Against Discouragement
By Howard Zinn

[In 1963, historian Howard Zinn was fired from Spelman College, where he
was chair of the History Department, because of his civil rights
activities. This year, he was invited back to give the commencement
address. Here is the text of that speech, given on May 15, 2005.]

I am deeply honored to be invited back to Spelman after 42 years. I
would like to thank the faculty and trustees who voted to invite me, and
especially your president, Dr. Beverly Tatum. And it is a special
privilege to be here with Diahann Carroll and Virginia Davis Floyd.

But this is your day — the students graduating today. It’s a happy day
for you and your families. I know you have your own hopes for the
future, so it may be a little presumptuous for me to tell you what hopes
I have for you, but they are exactly the same ones that I have for my
grandchildren.

My first hope is that you will not be too discouraged by the way the
world looks at this moment. It is easy to be discouraged, because our
nation is at war — STILL ANOTHER WAR, WAR AFTER WAR — and our
government seems DETERMINED TO EXPAND ITS EMPIRE EVEN IF IT COSTS THE
LIVES OF TENS OF THOUSANDS OF HUMAN BEINGS. There is poverty in this
country, and homelessness, and people without health care, and crowded
classrooms, but OUR GOVERNMENT, which has trillions of dollars to spend,
IS SPENDING ITS WEALTH ON WAR.

There are a billion people in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the
Middle East who need clean water and medicine to deal with malaria and
tuberculosis and AIDS, but OUR GOVERNMENT, WHICH HAS THOUSANDS OF
NUCLEAR WEAPONS, IS EXPERIMENTING WITH EVEN MORE DEADLY NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

Yes, it is easy to be discouraged by all that. But let me tell you why,
in spite of what I have just described, you
must not be discouraged.

I want to remind you that, 50 years ago, racial segregation here in the
South was entrenched as tightly as was apartheid in South Africa. The
national government, even with liberal presidents like Kennedy and
Johnson in office, was looking the other way while black people were
beaten and killed and denied the opportunity to vote.

So black people in the South decided they had to do something by
themselves. They boycotted and sat in and picketed and demonstrated, and
were beaten and jailed, and some were killed, but their cries for
freedom were soon heard all over the nation and around the world, and
the President and Congress finally did what they had previously failed
to do — enforce the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. Many
people had said: The South will never change.

But it did change. It changed because ordinary people organized and took
risks and challenged the system and would not give up. That’s when
democracy came alive. I want to remind you also that when the war in
Vietnam was going on, and young Americans were dying and coming home
paralyzed, and our government was bombing the villages of Vietnam –
bombing schools and hospitals and killing ordinary people in huge
numbers — it looked hopeless to try to stop the war.

But just as in the Southern movement, people began to protest and soon
it caught on. It was a national movement. Soldiers were coming back and
denouncing the war, and young people were refusing to join the military,
and the war had to end. The lesson of that history is that you must not
despair, that IF YOU ARE RIGHT, AND YOU PERSIST, THINGS WILL CHANGE.

The government may try to deceive the people, and the newspapers and
television may do the same, but THE TRUTH HAS A WAY OF COMING OUT.

The truth has a power greater than a hundred lies. I know you have
practical things to do — to get jobs and get married and have children.
You may become prosperous and be considered a success in the way our
society defines success, by wealth and standing and prestige. But that
is not enough for a good life.

Remember Tolstoy’s story, “The Death of Ivan Illych.” A man on his
deathbed reflects on his life, how he has done everything right, obeyed
the rules, become a judge, married, had children, and is looked upon as
a success. Yet, in his last hours, he wonders why he feels a failure.
After becoming a famous novelist, Tolstoy himself had decided that this
was not enough, that he must speak out against the treatment of the
Russian peasants, that he must write against war and militarism.

My hope is that whatever you do to make a good life for yourself –
whether you become a teacher, or social worker, or business person, or
lawyer, or poet, or scientist — you will devote part of your life to
making this a better world for your children, for all children. My hope
is that YOUR GENERATION WILL DEMAND AN END TO WAR, that your generation
will do something that has not yet been done in history and wipe out the
national boundaries that separate us from other human beings on this
earth.

