George III is accused, for example, of "depriving us in many cases of the benefits of Trial by Jury." [She notes the cases of Jose Padilla and Yaser Hamdi.]

[She notes one difference, in that George III imposed unfair taxes, whereas George XLIII shifted them from the rich today to the unborn of tomorrow.]

… "He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power," the declaration said of George III, and … George III "obstructed the Administration of Justice." [She cites instances attending our conquest of Iraq that are similar.]

… [It condemns] George III for "transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation." Translate "mercenaries" into contract workers and proxy armies …, and translate that last long phrase into Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib.

But it is the final sentence of the declaration that deserves the closest study: "And for the support of this Declaration . . . we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." … If the rebel American militias were beaten on the battlefield, their ringleaders could expect to be hanged as traitors. They signed anyway, thereby stating to the world that there is something worth more than life, and that is liberty. Thanks to their courage, we do not have to risk death to preserve the liberties they bequeathed us. All we have to do is vote.

… People reaching retirement age are now less likely to own their homes free and clear than their predecessors, according to an analysis of government housing and Census data. One in four families headed by someone 65 or older still had a mortgage to pay in 2001, the most recent data available. In 1989, just one in six still had house payments to make. … Mortgage debt owed by older households nearly quadrupled between 1989 and 2001, even after accounting for inflation, according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by Zhu Xiao Di, a research analyst at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. In 2001, the typical household headed by someone 65 or older had $44,000 in mortgage debt, compared with $12,000 in 1989, Mr. Zhu says in a forthcoming paper.

… While home loans are usually their biggest payment, the elderly have been rapidly accumulating other debt as well. Credit card bills - to cover everything from minor emergencies to ongoing essentials - have risen sharply. All told, the debt burdens of borrowers between the ages of 65 and 74 doubled between 1992 and 2001, compared with an increase of 83 percent for the general population, the Federal Reserve says.

… More and more of the elderly are in outright financial distress. One in seven households headed by someone 65 or older was considered heavily indebted in 2001 - devoting at least 40 percent of their incomes to debt payments, according to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances. That compared with one in 10 among all households with debt. … From 1997 to 2001, bankruptcies among the elderly tripled to 82,000, says the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, a consortium of university researchers.

… In various consumer surveys and bankruptcy studies, heavy health care expenses are consistently cited. "It's always medical bills - and credit cards to pay for medical bills," said Barbara May, a consumer bankruptcy lawyer in Arden Hills, Minn., and a board member of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

… [B]ankruptcy lawyers say another reason for distress is that more of their elderly clients are also helping out their adult children. In studying bankruptcy filings in 2001 as a member of the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, Elizabeth Warren, a professor at Harvard Law School, found the trend startling: "I was very surprised to see the number of older people who explained their bankruptcies in terms of their children's failed marriages, their children's drug addictions, their children's lack of health insurance. The impulse to take care of one's children never goes away."

… Advocacy groups accuse some lenders of seeking business from vulnerable older people with little regard for their ability to pay. Many banks seem to issue credit cards indiscriminately, they said, while mortgage lenders offer people payment terms they cannot possibly meet, made even worse by wrapping other debts into the loan.

While many economists are confident the economy will maintain a strong pace, a variety of recent signals suggest the recovery may be losing some steam. Last week, the government trimmed its original estimate of economic growth in the first quarter to 3.9 percent from its initial estimate of 4.2 percent. Other recent indications of weakness in retail sales, auto buying and durable goods also hint at a pullback in the economy's strong performance of recent months. … Wages of private nonsupervisory workers — which account for some 80 percent of total employment — barely inched up to $15.65 an hour. That represents a mere 2 percent increase from last year, not enough to maintain workers' purchasing power against an inflation rate now running around 3 percent. The average workweek fell to 33.6 hours in June from 33.8 hours in May. As a consequence, weekly earnings for private nonsupervisory workers actually declined over the month, before accounting for inflation, falling to $525.84 in June from $528.29 in the previous month.

