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Ralph Nader Debates Fmr. Boston Univ. Law School Dean on
Miers Nomination to Supreme Court
Ret. Army General William Odom: U.S. Should "Cut and
Run" From Iraq
Inequality in the Wake of Katrina: A Debate on Bush's Child
Tax Credit
Bankruptcy After Katrina: Who Wins, Who Loses?
Ralph Nader Debates Fmr. Boston Univ. Law School
Dean on Miers Nomination to Supreme Court
President Bush reached into his inner circle and nominated
Harriet Miers - his White House counsel and former personal
attorney - the Supreme Court on Monday. We host a debate with
former presidential candidate Ralph Nader and Ronald Cass
of the Committee for Justice.
President Bush reached into his inner circle and nominated
Harriet Miers - his White House counsel and former personal
attorney - the Supreme Court on Monday.
- President Bush, October 3, 2005.
In nominating Miers, Bush turned to a lawyer with no judicial
experience or constitutional background to replace retiring
justice Sandra Day O'Conner and help shape the nation's judiciary.
This marks the first time since 1971 that a President nominated
someone without judicial experience to serve on the US Supreme
Court. If confirmed Miers will become the third woman to ever
serve on the court. She spoke after Bush announced her nomination.
- Harriet Miers, supreme court nominee, October 3, 2005.
Miers is 60 years old. After earning her undergraduate and
law degrees from Southern Methodist University, she worked
as a corporate litigator in Dallas at the firm now known as
Locke Liddell & Sapp. She would rise to become the first
woman to head a major Dallas law firm and was named one of
the 100 most powerful lawyers in the country. She specialized
in commercial litigation, representing big-name clients such
as Microsoft and Walt Disney Corporation.
Miers later rose to become the first woman to serve as president
of the Texas State Bar and the Dallas Bar Association. She
met George W Bush in the 1980s and she was counsel for his
1994 campaign for governor. She continued on as Bush's personal
attorney until he appointed her to head the Texas Lottery
Commission. She helped recruit conservative lawyers for Bush
during the Florida recount in 2000 and was reportedly assigned
during the campaign to conduct a review of his National Guard
service. She followed Bush to the White House where she served
as White House deputy chief of staff as well as staff secretary,
a job in which she reviewed virtually every document that
went before the president. In 2004, she was tapped to become
White House counsel.
Her relationship is so close to President Bush, that White
House insiders joked to the Los Angeles Times that she was
his "work wife." Bush once called her "a pit
bull in size 6 shoes."
As White House counsel, Miers vetted judicial nominees, including
newly installed Chief Justice John Roberts. She also advised
the president on issues including the CIA leak investigation
and the role of torture in the fight against terrorism.
Without a judicial record, it may be difficult for Senators
to know where Miers stands on key issues facing the court.
What is known is that as a City Council candidate, she opposed
the repeal of a law against gay sex. In 1992, when delegates
to a national American Bar Association convention adopted
a position in favor of abortion rights, Miers worked as head
of the Texas state bar to force a reconsideration of the issue
by submitting it to a referendum by the 360,000-person membership.
And as President Bush's White House lawyer, she helped vet
deeply conservative judges.
Some of the strongest criticism of her nomination has come
from conservatives. A number of conservatives have come out
against her nomination to the bench. Rush Limbaugh called
the nomination a sign of "weakness." Weekly Standard
editor Bill Kristol said he was "disappointed, depressed
and demoralized" by the selection. Meanwhile Democrat
Harry Reid, the Senate Minority Leader, appeared side-by-side
with Miers soon after her nomination and praised her qualifications.
- Sen. Harry Reid (D - NV), Senate minority leader, October
3, 2005.
Last week during a conference call with bloggers, Reid -
anti-choice Democrat - reportedly announced that he had asked
President Bush to consider Miers for the job. Miers is a former
Democrat who once contributed campaign donations to Al Gore
and Lloyd Bentson. Since 1988 all of her contributions have
gone to the Republican Party. New York Democratic Senator
Chuck Schumer said he will push for documents on Miers and
pressure her to answer questions about her judicial philosophy.
- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D - NY), October 3, 2005.
But more information on Miers' personal may not be forthcoming.
