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News Releases

  • Welfare Policy

    Congressional hearings are being held today on President Bush’s nomination of Wade Horn, the founder of the Fatherhood Initiative, to become Assistant Secretary for Family Support at the Department of Health and Human Services. On Friday, the National Council of Women’s Organizations will hold a briefing on “welfare reform” reauthorization. The following analysts are available for interviews: JACQUELINE PAYNE Policy attorney with the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, Payne said today: “Horn advocates denying single-parent families access to important public benefits whose supply is limited — such as Head Start, subsidized housing, school loans and grants, and job training…

  • A War Chest Against AIDS in Africa?

    This morning, President Bush, joined by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, announced $200 million for a new global “war chest” to fight AIDS around the world. Many activists and analysts familiar with the situation were immediately critical; some have been protesting in front of the White House this afternoon. Among those available for interviews are: KATE KRAUSS Krauss is a member of Act Up Philadelphia, which is working with the Health Gap Coalition. Protesting in front of the White House today, she said: “Bush’s White House ceremony this morning was a farce. It was designed…

  • Judicial Nominees: Implications as Federalist Society Supplants ABA

    As President Bush makes appointments to federal courts, the following analysts are available for interviews: JULIE GERCHIK Assistant director of the Institute for Democracy Studies and co-author of the recently-released report “The Federalist Society and the Challenge to a Democratic Jurisprudence,” Gerchik said today: “Behind the tidal wave of new judicial nominees are key organizations poised to sweep away the established principles and institutions of our democratic legal system. The driving force generating this tidal wave is the Federalist Society, which is targeting the courts, the law schools, administrative agencies and the American Bar Association as part of a comprehensive…

  • Rumsfeld: Lost in Space?

    This afternoon, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is announcing plans for a major boost in the importance of space for U.S. military strategy. The following analysts are available for interviews: KARL GROSSMAN Author of the forthcoming Weapons in Space, Grossman is professor of journalism at the State University of New York. He has just completed production of the documentary “Star Wars Returns.” He said this afternoon: “Today’s announcement is a major step by the U.S. government in turning the heavens into a war zone. As the Rumsfeld ‘space commission’ report recently said: ‘In the coming period, the U.S. will conduct…

  • Energy Policy

    WENONAH HAUTER Director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, Hauter said today: “The Bush administration’s proposal to urge federal agencies to conserve electricity is a sham, because Bush’s previous commitments to slash energy efficiency and conservation efforts in the private sector will overwhelm any gains made in the public sector…. The year 2000 — which saw the highest energy prices since the Gulf War — was a record for energy industry profits. Exxon Mobil was indicative of the entire oil and gas industry, enjoying the highest profits of any company in America’s history, recording after-tax earnings of…

  • Social Security Panel

    Today, President Bush named members of a new White House panel aimed at overhauling Social Security. Among those on the commission are individuals associated with AOL Time Warner, Reliant Equity Investors, Fidelity Investments, the World Bank and the American Enterprise Institute. The following analysts are available for interviews: DIANA ZUCKERMAN President of the National Center for Policy Research for Women and Families, Zuckerman said today: “Social Security is the most important anti-poverty program in the U.S., providing a safety net for every citizen, even if they live to be 100 — or more. It deserves an open-minded commission. Instead, the…

  • Major Military Issues: Bombing Vieques, National Missile Defense, Terrorism Report

    ROBERTO RABIN Director of Vieques Historic Archives and a spokesperson for the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, Rabin said today: “The people of Vieques, with the wide support of the Puerto Rican community, have mounted an intense campaign to end 60 years of U.S. Navy presence, exercises and destruction of the island of Vieques. Since the death of a civilian security guard on April 19, 1999, there have been protests…. The recent resumption of bombing on April 27 sparked widespread civil disobedience with over 150 people arrested for entering into the bombing zone as human shields to…

  • Interviews Available: What Kind of Globalization?

    The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are holding their spring meetings in Washington. The following critics of those institutions are available for interviews: NJOKI NJOROGE NJEHU Director of the 50 Years Is Enough Network, a coalition of over 200 U.S. grassroots groups dedicated to transforming the World Bank and the IMF, Njehu testified before the U.S. Congress on Wednesday. Today, she said: “Sub-Saharan Africa continues to pay back more to the World Bank and the IMF than it gets from those institutions. They should immediately cancel 100 percent of the debt of impoverished countries, as a bipartisan congressional commission…

