http://www.democraticunderground.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:22:34 Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:22:34 Two labor organizations have sued the Bush administration for failing to protect nearly 20 million workers from job injuries. In 1999 the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed a rule requiring employers to pay for protective clothing, face shields, ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/18 Sun, 21 Jan 2007 13:41:21 The White House announced last week that President Bush issued pardons to 16 individuals. Their offenses included bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the government, possession of marijuana and cocaine, and mail fraud. During his first term, Mr. Bush issued a mere 31 pardons and commutations. To date ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/17 Thu, 28 Dec 2006 15:34:36 Last week President Bush appointed Dr. Eric Keroack to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Population Affairs. This position is primarily responsible for overseeing the Office of Family Planning, which is charged with providing access to contraceptive information and su... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/16 Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:40:20 Since taking office the Bush administration has successfully lobbied Congress to budget $500 million for marriage education programs. Much of this money is slated to go to religious organizations, despite the fact that the First Amendment mandates separation of church and state. A recent lawsuit fil... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/15 Sun, 08 Oct 2006 10:23:20 Last month the Bush administration announced that Marine Corps Individual Ready Reservists are being recalled to duty. This is due to a shortage of soldiers who are willing to serve additional tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are similar shortages in the Army and the National Guard. Yet the Arme... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/14 Sun, 01 Oct 2006 09:47:34 It’s well known that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld failed to protect the nation’s soldiers during the invasion of Iraq. Numerous news accounts and Congressional reports have established that soldiers in Iraq fought without sufficient body armor, armored vehicles, bullets, and even food. But a... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/13 Sat, 12 Aug 2006 09:08:00 Unions representing thousands of scientists and other specialists employed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently complained that EPA officials are ignoring science. The unions indicated that agency administrators are allowing numerous toxic substances to be used in agricultural pesti... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/12 Sun, 06 Aug 2006 12:06:01 The New York Times reported this week that the Bush administration is eliminating almost half of the lawyers at the Internal Revenue Service who audit the tax returns of the wealthiest Americans. These lawyers specialize in auditing the returns of those who are subject to gift and estate taxes. Sinc... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/11 Thu, 27 Jul 2006 19:03:50 "Prescription Politics"

Two recent studies have shown that prescription drug prices rose significantly during the first quarter of the year. AARP, an advocacy organization for older Americans, found that the prices charged by pharmaceutical companies for brand-name drugs increased by almost four ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/10 Sat, 22 Jul 2006 08:56:20 In the wake of the Senate’s failure to approve a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, conservatives are now coalescing around what amounts to their runner-up option. Various conservative and evangelical Christian organizations are now championing the “We the People Act.” The act would... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/9 Sat, 01 Jul 2006 06:49:47 The Senate is expected to vote within the next two weeks on a constitutional amendment to ban desecrating the flag. Last summer the House of Representatives, in a vote of 286 to 130, passed a resolution that would create a new amendment to the Constitution allowing, “The Congress shall have the powe... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/8 Thu, 15 Jun 2006 08:50:05 In 2001 the Bush administration joined 188 other governments in adopting the United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. This committed each government to improving their response to its domestic AIDS epidemic and establishing targets for financing, policy and programming. Last week, in an... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/7 Sun, 11 Jun 2006 11:55:22 Late last month a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel unanimously recommended approval of a vaccine for the human papilloma virus (HPV). The vaccine appears to be 100 percent effective at protecting against the most prevalent viruses that cause cervical cancer. While public health profession... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/6 Fri, 02 Jun 2006 14:58:00 Earlier this month the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) held a conference on sexually transmitted diseases. The conference was slated to include a panel discussion entitled “Are Abstinence-Only Until Marriage Programs a Threat to Public Health?” However, Indiana’s Republican Congressman Mark Souder... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/5 Sat, 27 May 2006 07:11:08 The Senate will soon vote on the nomination of Terrence Boyle to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. President Bush nominated Mr. Boyle, who has served as a federal district court judge in North Carolina for the last 20 years, in 2001. But Democrats have blocked his nomination since th... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/4 Wed, 10 May 2006 07:25:55 President Bush, the nation’s self-appointed “Decider,” has nominated William Wehrum to serve as Assistant Administrator for the office of air quality at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He’s been serving as legal counsel and interim head of this office since 2001. During his tenure at the ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/3 Wed, 03 May 2006 16:32:06 In the past three years the Bush administration has vigorously made comparisons between reconstruction in Iraq and post-World War II Germany and Japan. Many of the administration’s analogies have been forced, at best. A variety of historians, political scientists, and even former government official... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/2 Mon, 24 Apr 2006 19:07:29 President Bush frequently compares the war in Iraq to World War II. While giving the commencement speech at the U.S. Air Force Academy Mr. Bush noted, "Like the Second World War, our present conflict began with a ruthless surprise attack on the United States." While speaking at a ceremony commemorat... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Gene C. Gerard/1 Thu, 20 Apr 2006 09:24:32