U.S. Government

"George W. Bush has been criticized for disdaining fact in favor of faith in his own instincts. But he is savvy about the dangers that information can present to his authority over the government and the American people," writes Robert Parry. "That is why the first priority of his second term has been the elimination of the few government sources of information that could challenge the images he wants to project to the public. Bush doesn't want the State Department or the Central Intelligence Agency portraying his Iraq and other foreign policies as abject failures or reckless adventures.

"A researcher who publicly questioned the safety of Pfizer Inc.'s painkiller Bextra was removed from a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel that will review it and similar products next year," reported the Wall Street Journal.

"With the reelection of George W. Bush, American voters have spoken. Now it is the turn of global consumers," writes Thomas Mucha. According to Simon Anholt, a specialist in international branding, the reelection of Bush is "undoubtedly the worst thing that could have happened. Bush has presided over a period of unparalleled decline in the popularity of the United States. Global disapproval of U.S. foreign policy has become so intense that it is spilling over and contaminating the image of U.S.

Two recent studies of international opinion have found a drop in williness to buy products from American companies. "People felt exploited by global expansion, inundated by our entertainment products, and put off by our arrogance," reports Kristina Sacci. Within the past two years, she notes, "the number of consumers who use U.S. products from companies such as Microsoft and McDonald's had dropped to 27% from 30%. Non-U.S.