Get the Facts Newsletter, November 2005

Volume 1, Issue 9

IN THIS ISSUE:
NEWS ITEMS OF NOTE
-- Update on Boehner Vs. McDermott
-- Atwa in Iraq: A Tale of Two Villages
-- What You Need to Know About Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage

EYE ON HUMAN RIGHTS
-- This Month's Focus: Iraq

STEPPING UP TO THE PLATFORM
-- On the Agenda: Health Care

WEB SITES I LIKE
-- The Huffington Post
-- The United American Blogs
-- Bush Mosaics

BOOKS I'M READING
-- Endless Enemies
-- Paradise Now

TAKE ACTION:
-- Join the American Values Team
-- Make a Donation

FEEDBACK
Your feedback on the issues -- and this newsletter -- is very important to me. Send your thoughts to: emailsignup@mcdermottforcongress.com

NEWS ITEMS OF NOTE
UPDATE ON BOEHNER VS. MCDERMOTT
On November 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard our appeal to overturn an October 2004 ruling by U.S. District Court judge Thomas F. Hogan requiring me to pay Rep. John Boehner (R–OH) more than $600,000. The case centers on my providing a tape to the media of a cell phone call involving Newt Gingrich. The public airing of the contents of this call helped contribute to Gingrich's decision to resign as Speaker of the House in 1998.

The panel of judges declined to make a ruling from the bench. So, now we wait. We could hear in a matter of days, weeks, months, or years. The October 2004 ruling came after 18 months of deliberation. Our best guess is that there are three possible outcomes: The court will 1.) Remand the case for trial; 2.) Return the case to Judge Hogan to reinterpret it in light of a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that favored our argument; 3.) Affirm Judge Hogan's ruling, in which case we will likely appeal again to the Supreme Court.

Here are links to more-detailed accounts of the latest development in this 8-year-old case:

-- Read the Associated Press article
-- Read the Roll Call article (Note: Access to the full Roll Call article requires a subscription. Free trial subscriptions are available.)
-- Read the complete history of the case

ATWA IN IRAQ: A TALE OF TWO VILLAGES
After thousands dead and thousands wounded, the Out of Iraq Caucus no longer meets in a phone booth. Leading Democrats (and a few Republicans) who backed the war now admit they were wrong.

So, what can be done to extract our troops from this disaster caused by Bush and his neo-con advisors? A few of my colleagues still hope for turning points and positive outcomes. Many others fear wider conflict after we leave. U.S. force can never bring order to this chaos. Can Iraq embrace and enforce an arrangement of its own, true to Iraqi tradition and culture?

-- Read the rest of my blog posting on Daily Kos

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG COVERAGE
Starting on January 1, 2006, Medicare will offer limited prescription drug coverage. Medicare beneficiaries can choose a "drug-only" plan to supplement their traditional Medicare coverage, or get drug coverage as part of a comprehensive private-sector Medicare managed care plan (now called "Medicare Advantage" plans). The enrollment period for 2006 coverage is now through May 15th, 2006. The enrollment period for 2007 will begin November 15th, 2006.

I opposed the law that created this program because the drug benefit is inadequate, overly complex, and was set up to maximize profits for the pharmaceutical and HMO companies rather than maximizing help to Medicare beneficiaries.

Now that the plans have been announced, these concerns remain. I want all of you to be armed with the information necessary to make the best decision about whether to join and, if so, which plan may best meet your needs.

-- Read my information sheet

EYE ON HUMAN RIGHTS
THIS MONTH'S FOCUS: IRAQ
In Bush's ideal world, Iraq's long history as a vicious violator of human rights ended the day we "accomplished" our mission of toppling Saddam Hussein. But, as we all know, the atrocities continue. In fact, a whole new list of them emerged recently when U.S. troops raided a secret Iraqi-run prison ("torture chamber" might be a more accurate label) in Baghdad. They found at least 200 prisoners there with obvious signs of torture.

Robert Dreyfuss, a freelance writer and author of Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, wrote a scathing editorial explaining why the U.S. is as much to blame for these atrocities as Iraq. He writes: "There is no longer any doubt that the men that the United States has installed in power in Iraq are monsters. Not only that, but they are monsters armed, trained and supported by George W. Bush's administration. The very same Bush administration that defends torture of captives in the so-called War on Terrorism is using 150,000 U.S. troops to support a regime in Baghdad for which torture, assassination and other war crimes are routine.

"So far, it appears that the facts are these: that Iraq's interior ministry, whose top officials, strike forces and police commando units (including the so-called Wolf Brigade) are controlled by paramilitary units from Shiite militias, maintained a medieval torture chamber; that inside that facility, hundreds of mostly Sunni Arab men were bestialized, with electric drills skewering their bones, with their skins flayed off, and more; that roving units of death-squad commandos are killing countless other Sunni Arab men in order to terrorize the Iraqi opposition. . . . We toppled Saddam—and in his place we've installed a hundred mini-Saddams."

-- Read the full article
-- Read the London Times news account of the prisons
-- Read the Human Rights Watch report "The New Iraq? Torture and Ill-treatment of Detainees in Iraqi Custody"

STEPPING UP TO THE PLATFORM
ON THE AGENDA: THE BUDGET
The most common constituent question I hear these days is: What is the Democrat Party doing? It's fair question. The short answer is: Not enough. The current Republican stranglehold on the Congressional agenda makes doing our work extremely difficult and, frankly, our party has not done enough to articulate its platform.

So, rather than answer just those folks who contact me directly, I'm adding a new section to this newsletter. "Stepping up to the Platform" is my vision of what the Democratic Party platform should be and how I am fighting to make that vision reality. Each month, I will address a specific topic that I think should be central to the Democrats' agenda. This month, it's health care.

Seventy-two percent of uninsured Americans are in families where there is a full-time worker. Sixteen percent have two full-time workers. Only 62 percent of all employers even offer health insurance, and only 60 percent of employees can take advantage of it. How bad does it have to get before we begin to do what is necessary?

We have the power and ability to take care of everyone, from patient to physician to provider. National health care does not mean government medicine. It means a guaranteed revenue stream to give a stable set of benefits for everyone that cannot be taken away.

-- Read more details on my solution to the health-care crisis

WEB SITES I LIKE
Here are just a couple of the Web sites I think you'll find interesting:
-- The Huffington Post: This is pundit Arianna Huffington's personal blog. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ I have posted several articles on her site.

-- United American Blogs: http://theunitedamerican.blogs.com
On this site, you can see an impressive video called 2000. It opens with the intriguing question: "Did you ever wonder what 2000 looks like?" It then shows, in rapid succession, photos of soldiers killed so far in the Iraq War, along with some of the more galling quotes about the war from the Bush Administration. The creators are clearly incensed by the reality of so many senseless deaths in this senseless war.
Important Note: This video takes awhile to load the first time you view it. Also, a couple of profanities appear in the text

-- Bush Mosaic: This is a portrait of President Bush entirely composed of small photos of soldiers who have died in the Iraq War. (Note: The image may take awhile to load.) http://home.ripway.com/2004-1/54222/warpresMED.jpg

Revision date: December 9, 2005