This was the week that was
November 11 – November 17

It was not much of a week, certainly not for those working for peace and social justice. The
Shrub administration continued its assault on the environment, including a resolve not to protect
children from wood playground equipment treated with a carcinogenic arsenic-based preservative.
A luxury-liner gangway collapses hurtling people five storeys to their death while on the other
side of the world helicopters collide presumably while avoiding guerilla gunfire. Iraqi attacks on
occupying forces average 30 a week as Iraqi guerillas step up their activities including a deadly
attack on an Italian installation. Saddam reportedly surfaces with another radio broadcast urging
continuing attacks on Israel and the American forces in Iraq. In Israel two synagogues packed
with people celebrating the Sabbath and a bar mitzvah are bombed with devastating results.
Terrorist attacks escalate in Afghanistan indicative of another failed US imperialist venture.

The weekly Gallup Report confronted progressives with survey results indicating that
Americans are significantly more likely to identify themselves as conservative or moderate than as
liberals. Four in 10 call themselves conservative; 4 in 10 call themselves moderates, and only
about 2 in 10 call themselves liberal.

On the war front
Yankee go home.....The Philadelphia Inquirer (philly.com) reported on a secret CIA
document indicating a growing Iraqi opposition to the US and an assessment of of postwar Iraqi
leaders and institutions as incapable of governing or even drafting a constitution.

And don’t come back.....Gallup’s Bagdad’s poll indicated that almost half of that City’s
residents believe that US and British forces waged war “to rob Iraq’s oil.” The overall tenor of
responses to the poll’s questions was that of great distrust and cynicism.

More on weapons of mass distraction.....The Center for Strategic and International
Studies (csis.org) provided more evidence this week that indicated that the Iraqi government,
despite the Shrub administration’s claims, did not attempt to supply weapons of mass destruction
to terrorist groups.

A one-and-a-half state solution?.....A United Nations report this week identified Israel’s
route for its security fence as taking up about 15 percent of West Bank land affecting some
600,000 Palestinians.

On the home front

Congressional Republicans announced an agreement on energy legislation which it will try
to get through Congress next week. The large (about 170 page) bill will provide major energy
companies with billions of dollars in tax breaks and support the development of nuclear power
among many other provisions. President Shrub said it “will make America our nation more
secure,” although how it would do so was not obvious. The League of Conservation Voters
asserted that it “was bad for the environment, bad for public health, and bad for American
taxpayers.” (nytimes.com)

The eleventh commandment.... The Alabama Chief Justice was removed from his office by
a judicial ethics panel. Judge Moore had placed a 5-ton granite monument featuring the ten
commandments from the state courthouse rotunda. He refused court orders to dispose of it. He
and the monument were removed. (Associated Press)

Voting with your wallet.....This week financier George Soros pledged $2.5 million in matching
funds to the MoveOn.org campaign to run television ads against the Shrub’s re-election.