There you have it. These are, in my humble opinion, the two key ingredients to forming a fascist government. Disallow protest and control what the media can and cannot report. I find it incredibly sad how easy we're making it for them.
© 2001 Scott Morschhauser

"Theft Of The Presidency"
BBC-TV Newsnight

GREG PALAST: Washington, the marine band plays 'Hail to the Chief' for George W Bush, 43rd President of the United States. But in Florida, some are singing 'Hail to the Thief'.

COUNTRY SONG: After hundreds of lies Fake alibis

PALAST: We are coming into Tallahassee. We want to know whether George W Bush won the election or did brother Jeb steal it for him? Our investigation suggest the answer lies in this shuttered building and in a very expensive contract between Governor Jeb's division of elections and a private company named DBT, which accidentally wiped off the voter rolls thousands of Democratic voters. 18th floor division of elections, we have come to ask Mr Clayton Roberts, the director, a few questions. Roberts agreed to talk, but became a bit uncomfortable when he learned that we had obtained the secret DBT contract, and asked him if he knew what DBT were up to.

CLAYTON ROBERTS: Florida Director of Elections No, I didn't ask DBT. They do what we contract them to do. We have a statute that says we have to have a private company to do this. We put it out for bid, we put it out for bid, and I think I'm done with this interview.

PALAST: Let me just show you the contract if I could Mr Roberts. It says here in the contract that the verification is supposed to be done by DBT. That you paid them $4 million. It could look to others don't you think that you paid $4 million to purchase this election for the Republican party. 95% wrong on the felon list. Mr. Roberts, could you answer the question regarding the contract... Instead, Mr Roberts called out State troopers. It's interesting here?

STATE TROOPER: Oh, man! Never a dull moment.

PALAST: I don't know why he had to call the police. We hadn't gotten to our difficult questions yet! The difficult questions are: Did Governor Jeb Bush, his Secretary of State Katherine Harris, and her Director of Elections, Clayton Roberts, know they had wrongly barred 22,000 black, Democrat voters before the elections? After the elections did they use their powers to prevent the count of 20,000 votes for the Democrats? The Democrats say the answers to both questions are yes.

COMMISSIONER: In any other country in the world, if this had occurred, there probably would have been riots or military troops throughout the streets.

PARTY CHAIRMAN: Al Gore won the election. He won the popular vote and he won the vote in Florida. I think that that's pretty clear.

VOTER: It wasn't done fairly. They shouldn't allow you to contest an election then give you no way to contest it.

LEGISLATOR: Jeb Bush promised his brother he was going to deliver Florida. I believe the Republicans strategy was at all costs we deliver Florida.

CAMPAIGNER: Were people taken out of polls and stopped from voting? Yes, I think that was not right. I smell a rat!

PALAST: This is Database Technologies. This is the company that the state of Florida hired to remove the names of people who committed serious crimes from the voter lists. I have obtained a document marked "confidential and trade secret". It says the company was paid millions of dollars to make telephone calls to verify they got the right names - but they didn't. There is nothing in the state of Florida files that says they made these telephone calls. So the question remains, why did the Republican leaders of this state pay millions for a list that stopped thousands of innocent Democrats from voting? The first list from DBT included 8,000 names from Texas supplied by George Bush's state officials. They said they were all felons, serious criminals barred from voting. As it turns out, almost none were. Local officials raised a ruckus and DBT issued a new list naming 58,000 felons. But the one county which went through the whole expensive process of checking the new list name by name found it was still 95% wrong. Reverend Willie Whiting was one of those removed from voter roles after DBT wrongly labelled him a serious criminal.

REVEREND WILLIE WHITING: I have never spent a night in jail.

PALAST: Were you ever busted?

WHITING: No. I had a speeding ticket probably 25-30 years ago, I guess, but that's about it.

PALAST: Do you think you should be allowed to vote if you had a speeding ticket?

WHITING: Absolutely.

PALAST: The Florida legislature likes to see young prisoners paraded in front of the capital in old cavalry uniforms.

PRISON GUARD: Me and superman had a fight

PRISONERS: Me and superman had a fight

PRISON GUARD: I hit him in the head with some Kryptonite

PRISONERS: I hit him in the head with some Kryptonite

PALAST: More often than not in America, the prisoner's colour is black. Because of the way DBT generated the list, every genuine black felon in the United States could knock out every black voter in Florida with the same surname and similar date of birth. That's why the NAACP is suing Florida for violating voters' civil rights.

LARRY OTTINGER: Lawyer for NAACP Governor Bush, the Secretary of State Katherine Harris, Clayton Roberts, the head of elections, all knew or should have known in advance that certain election policies and practices would disproportionately impact low-income areas, and in particular black citizens and other minority citizens, and that this would disproportionately impact Democratic voters, based on historical voting trends.

AL GORE: Thank you, Florida!

PALAST: Altogether, it looks like this cost the Democrats about 22,000 votes in Florida, which George Bush won by only 537 votes. The US civil rights commission is also on the trail. They called in Bush, Harris and Roberts. Bush did not convince his critics.

UNNAMED MAN: You screwed up this state. You sealed the ballot.

PALAST: Commissioner Edley and his colleagues will be in Miami tomorrow to hear from voters wrongly disqualified.

DR CHRISTOPHER EDLEY: US Civil Rights Commissioner If you are going to do it, by all means as a matter of due process and fairness, it's got to be done with excruciating care. It's a democracy, the vote counts. There is a lot of public concern that the contractor selected is a firm that seems to have ties to the Republican party.

PALAST: They will be putting our evidence to Database Technologies. Their vice-president told us that "manual verification by telephone calls" does not mean ringing people up to check they have got the right person. So were they paid to produce a list which they knew would name thousands of innocent black people? In fact DBT told Newsnight that Clayton Roberts and the State of Florida: "... wanted there to be more names than were actually verified as being a convicted felon." So did they use their powers to prevent the count of 20,000 votes for the Democrats? You don't have to be black. In Palm Beach, America's privileged nurse their tans and their anger.

