ROGER HICKEY Co-director of the Institute for America’s Future, Hickey said:”The interim draft report released Tuesday by President Bush’s Social Security Commission confirms what we originally said about this commission when it was created: These people…are driven by ideology, not truth. Their report shamelessly distorts the facts in an attempt to frighten the American public into supporting their pre-ordained goal: to privatize and thus undermine the Social Security system…. Bush and his party want to cut Social Security’s guaranteed benefits…in order to create millions of private stock market accounts that will benefit Wall Street and hurt most who live and…

NEIL WATKINS Watkins, a project coordinator for the Center for Economic Justice, is scheduled to return to Washington from Genoa at 4 p.m. ET today (Monday). He said today: “The real story in Genoa, where the largest anti-corporate globalization protests yet took place, is the failure of the G-8 to cancel the debt of the poorest countries and respond to the call of the protesters to stop policies that are causing global economic apartheid.” More Information ASIA RUSSELL Russell is currently in Genoa and will be returning to the U.S. on Tuesday. She is a member of the Health Gap…

THEODORE LOWI Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University and author of The End of the Republican Era, Lowi said today: “The most serious issue in the Bush administration is that there is a stigma in his election…. The Supreme Court aborted the election process. This was unprecedented. To try to overcome this lack of legitimacy, Bush has engaged in a permanent campaign like no other president has. He visited 26 states in his first 100 days. The tax cut was very skillful politically, it’s spread over 10 years, so you get the credit now and pay later. It’s smart…

As leaders of the G-8 countries gather in Genoa, the following policy analysts are available for interviews: ELLEN FRANK Author of the forthcoming book Money Illusion and a professor of economics at Emmanuel College in Boston, Frank said today: “The U.S. is sliding into a recession, Europe is stagnant, Japan is in a depression. Argentina and other major developing countries face debt problems that are insurmountable without a coordinated international response…. We sit on the brink of a serious world economic crisis that will require imaginative and thoroughgoing policy coordination between the major countries. But the political will to undertake…

ROBERT WEIL Author of Red Cat, White Cat: China and the Contradictions of “Market Socialism,” Weil said today: “The new Sino-Soviet Friendship Treaty signed today, though largely economic in focus, is also a response to the strategic goals of the Bush administration, and especially its anti-missile program. Despite its supposed ‘rogue nation’ rationale, the effort to erect a shield against intercontinental ballistic missiles is clearly directed against Russia and in particular China, in an effort to maintain U.S. global dominance, give it a free hand in its military actions, and attempt once again to force these two ‘unfriendly’ nuclear powers…

Responding to George W. Bush’s announcement today supporting discount cards for more Medicare recipients to use while buying pharmaceutical drugs, the following board members of Physicians for a National Health Program are available for interviews: DON McCANNE, M.D. A retired family physician, McCanne said today: “White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer claims that ‘the president is committed to helping seniors get prescription drugs they need and deserve.’ But this plan is not a government program. It is merely a private, marketplace scheme that is receiving the personal endorsement of President Bush. The program will be administered by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs),…

On Wednesday (July 11), an array of groups will be protesting the policies of ExxonMobil. Many are calling for a boycott of the oil giant. The following activists and policy analysts are available for interviews: CHRIS DORAN Doran is campaigns director for PressurePoint, an organization launching its first major campaign directed at ExxonMobil on Wednesday. Doran said today: “ExxonMobil might be the richest corporation in the world, but morally it is bankrupt. The U.S. government’s climate change policy is the ExxonMobil policy. What sort of democracy do we have when one company can buy off our political process for its…

Critics are expressing dismay in response to published reports that the White House is exploring options for resumption of American nuclear blasts. The Knight Ridder news service reported Thursday that “the Bush administration has asked U.S. nuclear weapons scientists to examine ways that nuclear test explosions beneath the Nevada desert could resume more quickly if the government decides to end a nine-year moratorium on nuclear testing.” The following nuclear policy analysts are available for interviews: PRESTON J. TRUMAN Director of the Downwinders organization, Truman has worked with thousands of Americans who, like himself, have dealt with the aftermath of fallout…

DENIS HALLIDAY The UN Security Council is conducting a rare open meeting on Iraq today. Halliday is a former assistant secretary general of the UN and ex-head of the UN’s oil-for-food program in Iraq. He just returned from a visit to Iraq along with Hans von Sponek, who subsequently was head of the oil-for-food program. Halliday said today: “The people of Iraq have an expectation and right to dignity in their daily lives and a return to normalcy, not possible under the US/UK ‘smart sanctions’ proposals. Controls, lists and restrictions of civilian goods allowed into Iraq are not what make…

With the Associated Press reporting Monday afternoon that “the United States has withdrawn a complaint with the World Trade Organization over a law used by Brazil to ensure cheap drugs to fight AIDS,” public health advocates are assessing the implications. The following policy analysts are available for interviews: MARIA LUISA MENDONCA Director of the Global Justice Center in Brazil, Mendonca said today: “As we saw in the U.S. case against South Africa, the U.S. and the drug companies didn’t have a case. Brazil was being challenged by the U.S. at WTO, but Brazil was actually following even the unfairly pro-patent…