Recently I saw a photo on the front page of the New York Times which I
cannot get out of my mind. It showed ordinary Americans sitting on
chairs on the southern border of Arizona, facing Mexico. They were
holding guns and they were looking for Mexicans who might be trying to
cross the border into the United States. This was horrifying to me –
the realization that, in this twenty-first century of what we call
“civilization,” we have carved up what we claim is one world into two
hundred artificially created entities we call “nations” and are ready to
kill anyone who crosses a boundary.

Is NOT nationalism — that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary, so
fierce it leads to murder — one of the great evils of our time, along
with racism, along with religious hatred? These ways of thinking,
cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on, have been useful
to those in power, deadly for those out of power.

Here in the United States, we are brought up to believe that our nation
is different from others, an exception in the world, uniquely moral;
that we expand into other lands in order to bring civilization, liberty,
democracy.

But if you know some history you know that’s NOT true. If you know some
history, you know we massacred Indians on this continent, invaded
Mexico, sent armies into Cuba, and the Philippines. WE KILLED HUGE
NUMBERS OF PEOPLE, AND WE DID NOT BRING THEM DEMOCRACY OR LIBERTY. We
did not go into Vietnam to bring democracy; we did not invade Panama to
stop the drug trade; we did not invade Afghanistan and Iraq to stop
terrorism. Our aims were the aims of all the other empires of world
history — more profit for corporations, more power for politicians.

The poets and artists among us seem to have a clearer understanding of
the disease of nationalism. Perhaps the black poets especially are less
enthralled with the virtues of American “liberty” and “democracy,” their
people having enjoyed so little of it. The great African-American poet
Langston Hughes addressed his country as follows:

You really haven’t been a virgin for so long.
It’s ludicrous to keep up the pretextŠ
You’ve slept with all the big powers
In military uniforms,
And you’ve taken the sweet life
Of all the little brown fellowsŠ
Being one of the world’s big vampires,
Why don’t you come on out and say so
Like Japan, and England, and France,
And all the other nymphomaniacs of power.

I am a veteran of the Second World War. That was considered a “good
war,” but I have come to the conclusion that WAR SOLVES NO FUNDAMENTAL
PROBLEMS AND ONLY LEADS TO MORE WARS. War poisons the minds of soldiers,
leads them to kill and torture, and poisons the soul of the nation.

My hope is that your generation will demand that your children be
brought up in a world without war. It we want a world in which the
people of all countries are brothers and sisters, if the children all
over the world are considered as our children, then WAR — in which
children are always the greatest casualties — CANNOT BE ACCEPTED AS A
WAY OF SOLVING PROBLEMS.

I was on the faculty of Spelman College for seven years, from 1956 to
1963. It was a heartwarming time, because the friends we made in those
years have remained our friends all these years. My wife Roslyn and I
and our two children lived on campus. Sometimes when we went into town,
white people would ask: How is it to be living in the black community?
It was hard to explain. But we knew this — that in downtown Atlanta, we
felt as if we were in alien territory, and when we came back to the
Spelman campus, we felt that we were at home.

Those years at Spelman were the most exciting of my life, the most
educational certainly. I learned more from my students than they learned
from me. Those were the years of the great movement in the South against
racial segregation, and I became involved in that in Atlanta, in Albany,
Georgia, in Selma, Alabama, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Greenwood
and Itta Bena and Jackson.

I learned something about DEMOCRACY: that it does not come from the
government, from on high, it COMES FROM PEOPLE GETTING TOGETHER AND
STRUGGLING FOR JUSTICE.

I learned about race. I learned something that any intelligent person
realizes at a certain point — that race is a manufactured thing, an
artificial thing, and while race does matter (as Cornel West has
written), it only matters because certain people want it to matter, just
as nationalism is something artificial.

I learned that what really matters is that all of us — of whatever
so-called race and so-called nationality — are human beings and should
cherish one another.

I was lucky to be at Spelman at a time when I could watch a marvelous
transformation in my students, who were so polite, so quiet, and then
suddenly they were leaving the campus and going into town, and sitting
in, and being arrested, and then coming out of jail full of fire and
rebellion.