UNNAMED WOMAN: I thought I voted for Al Gore but unfortunately I voted for Pat Buchanan, and I wasn't happy about that, because I am a Jewish voter and he would have been the last person in the world I would have voted for.

PALAST: Whacky butterfly ballots caused thousands in this Democrat town to accidentally mess up and they were refused replacement ballots promised them by state law.

JOANNE CARBONE: From the time the elections started until that awful decision that the Supreme Court made, I came across hundreds of people who made a mistake and I saw over 13,000 complaints filed by people who live in Palm Beach county.

PALAST: In all, Palm Beach voting machines misread 27,000 ballots. Jeb Bush's Secretary of State, Katharine Harris, stopped them counting these votes by hand. She did the same to Gadstone, one of Florida's blackest, poorest and most Democrat counties, where machines failed to count one in eight ballots. Again Harris stopped the hand count. This alone cost Gore another 700 votes, in an election in which Harris declared George Bush winner by only 537 votes.

KATHARINE HARRIS: In accordance with the laws of the State of Florida, I hereby declare Governor George W Bush the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes for the President of the United States.

PALAST: Harris was a busy woman. In charge of Florida's vote count and co-chair of Bush's presidential campaign.

LOIS FRANKEL: Had she really been unbiased? Wouldn't the appropriate actions for her to be to say - let's really get to the bottom of this election and let's make sure every vote is counted.

PALAST: Lois Frankel represents Palm Beach, in the State legislature where she leads the Democratic opposition.

FRANKEL: She wanted George Bush to win. She interpreted every rule, every law in a way to help George Bush.

PALAST: We are driving down to Miami to witness an American ritual. In Britain, you count the votes, then announce the winner. In Florida they declare the winner first and here we are, still counting the votes.

WOMAN'S VOICE: She is showing the ballot in front of the light. They can see the light through where the chads have been punched through. Then she holds it in front because sometimes you can see things in different light. They have a whole column.

PALAST: Normally these are machine-read, right?

UNNAMED WOMAN: Right.

PALAST: They are carefully going through the 179,855 uncounted ballots that Harris did not want tallied. They'll know the winner next month. Sources tell Newsnight that Gore's ahead by 20,000 votes. The Biltmore, grandest hotel in Miami. Democrats are upstairs eating with their richest friends charging $5,000 a plate. Let's see if we can get in. Not far away from the millionaires on the balcony a voter had taken hostages at gun point protesting against the election fraud. But here it is back to champagne politics as usual. One Democrat whispered they would have done the same as Katharine Harris if they had the chance. But another, party chairman, Bob Poe remains bitter about this.

BOB POE: Chairman, Florida Democrats Jeb Bush, Katharine Harris, Clay Roberts did everything they could to stop every legitimate count of the vote. And that's what did us in.

PALAST: All fingers point to the Jeb Bush crew in Tallahassee. Investigators want to breakthrough the iron shutters.

EDLEY: I have to say that thus far we have been disappointed by the explanations, or perhaps I should say the lack of explanation provided by the state officials. When we spoke with the Governor and the Secretary of State and even with the Director of the Bureau of Elections underneath the Secretary of State, they were pointing fingers at everybody else, saying "look it wasn't our responsibility", they were in charge, which is a disheartening disquieting thing for us to hear - who should be held accountable for what clearly was a system that broke down.

PALAST: State officials point the finger at the counties and say it is their responsibility to check if the names on the list are real felons before disqualifying them. Clayton Roberts says his job is just to pass on the list. Roberts now admits he didn't bother to check with DBT, if innocent people were on it.

ROBERTS: Please turn off that camera.

PALAST: Off camera he said: We did not call and say did you check the list again... the whole tenor of this is like OK you screwed up you didn't check with DBT and if you want to hang this on me that's fine. It is certainly fine for George W Bush. Even if investigators conclude that Jeb Bush and the Republicans conspired to steal this election, the man in that house for the next four years will be George W Bush.
© 2001 Award-winning investigative reporter Greg Palast writes, Inside Corporate America, fortnightly in the Observer (London), Sunday paper of Britain's Guardian. At http://www.GregPalast.com you can read and subscribe to Greg Palast's columns.

Congress should not jettison democratic lawmaking for the sake of rushing into new trade agreements. We are not against trade; in fact, trade is important to the region's economy. However, recent trade deals have been stacked against the environment, putting profits above people and the environment. Congress has a responsibility to insist that trade agreements safeguard our environmental laws. This power should not be traded away. © 2001 Patti Goldman

Hevesi’s Lame Defense Offends Common Sense

Only Mark Green understood the basic ethical issues in the Lowinger matter. He was able to say that he would do no such thing and never had. For a city government confronting corruption every day, his dissent suggests a stark distinction between him and his rivals, and one of his most compelling qualifications to become New York’s next Mayor.
© 2001 Joe Conason email Joe at: jconason@observer.com.

Quotable Quote

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." ... George Orwell

Best Part Of A Summer Vacation: No News

North of Kansas City on the way home, two Missouri state troopers pulled me over for reasons they never made clear. After demanding I.D., ordering me out of my truck and patting me down, they sat me in their patrol car and asked a bunch of questions seemingly intended to figure out if I were the harmless individual my driver's license said I was. After learning where I'd come from and what I did for a living, the trooper behind me in the back seat informed me that he was a big Fox News fan and that Chandra Levy was still missing. Otherwise, he assured me, nothing worth knowing had happened while I was gone. I said that sounded right to me, and they turned me loose and sent me on my way.
©2001 Gene Lyons is a Little Rock author and recipient of the National Magazine Award.

``To the extent the Russians develop a perception that the United States is not interested in going forward in providing defense against ballistic missiles or that we're split on that issue, obviously it's in their interest to not come to any agreements with us,'' he told a Senate appropriations subcommittee.
© 2001 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Only The Wind
By Carol Schiffler

Con·spir·a·cy (n.)