62 Super Rangers Round Up $28.5 Million for Bush Campaign Efforts

The biggest of President Bush’s big-money backers were revealed yesterday when the Republican National Committee (RNC) released the names of 62 "Super Rangers" – fundraisers who have collected at least $28.5 million for Bush’s re-election efforts, according to an analysis by Public Citizen. The "Super Rangers" are high-powered fundraisers who have collected at least $300,000 for the RNC. All but a handful of these rainmakers already ranked among President Bush’s largest financial backers. Forty-five of the Super-Rangers previously had been crowned "Rangers" – meaning they each have raised at least $500,000 this cycle. Nine more had achieved "Pioneer" status by collecting at least $100,000 for Bush.

335 Deep-Pocketed Democrats Back the Kerry Campaign

John Kerry too has relied on the largesse of big-money bundlers. Kerry’s 164 "vice chairs" (who have raised at least $100,000) and 171 "co-chairs" (who have collected at least $50,000) have accounted for at least $25 million – and likely much more – of Kerry’s total fundraising. The Democratic National Committee also has an equivalent to the Super-Rangers called "Trustees." These individuals have raised at least $250,000 for the party. All but five of the 17 Trustees also have collected at least $100,000 for the Kerry campaign.

… GDP, the most common gauge of a nation's output of goods and services, counts up total money transactions. But such totals don't give a full picture. [e.g., rebuilding destroyed homes counts as GDP without a tangible improvement in the standard of living; jobs for people handling the fall-out from Enron also count, without otherwise improving human lives.]

… The US uses about 15 percent of GDP on health expenditures. Yet 43 million Americans under 65 are not covered by health insurance. European nations, with their universal health systems, spend under 10 percent of GDP. And the US, notes one study, comes in 12th among 13 industrial nations when ranked according to 16 available health indicators. Infant mortality is far higher than in Western Europe, for instance.

Further, the US justice system has put almost 6 million people in jail. That's far more, proportionately, than any other rich nation. Prison costs (which also boost GDP) are now eating into many states' budgets and may mean higher taxes.

… The US has the largest income gap between rich and poor of any major nation except Brazil and South Africa.

The latest GPI measure, for 2003, finds that since January 2000, the GPI measure of economic activity fell $212 per person. The biggest factors were a degradation of natural resources and the rise in national debt, while the value of housework and volunteer work grew handsomely. In contrast, GDP grew about 2.6 percent during that period, or about $180 per American.

Of the funding available for the reconstruction effort, about $24 billion had been obligated as of the end of April 2004. Of this amount, about $13 billion came from the Development Fund for Iraq [which includes "proceeds from the sale of Iraqi oil, natural gas, and petroleum products; [] U.N. funds such as unused Oil for Food program funds; and [] transferred assets from the former Iraqi regime that U.N. member states had frozen in the 1990"] and about $8 billion from U.S. appropriated funds. About $4 billion of the $4.5 billion in U.S. funds appropriated in 2003 and about $4.2 billion of the $19.6 billion in U.S. funds appropriated in 2004 have been obligated. The remaining $2.5 billion in obligated funds came from vested and seized assets. [See pp. 10, 12, and the damning graphic on p. 10.]

Due to several factors, including the worsening security situation and increased demand, average daily hours of electrical service in some governorates was worse at the end of May 2004 than it was prior to the war. Hours of electrical service in the country as a whole, while more equitably distributed, also did not show a marked improvement over the immediate postwar levels of May 2003 and worsened in some governorates. [p. 86, and see the damning graphic on p. 90.]

I. Costs to the United States

A. HUMAN COSTS TO THE U.S. AND ALLIES: U.S. Military: 952 coalition forces were killed, including 836 U.S. military. … Contractor Deaths: Estimates range from 50 to 90 civilian contractors, missionaries, and civilian worker deaths. …Journalist Deaths: Thirty international media workers have been killed in Iraq.