You can read all about that in Harry Lefever’s book “Undaunted by the
Fight.” One day Marian Wright (now Marian Wright Edelman), who was my
student at Spelman, and was one of the first arrested in the Atlanta
sit-ins, came to our house on campus to show us a petition she was about
to put on the bulletin board of her dormitory. The heading on the
petition epitomized the transformation taking place at Spelman College.
Marian had written on top of the petition: “Young Ladies Who Can Picket,
Please Sign Below.”

My hope is that you will not be content just to be successful in the way
that our society measures success; that you will not obey the rules,
when the rules are unjust; that you will act out the courage that I know
is in you. There are wonderful people, black and white, who are models.
I DON’T mean African- Americans like Condoleezza Rice, or Colin Powell,
or Clarence Thomas, who have become servants of the rich and powerful.

I mean W.E.B. DuBois and Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and Marian
Wright Edelman, and James Baldwin and Josephine Baker and good white
folk, too, who defied the Establishment to work for peace and justice.

Another of my students at Spelman, Alice Walker, who, like Marian, has
remained our friend all these years, came from a tenant farmer’s family
in Eatonton, Georgia, and became a famous writer. In one of her first
published poems, she wrote:

It is true –
I’ve always loved
the daring ones
Like the black young
man
Who tried
to crash
All barriers
at once,
wanted to
swim
At a white
beach (in Alabama)
Nude.

I am not suggesting you go that far, but you can help to break down
barriers, of race certainly, but also of nationalism; that you do what
you can — you don’t have to do something heroic, just something, to
join with millions of others who will just do something, because all of
those somethings, at certain points in history, come together, and make
the world better.

That marvelous African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston, who wouldn’t
do what white people wanted her to do, who wouldn’t do what black people
wanted her to do, who insisted on being herself, said that her mother
advised her: Leap for the sun — you may not reach it, but at least you
will get off the ground.

By being here today, you are already standing on your toes, ready to
leap. My hope for you is a good life.
——————————————
Howard Zinn is the author with Anthony Arnove of the just published
Voices of A People’s History of the United States
(Seven Stories Press) and of the international best-selling A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present (P.S.)

Copyright 2005 Howard Zinn

The Bush Decade – Ten Worst Things;
Or, the Rise of the New Oligarchs

A great article about the worst of the Bush years. Here are a few highlights. For more, read the whole article as it appeared on the NewsTrust.net website:

• 10. Stagnating worker wages and the emergence of a new monied aristocracy. Of all the income growth of the entire country of the United States in the Bush years, the richest 1 percent of the working population, about 1.3 million persons, grabbed up over two-thirds of it. The Reagan and Bush cuts in tax rates on the wealthy have created a dangerous little alien inside our supposedly democratic society, of the super-rich, with their legions of camp followers (sometimes referred to as ‘analysts’ or ‘economists’ or ‘journalists’). The new lords and ladies are the Dick and Liz Cheneys and the people for whom they shill. They are the Rupert Murdochs and the Richard Mellon Scaifes, and they are guaranteed to own more and more of the country as long as more progressive taxation (i.e. pre-Reagan, not pre-Bush) is not restored. They are the ones who didn’t want a public universal health option, did not want the wars abroad to end abruptly, did not want the Copenhagen Climate convention to succeed. They are driven by pure greed and narrow profit-seeking for themselves. They always get their way, and they always will as long as you poor stupid bastards buy the line that when the government raises their taxes, it is taking something away from you.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 9. Health and food insecurity increased for ordinary Americans. Health care costs skyrocketed. Most Americans in the work force who have health care are covered via their employers. ‘From 1999 to 2009 health insurance premiums increased 132%” for the companies paying most of the costs of coverage to their employees. Euromonitor adds, “Average private health insurance premiums for a family of four in 1999 were US$5,485 per annum or 7.2% of household disposable income. 2008 premiums were estimated at US$12,973 per annum or 14.8% of average household disposable income.” By Bush’s last year in office, food insecurity among American families was at a 14-year high. About 49 million Americans, one in six of us, worried about having enough food to eat at some points in that year, and resorted to soup lines, food stamps, or dietary shortcuts. Some 16 million, according to the NYT, suffered from ‘“very low food security,” meaning lack of money forced members to skip meals, cut portions or otherwise forgo food at some point in the year.’
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 8. The environment became more polluted. The Bush administration was the worst on record on environmental issues. Carbon emissions grew unchecked, and the threat of climate change accelerated. In fact, Bush muzzled government climate scientists and had their reports rewritten by lawyers from Big Oil.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 7. The imperial presidency was ensconced in ways it will be difficult to pare back. But note that its powers were never used against the oligarchs (unlike the case in Putin’s Russia), but rather deployed to ensure the continued destruction of the labor movement and the political bargaining power of workers and the middle class, and to harass and disrupt peace, rights and environmental movements. A part of this process was the abrogation of fourth amendment protections against arbitrary search, seizure and snooping into people’s mail and effects, and of other key constitutional rights…
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 6. The Katrina flood and the destruction of much of historic African-American New Orleans, and the massive failure of the Bush administration to come to the aid of one of America’s great cities.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 5. The Bush administration’s post-2002 mishandling of Afghanistan, where the Taliban had been overthrown successfully in 2001 and were universally despised. The Bush administration’s attempt to assert itself with a big troop presence in the Pashtun provinces, its use of search and destroy tactics and missile strikes, its neglect of civilian reconstruction, and its failure to finish off al-Qaeda, allowed an insurgency gradually to grow…
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 4. The Iraq War, in which the US illegally launched a war of aggression that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, displaced 4 million (over a million abroad), destroyed entire cities such as Fallujah, set off a Sunni-Shiite civil war, allowed Baghdad to be ethnically cleansed of its Sunnis, practiced systematic and widespread torture before the eyes of the Muslim Middle East and the world, and immeasurably strengthened Iran’s hand in the Middle East. All this on false pretexts such as ‘weapons of mass destruction’ or ‘democratization,’ for the sake of opening the Iraqi oil markets to US hydrocarbon firms– a significant faction of the oligarchic class.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 3. The great $12 trillion Bank Robberry, in which unscrupulous bankers and financiers were deregulated and given free rein to create worthless derivatives, sell impossible mortgages to uninformed marks who could not understand their complicated terms, and then to roll this garbage up into securities re-sold like the
  Cheshire cat, with a big visible smile of asserted value hanging in the air even as their actual worth disappeared into thin air.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 2. The September 11 attacks on New York and Washington by al-Qaeda, an organization that stemmed from the Reagan administration’s anti-Soviet jihad in the 1980s and which decided that, having defeated one superpower, it could take down the other. Al-Qaeda’s largely Arab volunteer fighters had confronted the Soviets over their occupation of a major Muslim country, Afghanistan. Bin Laden was himself a Neoliberal Oligarch, but he broke with the Gulf consensus of seeking a US security umbrella, thus creating a fissure within his powerful social class. Al-Qaeda viewed the US as only a slightly less objectionable occupier, though they were willing to make an atliance of convenience in the 1980s. But they were increasingly enraged and galvanized to strike, they said, by the post-Gulf-War sanctions on Iraq that killed 500,000 children, the debilitating Israeli occupation of the Palestinians, and the establishment of US bases in the holy Arabian Peninsula (with its oil riches that Bin Laden believed were being looted for pennies by the West, aided by a supine and corrupt Saudi dynasty).
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 1. The constitutional coup of 2000, in which Bush was declared the winner of an election he had lost, with the deployment of the most ugly racial and other low tricks in the ballot counting and the intervention of a partisan and far right-wing Supreme Court (itself drawn from or serving the oligarchs), and which gave us the worst president in the history of the union, who proceeded to drive the country off a cliff for the succeeding 8 years. And that is because he was not our president, but theirs. Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here…
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.

Recently, Micah Daigle, Executive Director of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), asked supporters to vote for SSDP in a competition on Facebook that would have earned them $25K and a shot at $1 million. Thousands of activists and supporters took action, catapulting SSDP into fourteenth place. The SSDP needed to place within the top 100 to win, so victory was assured.

Or so it seemed… As the New York Times reported this Saturday, during the final days of the contest, Chase rigged their own system to obscure the vote count and then revoked the winnings of a few groups, including SSDP and the Marijuana Policy Project!