1. An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.
2. A group of conspirators.
3. Law. An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.
4. A joining or acting together, as if by sinister design: a conspiracy of wind and tide that devastated coastal areas.

Horror film fans will recognize the following dramatic convention:

A well-scrubbed American family moves into a rambling farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. For about a week ? twenty minutes in movie years ? the family is happier than they have ever been. Mom plants a garden, Dad throws sticks for the dog, the children do a lot of giggling and running through fields of wildflowers.

One day, Dad is in the bathroom washing up after another jolly good romp with Rover, when all of a sudden he notices that the tap water has turned a suspicious shade of red, the walls seem to be breathing, and there is a disembodied head hovering above the laundry hamper. It is speaking in Latin. Dad squeezes his eyes shut and begins to hyperventilate. The audience knows this is the wrong response. A much better approach would be to run down the stairs screeching like a scalded dog, pack up the family, and move into the Motel Six, at least until a suitable exorcist can be located. But no.

Dad’s no sissy. So this bastion of American manliness wipes his face, tells himself he must be coming down with something, and adjusting the pleats in his Dockers, strolls nonchalantly out of the bathroom to join his family for the evening meal. Later, when his wife starts levitating in the middle of the night and the children are sucked into the television set, it will be a little harder for Dad to ignore the fact that his new house is trying to kill him. But for now, Dad tells himself, "Relax. It is only the wind."

Why does this hackneyed scene work so well although it is drawn time and again from the horror filmmaker’s toolbox? Perhaps it is because every American raised with the proper amount of cognitive repression understands that if an otherwise rational person seriously broaches the subject of "spooky stuff" around the water cooler, it is the cultural equivalent of farting in church.

Just ask a conspiracy theorist. (By the way, how did you feel when you read the words, "conspiracy theory"? Did you recoil just a little? Do you now feel like you will have to struggle to keep an open mind about the words that follow? If so, the government has done its job. Read on.)

This month’s Nexus Magazine contains an interesting article by Donald W. Scott called, "Mycoplasmas and Neurosystemic Diseases," http://www.nexusmagazine.com/mycoplasma.html

Although considered a fringe publication by some, there is nothing in Mr. Scott’s article that suggests the presence of a tinfoil hat. The first portion of the piece deals with the mechanisms by which pathogenic mycoplasm infects a host cell. Scott then takes us on a trip down memory lane to the idyllic days of the 1950’s when Mom was planting a garden, Dad was throwing a stick for the dog, and the Pentagon, in conjunction with the Canadian government, decided it might be a nice idea to test their new biological weapons on the city of Winnipeg.

The chemical deployed was a watered down version of the real deal, but it was still enough to sicken one third of the Winnipeg population. Symptoms ranged from a sore throat to ringing in the ears. In order to obtain official cooperation, the Pentagon told the mayor of Winnipeg that they were testing a "chemical fog…that would protect Winnipeg in the event of a nuclear attack."

Now if Mr. Scott had trotted this information our prior to May 14, 1997, he would have almost certainly be labeled a "conspiracy theorist." But on that day, the Pentagon called a press conference where they admitted the whole sordid affair. How nice of them to come clean forty years after the fact. As it turns out, the same biological agent tested on the unsuspecting citizens of Winnipeg may be capable of producing a number of strategically useful illnesses such as AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Whether or not you believe that the Cold War Era scientific community possessed the technological sophistication to whip up a batch of jiffy germs, it is clear that the army though it could. Scott reports that upon discharge from the service, one bacteriological warfare specialist who routinely handled the mycoplasmic goop received papers informing him that if he were to develop multiple sclerosis within two years of leaving the service, he was entitled to disability compensation which is "payable to eligible veterans whose disabilities are due to service."

Now I cannot remember when I first heard gay activists propose that AIDS was a government gig, but I believe it was sometime in the late eighties. The earliest information I could find on the internet was dated 1990, although another article made reference to the work of Dr. Robert B. Strecker who stumbled upon evidence of this in 1983. Whatever the original source, by the early nineties, this was a pretty hot topic of conversation, and proponents of the idea that AIDS was a made to order Pentagon disease were promptly labeled "conspiracy theorists." As with the government’s role in weaponizing biological agents in order to enhance the likelihood of multiple sclerosis, whether or not you believe they were successful, there is ample proof that the military intended to develop an AIDS-like illness. At a House Appropriations hearing in 1969, the Defense Department's Biological Warfare (BW) division requested funds to develop a new disease that would both resist and break down a victim's immune system, ("A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret Story of Chemical and Biological Warfare," by R. Harris and J. Paxman). It should be noted that the Appropriations Committee approved the funds.

We have proof of intent and proof of motive. In many cases we have the government equivalent of receipts for funds to implement covert operations. We have enough evidence to withstand cross-examination by Judge Wapner, for Heaven’s sake, yet somehow, when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of assembling the pieces, the American public tells itself, "Relax. It is only the wind."

Well there are winds, and there are typhoons, and the same decade that saw the Pentagon emerge as the Betty Crocker of germ warfare, begat a biological threat of a different sort. On April 13, 1953, the CIA birthed a hideous child known as MKULTRA. Operating on the principle that it might be more fun to drive people insane rather than just kill them outright, an early project draft asks, "Can we get control of an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against the fundamental laws of nature such as self-preservation?" How would it be possible to get a person in such a useful state? The R & D boys came up with a two-pronged attack plan. One approach was strictly pharmaceutical, with LSD as the drug of choice. The second approach was to use the drugs in combination with physical stressors such as sleep deprivation, verbal degradation, sensory deprivation, starvation, and electro-shock. Some of the human subjects used in these bizarre experiments were volunteers, but some were not. Some of the subjects lived to tell a Congressional investigating committee their story; others did not.

