March 27, 2004

POWER, NOT EMPATHY B

WOMEN IN THE GEORGE W. BUSH ADMINISTRATION

Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor

(2001-Present)

Foreign Policy

Advocating Power Politics:

AWe must build and maintain our defenses beyond challenge... actively pre-empt proliferation by other powers... U.S. power must be Aunparalleled,@ states Rice in her September 2002 National Security Strategy Report (p. 48).

Playing on Fear of Terrorism:

AWe don=t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. How long are we going to wait to deal with what is clearly a gathering threat against the United States, against our own allies and against [Saddam Hussein=s] own region?@ asked Rice during an interview on CNN on the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks (p. 68).

The Invasion of Iraq as a Civil Rights Issue:

AWe should not let our voice waver in speaking out on the side of people who are seeking freedom. [Denying people freedom] was wrong in 1963 in Birmingham and it is wrong in 2003 in Baghdad@ claimed Rice in August 2003, to the National Association of Black Journalists (p. 26).

The 9/11 Attacks

1. A Cover-up by Bush?: Under Rice=s watch, President George W. Bush has:

Refused to set up a commission to investigate the tragedy.

When forced to set up a commission, named as its head former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Kissinger soon resigned under public outcry.

Refused to release information about what the administration knew beforehand. Forced to release the information, he did so but only after it had been heavily redacted.

Refused the request of the commission to extend its allotted time for the investigation by two months.

A Cover-up by Rice Herself?: Claiming national security concerns and separation of powers, to date, Rice has herself refused to testify for the commission.

Karen Hughes, Counselor to the president

(01/01 - 04/02)

News

ANews is contention. If you=re willing to criticize, news people are willing to let you start a fight,@ Hughes, then spokesperson for George W. Bush, told the press, in September 1999 (p. 90).

Panama

AIt=s a very strategic part of the world and we shouldn=t have given it up,@ Hughes, then communications director for president-elect George W. Bush, told the press, in December 2000, after the last ceremony officially returning the Canal Zone to Panama (p. 83).

Religion

1. Covering up for her Gubernatorial Candidate: In 1993, just before initiating his campaign for governor of Texas, George W. Bush commented that people who do not accept Jesus Christ as a personal savior cannot go to heaven.

AAs a Christian, he believes that Jesus Christ is his personal savior... Judgements about heaven and hell do not belong to the realm of politics or of this world. They belong to a higher authority and he recognizes that,@ Hughes, then communications director for the candidate, explained to the media (pp. 100-101)

2. Covering up for her Governor: In 1998, Hughes was serving George W. Bush, now Governor of Texas, when he joked with journalists about how during his first visit to Israel, he would tell the Jews, AYou=re all going to hell.@ She would continue to serve him and embellish his image as he went to the White House (pp. 100-101).

Abortion

In 2001, Hughes became Acounselor@ to President George W. Bush who, as presidential candidate, had told reporters that he supported the Republican Party agenda for a constitutional amendment banning abortions without exceptions (pp. 104-105).

Ann Veneman, Secretary of Agriculture

(2001-Present)

The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT)

AU.S. agriculture got what it needed... because the United States set the agenda and we led, pushed and pulled the negotiations where we wanted them to go,@ testified Veneman, as Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, in April 1998 (p. 121).

The Purpose of the Uruguay Round:

In 1993, the Uruguay Round established Afree trade@ as the goal between all countries. Trade should be unimpeded and thus import tariffs, which act as Abarriers to trade,@ should be eliminated B notwithstanding the fact that they protect domestic producers from foreign competition (p. 121).

Its Effects a Decade Later:

A decade later, as head of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, Ann Veneman, then United States Secretary of Agriculture, showed no concern that:

1. Poorer nations had dropped their trade barriers at a rate three times that of richer countries (p. 122).

2. Developed countries had raised their tariffs on imports by 20 percent (p. 122).

3. Developed countries were subsidizing their own exporters to the extent that these were able to flood world markets with cheap foodstuffs and thus drive small producers out of business (p. 122).

For instance, in 2002, the thirty industrial nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) spent $311,000,000,000 on domestic agricultural subsidies B more than the combined gross domestic products of all the countries of sub-Saharan Africa (p. 140).

4. The U.S. government was even helping corporations dump their food abroad by giving them export subsidies or Acredits@ (p. 122).