Clearly, Chase can’t be trusted to handle our money. This morning, Micah canceled his credit card account with Chase, and he hopes you’ll join him. Please make the Chase Boycott Pledge at http://www.ChaseBoycott.com

To be clear, this isn’t sour grapes over not receiving a grant – this is about demanding honesty and accountability of a corporation that handles billions of dollars of American assets. The banking giant had every opportunity to disqualify SSDP from the start if they disagreed with the charity’s mission. Instead, Chase Bank used popular social networks to generate free advertising for their brand, and then revoked the winnings after the contest was over without providing an explanation. When asked by SSDP and the New York Times to produce a vote tally, they smugly refused.

Chase executives are not only out of touch with the principles of honesty and transparency, but they are also out of touch with the majority of Americans when it comes to drug policy. Are you aware that 75% of Americans think the bogus War on Drugs has failed and that 53% support legalizing marijuana? This is a mainstream issue that’s gaining more support every day.

By boycotting Chase, you’ll be sending a message to corporations that they need to earn your trust before they earn your money. http://www.ChaseBoycott.com

And by making a donation to SSDP today, you’ll be sending a message that excellent organizations like theirs don’t need to rely on grants from big banks so long as they can rely on the generosity of supporters like us.

If you donate $25 today, and 999 others take a stand with you, SSDP will raise the $25,000 that Chase revoked. With more than 400,000 supporters on SSDP’s e-mail list and Facebook networks, we can make that happen. I’m in. I hope you are, too!

Will you step up and help the Students for a Sensible Drug Policy reach that goal by making a donation of $25 right now? http://www.ssdp.org/donate

It’s up to us to fight the good fight, when there stakes are high. We are a country governed of the people, for the people, and by the people. Let’s not give it away to the reckless and unconscionable mega-corporations. Donate today. Your support is greatly appreciated and needed.

I just now received an email from the Drug Policy Alliance requesting that I write a note to President-elect Obama in regards to who he chooses to be his drug czar. Below is a sample of my letter (based on the suggestions of the DPA). Feel free to copy it, augment it, or use it for fodder to create your own custom made letter and please send it to Barak Obama via his new website: www.change.gov.

You make a difference. The more proactive you are, the bigger your impact. Please take a moment to send a letter like the one I wrote below and send it to Barak Obama’s new website Change.gov:

Sample Letter to Obama Regarding Drug Reform

Dear President-elect Obama,

Please choose a drug czar who will champion reform. This is a very important step in delivering the change you and I and a majority of our great nation and the world so obviously desire… and need!

It’s easy to understand why you are considering to nominate Republican Congressman James Ramstad to be your “drug czar”. Rep. Ramstad is in recovery from alcohol abuse and has a track record in support of increasing access to drug treatment. However, Ramstad is still mostly married to the failed punitive drug war policies of the last 30 thirty years. This is a no-brainer.

These failed policies need to change. We must do something different. As you yourself have so boldly stated: “Doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity”. We must do things differently in drug reform in order for profound change to occur. I know that you know this deep in your obviously good heart.

Ramstad has voted against medical marijuana five times. He has voted against making sterile syringes more available to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS three times. Even though his colleagues are increasingly supporting sentencing reform, including eliminating the crack/powder sentencing disparity, he hasn’t stood up on the issue. Perhaps Ramstad is not the right choice.

Our nation’s next drug czar should be chosen based on the following criteria:

1. Are they committed to enacting and supporting evidence-based policies? ONDCP should make decisions based on science, not politics or ideology.
2. Are they committed to reducing the harms associated with both drugs and punitive drug laws? We need a new bottom line for U.S. drug policy.
3. Do they think drug use should be treated as a health issue not a criminal justice issue? To paraphrase former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, we need a surgeon general not a military general or police officer.
4. Do they welcome and encourage debate and research? We need a drug czar who is open-minded and willing to consider every alternative.
5. Are they committed to reducing the number of nonviolent offenders behind bars? Our country’s next drug czar should be fully committed to major sentencing reform.