One who did not was Dr. Frank Olson who hurled himself out of a tenth floor window after a meeting with Sidney Gottlieb who headed the CIA’s Technical Services Staff. Olson was a scientist for the U.S. Army’s Chemical Corps Special Operations Division. Gottlieb was, at the time, experimenting with the effects of tossing hallucinogens in the punch bowls of unsuspecting citizens. Suicide, of course, was not the desired outcome of the MKULTRA experiments. In order for a subject to be useful, he or she had to be alive and programmable. Popular media refers to this state as being "brain-washed," a word that conjures mental pictures of Grade B spy flicks where evil Communists with bad accents stick bamboo shoots under the fingernails of a relentlessly square-jawed American agent. The technical mechanisms employed by the CIA, however, were far more sophisticated than bamboo shoots, and the ultimate effect was to create an individual who could dissociate their personality on cue. The beauty of this plan was that test subjects manipulated in this manner would present themselves as a bunch of loonies should they ever attempt to expose the agency.

To that end, the CIA partnered with at least 80 different institutions, including 44 colleges and universities, 15 research foundations or chemical and pharmaceutical companies, 12 hospitals and clinics, and 3 penal institutions. This is all a matter of public record, (http://142.176.17.31/~pjproject/Mkultra/), documented by the Congressional Church committee. Everything from hypnosis to psycho-surgery was employed, in combination with drugs and what amounted to ritual abuse, in order to find the recipe for the perfect programmable spy.

Many of those responsible for these grotesque experiments are still alive and gainfully employed by the U.S. government or associated research facilities. And the survivors of these atrocities are still out there as well, American citizens who are living testimonies to some of the most horrendous human rights violations we have witnessed in our lifetime.

But how many of us have even heard of MKULTRA? Discredited as "conspiracy theorists," the MKULTRA survivors continue to wage a desperate campaign to keep this important piece of our history alive, and many insist that the CIA is still engaged in the unsavory practice of testing their latest widgets on the unwitting and unwary public. They insist that the project has not, in fact, ceased, but has merely changed shift supervisors, with privately funded contractors tied to the government taking up where the CIA left off. Anyone familiar with the wheeling and dealings of the Iran-Contra years and the bogus drug wars in Columbia would recognize these tactics. Yet these people who have first-hand experience with just how low our government can go, are consistently marginalized and dismissed, the "conspiracy theorist" label effectively doing its job.

Award-winning journalist Robert Parry gave an excellent speech in Santa Monica on March 28, 1993. The subject of the speech was Iran-Contra, and he tells a compelling tale of government conspiracy and media duplicity. The full text of this speech can be found at http://www.copi.com/articles/rparry_a.html

There is a part of the speech where Parry talks of how he was asked to investigate a project known as "October Surprise." Many readers will recognize this as the ploy of the Reagan-Bush machine seeking to sabotage the Carter campaign by delaying the release of the hostages in Iran until after his re-election bid. States Parry, "…obviously for a long time the North network was just a 'crazy conspiracy theory', and then the idea that Bush was involved was a 'crazy conspiracy theory', and the idea that there was a cover-up was a 'crazy conspiracy theory', and I'd seen all these conspiracy theories actually turn out to be true, so I really didn't want to discount anything without having looked at it carefully." This is not, by the way, just a good tip for investigative journalists. It is wise advice for all responsible citizens, regardless of career aspirations.

But how to discover the truth? Parry states, "What I think is the bottom line…is that we are in great danger of losing our grasp of reality. Our history has been taken away from us in key ways. We’ve been lied to often. And important things have been blocked from us." In other words, the water from the spigot has turned to blood before, and the walls were breathing in a not-so-distant place and at a not-so-distant time. Yet still we manage to compose ourselves, go to work, go to the Mall, go over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house, rushing here and there with no sense of history and no sense of reality attached to our past. We are in a perpetual state of the omnipresent Present.

In the 1970’s, we discovered that the "conspiracy theories" of the ‘50’s and ‘60’s were reality. People were, in fact, being "brain-washed" in experiments conducted by our own government against innocent, unwilling American citizens. People suffered as a result of these experiments, and in some cases, people died. Some of the "test subjects" are still suffering today.

In the late ‘80’s and early ‘90’s, we discovered that the conspiracy theories of a previous decade were reality. Yes indeed, our government did trade arms for hostages, they did train mercenaries, and they did conspire to overthrow a peaceful and orderly Latin American country. Children were massacred, women were raped, men were tortured.

What will we discover in the year 2010? Will we find that ugly and unspeakable things happened during Election 2000? Will we learn the truth about Dick Cheney’s closed-door meetings on energy and social security? Will we like what we discover? Will we finally glimpse the master plan behind Star Wars and FCC deregulatory rulings? Or have we all simply become so used to the Latin-speaking, disembodied head that we invite it to go bowling instead of demanding that it return to the dark place from whence it came? George Santayana once said those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. The house of democracy has been haunted by evil spirits in the past. We have discovered that there really is a hand living under the bed and a Boogey man dwelling in our closet. Yet time and again, those who point these things out to us are labeled conspiracy theorists, while we pat ourselves on the backs and congratulate ourselves for being pillars of rational thought.

It would seem that the true gatekeepers at the Citadel of Sanity are those who are cooling their heels at the Motel Six and biding their time until the exorcist arrives. The rest of us shift uncomfortably in our La-Z-boy recliners, a gnawing feeling of familiarity in the pits of our stomachs, and as the eleven o’clock news spews out a torrent of clever sound bites and glitzy photo-ops, we turn to each other and say, "Relax. It is only the wind."
© 2001 Carol Schiffler

Bush Binds Us Into A Fiscal Straitjacket
By Robert Scheer

Are we all dimwits? We just sit there with goofy looks on our faces while the economy sputters and the president blows what remains of the budget surplus on a tax giveaway to the rich. With nary a peep as the "what me worry?" kid has the gall to make stealing funds from Social Security and Medicare--to pay for a military buildup to fight an enemy that doesn't exist--sound like fiscal responsibility.