B. SECURITY COSTS: Terrorist Recruitment and Action: al Qaeda’s membership is now at 18,000 … 390 deaths and 1,892 injuries due to terrorist attacks in 2003. In addition, there were 98 suicide attacks around the world in 2003, more than any year in contemporary history. Low U.S. Credibility: [T]he war has damaged the U.S. government’s standing and credibility in the world. … At home, 54 percent of Americans polled by the Annenberg Election Survey felt that the “the situation in Iraq was not worth going to war over.” Military Mistakes: A number of former military officials have criticized the war, including retired Marine General Anthony Zinni, who has charged that by manufacturing a false rationale for war, abandoning traditional allies, propping up and trusting Iraqi exiles, and failing to plan for post-war Iraq, the Bush Administration made the United States less secure. Low Troop Morale and Lack of Equipment: A March 2004 army survey found 52 percent of soldiers reporting low morale …. The Army did not fully equip soldiers with bullet-proof vests until June 2004, forcing many families to purchase them out of their own pockets. Loss of First Responders: [The] deployment [of National Guard troops] puts a particularly heavy burden on their home communities because many are “first responders,” including police, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel. … 44 percent of the country’s police forces have lost officers to Iraq.… Use of Private Contractors: An estimated 20,000 private contractors are carrying out work in Iraq traditionally done by the military, despite the fact that they often lack sufficient training and are not accountable to the same guidelines and reviews as military personnel.

C. ECONOMIC COSTS: The Bill So Far: Congress has already approved of $126.1 billion for Iraq and an additional $25 billion is heading towards Congressional approval, for a total of $151.1 billion through this year. … Long-term Impact on U.S. Economy: … $3,415 for every U.S. household. … Oil Prices: Gas prices topped $2 a gallon in May 2004, a development that most analysts attribute at least in part to the deteriorating situation in Iraq. … [I]f crude oil prices stay around $40 a barrel for a year, U.S. gross domestic product will decline by more than $50 billion. Economic Impact on Military Families: [B]etween 30 and 40 percent of reservists and National Guard members earn a lower salary when they leave civilian employment for military deployment [which is lasting 20 months]. [R]equests from military families for food stamps and subsidized meals increased “several hundred percent” between 2002 and 2003.

D. SOCIAL COSTS: U.S. Budget and Social Programs: The Bush administration’s combination of massive spending on the war and tax cuts for the wealthy means less money for social spending. [It discusses the good the money could have done, as well as the cuts the administration proposes.] Social Costs to the Military: [T]he Army has extended the tours of duty of 20,000 soldiers. These extensions have been particularly difficult for reservists, many of whom never expected to face such long separations from their jobs and families. … A recent Army survey revealed that more than half of soldiers said they would not re-enlist. Costs to Veteran Health Care: About 64 percent of the more than 5,000 U.S. soldiers injured in Iraq received wounds that prevented them from returning to duty. … As in previous wars, many soldiers are likely to have received ailments that will not be detected for years to come. … Mental Health Costs: [M]ore than 15 percent of soldiers in Iraq screened positive for traumatic stress, 7.3 percent for anxiety, and 6.9 percent for depression. The suicide rate among soldiers increased from an eight-year average of 11.9 per 100,000 to 15.6 per 100,000 in 2003. …

II. Costs to Iraq

A. HUMAN COSTS: Iraqi Deaths and Injuries: [B]etween 9,436 and 11,317 Iraqi civilians have been killed as a result of the U.S. invasion and ensuing occupation, while an estimated 40,000 Iraqis have been injured. [B]etween 4,895 and 6,370 Iraqi soldiers and insurgents were killed. Effects of Depleted Uranium: … The Pentagon estimates that U.S. and British forces used 1,100 to 2,200 tons of weaponry made from the toxic and radioactive metal during the March 2003 bombing campaign.…

B. SECURITY COSTS Rise in Crime: Murder, rape, and kidnapping have skyrocketed since March 2003…. Violent deaths rose from an average of 14 per month in 2002 to 357 per month in 2003. Psychological Impact: … 55 percent would feel safer if U.S. and other foreign troops left the country immediately.

C. ECONOMIC COSTS: Unemployment: Iraqi joblessness doubled from 30 percent before the war to 60 percent in the summer of 2003. … Corporate War Profiteering: Most of Iraq’s reconstruction has been contracted out to U.S. companies, rather than experienced Iraqi firms. [Specific allegations against Halliburton are discussed.] Iraq’s Oil Economy: … There have been an estimated 130 attacks on Iraq’s oil infrastructure. In 2003, Iraq’s oil production dropped to 1.33 million barrels per day, down from 2.04 million in 2002.

