civil Liberties Activism Rachel Jefferson Mon, 04 Dec 2006 06:00:01 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2928/is_congress_gates_keeper/ Robert Gates, George W. Bush's choice to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary, is a trusted figure within the Bush family's inner circle. But there are lingering questions about whether Gates is a trustworthy public official. The 63-year-old Gates has long faced accusations of collaborating with Islamic extremists in Iran, arming Saddam Hussein's dictatorship in Iraq, and politicizing U.S. intelligence to conform with the desires of policymakers--three key areas that relate to his future job. The Bush administration is seeking to slip Gates through the congressional approval process by pressing for a confirmation before the new Democratic-controlled Senate is seated. In 1991, Gates got a similar pass when leading Democrats agreed to put "bipartisanship" ahead of oversight when President George… Congress Government: Administration Corruption Government Agencies Rachel Jefferson Mon, 05 Feb 2007 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3007/declassified_but_still_unavailable/ At the stroke of midnight on December 31, hundreds of millions of pages of secret government documents--including 270 million pages of FBI files--were instantly declassified, promising to shed light on everything from the Cuban Missile Crisis to government surveillance of antiwar and civil rights activists in the '60s and '70s. It was to be a "Cinderella moment," said the New York Times, for researchers of the government's secret history. But upon contacting the National Archives, researchers learned that declassification is not the same thing as release--none of the documents were publicly available for review. The confusion over the documents' status was understandable. The 2003 Executive Order that President Bush signed with great fanfare clearly stated that government documents more than… government agencies intelligence Rachel Jefferson Fri, 08 Jun 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3217/entrapping_inflated_threats/ Abdul Kadir, one of the four men charged in an alleged terrorist plot to blow up a pipeline that fed fuel tanks at John F. Kennedy International Airport, is a former member of the Guyanese Parliament and former mayor of Linden, Guyana. The fuel line the group allegedly planned to sabotage originates in Linden, N.J. This Linden-Linden axis heavily implicates Kadir. I am being facetious of course. However, had law enforcement officials made this connection during their announcement of the plot in early June, there is little doubt the national media would have incredulously reported it as a credible link. In fact, the actual announcement was just marginally more credible. "Had the plot been carried out, it could have resulted… conspiracies government agencies national security Rachel Jefferson