Bear-Left.com Links of the Week

Fact of the Week

**Fact of the Week**
House Majority Leader Dick Armey inserted several amendments into the House version of the Homeland Security bill shortly before the bill passed the House by a wide margin last week. Included in these amendments was a provision that would protect Eli Lilly from lawsuits against its production of thimerosal, a mercuric preservative used in childhood vaccines. A growing number of lawsuits allege a tie between thimerosal and neurological damage in young children. The most recent data from the Center for Responsive Politics show that Eli Lilly gave more money to Republican congressional candidates—some $1.26 million—than any other pharmaceutical firm. Sources: Newsday, 16 November 2002; Indianapolis Star, 16 November 2002; Center for Responsive Politics.

Fact of the Week

House Majority Leader Dick Armey inserted several amendments into the House version of the Homeland Security bill shortly before the bill passed the House by a wide margin last week. Included in these amendments was a provision that would protect Eli Lilly from lawsuits against its production of thimerosal, a mercuric preservative used in childhood vaccines. A growing number of lawsuits allege a tie between thimerosal and neurological damage in young children.

The most recent data from the Center for Responsive Politics show that Eli Lilly gave more money to Republican congressional candidates—some $1.26 million—than any other pharmaceutical firm.

Sources: Newsday, 16 November 2002;
Indianapolis Star, 16 November 2002;
Center for Responsive Politics.

**This week's columns**
Not So Equal Opportunity Paul Corrigan According to Jack Grubman and Sanford Weill, the way to get ahead in life is to use your influence, everyone else be damned.	Preschool Workers of New York, Unite! Tim Francis-Wright A specter is haunting Wall Street: the specter of preschool.

This week's columns

Not So Equal Opportunity
Paul Corrigan

According to Jack Grubman and Sanford Weill, the way to get ahead in life is to use your influence, everyone else be damned.

Preschool Workers of New York, Unite!
Tim Francis-Wright

A specter is haunting Wall Street: the specter of preschool.

Links to the best of the Left on the web

Our favorite resources on the 11 September attacks and their aftermath

Our favorite resources on the potential invasion of Iraq

Red Pepper news on Iraq.

No Rush to War: a collection of articles from The Nation.

Target: Iraq from GlobalSecurity.org.

Iraq's Nuclear Weapon Programme from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iraq dossier presented to Parliament by Tony Blair.

New York Times op-ed ad signed by 33 international relations scholars (HTML version of the ad).

Stand Down cross-ideological, anti-war weblog.

Alternative Resources on the US-Iraq Conflict: like it says, from the American Library Association.

Iraq War Debate: a huge collection of links from the University of Michigan.

More, alas, likely to come.

This Week's Links:

The Fifty-first State?: Going to war with Iraq would mean occupying Iraq, perhaps for years or even decades (James Fallows, The Atlantic Monthly).

No Time to Limit Bio-Weapons Treaty: Even though the time is ripe for strengthening the international treaty to ban biological weaponry, the United States is keen to subvert it (Editorial, Toronto Star).

At Least We'll Get a Few Laughs: The nitwits are in charge now, and smart Democrats will play defense (Molly Ivins, Fort Worth Star-Telegram).

How the Democrats Could Have Won: The Democrats could have won earlier this month by embracing three simple ideas (Paul Glastris, The Washington Monthly).

The Agony of Defeat: The Democratic Party managed to lose in 2002 by becoming its own worst enemy (David Moberg, In These Times).

Israel: Walled In, But Never Secure: Israel is erecting a wall that will dwarf the Berlin Wall, but will likely make neither Israelis nor Palestinians secure (Matthew Brubacher, Le Monde-Diplomatique).

Blair Has Not Been a Poodle, but Poodleism Still Beckons: Despite his affinity with George Bush, Tony Blair has been one of the few people with leverage in Washington who is not gung-ho for war (Hugo Young, The Guardian).

Check out our Link Library for news, opinion, and just plain interesting stuff!

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