D. SOCIAL COSTS: Health Infrastructure: … Iraq’s health facilities were further damaged during the war and post-invasion looting [and] continue to suffer from lack of supplies and an overwhelming number of patients. Education: [M]ore than 200 schools were destroyed in the conflict and thousands more were looted in the chaos following the fall of Saddam Hussein.…Environment: The U.S-led attack damaged water and sewage systems and the country’s fragile desert ecosystem. It also resulted in oil well fires that spewed smoke across the country and left unexploded ordnance that continues to endanger the Iraqi people and environment. Mines and unexploded ordnance cause an estimated 20 casualties per month.

E. HUMAN RIGHTS COSTS: … Iraqis continue to face human rights violations from occupying forces. [It also mentions torture allegations.]

F. SOVEREIGNTY COSTS: … The interim government will not have the authority to reverse the nearly 100 orders by CPA head Paul Bremer that, among other things, allow for the privatization of Iraq’s state-owned enterprises and prohibit preferences for domestic firms in reconstruction.

III. Costs to the World

A. HUMAN COSTS: [O]ther U.S.-allied “coalition” troops have suffered 116 war casualties in Iraq. [I]nternational resources and attention [have been diverted] away from humanitarian crises such as in Sudan.

B. DISABLING INTERNATIONAL LAW: The unilateral U.S. decision to go to war [set] a dangerous precedent for other countries to seize any opportunity to respond militarily to claimed threats, whether real or contrived, that must be “pre-empted.” The U.S. military has also violated the Geneva Convention, making it more likely that in the future, other nations will ignore these protections in their treatment of civilian populations and detainees.

C. UNDERMINING THE UNITED NATIONS: …Bush … has … undermin[ed] the [U.N.'s] capacity to act in the future as the center-piece of global disarmament and conflict resolution. …

D. ENFORCING COALITIONS: [T]he U.S. … create[d] the illusion of multilateral support for the war by pressuring other governments to join a so-called “Coalition of the Willing[,]” [which also] undermined democracy in many coalition countries, where public opposition to the war was as high as 90 percent.

E. COSTS TO THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: The $151.1 billion spent by the U.S. government on the war could have cut world hunger in half and covered HIV/AIDS medicine, childhood immunization and clean water and sanitation needs of the developing world for more than two years. …

F. UNDERMINING GLOBAL SECURITY AND DISARMAMENT: [The conquest has] galvanized international terrorist organizations, placing people not only in Iraq but around the world at greater risk of attack. The State Department’s annual report on international terrorism reported that in 2003 there was the highest level of terror-related incidents deemed “significant” than at any time since the U.S. began issuing these figures.

G. GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS: U.S.-fired depleted uranium weapons have contributed to pollution of Iraq’s land and water, with inevitable spillover effects in other countries. The heavily polluted Tigris River, for example, flows through Iraq, Iran and Kuwait.

H. HUMAN RIGHTS: The Justice Department memo [attempting to justify torture] … gave new license for torture and mistreatment by governments around the world.

The US-controlled coalition in Baghdad is handing over power to an Iraqi government without having properly accounted for what it has done with some $20 billion of Iraq's own money, says a new report published by Christian Aid. … An audit, reportedly critical, of the coalition’s handling of Iraqi revenues is not going to be delivered until mid-July – after the coalition has ceased to exist. … ‘For the entire year that the CPA has been in power in Iraq, it has been impossible to tell with any accuracy what the CPA has been doing with Iraq’s money,’ said Helen Collinson, head of policy at Christian Aid.

Resolution 1483 of May 2003 said that Iraq’s oil revenues should be paid into the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), that this money should be spent in the interests of the Iraqi people, and be independently audited. But it took until April 2004 to appoint an auditor – leaving only a matter of weeks to go through the books.

