CyberAlert -- 05/15/2001 -- Bush Team Too Influenced by Big Oil
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Bush Team Too Influenced by Big Oil; Liberal Charged Price Fixing, ABC Jumped; Washington Post Upset By Ashcroft's Prayer Meetings 1 Roberts then helpfully noted which top officials once worked in the energy industry, "ties that fifty-six percent of Americans think will result in favorable treatment of the oil and gas industries." Adding a conspiratorial tone, Roberts relayed: "Environmental groups agree and point to a closed-door meeting at the American Petroleum Institute just nine days before Mr. Bush took office." Dan Rather opened the May 14 CBS Evening News, as
transcribed by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth: Roberts started with Bush's successful overture to labor: "Six months ago, these union leaders battled to keep George Bush out of the White House. Today the White House reached out to them, seeking labor's support for an energy plan that's being attacked by critics. For Teamsters President James Hoffa, it's all about jobs." After a clip of Hoffa saying Bush's plan would
create an "amazing number of jobs," Roberts concentrated on the
negative: "But the new CBS News poll out tonight finds the majority
of Americans believe it's about what's best for big oil. Sixty-two
percent say the oil industry has too much influence with the Bush
administration. The President, Vice President, Commerce Secretary, and
National Security Advisor all worked for oil companies. The Secretary of
the Interior, and other high-ranking administration official, also had
ties to oil and energy, ties that 56 percent of Americans think will
result in favorable treatment of the oil and gas industries. Environmental
groups agree and point to a closed-door meeting at the American Petroleum
Institute just nine days before Mr. Bush took office." For the complete CBS News rundown of its poll, go to: http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,291197-412,00.shtml One finding Roberts skipped over: Dick Cheney's approval rating came in at 56 percent compared to a piddling 17 percent who disapprove of his performance -- and he's the biggest "big oil" man in the administration.
Jennings set up the May 14 World News Tonight push piece: "Today in Washington a U.S. Congressman from California accuses the power companies of price gouging." Reporter John Martin began with proof of how
conservation doesn't work, but he used the data to make a different
point: "Last week Californians suffered a new round of blackouts even
though demand for electricity, 33,000 megawatts, was lower than at its
peak three years ago. In fact, Californians have been using less
electricity at peak hours each year since 1998. But Democratic Congressman
Henry Waxman says at least 5,000 megawatts, one-tenth of the state's
peak demand, were withheld deliberately last week to boost prices." Immediately after Martin's piece, Jennings endorsed the Waxman and gas withholding claims as he complained: "There is really no way to prove how much energy is being withheld by the power companies. There are no independent inspections of the plants and it is up to the power companies to police themselves." And it's up to CyberAlert to police the biased networks.
While John Ashcroft is a Pentecostalist and not a fundamentalist like Falwell and Robertson, Monday's Post story matched the same derogatory attitude toward Christian believers reflected in the February 1, 1993 story quoted above. "Ashcroft's Faith Plays Visible Role at Justice," warned the top of the fold May 14 headline. The subhead intoned: "Bible Sessions With Staffers Draw Questions and Criticism." Reporter Dan Eggen, without naming any sources, focused his piece on how "some who do not share Ashcroft's Pentecostal Christian beliefs are discomfited by the daily prayer sessions -- particularly because they are conducted by the nation's chief law enforcement officer, entrusted with enforcing a Constitution that calls for the separation of church and state." Eggen highlighted one unnamed Justice Department attorney who charged: "It strikes me and a lot of others as offensive, disrespectful and unconstitutional." An excerpt of the May 14 front page Washington Post story: The Bible study begins each day at 8 a.m. sharp, with Attorney General John D. Ashcroft presiding. A group of employees gathers at the Main Justice building in Washington, either in his personal office or a conference room, to study Scripture and join Ashcroft in prayer. Ashcroft held similar meetings each morning as a U.S. Senator and sees the devotionals as a personal matter that has no bearing on his job as attorney general, according to aides. Spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said Ashcroft wants to "continue to exercise his constitutional right to express his religious faith." Any employee is welcome, but not required, to attend, his aides said. But within the massive Justice Department, with about 135,000 employees worldwide, some who do not share Ashcroft's Pentecostal Christian beliefs are discomfited by the daily prayer sessions -- particularly because they are conducted by the nation's chief law enforcement officer, entrusted with enforcing a Constitution that calls for the separation of church and state. "The purpose of the Department of Justice is to do the business of the government, not to establish a religion," said a Justice attorney, who like other critics was unwilling to be identified by name. "It strikes me and a lot of others as offensive, disrespectful and unconstitutional....It at least blurs the line, and it probably crosses it." "It's alienating," another lawyer said. "He's using public spaces to have a personally meaningful event to which I would not be welcome, nor would I feel welcome." Ashcroft declined to comment on the devotional meetings, and reporters have not been allowed to attend. But top Justice Department officials say his Bible studies at Justice should be viewed no differently from those organized and attended by many members of Congress. "It is against my religion to impose my religion on people," Ashcroft said in a recent speech. Several aides also said many of Ashcroft's top staffers -- including the chief of staff, the deputy chief of staff and the communications director -- have never attended the devotional meetings, nor have they been pressured to do so. They say that the sessions are open to all Justice employees, Christians or otherwise, and that one of the regular participants is an Orthodox Jew.... The federal government's "Guidelines on Religious Exercise and Religious Expression in the Federal Workplace," issued in 1997 after bipartisan negotiations, say supervisors and department heads must be especially careful with religious activities or statements. "Because