While U.S. military personnel fight and die, and Iraqis die from injury or disease in their war-blighted communities, Washington insiders, including relatives of the president, continue to benefit financially from the war. The total extent of war profiteering under this administration exceeds the scope of a newsletter or even of a full-length book. Halliburton, the […]

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Hold the Hybrid—A picture may be worth a thousand words, but three pictures can provide priceless publicity. That’s why Senate Democrats recently held a press conference at a local Exxon station a block from their offices on Capitol Hill, where gas is $3.10 a gallon for regular unleaded. It doesn’t help that Exxon’s outgoing CEO […]

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In case you missed it—and the Bush administration was certainly hoping that you would—the federal government’s operating deficit for 2005 was $760 billion, or a whopping 138 percent higher than the much more widely reported budget deficit of $319 billion. The Bush administration hailed the lesser amount when it was announced last October by the […]

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Since the 2000 presidential election mess, we’ve checked in periodically on the vital issues of voter fraud, election reform and the rapid spread of electronic voting machines (see, most recently, our June 15, 2005, and April 15, 2005 issues). Critics have raised serious concerns about the safety of electronic voting; yet more and more states seem to be […]

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No one who closely watches the Interior Department foresees any dramatic shifts in policy once Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne replaces Gale Norton as secretary later this spring. As a former senator, Kempthorne is expected to breeze through the confirmation process, scheduled to begin in early May. But now is a good time to take stock […]

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