President-elect Obama, who you choose as your drug czar will affect everyone. Please nominate a drug czar who supports marijuana law reform, syringe availability and treatment instead of incarceration.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Best regards and best of luck,

Your Name

Panel Finds Sarah Palin Abuses her Power as Governor

The chief investigator of an Alaska legislative panel, Stephen Branchflower, concluded Friday that Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power as governor by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper. The politically charged inquiry jeopardized her reputation as a reformer on John McCain’s Republican ticket. A report filed by a bipartisan panel that investigated the matter found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain.

The finding is the result of a 263-page report on the so-called “Troopergate” scandal. The legislative committee concluded Friday that vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her power as Alaska’s governor when she fired her former public safety commissioner.

I had this kind of ominous feeling that I may not be long for this job if I didn’t somehow respond accordingly.

Walter Monegan
Public Safety Commissioner

The inquiry looked into her dismissal of Walter Monegan, a Public Safety Commissioner who said he was fired from his job because he had resisted pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with the governor’s sister. Palin claims that Monegan was fired as a result of a legitimate budget dispute.

Vindictive Vice-presidential Hopeful

The report concludes that Palin let the family grudge influence her decision-making even if it was not the sole reason Monegan was dismissed.

I feel vindicated. It sounds like they’ve validated my belief and opinions. And that tells me I’m not totally out in left field.

Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan
Illegally fired by Sarah Palin

Branchflower said Palin violated a statute of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

The investigation also exposed that Palin’s husband, Todd (who is employed in by big oil), has extraordinary access to the governor’s office as well as her closest advisers. The report found that he had used that access to try to get trooper Mike Wooten fired. Mr. Branchflower laid blame on Sarah Palin for not taking any action to stop that. He also noted there is evidence the governor herself participated in the effort.

Incredibly, Palin and McCain’s supporters had hoped the inquiry’s finding would be delayed until after the presidential election to spare her any embarrassment and to put aside an enduring distraction as she campaigns as McCain’s running mate in an uphill contest against Democrat Barack Obama. It seems to me that these are exactly the kind of issues that need to see the light of day so that Americans can make a wise decision at the ballot box.

Unfortunately, the nearly 300-page report does not recommend sanctions or a criminal investigation.

Can you imagine this woman as the Commander in Chief of the United States of America? I think the photo above pretty much says it all.

Watch these men, considered the architects of the Bush Administration’s policy on torture, including the “legal” torturing of suspects’ children and the horrible act of being buried alive. Watch as they squirm and slither their way out of answering questions posed by a congressional committee. Truly awful human beings.

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan Slams Bush

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan tells all in his new memoir, including that President Bush often cast the truth aside in favor of relying on an aggressive “political propaganda campaign” in order to to sell the Iraq war to the American people. McClellan writes that the president relied on “propaganda” to sell the public on the Iraq war.

It is reported that Bush’s White House consciously made a “decision to turn away from candor and honesty when those qualities were most needed” — at the critical time when the nation was knocking on the door of war. McClellan’s book is titled What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception.

The manner in which Bush managed the Iraq debacle almost guaranteed that the use of force would become the only feasible option. In the permanent campaign era, it was all about manipulating sources of public opinion to the president’s advantage.

Scott McClellan
Former White House Press Secretary

Current Bush press secretary Dana Perino issued a statement that was highly critical of their former colleague. She and other White House aides seemed stunned by the revelations in the book.

“Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House,” she said. “For those of us who fully supported him, before, during and after he was press secretary, we are puzzled. It is sad – this is not the Scott we knew.” The book provoked strong reactions from former staffers as well.

Another former counter-terrorism adviser who also came out with a book critical of administration policy, Richard Clarke, said he could understand McClellan’s thinking, however.

Iraq: A Serious Strategic Blunder

McClellan states that the Iraq war was and is a “serious strategic blunder,” and that “the Iraq war was not necessary”.

His criticisms are a quite harsh assessment from the man who was at that time the loyal public voice of the White House. McClellan admits that some of his own words from the podium in the White House briefing room turned out to be “badly misguided.” But he says he was sincere at the time. “I fell far short of living up to the kind of public servant I wanted to be.” He calls the media “complicit enablers” in the White House campaign to manipulate public opinion toward the need for war. He harshly criticizes the press for going easy on the administration in the months leading up to the 2003 invasion.

