*BUSH GETS BUMP: President Bush received a huge bump from his State of the Union address, according to a number of national polls. CBS News conducted a focus group poll on the same people before and after the speech. Beforehand only 54% said that Bush shares their priorities. After hearing Bush speak, 81% thought he does. Also, 66% said afterward that Bush's tax proposals will be "good for the economy."
Bush's State of the Union also apparently swayed many Americans toward accepting the idea of war with Iraq. While 67% of those polled approved of war with Iraq before the speech, a full 77% approved afterward. Likewise, the percentage of those opposing war fell from 32% to 22%. Many Americans still wary of an Iraq war could be swayed by Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech this Wednesday, in which he will reportedly release heretofore classified material, including satellite photographs of Iraqis moving missiles away from inspection sites at the approach of weapons inspectors.
*WE ARE THE ENEMY: The American Muslim Council (AMC) has met the enemy, and he is the U.S. Some people might think he would be someone such as Saddam Hussein, but AMC seems more concerned with President Bush and Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft. Announced AMC on January 30, "In a letter to UN Secretary [sic] Kofi Annan, AMC Executive Director Eric Erfan Vickers, has called on the UN to conduct an inquiry into the 'political repression of Muslim and Arab and Asian Americans by the United States government.' Citing six examples of political repression by the U.S. government, including the new INS policy targeting Muslim countries, Vickers said that 'our hope is that if the UN can shine some world light on the "un-American" practices of the U.S. government, then perhaps this country can begin to right itself.'"
"We are making this request because all our frequent calls on America's political leaders to cease the government's religious and ethnic profiling have fallen on deaf ears," wrote Vickers. "Thus, regrettably, the American citizens victimized by this repression must look to the world outside for relief from these shameful and undemocratic practices by our government." Vickers mentioned "the Justice Department's new policy of selectively gathering intelligence information on mosques and Muslims without having to establish any criminal connection or basis for this intrusive surveillance" and "the targeting of persons from Muslim countries for registration and fingerprinting by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service" as among our government's wrongs.
*AUSSIES FEAR BUSH TAX CUT: U.S. senators may not be wholly convinced of what a boon the elimination of the dividend tax would be for the American economy. But the Australians are not so slow-minded-and they are very worried that, if Bush's plan passes, their businesses could go waltzing Matilda over to our shores. The Australian Finance Review reports of Aussie fears that "proposed changes to the U.S. tax treatment of dividends may prompt Australian companies to relocate" to the United States. The publication quotes Peter Le Huray of Price Waterhouse Coopers as saying that "unless the Australian government introduces reforms to its international tax regime, the U.S. proposal may encourage many Australian companies to move their head office offshore."
*NEW TERRORIST THREAT INTEGRATION: President Bush has created the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC). "I applaud the President's creation of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center," said Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft on January 28. "The TTIC will ensure that terrorist threat-related information is integrated and analyzed comprehensively across agency lines and then provided to the federal, state and local officials who need it most. The TTIC will provide a seamless integration between foreign and domestic intelligence on terrorism." The new center was created to try to prevent the lack of communication among intelligence agencies so prevalent in the past.
*ESTRADA PASSES COMMITTEE: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah) forced a committee vote on Miguel Estrada on January 30. The nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit finally made it out of the committee after many months of Democratic obstruction. The vote split strictly along party lines, 10 to 9. "Miguel Estrada deserves to be confirmed not because of his remarkable background as an immigrant to this country, but because he deserves to be confirmed under any standard," said Hatch. "Mr. Estrada graduated from Columbia University magna cum laude and as a Phi Beta Kappa. He went on to Harvard Law School where he graduated again magna cum laude and after serving as editor of the Harvard Law Review. He served as a law clerk for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, and then for Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy at the United States Supreme Court." A floor vote on the nomination is expected soon on Estrada, who, if confirmed, will be the first Hispanic on the D.C. appeals court and is considered a top prospect for nomination to the Supreme Court.
*ENOUGH HEARINGS: With the President resubmitting all of his court nominees, in addition to Estrada, who were thwarted by the Senate Judiciary Committee when the Democrats were in charge last year, a number of Republicans on the panel are wondering why more hearings are needed for any nominee who went through one last year. Freshman Sen. John Cornyn (R.-Tex.), himself a former justice of the Texas Supreme Court, told HUMAN EVENTS' John Gizzi last week that "there was strong feeling to have no more hearings and just vote"-particularly in the cases of nominees Charles Pickering and Priscilla Owens-and that he planned "to take this up with [Committee] Chairman [Orrin] Hatch [R.-Utah]." Hatch surprised conservatives recently when he said he would probably hold new hearings for Pickering and Owens.
*ANOTHER TRY AT OFFICIAL ENGLISH: The movement to make English the official language of the United States remains strong among the American public, despite the increase in the number of businesses and government agencies increasing their services in Spanish and other languages. Last week, Rep. John Doolittle (R.-Calif.) announced plans to reintroduce the English Language Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Enacting an amendment to make English the official language is far more difficult than passing a bill. Nonetheless supporters argue that an amendment is necessary because any legislation, no matter how well drafted, could well be overturned by federal judges.