supervisors have the power to hire, fire or promote, employees may reasonably perceive their supervisors' religious expression as coercive, even if it was not intended as such," the guidelines say. "Therefore, supervisors should be careful to ensure that their statements and actions are such that employees do not perceive any coercion...and should, where necessary, take appropriate steps to dispel such misperceptions.".... Ashcroft considered a run for the presidency with support from leading Christian conservatives, and has regularly cited God and Scripture in speeches and policy statements. In 1998, Ashcroft said at a Christian Coalition event that "a robed elite have taken the wall of separation designed to protect the church and they have made it a wall of religious oppression." The next year, he told Bob Jones University graduates that America was founded on religious principles, and "we have no king but Jesus." That statement became the subject of some controversy at his confirmation hearings. The morning devotionals are not the only sign that Ashcroft approaches religion differently from his predecessor, Janet Reno, who ran a strictly secular office. At a Black History Month celebration in February, for example, Ashcroft prayed with a minister, who urged Justice employees to join in. The department also issued new style guidelines for correspondence carrying Ashcroft's signature. They forbid, among other things, the use of "pride," which the Bible calls a sin, and the phrase "no higher calling than public service." "He's running the department like a church, complete with rituals and forbidden words," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "That is deeply troubling." Ashcroft refers to his daily devotionals as RAMP meetings -- Read, Argue, Memorize and Pray. Attendance ranges from three to 30, including some from outside Justice, but centers on a regular core of a half-dozen Justice staffers with long-term ties to Ashcroft. All employees are invited to attend, but Tucker said no department-wide memorandum or invitation has been issued. Ashcroft hands each participant a devotional book from a stack he has used for years, Tucker said. The book highlights a Bible verse or passage for each date of the year, and the group spends the first minutes discussing its meaning, according to a participant. The group then moves on to a memorization, with the goal of committing to memory a psalm or Bible story through repeated readings. The session ends with a prayer, often including a reference to a relative or acquaintance who is ill or in need. The prayer is usually ecumenical, but at times has referred to Jesus or other Christian figures. Although sometimes led by Ashcroft, the prayer is more often recited by another volunteer. Shimon Stein, 24, a Justice program analyst who worked in Ashcroft's Senate office, is the only regular participant who is not a Christian. Stein, an Orthodox Jew, said he finds the meetings fascinating from a theological perspective and enjoys discussing matters of faith with the attorney general and his co-workers. "He's made every effort to make everyone and everything feel comfortable," said Stein, who was the only participant other than Ashcroft identified by Justice officials. "There is theological discussion and textual discussion....Growing up in the circle I did, I didn't have a chance to study other religions, so it's very educational for me.".... "These go on on the Hill all the time, and he's done this for years and years and years," Tucker said. "He's always done them in his office, and that's how he started his day." But advocates for the strict separation of church and state, as well as some Justice employees, said Ashcroft is now in a far different position from when he was a U.S. Senator. As the leader of the nation's top law enforcement body, they contend, he has a responsibility not to offend employees of different faiths or test the limits of accepted guidelines. Laura W. Murphy, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington office, said Ashcroft is at least violating the spirit of the federal rules on workplace prayer. "Ashcroft has a right to pray in office, but he does not have a right to implicitly or explicitly force others into praying with him," she said. "Ashcroft's the chief defender of the nation's civil liberties. He can't pretend to be just another citizen leading prayers." A career Justice lawyer agrees, calling the devotionals "totally outrageous." "It feels extremely exclusive, that if you don't participate in that kind of religion, that your career could be affected by it," the attorney said. "If I had some political aspirations and wanted to work for the front office and didn't have the same religious feelings as he does, my non-participation could adversely affect me." Others say the issue is muddier than that. Harvard Law School professor Phillip B. Heymann, who was deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, said the prayer sessions are "not clearly wrong or illegal. But the main practical worry is that anybody might think they may be closer to the attorney general if they prayed with him, or more able to influence him....It's really sort of on the edge.".... END Excerpt To read the entire Washington Post story, go to: Seems like those so upset by any hint of religious belief are the intolerant ones. And they have a sympathetic ear at the Washington Post. -- Brent Baker >>>
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After
months of the media portraying the Bush administration's ties to
"big oil" as a negative example of money in politics instead of
as a sign of the Bush team's energy expertise, a CBS News poll found, in
the words of John Roberts in the lead story on Monday's CBS Evening
News: "Sixty-two percent say the oil industry has too much influence
with the Bush administration."
A
liberal Congressman speaks and ABC News jumps. ABC dedicated a whole story
Monday night to the claim by Henry Waxman that energy companies withheld
electricity from California in order to boost prices. Afterward, anchor
Peter Jennings assumed the charge was accurate as he bemoaned how
"there is really no way to prove how much energy is being withheld by
the power companies" since there are "no independent inspections
of the plants."
Prayer
meetings at the Justice Department attended by the Attorney General! What
an unconstitutional horror warned a front page story in Monday's
Washington Post. Eight years ago then-Washington Post reporter Michael
Weisskopf wrote in a news story this now infamous passage:
"Corporations pay public relations firms millions of dollars to
contrive the kind of grass-roots response that Falwell or Pat Robertson
can galvanize in a televised sermon. Their followers are largely poor,
uneducated, and easy to command."
