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Democracy Now!
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From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 10-07-03
PRSS Channel: A67.7
8:00-8:01 Billboard:
History Repeats Itself? 16 Women Accuse Schwarzenegger of
Sexual Misconduct, We Look Back At the Eerily Similar Case
of Bob Packwood
The Great Energy Scam – How Companies Are Making a
Killing Off Coal at the Expense of Taxpayers
Afghanistan Two Years After the Bombing: Osama’s Not
Caught; The Taliban Are Back & Fighting Intensifies
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 History Repeats Itself? 16 Women Accuse
Schwarzenegger of Sexual Misconduct, We Look Back At the Eerily
Similar Case of Bob Packwood
INTRO: We speak with investigative reporter Florence Graves
about revealing scores of sexual misconduct accusations in
1992 against then-Oregon Senator Bob Packwood and about Republican
gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger who is expected
to win today’s historic recall election in California
despite facing similar accusations.
At this point 16 women have come out with accusations of
sexual misconduct against Republican gubernatorial candidate
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The L.A. Times reported last week that three of the women
described their surprise and discomfort when Schwarzenegger
grabbed their breasts. Another said he reached under her skirt
and gripped her buttocks. Another woman said Schwarzenegger
groped her and tried to remove her bathing suit in a hotel
elevator. Another said Schwarzenegger pulled her onto his
lap and asked whether a certain sexual act had ever been performed
on her.
Today the L.A. Times is reporting another woman has come
forward and said Schwarzenegger pulled up her shirt, photographed
her breasts and touched them as she yelled at him to stop
and fought him off. She also said he touched her breasts again
when she worked with him years later.
Today as eyes turn towards today’s historic recall
election in California we’ll take a look at another
story that is eerily similar. A man who was accused by scores
of women of sexual misconduct and rose to become one of the
most powerful members of the senate - former Oregon Senator
Bob Packwood.
As a Republican Senator, Packwood had a record as a leading
advocate of women’s rights during his 24 years in the
Senate and he had a history of hiring women, promoting them
and supporting their careers even after they left his office.
But as investigative reporter Florence Graves revealed in
the Washington Post in 1992, Packwood had a long history of
abusing his power over women that worked for him. Graves wrote
of more than 40 women who said the senator made unwanted sexual
advances to them. The allegations spanning the years 1969
to 1990 ranged from awkward kisses to aggressive touching
that created fear.
Packwood’s initial denials of the allegations to the
Post in late 1992 and his attempts to discredit the women
he accosted succeeded in delaying publication of the Post
article about his sexual misconduct until three weeks after
he was safely reelected to a fifth term.
Graves’ exposure of Packwood’s sexual misconduct
and abuse of power eventually led to an historic Senate Ethics
Committee investigation and Packwood’s subsequent resignation
in 1995.
- Florence George Graves, investigative reporter and editor
whose reporting at the Washington Post where she exposed
sexual misconduct and abuse of power allegations against
Oregon Senator Bob Packwood, which led to an historic Senate
Ethics Committee investigation and his resignation. She
founded the nationally circulated political and investigative
Common Cause Magazine. Her most recent reporting and research
focus primarily on the intersection of sex, gender and power
in Washington politics and media.
Link: www.commoncause.org/magazine/magazine.htm
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:40 The Great Energy Scam – How Companies
Are Making a Killing Off Coal at the Expense of Taxpayers
INTRO: Time's prize winning journalists Don Barlett and
Jim Steele reveal how the Marriot Hotel, utility companies
and a handful of individual investors are making hundreds
of millions dollars exploiting an obscure tax loophole designed
to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil in a debate
with Washington lobbyist Kenneth Kies.
More than two decades ago in the wake of the energy crisis
of the 1970s, Congress enacted a tax break to spur the creation
of a broad-based synthetic-fuels industry to ease U.S. dependence
on foreign oil. The idea was to turn plentiful coal into synthetic
natural gas or synthetic crude oil.
But instead of creating a strong synthetic fuel industry
in the United States, investigative reporters Don Barlett
and Jim Steele reveal how the tax credit has become an easy
way for corporations to improve bottom lines or to make a
quick dollar at the expense of taxpayers.