There is method to the president's madness, as he spelled out in his press conference Friday, proclaiming that the prospect of government red ink is "incredibly positive news" because it will produce "a fiscal straitjacket for Congress."

Get it? The plan is to bankrupt the national government so we can be reduced to life as it's lived in Texas, where the rich make out like bandits playing with public funds, as George W. did on that stadium deal, while the rest of the folks scramble. Texas politicians, including three presidents in the past 40 years, always make sure their companies are fed well at the Washington trough, even if it means going to war. Whatever the state of the federal budget, Bush is not going to be tight with the dollar when it comes to a bloated military, because big oil still needs that stick of U.S. military intervention to protect its investments abroad.

Why else do we need a military big enough to fight two wars at once except to protect U.S. investments that stretch from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf? Think of it as a Social Security program--or more accurately, welfare--for military contractors and energy companies, led by Halliburton, where Dick Cheney hustled his quick millions.

Bush never believed in a progressive federal government, including its programs for seniors, but he had to pretend otherwise to win over moderate voters. Now he blithely offers a recession he helped create and a war that he's not yet managed to find as a rationale for stealing from seniors: "I've said that the only reason we should use Social Security funds is in the case of an economic recession or war." That was Friday, but Monday the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that this year $9 billion must be taken out of Social Security, thanks to Bush's tax cut and the recession. What idiocy, to jeopardize the one domestic government program that really works. Seniors were once the poorest people around, and now they're the most secure, thanks to the guarantee of at least a minimum income and health care. If you buy the lie that those programs just benefit seniors, consider the crushing burden on young families back in the good old days, when they struggled to provide for aging parents. Try to launch a career, raise a family and still pay the health costs of Mom and Dad, and you'll get the picture.

Unless your family happens to be super rich like the president's. For most Americans, Social Security and Medicare are the best family values programs, and it's mind-boggling that we sit by while a born-rich president who has never known a second of family financial insecurity threatens to pull the safety net out from under the rest of us.

Go figure. Maybe we just find it too hard to follow the money--our money--particularly when all those zeros are tacked on. The federal budget is $1.9 trillion, and the $328 billion that Bush wants to give to the military must just sound like chump change. The big news, much easier to understand, is the sex life of a hick congressman whose name the baby boomers will have forgotten 10 years from now when they are informed that there is no money to cover the health and retirement payments owed them.

By then, the president who conned them will be back at his ranch in Crawford, chuckling about how he really put one over. As an ex-president, he will even get cut ribbons at the umpteenth test of a missile defense program that will still be as far as ever from working.

Of course, wasting money on the military is a time-honored tradition, but with Bush, it's truly getting out of hand. Even Rep. Jim Nussle, the Iowa Republican who heads the House Budget Committee, was perplexed by the administration's asking for a defense hike before Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had even completed his review of what the military requires: "That's unacceptable if they are planning on getting more. We're not just going to throw money at defense again."

Sure, he will, and so will most of his colleagues, and Bush knows it. That's why the president so smugly welcomes the shriveling of the budget surplus as good news, because it means that those nonmilitary things the government is supposed to do but which he never approved of, such as health care for the working poor, won't get done.
© 2001 Robert Scheer

Dead Letter Office

Heil Bush,

Dear Propaganda Ansager O'Reilly,

Congratulations you have just been awarded the Vidkun Quisling Award for 2001. Your name will now live throughout history with such past award winners as Marcus Junius Brutus, Judas Iscariot, Benedict Arnold, Vidkun Quisling and last year's winner Volksjudge Antoni (light-fingers) Scalia.

Without your help shilling for us, spinning the truth, telling out right lies and ignoring the real news, holding onto power after our Coup D' Etat would have been impossible. With the help of our mutual friends, the other "Media Whores," you have made it possible for all of us to goose-step off to a brave new bank account.

Along with this award there will be an Iron Cross 2nd class presented by our glorious Fuhrer Herr Bush at a gala celebration in der Fuhrer Bunker (formally the White House) on 12-15-2001. We salute you Herr O'Reilly! Sieg Heil!

Signed,
Deputy Fuhrer Cheney

Heil Bush

Laissez Ain't So Fair After All
By Molly Ivins

AUSTIN - Most of us assume that the fatal weakness of libertarian thinking, which is so dominant in this administration of recycled Reaganism, is its eternal tendency to apply simple solutions to complex problems - which is, of course, also the reason for its appeal. All is reduced to the market, the market rules, the market is God.

James Arnt Aune, formerly with the Bush School at Texas A&M, however, provides a more comprehensive indictment of libertarian thinking and finds its most striking feature is the avoidance of empirical investigation.

Or, as a Texas pol observed recently, "Bush is doing the same thing to the nation he did to Texas, and in even less time." The same thing is, obviously, the endless Bush Jr. mantra: "Tax cuts good, regulation bad; tax cuts good, regulation bad."

Do they never stop to look at what tax cuts and deregulation achieve? There are always winners and losers under deregulation, but even the briefest summary shows the unmistakable pattern.

Savings-and-loan dereg - $500 billion charged to the taxpayers. Enough said.

Utilities deregulation - So far, no good.

Telecommunications deregulation - As per usual, we were promised lower rates, greater choice, the magic of the marketplace, and milk and honey for all. What we got was more telephone marketers calling during dinner. Cable rates have risen 33 percent, three times the inflation rate, since the 1996 telecom dereg debacle.

Scholars will recall that the bill was heavily influenced and indeed partly written by the industry's lobbyists, part of the pattern with dereg. Cable customers continue to be gouged by local monopolies; there is almost no head-to-head competition.

Ditto local phone competition. Prices are up 12 percent, not down at all; the companies that were supposed to compete against the regional Bells are in bad shape, as is competition in the long-distance field. Calls for re-regulation already abound.

Airline dereg - A mess. Most experts blame two factors: deregulation and the Federal Aviation Administration's disastrous attempt to develop a new air traffic control system.