In October 2003 Christian Aid revealed that an astonishing $4 billion of Iraq's oil revenues and other funds were unaccounted for. Iraq: The Missing Billions called for much greater clarity and for a thorough audit - which even at that time was months overdue.

• Christian

… [W]hat was Paul Bremer III, the head of the C.P.A., focused on? According to a Washington Post reporter who shared a flight with him last June, "Bremer discussed the need to privatize government-run factories with such fervor that his voice cut through the din of the cargo hold." … [A]s he prepared to leave Iraq, Mr. Bremer listed reduced tax rates, reduced tariffs and the liberalization of foreign-investment laws as among his major accomplishments. Insurgents are blowing up pipelines and police stations, geysers of sewage are erupting from the streets, and the electricity is off most of the time — but we've given Iraq the gift of supply-side economics.

… Let's say the obvious. By making Iraq a playground for right-wing economic theorists, an employment agency for friends and family, and a source of lucrative contracts for corporate donors, the administration did terrorist recruiters a very big favor.

Human Rights

Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and

Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

Labour Standards

Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;

Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and

Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Environment

Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;

Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and

Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies

Anti-Corruption

Principle 10: Businesses should work against all forms of corruption, including extortion and bribery.

… Mistakes have become so prevalent that a niche industry has evolved to help patients decipher their bills. Pat Palmer, founder of Medical Billing Advocates of America, estimates that she finds multiple errors in 8 out of every 10 hospital bills she reviews. … Five percent of the 11,000 people recently surveyed by Consumer Reports said they discovered major mistakes after examining their hospital bills.

… Every mistake eats into the lifetime cap per patient set by many benefits plans, Brennan said. Yet patients often ignore expenses if insurers reimburse doctors, hospitals or labs without a hassle, he said.

… The system works like this: Hospitals grant volume discounts to private insurers. In return, the insurers place the hospital on a preferred list of providers and steer millions of patients to them. On that, everyone agrees. But consumer advocates say insurers don't have the time or wherewithal to review bills line by line. Content with the discounts they receive, they say, insurers pay immediately and let the less egregious errors slip through the cracks rather than risk damaging their relationships with the hospitals.

Meanwhile, as private insurers keep bargaining for discounts, hospitals keep raising their list prices. The idea is to make up for shortfalls created by those discounts as well as for delinquent bills and free care administered to the poor, said Nancy M. Kane, a management professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. The price hikes especially hurt the most vulnerable: the uninsured, who now pay prices "wildly unrelated to cost," Kane said.

… Medical debt now ranks as the second-leading cause of personal bankruptcy in this country, after credit card debt. And it's not just because 43 million U.S. consumers are uninsured: About 80 percent of families in bankruptcy due in part or in whole to medical bills were insured, a recent New York Law Review study found. The future looks even more bleak if health care costs keep climbing 10 to 14 percent each year while wages continue to grow by an annual 2 to 3 percent.

"The fact is that the U.S. population does not have anywhere near the best health in the world," she wrote. "Of 13 countries in a recent comparison, the United States ranks an average of 12th (second from the bottom) for 16 available health indicators." She said the U.S. came in 13th, dead last, in terms of low birth weight percentages; 13th for neonatal mortality and infant mortality over all; 13th for years of potential life lost (excluding external causes); 11th for life expectancy at the age of 1 for females and 12th for males; and 10th for life expectancy at the age of 15 for females and 12th for males.

"It's getting worse," she said, noting, "We've done a lot more studies in terms of the international comparisons. We've done them a million different ways. The findings are so robust that I think they're probably incontrovertible." The U.S. has the most expensive health care system on the planet, but millions of Americans without access to care die from illnesses that could have been successfully treated if diagnosed in time. Poor people line up at emergency rooms for care that should be provided in a doctor's office or clinic. Each year tens of thousands of men, women and children die from medical errors and many more are maimed.

Echoing so many other patient advocates, she continues to call for movement on two crucial needs: coverage for the many millions who currently do not have access to care, and the development of a first-rate primary care system, which would bring a sense of coherence to a health care environment that is both chaotic and wildly expensive. "We don't have any national health policy at all in this country," said Dr. Starfield.