As White House counsel, it was Miers who denied similar requests
by Democrats to release memorandums written by John Roberts
during the administration of George H.W. Bush. We host a debate
on Miers' nomination:
- Ralph Nader, 2004 independent presidential candidate.
Over the past few months he has been writing Harriet Miers
a series of letters.
Ret. Army General William Odom: U.S. Should "Cut
and Run" From Iraq
What's wrong with cutting and running? That's the question
asked by retired Army general William Odom about the continued
US military presence in Iraq. Odom says, "I'm trying
to think like a strategist, and in war, as well as in politics
and diplomacy, one has to know when to withdraw and when to
attack. This was a misguided act and it requires a strategic
division and moral confidence to turn it around."
What's Wrong with Cutting and Running? That's the question
asked by retired Army general William Odom about the continued
US military presence in Iraq.
Odom served as director of the National Security Agency under
President Reagan. Prior to that, he served as Assistant Chief
of Staff for Intelligence, the Army's senior intelligence
officer. He is now a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute
in Washington.
He recently said, "The invasion of Iraq I believe will
turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history."
In his
article Odom writes, "The wisest course for journalists
might be to begin sustained investigations of why leading
Democrats have failed so miserably to challenge the U.S. occupation
of Iraq. The first step, of course, is to establish as conventional
wisdom the fact that the war was never in the U.S." interests
and has not become so."
- Lt. Gen. William Odom, served as director of the National
Security Agency under President Reagan from 1985 to 1988.
From 1981 to 1985, he served as Assistant Chief of Staff
for Intelligence, the Army's senior intelligence officer.
He is now a Senior Fellow at the Hudson
Institute in Washington.
Inequality in the Wake of Katrina: A Debate on Bush's
Child Tax Credit
A new study shows that the child tax credit does not benefit
almost half of African-American and Latino children - and
it turns out that the children who see the least benefit from
the credit are in Mississippi and Louisiana. We host a debate
with the Children's Research and Education Institute and the
Heritage Foundation.
The images broadcast all over the world in the days after
the Hurricane Katrina disaster forced some politicians to
admit that poverty and endemic racial discrimination were
still major problems in the United States.
As criticism about the government's slow response to the
disaster mounted, President Bush gave a televised address
where he promised to address racial inequality and implement
plans to help the poor. And Congress is now considering various
plans to give relief to the victims of the disaster including
an expansion of the Child Tax Credit which first passed in
1997. The credit is an actual reduction in taxes as opposed
to just a deduction in taxable income. It allows families
to reduce the federal income tax they owe by up to $500 dollars
per child per year. In 2001, President Bush extended the credit
to $1,000 dollars and made it partly available to families
too poor to have income tax bills. The credit phases out at
incomes above $110,000 dollars and below $11,000 meaning the
wealthiest and the poorest families receive nothing.
Bush has touted the child tax credit as proof that the steep
tax cuts he's implemented since he's been in office don't
just benefit the wealthy but are good for low-income families
as well. But a new study by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center
shows that the program does not benefit almost half of African-American
and Latino children. And it turns out that the children who
see the least benefit from the credit are in Mississippi and
Louisiana.
- David Harris, President of the Children's Research and
Education Institute.
Bankruptcy After Katrina: Who Wins, Who Loses?
President Bush's bankruptcy bill, passed by Congress in
April, is taking effect later this month. Four congressmembers
are now calling for victims of hurricane Katrina to be exempt
from certain provisions of the law. We speak with the Consumer
Federation of America.
We now look at another economic policy that has an especially
severe affect on Hurricane Katrina survivors. The Bankruptcy
Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act was passed in
April and goes into affect on October 17th. Critics of the
bill charge that it was crafted by lobbyists for the credit
card industry and that credit companies stand to reap several
billion dollars in profit from the law. Meanwhile the bill
makes it harder and more expensive for people to seek bankruptcy
protection and it give lenders and businesses new legal tools
for recovering debts.
Four congressmembers led by Democratic Representative John
Conyers of Michgan are calling for victims of Katrina to be
exempt from certain provisions of the law. Conyers said that,
"In today's lagging economy, far too many hardworking
Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, just barely getting
by. In that tenuous financial condition, many families are
only one tragedy away from being devastated by debt. Many
of the families who have now lost their homes, livelihoods,
and personal possessions will soon be contacted by credit
collection agencies demanding the next minimum payment on
a credit card."
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 Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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