Genetically-engineered Foods

1. AFood safety risks should be evaluated in terms of the product, not the production method,@ testified Veneman, as Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, in April 1998 (p. 134).

This Statement in Translation:

The statement is a sophisticated way of saying that:

a. Manipulating genes should be treated no differently from watering seeds.

b. Food packaging and labeling laws should not identify genetically engineered crops because this would Adiscriminate@ against such crops, most of which are grown in the U.S. and which the U.S. wants to both sell domestically and export.

c. The Aprecautionary principle@ must be resisted. The principle requires that products be withheld from the market for as long as the scientific data on them are inadequate or inconclusive (pp. 134-135).

2. AThe precautionary principle used in Europe is not based on objective science. It forms a barrier to technological progress and could stymie efforts to help third world countries with biotechnology,@ Veneman told a food safety conference, in January 2002 (p. 141).

The Effect of this Statement:

Acceptance of American genetically modified crops is quietly becoming a requirement for countries seeking hunger relief. In 2002, the U.S. Department of Agriculture refused to supply the World Food Program with non-genetically modified corn, despite the availability of hundreds of thousands of tons in the U.S. and elsewhere. Zambia, one of the countries in need, refused to accept genetically engineered grain (p. 141).

The Context of this Statement:

Veneman=s statement was in the context of an announcement by the United States at the United Nations Food Summit in Rome, that same year, 2002, that the United States would not sign any document which referred to food as a human right (p. 142).

Elaine Chao, Secretary of Labor

(2001-Present)

Affirmative Action

AAsians like me find it hard to get ahead because [we] are not aggressive... There are cultural differences... We=re just learning rules and goddamn it, they change them on us!@ exclaimed Chao to President Clinton, in January 1998, as she was arguing the case against Affirmative Action (pp. 171-172).

The Department of Labor

In August 2002, Chao shared her vision for the Department of Labor to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a national group of far-right legislators. She wanted to:

1. In 2003, cut the budget of the Department by 7 percent (pp. 174-175).

2. ATransform@ the Department into a ADepartment of the Workplace,@ where distinctions between workers and managers, bosses and employees would be ignored B notwithstanding power disparities (pp. 174-175).

Workers= Health and Safety

As Secretary of Labor, Chao has:

1. Cut funding for enforcing health and safety laws, child-labor regulations, and the minimum wage (p. 175).

2. Eliminated workplace safety rules protecting workers (disproportionately women in sweatshops, meat-processing, computer work and other jobs requiring hours of repetitive motion) so that businesses could have more Afreedom@ to address workplace safety in their own ways (p. 178).

The Minimum Wage

As Secretary of Labor, Chao has proposed making the minimum wage voluntary for the states, so workers and employers have more Aoptions@ (p. 179).

Unions

As Secretary of Labor, Chao has:

1. Proposed dramatically increasing spending on auditing and investigating unions. In 2001, the Department issued new regulations requiring unions to itemize every expense over $2000 and all outlays spent on organizing workers, striking, and all other legislative and political activities (p. 175).

2. Claimed national security concerns when, in 2002, management locked out 10,000 longshore workers at twenty-nine West Coast ports, paving the way for President George W. Bush to invoke the anti-union 1947 Taft-Hartley Act to force the workers back to work (p. 180).

Christine Todd Whitman, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency

(01/01 - 05/03)

The 9/11 Attacks

AI=m glad to reassure the people of New York that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink,@ stated Whitman in her EPA press release of September 18, 2001, six days after the disaster. She had broken her own agency=s regulations by making the statement and at the time, her own agency was measuring elevated levels of asbestos, dioxin, PCB=s and heavy metals in New York=s air and water (pp. 185-188).

Air and Water

1. AIt is not a giveaway to the mining industry,@ said Whitman, in April 2002, as she announced changes to the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts setting higher limits on the amount of refuse mining companies would be allowed to dump in rivers and streams (p. 212).

2. Under Whitman=s watch:

AIt was a P.R. disaster,@ Whitman told Newsweek, in May 2003, recalling when, almost immediately upon coming into office, Bush canceled President=s Clinton=s proposal to set lower standards for arsenic in drinking water (pp. 212-213).

Bush reversed a campaign pledge to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions (p. 212).

