Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them_ A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right - Al Franken [145]
Information regarding Twenty-First Century Community Learning Centers comes from the U.S. Department of Education report “When Schools Stay Open Late: The National Evaluation of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers.”
Information regarding SCHIP comes from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities: http://www.cbpp.org/3-20-03sfp.htm. In Texas, a proposed cut would reduce eligibility for the program from 200 percent of the federal poverty line ($30,520) to 150 percent ($22,890), according to the March 20, 2003, Houston Chronicle article “Measures Call for Permanent Cuts in Budget.”
According to a fact sheet produced by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions, it costs Texas $1,448 to insure a Medicaid-eligible child. Of course, now that Donna is losing that coverage, she’ll be paying a lot more for private health insurance for her kids.
Section 8 housing vouchers, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, make up the difference between 30 percent of the family’s income and the yearly rent for an apartment meeting the qualifications Allison lists. In other words, Donna’s voucher consists of her yearly rent ($8,964) minus 30 percent of her income ($7,500), or $1,464. For more information, check out http://www.hud.gov or http://www.texashousing.org.
Information regarding TANF reductions and reductions in Child Care and Development Block Grants comes from a report by the Children’s Defense Fund entitled “State Budget Cuts Create a Growing Child Care Crisis for Low-Income Working Families.”
While Houston does, in fact, have a clean and efficient bus system, other communities in the area may not be so lucky after the funding cut: http://www.texastransit.org/archives/000629.html.
Allison’s tax cut was computed for us by Andrew Lee and Richard Kogan at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. If Allison had had $10,000 in dividend income and $10,000 in capital gains, her tax cut would be even greater—$8,000.
38—I Challenge Rich Lowry to a Fight
This chapter, unlike “Operation Chickenhawk,” is a real story. Rich wrote about our interaction in his August 28, 2000, New York Post article entitled “Why I Won’t Fight Al Franken.”
39—Vast Lagoons of Pig Feces: The Bush Environmental Record
An invaluable resource in writing this chapter was Bobby Kennedy, Jr., president of Waterkeeper Alliance and senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
For more information on lagoons, see the following: “Why the Fish Are Dying,” New York Times, September 22, 1997; “Neighbors of Vast Hog Farms Say Foul Air Endangers Their Health,” New York Times, May 11, 2003; and 60 Minutes, June 22, 2003.
For more on the Bush administration and mountaintop removal mining, see the May 19, 2002, New York Times article “Judge Takes On the White House On Mountaintop Mining.”
Information about J. Steven Griles was compiled from a May 16, 2001, Washington Post article, “Symbol of a Shift at Interior; Griles Represents Movement of Pro-Industry, Anti-Regulation Conservatives.”
The information in the table of former lobbyists now in charge of the environment comes from a February 23, 2002, National Journal article, “Recruiting from Industry.”
If, for some reason, you want to know more about pfiesteria, there’s a website devoted to it: http://www.pfiesteria.org/pfiesteria.
41—My Personal Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction
For more on Clear Channel, read the April 14, 2002, article in the Chicago Tribune entitled “Rocking Radio’s World.”
Bush’s remarks on Polish television were documented by the Washington Post in a June 15, 2003, op-ed by David Wise entitled “If Bush Is Lying, He’s Not the First.”
Bush mentioned Iraq’s UAVs in a speech broadcast on CNN (among other places) on October 7, 2002.
The poll in which 34 percent of respondents insisted that we had found weapons of mass destruction was from the Program