Here’s how it works: A synthetic coal company buys
raw coal. Under IRS rules, the chemical composition of the
coal must be changed to qualify it as synthetic fuel. At the
synthetic fuel plant that change often consists of spraying
diesel fuel or pine tar onto the coal. The company then sells
the coal to a user such as a power plant and then claims huge
tax credits for manufacturing a synthetic fuel.
The problem is that to qualify for the tax credits, the maker
of this so-called “synfuel” don’t have to
prove that they are making a better kind of coal, one that
burns more efficiently or offers any other benefit. By IRS
ruling, they need only to modify the chemical composition
of coal.
While corporations in a range of industries have profited
millions from the tax credit, it is estimated to have cost
taxpayers $4 billion since 1999.
Congress could resolve the issue by ending the credit, but
it has shown little inclination to do so. The IRS launched
an investigation in June into the tax credit, and industry
supporters subsequently persuaded a House appropriations subcommittee
to introduce a bill to call off the industrywide audit. It
failed to pass in an 8-8 vote.
To preserve the credit, the synfuel industry is continuing
to lobby intensely in Washington with the industry’s
Council for Economic Independence meeting with officials from
Congress and the IRS.
- Donald Barlett, editor-at-large, Time. Barlett co-authored
the special report in this week's Time magazine, "The
Great Energy Scam" He has received two Pulitzer prizes
and is co-author of six books including “America:
What Went Wrong.”
- James Steele, editor-at-large, Time. Barlett co-authored
the special report in this week's Time magazine, "The
Great Energy Scam" He has received two Pulitzer prizes
and is co-author of six books including “America:
What Went Wrong.”
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:40-8:58 Afghanistan Two Years After the Bombing:
Osama’s Not Caught; The Taliban Are Back & Fighting
Intensifies
INTRO: Masuda Sultan, program coordinator for Women for
Afghan Women, discusses that state of Afghanistan on the second
anniversary of the start of the U.S. bombing. She recently
returned from Kabul where she helped draft the Afghan Women’s
Bill of Rights.
It was two years ago today when the U.S. launched its attack
on Afghanistan. 50 cruise missiles were launched from submarines
in the Arabian Sea. B52 and B2 Stealth bombers began air strikes.
It came less than a month after 19 hijackers, including 15
Saudi Arabians, flew planes into the World Trade Center and
Pentagon on Sept. 11 killing some 3,000 people.
By March 2002 Researcher Marc Herold of University of New
Hampshire estimated that between 3,000 and 3,400 Afghan civilians
died in the U.S. bombing.
The Pentagon called the attack Operation Enduring Freedom.
On the day of October 7, President Bush when announced the
strikes he defended the military action as part of the so-called
war on terror.
Among the administration’s goals were the capture of
Osama Bin Laden and the dismantling of the Taliban. On both
fronts the U.S. has failed although over 11,000 U.S. troops
remain in Afghanistan.
Osama Bin Laden is still believed to be alive and the Taliban
has reformed and has increased its attack on opposition groups
in recent months. The Guardian reports the past three months
have been the most violent since 2001. The Taliban however
did suffer a major setback recently when a close aide to the
group's supreme leader Mullah Omar was killed in a clash in
the south of the country.
Humanitarian groups have also faulted the Bush’s administration
handling of the enormous humanitarian crisis that faced Afghanistan.
The Guardian of London reports aid workers can not travel
to half of the country’s 32 provinces due to security
concerns. For the first time, NATO yesterday agreed to expand
its peacekeeping mission beyond the Kabul area to Afghanistan's
troubled provinces.
And a new report by Amnesty International faults Afghanistan
for failing to secure rights for women.
- Masuda Sultan, program coordinator for Women for Afghan
Women. She recently returned from a month-long trip to Afghanistan.
It was her fourth visit since the U.S. began bombing two
years ago. She was living in New York at the time of Sept.
11 and traveled back to Afghanistan a few months later only
to learn a U.S. attack had killed 19 members of her family.
Link: www.womenforafghanwomen.org
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Jeremy Scahill, Mike Burke,
Angie Karran, Sharif Abdul Kouddous, Lenina Nadal, Ana Nogueira,
and Elizabeth Press. Mike Di Filippo is our music maestro
and engineer.
[Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Rafael delaUz, Gabriel Weiss, Johnny Sender,
Rich Kim, Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Jenny
Filipazzo]
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