For propaganda expert Nancy Snow, [p]ropaganda is still used more as an antecedent to war; in other words, if war is the paint, then propaganda is the paint primer that makes possible the total devotion of the public to the just cause of the state in wartime.” Once the masses have chosen sides, ”propaganda is used to reinforce existing attitudes more than it is used to change attitudes.”

… To forge the message [of the "war on terror"], the Pentagon acknowledged hiring a Washington PR firm, the Rendon Group. It was Rendon who provided the U.S. flags for hundreds of Kuwaitis to wave when U.S. troops entered Kuwait City in the first Gulf War, Rampton and Stauber say. In an article titled 'How To Sell a War' published in the magazine 'In These Times' last August, the authors suggest that some of the images of the war in Iraq may have been cooked by PR specialists and ”perception managers”. [Examples, such as the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statute, are discussed.]

… There are many types of propaganda, and people related to it. There are ”spin doctors” who seek to ensure that others interpret an event from a particular point of view. The U.S. Department of Defence Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms speaks of ”perception managers” in charge of ”psychological operations”, a concept originated by the U. S. military that combines ”truth projection”, security, and deception, designed to ”convey or deny selected information to foreign audiences” and their leaders to ”influence their emotions and objective reasoning” ultimately resulting in actions favourable to the originator's objectives. ”We must remember that in time of war what is said on the enemy's side of the front is always propaganda, and what is said on our side of the front is truth and righteousness, the cause of humanity and a crusade for peace,” said Walter Lippmann, former advisor to President Wilson[, who] believed that perception often is more important that reality.

[Randall Bytwerk, a specialist in propaganda, and professor of communication at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, author of several books on Nazi and Marxist propaganda], says that ”even Joseph Goebbels lied rarely. He preferred to mislead by selection or by ignoring unfavourable information rather than by outright fabrication. I think fabrication can sometimes be justified to deceive the enemy, but not to deceive one's own public.”

… ”You may wonder why it is that a majority of Americans still link Saddam to 9/11,” says Snow. ”The reason for such a belief is because the American people were repeatedly told by the President and his inner circle that Saddam's evil alone was enough to be linked to 9/11 and that given time, he would have used his weapons against us. With propaganda, you don't need facts per se, just the best facts put forward. If these facts make sense to people, then they don't need proof like one might need in a courtroom.” … For Snow, the funny thing is that ”the American public succumbed more to the stupid propaganda tricks than did the rest of the world. I think we are a gullible public. We wanted to believe the best about ourselves and it seemed beyond our capacity to imagine that we would go to war with a country without a solid reason.”

In many ways, the investigations are a response to the evolution of the pharmaceutical business, which has grown in the last quarter-century from a small group of companies peddling a few antibiotics and antianxiety remedies to a $400 billion bemoth that is among the most profitable industries on earth. … [M]ost drug makers now spend twice as much marketing medicines as they do researching them. Their sales teams have changed from a scattering of semiretired pharmacists to armies of young women and men who shower physicians with attention, food and - until the drug industry recently agreed to end the practice - expensive gifts, just to get two to three minutes to pitch their wares. A code of conduct adopted in 1990 by the American Medical Association suggests that doctors should not accept any gift worth more than $100, but the guidelines are widely ignored.

An August 2002 memo by the Justice Department that concluded interrogators could use extreme techniques on detainees in the war on terror helped provide an after-the-fact legal basis for harsh procedures used by the C.I.A. on high-level leaders of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials. … The full text of the memo was made public by the White House on Tuesday without explanation about why it was written or whether its standards were applied. … It was disavowed earlier this week [(not sooner!)] by senior legal advisers to the Bush administration who said the memo would be reviewed and revised because it created a false impression that torture could be legally defensible. … The memo was addressed to Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel, and signed by Jay S. Bybee, then the head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel …, now a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit[.]

"[T]his is what defeat in a war on terror looks like. We would survive, but we would no longer recognize ourselves. We would endure, but we would lose our identity as free peoples." … After a rich and nuanced discussion, this book reaches a surprisingly moderate conclusion: The U.S. government may temporarily limit our rights in its fight against terrorists, but it may only do so subject to our constitutional system of checks and balances.

