THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Scott Harris' in-depth interview with former UN weapons inspector and U.S. Marine Scott Ritter is now available. Click here to listen to the audio.

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• As Chaos Reigns in Iraq,
  Bush's Political Support
  Plummets at Home,
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• Immigrant Workers' Freedom Ride
  Aims to Raise Awareness of Low Pay,
  Dangerous Working Conditions
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• Union Victory at Yale Has Broader
  Significance for Labor Movement
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• Underreported News Summary
  from Around the World
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As George W. Bush addressed the United Nations' General Assembly Sept. 23rd in an attempt to win support from skeptical governments around the world for what has become a chaotic and bloody U.S. occupation of Iraq, the president was quickly losing political support at home. The combination of an anemic economy and continued instability both in Iraq and Afghanistan have contributed to a loss in confidence in the president as seen in recent public opinion polls.

Several polls conducted in late September found that President Bush's approval rating had sunk to around 50 percent, his lowest standing since he took office after the disputed election of 2000. Support among Americans for the Bush administration's war in Iraq has also seen a precipitous drop, from a high in the over 60 percent range to a new low of 50 percent.

Although many Democratic Party leaders had voted for a congressional resolution authorizing Mr. Bush's invasion of Iraq, some Democrats now running for the White House are openly attacking the president for misrepresenting the truth in making his case for a U.S. war. The growing concern among Americans about the weak economic recovery, coupled with the loss of nearly three million jobs since the president was sworn into office, has emboldened many Democrats' critique of the Republican's foreign and domestic policies. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with John Nichols, Washington correspondent with The Nation magazine, who looks at the president's declining approval rating and the strength of the Democratic candidates now vying for Mr. Bush's job.

Read John Nichols' articles in the pages of The Nation or online at www.thenation.com

Related links:

• "Columnist Blows CIA Agent's Cover," by Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce, Newsday, July 22, 2003. Robert Novak says in this article that sources came to him. On Sept. 29, 2003 on major TV networks, Novak said that he initiated the interview.
• "Bush Administration Is Focus of Inquiry: CIA Agent's Identity Was Leaked to Media," by Mike Allen and Dana Priest, Washington Post, Sept. 28, 2003
• "CIA Seeks Probe of White House," by Alex Johnson with Andrea Mitchell, Exclusive | MSNBC and NBC News, Sept. 26, 2003
• "Bush Isolated as Speech to U.N. Falls Flat," by Gary Younge, The Guardian, Sept. 24, 2003
• "Bush makes little ground on Iraq: Even with Bush's lobbying, U.N. members don't step forward," Associated Press, Sept. 24, 2003
• "NBC Poll: Bush rating lowest ever: Just 49 percent approve of president's performance," by Tom Curry, MSNBC, Sept. 24, 2003
• "Americans Grow More Doubtful About Iraq War; Bush Approval Drops to Term Low," by Lydia Saad and Frank Newport, Gallup News Service, Sept. 23, 2003
• "Poll: Americans' Doubts Grow on Iraq," Associated Press, ZNet, Sept. 23, 2003
• "New poll shows 2 Democrats leading Bush," by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sept. 23, 2003
• "Bush's NY Poll Numbers Plummet," The Associated Press, Sept. 23, 2003
• "The Franco-American Face-off Returns to the UN," by Luc de Barochez, Le Figaro, Sept. 22, 2003
• "Bush's Latest UN Visit: More Misleading," by David Corn, The Nation "Capital Games" columnist, Sept. 23, 2003
• "Bush Plans Unyielding Stance on Iraq War in Address to U.N.," by David E. Sanger, New York Times, Sept. 21, 2003
• "Dean, Driven by the Grass Roots," by Lois Romano, Washington Post, Sept. 22, 2003
• "Clark Calls Iraq War 'A Major Blunder,'" by Mike Glover, Associated Press, Sept. 20, 2003
• "Blood in the Water: Led by Dean, the Democrats Attack," by John Nichols, The Nation, Sept. 11, 2003

Last Week's Program

Between The Lines Week Ending 9/26/03

Bush Re-Election Issues

"House Probers Conclude Iraq War Data was Weak," Washington Post, Sept. 28, 2003

"Bush Administration Is Focus of Inquiry: CIA Agent's Identity Was Leaked to Media," Washington Post, Sept. 28, 2003

"CIA Seeks Probe of White House,"By Alex Johnson with Andrea Mitchell, Exclusive | MSNBC and NBC News, Sept. 26, 2003

"The Bush Administration Adopts a Worse-than- Nixonian Tactic: The Deadly Serious Crime Of Naming CIA Operatives," by John W. Dean, Aug. 15, 2003

"New Voting Technology Questioned," Kansas City Star, Sept. 22, 2003

"Revenge of the ex-generals," MSNBC, Sept. 25, 2003

"Six Months After the Attack on Iraq, Was the Anti-war Movement Right?" CommonDreams.org, Sept. 23, 2003

"The Big Lie," The London Daily Mirror, Sept. 22, 2003

"Mistakes of Vietnam Repeated With Iraq," Atlanta Journal- Constitution, Sept. 18, 2003

"Kennedy Says Iraq War Case a 'Fraud,'" Associated Press, Sept. 18, 2003

"U.S. Budget Deficit Mounts Toward All-Time High," Reuters, Sept. 17, 2003

"Bush: No Proof of Saddam Role in 9-11," Associated Press, Sept. 17, 2003

"Cheney in Wonderland," Los Angeles Times editorial, Sept. 16, 2003

"Cheney Link of Iraq, 9/11 Challenged," Boston Globe, Sept. 16, 2003

"Why Don't We Have Answers to these 9/11 Questions?" Philadelphia Daily News, Sept. 11, 2003

"Read Between The Lines of Those Missing 28 Pages," The Nation, July 29, 2003

"Impeaching Bush,"Counterpunch, July 25, 2003

American Empire/War Profiteering

"Cheney's Ties to Halliburton," The Washington Post, Sept. 26, 2003

"Houston Exec Gets Top Iraq Energy Post," Houston Chronicle, Sept. 23, 2003

"Oil Services Firm Paid Cheney as VP," Reuters, Sept. 17, 2003

"Immunity for Iraqi Oil Dealings Raises Alarm," Los Angeles Times, Aug. 7, 2003

"Rivals Say Halliburton Dominates Iraq Oil Work," New York Times, Aug. 8, 2003

"Pipeline Politics: Oil, The Taliban, and the Political Balance of Central Asia," World Press Review Special Report, Nov.-Dec. 2001

"War Profiteering," by The Nation editors, April 24, 2003

Postwar Occupation of Iraq

"U.N. Refuses to Help George Bush in Iraq," Le Figaro, Sept. 26, 2003

"Stretched Thin, Lied to & Mistreated: On the ground with US troops in Iraq," The Nation, Oct. 6, 2003

"Iraq: Civil War a Credible Hypothesis," La Liberation, Sept. 4 2003

Civil Liberties

"Concerns about citizen privacy grow as states create 'Matrix' database," The Associated Press, Sept. 23, 2003

"ACLU to Announce First Nationwide Lawsuit Over Restrictions Against Anti-Bush Protesters," American Civil Liberties Union, Sept. 22, 2003

"Fascism Anyone?" 14 Signs of Fascism, Free Inquiry Magazine, Volume 23, No. 2

"Germany In 1933: The Easy Slide Into Fascism," The Crisis Papers, June 9, 2003

Multi-Ethnic Issues Advocacy

Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson's Commentaries, The Hutchinson Report
and in Audio (needs RealPlayer)