January 3rd, 2007

Chris Keeley

These concerns include his private-sector business dealings; his association with disgraced former p

These concerns include his private-sector business dealings; his association with disgraced former police commissioner Bernard Kerik, his two ex-wives and his position on "social issues," including his pro-choice stance on abortion. 

As Rudy Giuliani's Secret Presidential Campaign Plan is Revealed, A Look At His Run for the White House & the Untold Story of Giuliani and 9/11

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/03/1459244

Journalist Wayne Barrett, author of "Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11," and filmmaker Kevin Keating ("Giuliani Time") discuss Giuliani's run for president and his handling of the 9/11 attacks. [includes rush transcript - partial]

 

The first presidential primary is still more than 12 months away but the 2008 race for the White House is already heating up. Last week former Democratic Senator John Edwards announced his candidacy. Today, outgoing Republican Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney will be filing paperwork to form a presidential exploratory committee.

One of the most talked about Republican candidates for 2008 has been former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

On Tuesday, Giuliani's campaign suffered a possible setback when a New York newspaper revealed what it described as his secret campaign strategy.

The Daily News obtained a 140-page campaign plan outlining Giuliani's budgets, schedules, and fund-raising plans. The paper printed excerpts of the dossier yesterday stating that an anonymous source obtained it after it was left behind on a campaign trip.

Advisers to Giuliani said the document was stolen by someone who had infiltrated his campaign. Advisers also downplayed the significance of the document.

The main revelations are details about Giuliani's goal to raise one hundred million dollars and a listing of his political and personal liabilities.

The document reportedly says Giuliani might "drop out" of the race as a result of insurmountable personal and political concerns.

These concerns include his private-sector business dealings; his association with disgraced former police commissioner Bernard Kerik, his two ex-wives and his position on "social issues," including his pro-choice stance on abortion.

The leaked document has emerged only days after some 9/11 family members reported to the New York Post that Giuliani's presidential exploratory committee had begun discussions with them about backing him if he runs for president. Giuliani gained national attention for his handling of the recovery effort after the September 11th attacks. But other 9/11 family members have since vowed to reveal the truth of what they say are the failures of his performance during the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks.

 

  • Wayne Barrett
  • Kevin Keating
  • Excerpt of "Giuliani Time."
    • , senior editor at the Village Voice, where he's been covering politics for 22 years. He is the author of many books including "Rudy!: An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Guiliani." Wayne's latest book is "Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11."

    , the producer and director of the documentary "Giuliani Time."

     

     

 

AMY GOODMAN: We are joined now by two journalists. Wayne Barrett is a senior editor at the Village Voice, where he's been covering politics for 22 years, the author of many books, including Rudy!: An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani. Wayne's latest book is Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11. We're also joined by Kevin Keating, the producer and director of a documentary called Giuliani Time.. In a minute, we'll play excerpts, but first, well, welcome, both. And, Wayne, start off by talking about the significance of this leaked report, this leaked battle plan,

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Chris Keeley

Dick Cheney’s bubble was trouble: “I’m surging, I’m surging, I’m surging

Told you so, you sons of guns — we were right to stop at Safwan and stay out of Baghdad,” the father’s bubble read, as he watched Rummy and Henry the K, both of whom had treated Poppy with such veiled contempt, as though he were a feather duster

Stained Glass and Strained Egos
By MAUREEN DOWD

Washington

It was a scene that Mary McCarthy could have written the devil out of: a funeral for a fine, bland fellow that filled everybody with unfine, unbland thoughts. The formal serenity of the service disguised, but only barely, the virulent rivalries and envies and grudges and grievances that have roiled this group for many decades.

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Chris Keeley

This Is Your Brain on Drugs, Dad

This Is Your Brain on Drugs, Dad 



This Is Your Brain on Drugs, Dad
By MIKE MALES

San Francisco

WHEN releasing last week’s Monitoring the Future survey on drug use, John P. Walters, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, boasted that “broad” declines in teenage drug use promise “enormous beneficial consequences not only for our children now, but for the rest of their lives.” Actually, anybody who has looked carefully at the report and other recent federal studies would see a dramatically different picture: skyrocketing illicit drug abuse and related deaths among teenagers and adults alike.

While Monitoring the Future, an annual study that depends on teenagers to self-report on their behavior, showed that drug use dropped sharply in the last decade, the National Center for Health Statistics has reported that teenage deaths from illicit drug abuse have tripled over the same period. This reverses 25 years of declining overdose fatalities among youths, suggesting that teenagers are now joining older generations in increased drug use.

What the Monitoring the Future report does have right is that teenagers remain the least part of America’s burgeoning drug abuse crisis. Today, after 20 years, hundreds of billions of dollars, and millions of arrests and imprisonments in the war on drugs, America’s rate of drug-related deaths, hospital emergencies, crime and social ills stand at record highs.

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Chris Keeley

In the book, Obama acknowledges that he used cocaine as a high school student but rejected heroin. "

In the book, Obama acknowledges that he used cocaine as a high school student but rejected heroin. "Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though," he says.

In an interview during his Senate race two years ago, Obama said he admitted using drugs because he thought it was important for "young people who are already in circumstances that are far more difficult than mine to know that you can make mistakes and still recover.

"I think that, at this stage, my life is an open book, literally and figuratively," he said. "Voters can make a judgment as to whether dumb things that I did when I was a teenager are relevant to the work that I've done since that time."