The 1978 deregulation did indeed make flying a form of mass transit. There are three times as many fliers today as there were 20 years ago, according to a New York Times Magazine article of last year, and fares, on average, are 40 percent lower, adjusted for inflation.

The gradual development of near-monopolies - only the biggest survive - is also a familiar pattern in these cases. Airlines have dropped service at small communities and routinely over-schedule at major airports. The system drifts into worse shape annually, with no end in sight, and Congress has done nothing because God forbid that anyone should interfere with the free market.

Trucking dereg - Since dereg in the late '70s, competition has indeed driven prices down. It has also created "sweatshops on wheels," with drivers making 25 cents a mile, working 90-hour weeks. According to a series in June in The Ottawa Citizen, truckers average less than five hours' sleep a night.

The industry has also the seen the growth of scam schools that turn out poorly trained or completely untrained drivers. The trucking industry has a 150 percent annual driver turnover rate and is short 80,000 drivers.

We could go on and on, and each of these situations should be studied in more depth, especially by those who casually make lofty pronouncements about the need to deregulate and privatize absolutely everything. Perhaps the main point to keep in mind is that there were reasons for regulation in the first place.

Libertarians, even those who actually cover government, seem to believe that government is bent on a mindless quest for ever-greater power. In my experience, there are only two ways something gets regulated: a public disaster of such epic proportions that people demand regulation, or the industry itself asks for regulation.

That may strike you as unlikely, but it is to be seen every session in every legislature as the watch-repairers or the lawn-sprinkler installers or some other group arrives to demand that their high calling be regulated and practitioners certified.

In the case of natural monopolies, such as utilities and phone companies, regulation is needed for the very reasons of which we are now so unpleasantly being reminded: A monopoly will just gouge the hell out of consumers.

I am a great believer in perpetual reform and just as annoyed by bureaucratic paperwork as anyone else, but willful stupidity in the face of evidence is also annoying. Capitalism works well only in a carefully constructed cradle of law and regulation (Russia being one case in point). Greed is not good. Where there is greed, there is no vision, and (not to coin a phrase) those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.
©2001 Molly Ivins of Creators Syndicate

The World Has Moved On
By Tally Briggs

The world has moved on…… Roland of Gilead ~ The Dark Tower Series ~ Stephen King

It is has become such a different world in the last eight years, largely due to Clinton being a President that worked with all of the other countries we share this ball of dust with instead of against them. The problem is that the Repubs are too blinded by their own rabid hate to clearly see the world they now inhabit. They’re living in some kind of insular Baccarat Bubble that has somehow slipped into a time warp where all things are as they were in 1990. But the real world, where the majority of the inhabitants of this planet live and work, has moved on.

Terrorism and physical force are no way to help a country faced with civil rights abuses end oppression. Truly damaging wars are no longer fought with bombs and guns; they're fought with various investments, economic sanctions, and boycotts. Case in point - Russia.... We gave them McDonalds & Estee Lauder, they got an opportunity to see 'democratic capitalism' in action and what happened? No more CCCP. It is going to take some time for them to get it right, but they are on the way nonetheless. The same is on the verge of happening in China, you don't need to bully someone into a better way of living - just show them how it works. Oh yeah, pissing off China is a REALLY great idea. That’s right, I forgot, if we actually opened them up as the biggest trade potential that we have, that might actually HELP the economy and CREATE jobs – we can’t have that! That was a CLINTONIAN thing, and we know that Clintonian things are baaaaad. Yeah, like LESS arsenic in water, and limits on CO2. Help me. Instead Twig has to create some imaginary enemy so he can pour obscene amounts of cash into defense and arms sales, starting with his deal to Taiwan. Too bad the hot dog Chinese pilot sent to ‘escort’ our spy plane gift decided to play Air Show. Oops. It was clearly a setup. If they weren’t already en route to China they would have flown to Vietnam. The media should be screaming foul in all of this, but instead they praise Smirk's false diplomacy, when it was Powell who issued the ‘apology’.

Unfortunately, all we are showing the world now is how to pull off a blood-free coup, repay all the big money campaign contributors, and give the impression that Americans are an ugly, selfish, greedy people whose collective bottom line is to put more cash in the hands of the super rich, while blindly believing their government controlled media. "As long as I can live in my comfy little universe…" So what if we trash the world making our 1% richer? Add to that the bad light it puts on Democracy itself because the spotlight has been so highly focused on it's fragility.....

Silly Republicans - they ditched the most important economics class of the last century and somehow believe if 1% of the citizenry get 46% of the money, the economy will ‘recover’. Recover? It was in great shape until Weak & Stupid started talking it down, the population doubted his mandate and lost confidence in the Market. The Dot.Com downturn (readjustment - the internet isn't going away) is only a tiny part of the big picture.

The problem is that Trickle Down is a myth and doesn’t work. The Super Rich don’t spend money like the Middle Class. The median income families of this country have always been the largest consumers, pouring a higher percentage of their money into the economy trying to make a better life for themselves and their families, while the Super Rich put the majority of their cash into offshore tax shelters and bank accounts. However, over the last several years corporate greed has taken over the economy. CEOs are making record incomes while their employees who make them their huge profits in the first place, are not seeing wage increases that match the cost of living. And in many cases have taken pay and benefit cuts– or have taken on larger workloads without an increase in salary to match so they won’t lose their jobs. The Middle Class no longer have the expendable income to put back into the economy. They have slowed down their consuming to make ends meet, and with the looming tax gift to the rich on the horizon, may even stop altogether.

The long range result? Let’s see….. Large companies with huge inventories of product with no one to buy them….. Some of the Super Rich CEOs cut bait altogether and close up shop, so they can keep their obscene nest eggs they’ve accumulated and go live on the 9th hole at Pebble Beach, while their laid off employees apply for unemployment and spend their retirement accounts trying to remain off the street. While other CEOs cut back on personnel and invest their own money to keep the business afloat. Either scenario doesn’t put the money back into the hands of the main consumers.

