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On October 17th, George W. Bush, signed into law a bill he bulldozed through Congress that, in Senator Patrick Leahy’s prophetic words, would suspend “the writ of habeas corpus, a core value in American law, in order to avoid judicial review that prevents government abuse.” This law, whose constitutionality is in doubt and will be…
Two state court jury verdicts against two banks–one in California and one in Texas–are sending national tremors through the merchants of debt. In El Paso, Texas, a jury awarded the Farah Manufacturing Co., a large clothing firm, $19 million to be paid by the State National Bank and other lenders. The trial, which took eight…
The wilting, nay the collapse of the once mighty New York Yankees for the sixth straight year in the baseball playoffs has moved them into the failure fields so long inhabited by the Atlanta Braves and the Boston Red Sox (except for the dazzling comeback of 2004). Since 2002, the pattern has been almost uncanny.…
Imagine the U.S. military — from the soldiers on the ground to the generals — saying publicly what they are thinking and saying privately about their two draft-dodging but bellicose rulers in the White House. Sometimes, reporters have gathered a few excoriating statements from the frustrated, beleaguered, often body armor-less GIs. One even demanded Bush’s…
The messianic, authoritarian mind of George W. Bush and his cohorts have further collapsed the rule of law with his bulldozing through a divided Congress more dictatorial powers in his increasingly self-defined, self-serving and failing “war on terror.” The normally restrained New York Times in an editorial titled “Rushing off a Cliff” condemned Bush’s “ghastly…
Ralph NaderRobert WeissmanP.O. Box 19312Washington, D.C. 20036 September 25, 2006 Chairman Christopher CoxSecurities and Exchange Commission100 F Street, NEWashington, DC 20549 Dear Chairman Cox, As you continue to investigate the Fannie Mae accounting debacle, we are writing to urge you to seek civil sanctions, including disgorgement, from senior executives who profited directly from the misconduct…
William C. Taylor was a rosy-cheeked Princeton intern when he began his rise to fame and fortune, working with the Multinational Monitor magazine. As a freshly minted Princeton graduate, he worked on the book The Big Boys: Power and Position in American Business as a co-author with me. After that it was the Sloan School…
Your September 13, 2006 editorial “Earmark Showdown” correctly points out that Senator Tom Coburn’s (R., Okla.) Bill requiring the dollar amounts and recipients of all grants and earmarked contracts be placed in a publicly accessible database is an important step toward transparency. It is indeed the least that Congress should do. On January 6, 2000,…
Forty years ago this week, President Lyndon B. Johnson, in a ceremony at the White House, which included me, signed into law the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966. Thus, for the first time, the giant auto industry was no longer exclusively able to decide the margins of casualties in crashes. It…
September 15, 2006 President George W. BushThe White House1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NWWashington, DC 20500 Dear President Bush, We join with the thousands of Americans who are calling on you to intensify your efforts to end the slaughter in Darfur. This genocide unfolding before our eyes stands in danger of worsening drastically in coming weeks, if…