IIS Server Security - 525 Reasons to dump Bush

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525 Reasons to dump Bush

Karl Levinson [x y] mvp

2004-03-22, 9:34 pm

http://www.525reasons.com/

#229

OTTAWA (AP) Stung by a pop quiz about foreign leaders earlier in his
campaign, U.S. Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush has fallen
victim to a foreign affairs prank.

Canadians are chuckling over his on-air answer when a comic posing as a
reporter made up a story that Canadian Prime Minister "Jean Poutine"; had
endorsed him.

"I appreciate his strong statement[,] he understands I believe in free
trade," Bush replied. "He understands I want to make sure our relations with
our most important neighbour to the north of us, the Canadians, is strong
and we'll work closely together."

Canada's prime minister is Jean Chretien, not Poutine, and he has endorsed
no one in U.S. politics. Poutine is a popular food in the French-speaking
province of Quebec, consisting of french fries, gravy and cheese curd.*

[.]

The real prime minister's office took the episode in stride, offering this
response: "Clearly, Canada is not in the Bush leagues."

=======================

#231 - It's Not the Recession, Stupid
From "Deficit Study Disputes Role of Economy" in today's New York Times:

When President Bush and his advisers talk about the widening federal budget
deficit, they usually place part of the blame on economic shocks ranging
from the recession of 2001 to the terrorist attacks that year.

But a report released on Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget
Office estimated that economic weakness would account for only 6 percent of
a budget shortfall that could reach a record $500 billion this year.

[. . .]

The new numbers confirm what many analysts have predicted for some time:
that budget deficits in the decade ahead will stem less from the lingering
effects of the downturn and much more from rising government spending and
progressively deeper tax cuts.

=================

#232 - Even the Researchers are Befuddled
From Reuters via the Boston Globe:

President Bush marked International Women's Week yesterday by paying tribute
to women reformers -- but one of those he cited is really a man.

"Earlier today, the Libyan government released Fathi Jahmi. She's a local
government official who was imprisoned in 2002 for advocating free speech
and democracy," the president said at the White House.

The only problem was that, by all other accounts, "she" is in fact "he."

"Definitely male," said Alistair Hodgett, spokesman for the human rights
advocacy group Amnesty International, whose representatives tried to see
Jahmi in prison during a recent visit to Libya.

======================

#246 - Ensuring the Advice He Receives Is the Advice He Wants to Hear, Part
2
From Thursday's New York Times, "U.S. to Study Importing Canada Drugs but
Choice of Leader Prompts Criticism":

Hoping to mollify its critics, the Bush administration said Wednesday that
it would conduct a yearlong study of how prescription drugs might be safely
imported from Canada. But it then infuriated the critics by selecting Dr.
Mark B. McClellan, the commissioner of food and drugs, to lead the study.

Dr. McClellan has adamantly opposed any relaxation of the rules barring drug
imports. He says such imports would be unsafe, and his agency has threatened
legal action against cities and states that help people import Canadian
drugs.

The study is required under the new Medicare law, signed by President Bush
on Dec. 8. But the administration announced it with fanfare, in an effort to
deflect criticism of its policy on the issue, which threatens to delay
Senate confirmation of Dr. McClellan for a new position as administrator of
the Medicare program.

Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human services, said the
panel studying the matter would be a "balanced commission," would hold
hearings and would take testimony from governors and members of Congress on
both sides of the issue.

But Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, said he was astounded
that the administration would put Dr. McClellan in charge of the study.

"It's like putting the fox in charge of the chicken house," Mr. Dorgan said.
"Dr. McClellan has clearly made up his mind not to allow importation and has
done everything in his power to stop it."

A spokeswoman for Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican who like Mr.
Dorgan has long been involved in the issue of drug imports from Canada, said
he believed that the administration should have chosen "a more objective
person."

===================

#247 - Ensuring the Advice He Receives Is the Advice He Wants to Hear, Part
1
From yesterday's AP wire, via theMiami Herald, "Bush Replaces Members of
Bioethics Panel":

President Bush on Friday replaced two members of a panel that advises him on
issues such as cloning and stem cell research, drawing criticism that he is
stacking the bioethics group with ideologically friendly members.

Elizabeth Blackburn, a cell biologist at the university California San
Francisco and former president of the American Society for Cell Biology, and
William F. May, a medical ethicist and retired professor at Southern
Methodist University, were dismissed from the President's Council on
Bioethics.

Bush created the council in 2001, replacing a similar commission that
advised President Clinton, to tackle issues including embryonic stem cell
research, euthanasia and assisted reproduction. He named its 17 members to
two-year terms in January 2002.

Elizabeth Marincola, executive director of the American Society for Cell
Biology, a nonprofit group representing basic biomedical researchers, said
Blackburn and May were often in the minority on the council as they provided
dissenting views.

In their place, Bush named Benjamin Carson, director of pediatric
neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore; Peter Lawler,
chair of the Department of Government and International Studies at Berry
College in Georgia; and Diana Schaub, a political science professor at
Loyola college in Maryland.

''It does seem alarming. It concerns me profoundly,'' Marincola said of the
move. ''The president is trying to ensure the advice he receives is the
advice he wants to hear.''

====================

#249 - Violating Privacy
From today's Washington Post, "U.S. Demands More Abortion Records":

The Justice Department has expanded its demands for private medical records
of abortion patients, issuing subpoenas this week for hundreds of files from
six Planned Parenthood affiliates, including the one serving metropolitan
Washington, according to officials and court records.

The demand for records from Planned Parenthood affiliates in Washington, New
York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, Pennsylvania, and Kansas and mid-Missouri
follows similar demands in December for abortion records held by five
hospital centers in the Northeast and Midwest. The hospitals have resisted
those requests.

The disputes come as part of a series of lawsuits filed by Planned
Parenthood and others seeking to overturn the Partial Birth Abortion Ban
Act, which was signed into law last fall but has been sharply limited by
court injunctions since then. Lawsuits filed in New York, Nebraska and San
Francisco challenge the constitutionality of the ban, which covers a type of
abortion known as "intact dilation and extraction," in which the fetus is
partially delivered.

Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and Justice Department lawyers say the
subpoenas are necessary in order to determine the veracity of doctors'
claims that the type of abortion covered by the ban has been medically
necessary as the plaintiffs claim.

"We sought from the judge authority to get medical records to find out
whether indeed the allegation by the plaintiffs that it's medically
necessary is really a fact," Ashcroft told reporters on Feb. 12.

Karl Levinson [x y] mvp

2004-03-23, 6:36 am

Well, this certainly does not belong in this newsgroup.

"Karl Levinson [x y] mvp" <levinson_k@despammed.com> wrote in message
news:eVlKy5HEEHA.684@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

Tom Kaminski [MVP]

2004-03-23, 9:39 am

We all slip once in a while ... : )

"Karl Levinson [x y] mvp" <levinson_k@despammed.com> wrote in message
news:O32F0pMEEHA.1240@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Well, this certainly does not belong in this newsgroup.
>
>
> "Karl Levinson [x y] mvp" <levinson_k@despammed.com> wrote in message
> news:eVlKy5HEEHA.684@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>
>