… The government must publicly justify the measures it takes; subject its justifications to open political debate; and subject its measures to independent judicial review. In addition, when legislation is passed, Ignatieff counsels, it ought to include "sunset" provisions to ensure it does not outlast the emergency for which it is designed.

… Ignatieff warns that "terrorism distorts democracy," because people want safety and so the executive branches of governments respond, and give themselves more and more police power - and power to infringe rights, without judicial oversight, along the way. Courts, too, typically defer and allow national security to take precedence individual rights. "In these ways," Ignatieff explains, "terrorism cannot defeat democracy in a straight fight, but democracy can defeat itself."

… First, Ignatieff stresses the necessity of judicial review. In contrast, the Bush Justice Department has argued that the judiciary has no power to review certain crucial decisions by the executive branch relating to the war on terror. [He reviews the "enemy combatant" designation and detentions at Guantanamo.]

… Second, Ignatieff argues for openness and transparency where fundamental rights - such as dignity and liberty -- are at stake. In contrast, the Bush Administration's track record is characterized by darkness. [He mentions secret detentions, secret applications of controversial anti-terrorist provisions, and their use against ordinary, non-terrorist criminals.]

[As for the use of torture,] Ignatieff lays down an absolute prohibition, stating that liberal democracy's very history and identity is tied up in an absolute prohibition of torture [because] this type of government resists any unlimited use of public authority against people, and torture is the most unlimited exercise of power by one person over another imaginable. And because government torture expresses the government's ultimate view that humans are expendable. [The use of torture] is antithetical to the spirit of any constitutional society, whose fundamental core belief in that liberty and freedom, not violence and coercion, ought to be the basis of civil society. … Ignatieff argues that if a democracy wishes to keep physical torture out of its interrogation rooms, it must grant detainees access to legal counsel and the possibility of judicial review. While it may compromise interrogations if detainees secure access to counsel immediately, they must have access within a short period of time. And at all times, the identities and whereabouts of detainees must be available to judges and legislators. [Recent developments showing our use of torture and willingness to bend law to justify it are discussed.]

Vice President Cheney's boasting, in response to Johnson's killing, that "America will hunt down the killers, one by one, and destroy them," illustrates the problem with our government's approach. It presumes a finite number of killers. [But the terrorists have a running supply of volunteers because] almost every terrorist I interviewed said he felt humiliated by a person or entity, and that through terrorism, he hoped to recover his dignity. The false idea that the United States is engaged in a crusade against the Islamic world is a critical component of the Islamist nihilists' worldview, and spreading this idea is crucial to their success. … When we become moral swaggerers, when we are so certain that God is on our side that we believe ourselves to be beyond the reach of normal moral inquiry or law, we make ourselves vulnerable to the basest aspects of our nature. [Thus,] the Bush administration has made a serious moral error — one not that different from the error made by the terrorists themselves. …

To win this war, we need to understand that we are fighting an idea, not a state. … The weapons required to win this war include tools for promoting dignity: schools, hospitals and health care for women, respect for human rights and an understanding that the law applies to everyone — including those who believe that God is on their side.

The climate experts agreed there is debate about the models but say if anything, they underestimate the extent of the problem. … [Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of environmental science at Princeton University] said sea levels have risen 4 inches (9 cm) already over the past century and could rise between 4 and 40 inches (9 to 88 cm) more in the next century. Both the Greenland and the West Antarctic ice sheets are "highly vulnerable" to global warming, Oppenheimer said. If completely melted, the Greenland ice sheet would add 25 feet to overall sea level and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would raise it by 16 feet. This would be enough to swamp most of Florida, Bangladesh and Manhattan, he said. "The sea level rise over the past century appears greater than what the model says it should be," Oppenheimer said. "The ice sheets may be contributing more than the models predict."

[Geochemist Daniel Schrag of Harvard University] said the current concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 380 parts per million -- higher than it has been for at least the past 430,000 years. "In the next 100 years, unless immediate action is taken, carbon dioxide levels will rise to between 800 and 1,000 parts per million. The last time carbon dioxide was that high was during the Eocene, 55 to 36 million years ago," Schrag added. At that time he said "palm trees lived in Wyoming, crocodiles lived in the Arctic, Antarctica was a pine forest and sea level was at least 300 feet higher than today."