What happened to getting honest pay for an honest day’s work? Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner is one of the obscene earners while his employees are some of the lowest paid in the industry. Top that off with having trouble at first staffing the opening of the new theme park California Adventure, but still laying off over 4000 employees. Disney was the last studio to offer their employees Domestic Partner insurance and only then because they were forced by staff turnover. Why stay when you can get a better salary and benefits at Dreamworks? Oh, yeah….. it’s the Glory of working for Disney! Sorry, but glory won’t pay my rent.

How much money does Michael Eisner, Bill Gates, and for that matter Smirk’s entire cabinet need? How did so many members of our society become sociopaths without any feelings regarding the welfare of their fellow man? Especially with a pResident who claims Jesus Christ is his favorite philosopher? Has he ever even read the Bible? What a joke Smirk’ Easter Message was, "that, in the end, even death itself will be defeated.'' Whaaaaat????? Er, uhm, as I recall, Christ died for man’s sins, and was resurrected because he was THE LORD. Whatshu talkin’ bout W? Do you think YOU can defeat death? Who do you really think you are…?

Even Robin Hood’s economic plan had its heart in the right place. But then, I am sure Smirk has never read Robin Hood. It’s a book.
© 2001 Tally Briggs email Tally at: bardgal@yahoo.com
While Tally prepares for a role on TV we'll run her greatest hits until she returns!

The Cartoon Corner

This edition we're proud to showcase the cartoons of Bill Deore

Of Course, He's To Blame

Sung to the tune of "A Horse With No Name"
With apologies to America

(instrumental intro)

It's the first part of the century,
And we're trying to get through life.
Right wing rants we heard were shocking things.
In our land, their shills now reign.
With Bush king, we bet he can't fly, just because
He will hide from the crowds.
This cheater's not very sound, that's why
His regime will run aground.

(Chorus:)

Bush stole the election, and of course, he's to blame.
He's no good, and this lout has no brain.
The election, from last November's the game
That was tainted, 'cause the Supreme Court proclaimed:
Dumb king Dubya Shrub was the winner now...
Dumb king Dubya Shrub was the winner now...

It was too late; the Selected One
Was spinning plans in his head.
Let me rephrase: donors had their fun
On a sub that left nine people dead.
But this story went cold,
'Cause the donors Bush owed
Were all mad that people had read...

Bush stole the election, and of course, he's to blame.
He's no good, and this lout has no brain.
The election, from last November's the game
That was tainted, 'cause the Supreme Court proclaimed:
Dumb king Dubya Shrub was the winner now...
Dumb king Dubya Shrub was the winner now...

(instrumental break)

We will find ways to set this country free
From the Bush Junta tyranny.
Right wing rants we heard were shocking things.
In our land, their shills still reign.
Ted Olsen is Solicitor; his wife's still around
To help Dubya disguise his flubs.
But ol' Dick Cheney has a heart that's unsound.
An eviction we'll give to the Shrub.

Bush stole the election, and of course, he's to blame.
He's no good, and this lout has no brain.
The election, from last November's the game
That was tainted, 'cause the Supreme Court proclaimed:
Dumb king Dubya Shrub was the winner now...
Dumb king Dubya Shrub was the winner now...

(repeat last line and fade) >
New lyrics by W.K.TONG

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing." ... Edmund Burke

LAUGH OF THE CENTURY .....

http://www.orgop.org/OR2001-WesternLdrshpRegist.pdf

The Republican Leadership Conference has scheduled Katherine Harris, secretary of State, FL as a guest speaker on Friday October 5th.

The "subjest" is VOTER FRAUD!! There is a registration form at the link above if anyone wants to attend & I assume, learn how to commit voter fraud! Did you Florida voters know that there is a special provision in the new Florida "Reform" to allow military to vote by FAX and WITHOUT BEING REGISTERED TO VOTE?!!

FOR FLORIDA VOTERS WHO ARE TIRED OF PAYING FOR KATHERINE HARRIS'S LUXURY TRIPS.....this is the info given on the hotel. There are 160 luxury guest rooms at The Resort at the Mountain. Several other lodging places are mentioned but:

Do you have any doubts as to where Katherine Harris will be staying? I would think that this is the time to write to the unhonorable Sec. of State and tell her to pay her own damn bills. She was born with more money than God and we should not have to pay for the flozzie to take luxury trips with Jebbie, Dubya, etc.

Something's rotten in Florida? Are we going to just sit idly by and do nothing?

Maggie
Pensacola, FL - My vote did not count
© 2001 G.A.G.

New Protests From Voter March

August 22, Wed., Voter March NY General Meeting

Voter March New York will have a general meeting at Chris Acosta's loft in Union Square at 239 Park Avenue South, Loft # 3C, (betw 19th and 20th Streets) on Wednesday, August 22nd from 7 pm to 9 pm. Key on the agenda are the upcoming actions: Scalia Protest at Hofstra law School on Sunday, September 9th and the Bush Protest at the United Nations on Monday, September 24th. There is no admission fee, but feel free to bring snacks or non-alcoholic beverages. Please RSVP to outreach@votermarch.org

September 9, Hempstead, Long Island, NY, Scalia Protest

A protest is planned at the Hofstra University School of Law on Sunday, September 9, where Antonin Scalia, one of the 5 Supreme Court Justices who stopped the hand counting of votes in Bush v. Gore, will give a keynote address at the Legal Ethics 2002 Conference. Scalia is scheduled to be a speaker from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm and at 6:00 pm there will be a banquet in honor of Justice Antonin Scalia. The banquet will be at Carlton on the Park at Eisenhower Park, near Hofstra University School of Law. Hofstra University is located in Hempstead, Long island, about 25 miles east of Manhattan, less than an hour away by train or automobile.