According to EPA=s own documents, from 2001 to 2002, the number of officially defined smoggy days in the United States increased by 32 percent (p. 216).

According to EPA=s own documents, from 2001 to 2002, the completion of clean-ups at superfund sites decreased by almost half (p. 216).

Global Warming

1. AIt was a question in those early days of not articulating the message...,@ Whitman told Newsweek, in May 2003, recalling when President Bush withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol on global warming (p. 212).

2. AThis report does not attempt to address to complexities of [the] issue [of global warming]@ simply states Whitman in her EPA Draft Report on the Environment, released in 2003. The Report omits any information whatsoever on global warming (p. 213).

Senior Citizens

AEPA will not, I repeat, not, use age-adjusted analysis in decision-making,@ emphasized Whitman, in May 2003, reversing herself after citizen protest over her proposed Asenior death discount@ which would have reduced the reimbursement value of senior citizens in official calculations of the cost of life-threatening pollution (p. 215).

Gale Ann Norton, Secretary of the Interior

(2001-Present)

Oil Drilling

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge:

As Secretary of the Interior, Norton:

Rejected a report by her own Department scientists which concluded that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would pose significant risks for caribou, musk oxen, polar bears and snow geese. In October 2001, it was revealed that Norton had ordered a revised report which would come to the opposite conclusion (pp. 244-245).

A[In winter, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is] a great white nothing,@ Norton told the House Resources Committee, in 2003 B implying that there would be no great harm in drilling (p. 245).

Caribou Calving:

AIt was a mistake... [My letter to Congress] transposed [the numbers],@ explained Norton, in October 2001. The Fish and Wildlife Service had correctly reported that in 11 out of the past 18 years, caribous calved within the area designated for drilling.

Whitman=s letter stated that in 11 out of the past 18 years, caribous calved outside the area (p. 245).

Mining

In 2001, Norton overturned a Clinton-era ruling which rejected the request of Canadian company to develop a large open-pit gold mine in the southern California Desert. The pristine area is a Quechuan Indian sacred site, a portion of the native Trail of Dreams, and adjacent to wilderness which provides a habitat for the federally-protected desert tortoise (p. 250).

AEcoterrorism@

In 2001, Norton was the Keynote Speaker at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group founded by Paul Weyrich (a leader of the ANew Right@) and on whose board sit the chairmen of Coors Brewery and Koch Industries. In 2003, the Council drew up the AAnimal and Ecological Terrorism Act= which criminalizes virtually all forms of environmental or animal rights advocacy (pp. 229 and 247).

Forests

Under Norton=s watch:

C The Forest Service announced that it intended to conduct fifty large-scale timber sales in the Tongass National Forest, a prime habitat for the endangered grizzly bear (p. 245).

C In the name of Ahealthy forests,@ President George W. Bush lifted government rules that require environmental studies before trees are logged or burned (pp. 245-246).

National Parks

Under Norton=s watch, President Bush announced a decision to permit snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks (p. 246).

Conclusions

Decoys

The women in the George W. Bush inner circle by no means support the cause of those whose voice is muffled or unheard B either

* Domestically, such as women, children, the poor, ethnic minorities, the environment, or

* Internationally, such as vulnerable nations, rural farmers, starving labor forces and struggling human rights movements.

These women lend their feminine faces (and in the case of Rice and Chao, minority features) to be used as a facade, as decoys or camouflage by the Bush administration to substantiate its claim of bringing Adiversity@ and Acompassion@ to the government. In actuality, the administration is rapidly destroying social gains for voiceless which have been half a century in the making.

Actively Participating

Not only do these women act as a cover for the administration, but they actively, hypocritically and relentlessly promote the administration=s narrow agenda of catering to the rich at the expense of the groups these women purport to represent B women, children, immigrants, the poor and the environment.

None of these women has used her influence with the administration to help the cause of women generally, or those less lucky than themselves.

References

All page numbers refer to:

Flanders, Laura, Bushwomen B Tales of a Cynical Species (Verso, New York, N.Y.), 2004.

The 9/11 Attacks B A Cover up by Bush?; A Cover up by Rice Herself? (p. 1 of the present document):

Parenti, Michael, Presentation, AUnited States Imperialism,@ Boulder, CO, March 27, 2004.

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