For instance, those who help clerical job seekers find work say they often hear clients speak of marketplace pressures to exaggerate their skills. … Today's "winner take all" incentive system, [David Callahan, author of "The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead." ] says, pays barely a living wage to workers in journalism, the arts, and minor league professional athletics, for instance, while top achievers make millions. The result: Some figure, why not take a chance if a little plagiarism or steroid use can make me rich?

"It's now more lucrative to lie," says Diane Swanson, professor of professional ethics at Kansas State University. "People must know there is a risk, but the payoff is potentially enormous.... Conversely, if you admit you had a flat quarter or a flat year, then the market will penalize you."

… Individuals, it seems, are getting weaker when faced with temptation. Or put another way, many seem to know right from wrong, but material success has become more important to them than the task of sculpting moral character.

Solutions to the lying epidemic, cultural analysts say, might involve dual approaches: lessening pressures to cheat and heightening resistance in individuals. Mr. Callahan emphasizes the need to fix incentive systems that he says have produced "too much competitiveness, too much insecurity," and "a gap between winners and losers that is too big." Josephson, meanwhile, suggests educating the next generation, who may be enticed by the potential payoffs for liars, about the hefty costs of deception and shame. … Great progress could occur if Americans could reclaim the definitions of success as laid out in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, according to American University Islamic studies chairman Akbar Ahmed. The trouble is, he says, too many profess to abide by an ancient faith but in actuality their passion is for social status and material gain.

The World Bank's governing board will shortly have to decide whether oil, gas and mining industries in poor countries do more harm than good. … [It] is hard to show that extractives have systematically helped relieve poverty in countries that do not already have somewhat successful economies and the rule of law. It is difficult to find an example, perhaps with the exception of diamond-rich Botswana, of a country that has levered itself out of dire poverty principally using oil, gas or mining. More often, extractive industries distort the political as well as the economic life of poor nations, encouraging the growth of a predatory elite fighting over revenues rather than the healthy competition of a diversified market economy. It is hard to look at corruption-racked countries such as Nigeria without concluding they might be better off never having discovered oil.

United Nations-mandated auditors have sharply criticised the US occupation authority for the way it has spent more than $11bn in Iraqi oil revenues[, saying that] the Development Fund for Iraq, which is managed by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority and channels oil revenue into reconstruction projects, is "open to fraudulent acts" [and that] "The CPA does not have effective controls over the ministries' spending of their individually allocated budgets, whether the funds are direct from the CPA or via the ministry of finance." … In their first interim report, KPMG said it had "encountered resistance from CPA staff". CPA staff told KPMG they were overworked and had given them a "low priority".

The question for the Supreme Court was whether [ERISA] left any maneuvering room for the states, and the court's answer was no. Any state law that "duplicates, supplements or supplants" the remedy available under the federal law "conflicts with the clear Congressional intent to make the Erisa remedy exclusive," Justice Thomas said. … The cause of the injuries was "the failure of the plan itself to cover the requested treatment," [as opposed to an implicit medical judgment that the skimpier care was sufficient, a judgment that might have amounted to malpractice,] Justice Thomas said, reflecting the managed-care industry's argument that it should not be blamed when an employer has, for economic reasons, declined to buy a certain level of coverage. … [A] trade organization for managed-care companies called America's Health Insurance Plans called the decision "a victory for consumers and employers" that "puts the brakes on efforts by trial lawyers to turn every question about the scope of an individual's coverage into a costly lawsuit." The American Benefits Council, representing employers, likewise said the decision would protect the ability to offer cost-effective health care coverage.

… During his campaign for the presidency four years ago, Governor Bush embraced the state law, citing it as a product of his nonpartisan leadership and as a potential model for the country. … Before the Supreme Court, the Bush administration opposed the Texas law, instead joining two managed-care companies, Aetna Health Inc. and Cigna HealthCare of Texas Inc.