  • On Bob Kerrey and Vietnam

    Former Sen. Bob Kerrey’s public statements during the last day — prompted by revelations about to be reported by the New York Times and “60 Minutes II” about a raid he led that killed unarmed civilians during the Vietnam War — have raised important issues. This afternoon, the following statement comes from Brian Willson, a former U.S. Air Force captain who served in Vietnam. BRIAN WILLSON After participating in the Vietnam War as a member of the U.S. Air Force, Willson became a peace activist. In 1987, in a civil disobedience action with other activists at a military base, Willson…

  • Peru Plane Downing: Broader Issues

    A front-page article in today’s Washington Post reports that the CIA was late in warning the Peruvian military not to fire on the civilian airplane carrying missionaries. The following analysts are available for interviews on broader U.S. policy questions: CECILIA ZARATE-LAUN Co-founder and director of the Colombia Support Network, Zarate-Laun said today: “The downing of the airplane in Peru makes more public the level of U.S. military presence in the Amazon area, which is rich in natural resources. The U.S. government is selling its ‘war on drugs’ to the American people as its solution to voracious drug consumption. But when…

  • FTAA: Crossroads at Miami Summit

    JOSEFINA HERNANDEZ PONCE and PEDRO EUSSE and SEVERINA RIVERA, Hernandez Ponce is a sewing machine operator and president of SITEMEX, the only union in the sweatshop garment industry in Mexico. The union was founded last year after two years of efforts which began when Hernandez Ponce and four other workers refused to eat the factory…

  • Behind the “Special Relationship”

    GREG PALAST Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. His investigative reports appear on BBC Television and in the Guardian Newspapers of Britain. He said today: “Blair, like Margaret Thatcher before him, faces revolt within his own party. They believe he lied to get Britain into Bush’s…

  • Mr. Bush Goes to London

    MILAN RAI The British author of Regime Unchanged, a just-released book on the invasion of Iraq, Rai is in the U.S. until November 25. He said today: “President Bush recently said in an interview with the BBC of the war on Iraq: ‘War is my last choice, not my first choice.’ In March 2002, a…

  • * Iraq * Israel * WTO — Interviews Available

    MEDEA BENJAMIN Benjamin, the founding director of the international human rights group Global Exchange, is also co-founder of the Occupation Watch Center in Iraq. Paul Bremer, in Washington mid-week, repeatedly cited the Iraqi Governing Council in his remarks. Benjamin said today: “The Bush administration wants the Iraqi Governing Council to rubber-stamp policies coming from Washington…

  • * Medicare Profiteers * Jobs * Mutual Funds * HealthSouth

    ALAN SAGER DEBORAH SOCOLAR Sager and Socolar are co-directors of the Health Reform Program at Boston University’s School of Public Health. They have recently released a report entitled “New Medicare Rx Benefit Means Big Profits for Drug Makers.” The report finds that “an estimated 61.1 percent of the Medicare dollars that will be spent to…

  • Interviews Available: Families of Military and 9/11 Victims

    JARI SHEESE Sheese owns a small business in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her husband is stationed in Iraq. She said this afternoon: “He had just dropped me a line telling me that he’d be getting around by helicopter and that made me feel better — then a helicopter gets downed killing 16. We find some way to…

  • Interviews Available on Iraq: * Invasion Fatalities * Visitors in the U.S. * More Attacks? * Like Vietnam?

    CARL CONETTA Co-director of the Project on Defense Alternatives, Conetta wrote the just-released report “The Wages of War: Iraqi Combatant and Noncombatant Fatalities in the 2003 Conflict.” Conetta said today”Reviewing U.S. combat data, battlefield press reports, and Iraqi hospital surveys, we have found that approximately 13,000 Iraqis (plus or minus 16.5 percent or 2,150) were…

  • Interviews Available: Bush vs. Facts

    Analysts are available to scrutinize some of President Bush’s claims, including those from Tuesday’s news conference, focusing on Iraq and the recent attacks there: BUSH: “I would assume that they’re [the suicide bombers] either, or, and probably both Ba’athists and foreign terrorists.” FACT: “There are a growing number of interviews with Iraqi resistance fighters that…

  • Welfare Policy: Interviews Available

    With welfare legislation for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families reauthorization making its way through the House and Senate, interviews with the following are available: LIZ ACCLES Accles is with the Welfare Made a Difference National Campaign, which is organizing with a host of other groups the “Shirts Off Our Backs Day” in Washington, D.C. —…

  • Bush’s Asia Trip: Interviews Available

    MARGO OKAZAWA-REY Director of the Women’s Leadership Institute and a visiting professor at Mills College in California, Okazawa-Rey has authored a number of papers about U.S. bases in East Asia. She said today: “Many activists in South Korea, the Philippines and Okinawa/Japan are opposing their governments that support U.S. policies, largely due to political and…

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