http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=24889
A chronology of how the Bush Administration repeatedly and deliberately refused to listen to intelligence agencies that said its case for war was weak
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/14/business/worldbusiness/14trade.html?th
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 - The United States trade deficit soared to a record of $489.4 billion last year, according to a federal report released on Friday, raising concerns about the problems such a large gap could create.
The deficit, which is the difference between the value of foreign goods and services purchased in this country and the amount of American goods and services sold overseas, is now the largest in history.
 

 
A story at Dataquest India (subscription required) suggests that protectionist laws being passed in the US senate to prevent the offshoring of American government jobs to places such as India may be premature.

Given the election year in the USA, it not hard to figures why candidates are actively taking up the outsourcing issue. We have seen enough of such stunts in India and expecting rational business sense would be far fetched at such times. However policy makers have to realize that setting up trade barriers today will hurt the USA more than any other.
Observers also feel that US lawmakers are being shortsighted and populist in bringing about such legislation and will be brought to their senses when enough qualified people are not found to do the job. US policy makers need to give more thought on how to bridge up the huge demand-supply gap looming large in the next few year. Rather than trying to ban offshoring and passing bills, they need to analyze on how to stop the potentially huge $884 billion cumulative GDP loss. One hopes that sane sense prevails, but then its election time. Let us hope that US policy makers who want their voters to see the light at the end of the tunnel are not mistaking it for an approaching train in the long run.
 





The $884 bn Loss

While the domestic working population (16+ years), expected to grow at 0.72% by year 2010, is not sufficient to meet the country’s future labor demand, statistics suggest that one out of six working persons in the US will be 65+ years.

This according to Evalueserve would lead to a demand-supply gap of 5.6 million jobs in the country’s labor market by 2010.

Factoring in the estimated levels of cumulative immigration at 3.2 million until 2010, the US will need to address a shortfall of approximately 2.4 million workers. According to Evalueserve, if the shortfall of 2.4 million is not addressed, the US economy will face a cumulative GDP loss of $ 884 billion—a reason enough for the US government to ensure free flow of work to offshore.
 

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) -- A feminist author has written a magazine article accusing a noted Yale University professor of sexually harassing her while she was an undergraduate in the 1980s, and alleging a long history of such events at Yale.
Read the rest here.
 

 
Columbine Killers and Police Had 15 Contacts, Official Says. Authorities had at least 15 contacts with the Columbine High School killers dating back two years before their murderous attack, the state attorney general said today. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
 

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/570/570p18.htm

Roberto Jorquera & Neville Spencer
The crisis that Haiti is facing is, however, not simply due to the policies of the Aristide government, but is partly a consequence of US policies.
Since the beginning of the century, the US has intervened in Haiti in a similar fashion to the way it has in the rest of Latin America. In 1915, US marines occupied the country for 20 years to make sure that it would pay its debt to the US. After their withdrawal in 1934, the US installed Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier who was succeeded by his son Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. Baby Doc was eventually forced out of power in 1985 after massive protests against his notoriously corrupt and repressive regime.
Aristide, a radical priest influenced by liberation theology, was first elected president of Haiti in 1990 in a landslide victory to his Lavalas Movement. His election was based on a program that promoted social reform and a push to dismantle the bureaucracy that had developed under the Duvalier dictatorships.
Within seven months of his election, the old remnants of the dictatorship staged a military coup that forced Aristide into exile, while US-backed death squads killed thousands of his supporters.
In 1994, the US supported an operation dubbed “restoring democracy” which returned Aristide to power, though only once he had signed agreements to implement neoliberal economic policies and accepted the dictates of International Monetary Fund.
However, battling popular opposition to such neoliberal policies from his own supporters, Aristide dragged his feet on their implementation and still remained prone to occasional bursts of anti-US and anti-imperialist rhetoric.
Thus, while Aristide was less of a threat to the interests of US imperialism and the local ruling class than he had been, he was far from being their ideal candidate. But while he has commanded overwhelming popular support, there has been little that they could do about him — short of engineering another coup.
Read the rest at the link above.