Right Here

Power grab:With the White House’s characteristic speed in capitalizing on critical incidents, Energy Secretary Spencer Abrams went directly to Congress with a proposal concerning the power outage last month. Of course, the Canadian-US investigation of the cause of the blackout is not complete, but the White House policy is. Abrams called for increased subsidies for oil and gas producers, expanded liability protection for nuclear power installations, and the increased deregulation of electrical power production and distribution. (sunspot.net)

A new kind of hate crime: Miguel Estrada, President Shrub’s nominee for the federal appeals court, withdrew his nomination after a two-year political struggle and a Senate filibuster. Estrada had been rejected primarily because of his political conservatism and the likelihood that his appointment would put him in line for a Supreme Court nomination. House Majority Leader Tom Delay issued a press release calling the event “a political hate crime.� (www.majorityleader.gov/news)

IMC Poll Watch: Polls by Zogby and Time Magazine/CNN indicate that the Shrub’s “job approval� ratings have declined. The major issues of concern that people identified were the economy and the situation in Iraq. (www.reuters.com)

For labor day, Gallup queried Americans about labor unions. A surprising 65 percent indicated their approval of unions. This was the highest rating since 1967.

Laborious:The economic news is fairly grim as various reports issued around Labor Day reveal. US companies cut 92,000 jobs in August and 49,000 in July. In all 3 million jobs have been lost since the Shrub took office. (www.abcnews.go.com)

No questions, thank you: The week ended with President Shrub delivering an 18-minute speech to the nation. With his familiar script based on bluster and scare tactics, (“We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today, so that we don’t meet him again on our streets, in our own cities�) the president called for a budget of $87 billion to continue his wars.

Over There

From the halls of Montezuma: We are “in danger of failing,� said retired Marine General and former chief of US Central Command for military occupation of Iraq, Anthony Zinni. Speaking to an audience of Navy and Marine officers, Zinni asserted that the Shrub administration lacked a coherent strategy and had not allocated sufficient resources to postwar efforts. (washingtonpost.com)

To the shores of Tripoli? The deterioration and enormous cost of the occupation of Iraq sent the Shrub’s staffers back to the United Nations this week requesting troops and money for the reconstruction of Iraq. The US, in turn, promised the UN an “expanded role�–as long as the US remained in charge of everything. (Audible snickers could be heard from Bonn and Paris.)

Time for a new PM: The tragedy of the Middle East took another serious downturn this week as Abu Mazen, in office barely over 100 days, resigned as Palestinian Prime Minister. Yasser Arafat has two weeks to name a second prime minister. (www.upi.com )

This Week in History

Avondale Mine Disaster in which 110 miners were killed, led to first mine safety law in Pennsylvania (1868); National Confederation of Labor (CNT; Confederación Nacíonal de Trabajo) founded in Barcelona, Spain (1911); experiencing mass arrests, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were among the many targets of the raids of US Attorney General Palmer during the "Red Scare" (1917).