Bush: “Lack of Inquisitiveness”

Of Bush as a boss, McClellan says he was charming and politically skilled, but unwilling to admit mistakes. He also faults Bush for a “lack of inquisitiveness.” Worse yet, Bush was susceptible to his own spin-doctoring. According to McClellan, Bush “convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment.” He also accuses President Bush of not being “open and forthright” about Iraq and of taking a “permanent campaign approach” to governing.

Hurricane Katrina: A Botch Job on Bush’s Watch

The former press secretary also blasted the handling of Hurricane Katrina, saying the White House “spent most of the first week in a state of denial” after the 2005 disaster. “Katrina and the botched federal response to it would largely come to define Bush’s second term,” McClellan wrote.

The Outing of CIA Operative Valerie Plame

The book also addresses the scandal involving the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity. McClellan says Karl Rove, President Bush’s senior political adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff, weren’t honest with him about their roles in the case. McClellan said he defended Libby and Rove to the press after both men assured him that they weren’t involved in the leak. But testimony from Libby’s trial showed the pair had spoken to reporters about Plame. “I had allowed myself to be deceived into unknowingly passing along a falsehood,” McClellan wrote.

What Happened:
Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception.

On Sale June 1, 2008

A Miserable Failure in Business

But the Sweetheart of the Oil Industry

Who says that oil man Bush didn’t accomplish his mission? Obviously very short sighted people, that’s who.

Your Tax Dollars Stolen By Gov’t Employees

Congressional auditors report that federal employees have used their government credit cards to charge millions of dollars for internet dating, tailor-made suits, lingerie, expensive dinners and other questionable expenses over a 15-month period.

A report by the Government Accountability Office examined spending controls across the federal government following reports of credit-card abuse at various governmental departments including the Defense Department, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs.

The review of card spending at more than a dozen departments from 2005 to 2006 found that nearly 41% of roughly $14 billion in credit-card purchases, whether legitimate or questionable, did not follow procedure. Either the purchases were not properly authorized or they had not been signed for by an independent third party as required in federal rules to deter fraud.

For purchases over $2,500, nearly half (48%) were unauthorized or improperly handled.

$1.8M out of $2.7M Unaccounted For

With purchases totaling $2,700,000, the government could not account for hundreds of iPods, computers, and digital cameras. In one case, the U.S. Army could not say what happened to computer items making up 16 server configurations, each of which cost nearly $100,000.

Agencies often could not provide the required paperwork to justify questionable purchases. Investigators also found that federal employees sometimes double-billed or improperly expensed lavish meals and Internet dating for many months without question from supervisors; the charges were often noticed only after auditors or whistle-blowers raised questions.

Breakdowns in internal controls over the use of purchase cards leave the government highly vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse. The government-wide failure rate in enforcing controls is unacceptably high. This audit demonstrates that continued vigilance over purchase card use is necessary…

GAO Report

The report calls for the General Services Administration and Office of Management and Budget, both of which help oversee the government’s credit-card program, to improve accounting for purchased items, particularly small electronic equipment such as Palm Pilots, iPods and other items that could be easily stolen.

OMB and GSA were also urged to tighten controls over convenience checks, which are a part of the credit-card program, and to remind federal employees that they will be held responsible for any items if the purchases are later deemed improper.

In response, both OMB and GSA agreed with portions of the report. But GSA administrator Lurita Doan noted the vast majority of federal employees use their cards properly and that many oversight measures already are in place, though it is obvious that the entire system needs revamping. She acknowledged there is room for improvement but added that by using purchase cards the federal government saves about $1.8 billion in administrative costs each year. Which seems an odd thing to say, given the fact that all of the misappropriated funds add up

We agree that no level of abuse or misuse is acceptable

GSA administrator Lurita Doan

The GAO study comes amid increasing scrutiny of purchase cards, which are used by 300,000 federal employees and are directly payable by the U.S. government (i.e.: your tax dollars).

Last year, it is reported by the AP that Veterans Administration employees racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in government credit-card bills at casino and luxury hotels, movie theaters and high-end retailers such as Sharper Image. Government auditors have been investigating these and similar charges, citing past spending abuses.

Investigators did not seek to determine the extent of fraud or waste at each agency. They cited numerous cases of questionable spending, which they said represented what could be found government-wide, including the VA.

“The purchase card is a useful tool for the government, and in no way are we suggesting it shouldn’t continue to be used widely,” said Gregory D. Kutz, GAO’s managing director of forensic audits and special investigations, in a telephone interview. “However, I would say these cases once again show that lack of internal controls cost taxpayers millions of dollars and thus continued focus is needed on improving these controls.”

Among the expenditures cited in the GAO report:

• An Agriculture Department employee fraudulently wrote 180 convenience checks for more than $642,000 to a live-in boyfriend over a six-year period. The money was used for gambling, car and mortgage payments, dinners and retail purchases that went unnoticed until USDA’s inspector general received a tip from a whistle-blower. The employee, who pleaded guilty to embezzlement and tax fraud charges, was sentenced last year to 21 months in prison and ordered to repay the money.
• U.S. Postal Service workers separately billed more than $14,000 to government credit cards for Internet dating services and a dinner at a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Orlando, Fla., for 81 people at a cost of $160 each for steaks and crab. The dinner bill also included more than 200 appetizers and more than $3,000 worth of wine and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold.
• In the Internet dating case, a postmaster charged $1,100 over 15 months for two online services, including the Ashley Madison Agency. The expenses went unnoticed for more than a year even though he was under internal investigation for viewing pornography on a government computer. The postmaster was eventually told to repay the Internet charges but faced no disciplinary action.
• At the Pentagon, four employees purchased $77,700 in clothing and accessories at high-end clothing and sporting goods stores. The spending included more than $45,000 at Brooks Brothers and similar stores for tailor-made suits – $7,000 of which were purchased a week before Christmas. The credit-card holders said the items were for service members working at U.S. embassies with civilian attire. Pentagon rules allow purchases of civilian clothing when performing official duty, but generally only up to $860 per person.
• Justice Department and FBI employees charged $11,000 at a Ritz Carlton hotel for coffee and “light” refreshments for 50 to 70 attendees for four days, averaging about $50 per person. Seventy percent of the total conference cost of $15,000 was for the food and beverages, while audiovisual and other support services totaled only about $4,000, or 30 percent of the charges. It was not clear what action, if any, that Justice took in light of the conference expenses, which GAO deemed excessive.
• At the State Department, one credit-card holder bought $360 worth of women’s lingerie at Seduccion Boutique for use during jungle training by trainees of a drug enforcement program in Ecuador. One State Department official later agreed that the charge was questionable and stated that he would not have approved the purchase had he known about it.

Too many government employees have viewed purchase cards as their personal line of credit. When money that was intended to pay for critical infrastructure, education and homeland security is instead being spent on iPods, lingerie and socializing, we must immediately remedy the problem.

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.
Top Republican on Senate Homeland Security
subcommittee on investigations

“Although internal controls over government credit cards have improved, we still have a long way to go to stop the fraudulent use of these cards,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who chairs the investigations subcommittee.

Today, Sunday March 30, on the Downsize DC Conference Call, Libertarian Jim Babka’s two-hour radio show, will air at at 3:06 PM Eastern (2:06 PM Central, 1:06 PM Mountain, and 12:06 PM Pacific). The focus of today’s show will be about the Real ID Act.

Not only does Mr. Babka contend that Real ID is not good for America, but he also believes it is anti-American. He is not alone. He’ll provide a great many details about what’s going on in the fight because we’re now at the point where we need to turn up the pressure at a national level. This will be a show featuring some good news.

For the last two years the battle has shifted to the states on this issue and he wants to hear from the activists working in the states. What’s happening in your state?

Please let him know at CALL at DOWNSIZEDC dot ORG (we ask that you type that address in as it sounds because if we provide a hyperlink, spam harvesting programs will snag the address, and make a headache out of it).

To call-in during the show the toll-free number is 1-800-259-9231.

And, by the way, if you want to send a message to Congress asking them to repeal the Real ID Act, you can do so at the website, DownsizeDC.org.

The best way to hear the program is on the Genesis Communications Network website.

And previous episodes are available as mp3 “attachments” to posts on our DownsizeDC.org blog.