September 24, Monday, United Nations, New York City
Protest Bush at U.N. General Assembly

To protest Bush at his appearance and speech at the General Assembly of the United Nations. We will gather before noon at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Park at 47th Street and First Avenue in Manhattan. Voter March has a permit pending and is inviting all pro-democracy groups to join in with this protest action. We will have a stage and sound system. For additional information, contact info@votermarch.org

For updates and additional information on all these events, see Voters March

SUPPORT THE OREGON DEMOCRATS' PROPOSAL TO IMPEACH THE FELONIOUS FIVE!

Here's what you can do to help:

1. Write your members of Congress and urge them to support the Democratic Party of Oregon's resolution.

2. Contact your local and/or state Democratic Party office urging them to also support the resolution.

3. Contribute to the Democratic Party of Oregon. We plan to continue to promote this resolution and your contribution, no matter how small, will help us in this fight for democracy. Click on Democratic Party of Oregon to send your support today!

Supreme Injustice
by STEVE COBBLE

Lest we forget--just over six months ago, the Rehnquist Court stole an election in broad daylight. In fear of the truth, the Scalia Five intervened to block all votes from being counted, an action "unprecedented" (both historically and judicially) in US history. Though the June 12 "anniversary" went unnoticed by the media, we must never forget.

Was it the worst Supreme Court decision in US history, as American University Constitutional scholar Jamin Raskin has suggested? Considering that Raskin is a staunch civil rights advocate, the very thought that he would rank Bush v. Gore lower than both the Dred Scott and Plessy rulings is instructive. Nor does Raskin stand alone in his opinion of this judicial coup.

Justice John Paul Stevens: "One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law. I respectfully dissent."

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: "In sum, the Court's conclusion that a constitutionally adequate recount is impractical is a prophecy the Court's own judgment will not allow to be tested. Such an untested prophecy should not decide the Presidency of the United States. I dissent." And related is the unsigned per curiam decision of the Scalia 5, a transparent attempt to try to avoid history's scarlet letter.

Hendrik Hertzberg, former presidential speechwriter: "The election of 2000 was not stolen. It was expropriated."

David Kairys, Temple University: "We had a constitutional crisis, and it was Bush v. Gore. History will not be kind."

Suzanna Sherry, Vanderbilt University: "There is really very little way to reconcile this opinion other than that they wanted Bush to win."

Jeffrey Rosen, legal scholar: "They have...made it impossible for citizens of the United States to sustain any kind of faith in the rule of law as something larger than the self-interested political preferences of William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy, and Sandra Day O'Connor."

Randall Kennedy, Harvard University: "But we should also insist that there be no confirmation for Scalia-like champions of the right-wing agenda. The Supreme Court has hurt its own reputation by wrongly intervening to ensure the victory of George W. Bush. Those who abhor what the Court did should say so and say so loudly and clearly."

Jesse Jackson and John Sweeney: "But if it comes down for justices to the 14th amendment and the promise of equal protection, one can only hope for the sake of the country that they consider how not counting all the votes mirrors too closely the habits of heart and mind that brought us slavery and segregation--the original sins of our nation that the equal protection clause sought to repair."

And, of course, Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor of Charles Manson and author of several bestselling true-crime books, in The Betrayal of America: ". . . the Court committed the unpardonable sin of being a knowing surrogate for the Republican Party instead of being an impartial arbiter of the law.... [The Court searched] mightily for a way, any way at all, to aid their choice for president, Bush, in the suppression of the truth, finally settling, in their judicial coup d'État, on the untenable argument that there was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause..."

Recent polls indicate the public's growing dissatisfaction with the results of the Scalia Five's decision. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center and Princeton Survey Research Associates (June 13-17) showed George W. Bush's job approval rating at just 50 percent, down six points from March; the New York Times survey with CBS News (June 14-18) put the rating at 53 percent, down seven points from March. And Democracy Corps's Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll (June 11-13) found that 48 percent of likely voters think the nation is currently on the "wrong track." Perhaps most tellingly, 25 percent of voters in the Democracy Corps poll said that the phrase "not really elected President" describes Bush "very well," with another 15 percent saying that it describes him "well"--in other words, six months after the Scalia Five coup, 40 percent of likely voters still believe Bush was not really elected President.

What then, is to be done?

The least we can do is know our own history, and to understand that what the Injustices did was an insult to the dreams and ideals of Lexington and Concord, Valley Forge and Jefferson and Paine, Gettsyburg and Lincoln and Douglass, Selma and King, Seneca Falls and Anthony, Delano and Chavez, Flint and Debs and Lewis. We can bear witness to injustice, in the nonviolent protest tradition of Thoreau, Gandhi, King, Havel, Robinson, Chavez.

The Scalia Five's judicial coup came down on the second Tuesday last December. So, on the second Tuesday of July, July 10, 2001, the Tuesday after the Pro-Democracy Convention in Philadelphia, the Tuesday between Independence Day and Bastille Day, the Institute for Policy Studies and friends are calling for a peaceful, nonviolent vigil at the Supreme Court building, at noon.

On July 10--and each Tuesday at noon from then on--let's gather at the scene of the crime, and bear witness to the truth. The Scalia Five won't be there; but we should be.

Bring a candle or a bell, like the Czechs a decade ago. Bring a copy of the Voters' Bill of Rights, or the US Constitution. Send an e-mail to all your friends, with your favorite quote from this list. Bring Pablo Neruda's and Marge Piercy's poems. Bring the next generation, so they will never forget. Bring your commitment to restore, rebuild, and expand American democracy. The Supreme Court cheated. Democracy lost. For now.
©2001 STEVE COBBLE

Send $100 or $1000 to The Heritage Foundation or Other Right-Wing Groups

This ultra-conservative group needs donations! Lend them a helping hand by sending them a few $100 or $1000 bills ... Confederate ones! Click here to print or download the bills. Send them to other right-wing groups as well!

And if you still want to annoy the Heritage Foundation, you can always go to their online donation form as soon as you try to leave the page, a pop-up window appears asking why you decided not to donate. Give them an explanation, but remember to be polite!

TO OUR REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS IN THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS

We, the undersigned voters, know that our cherished democracy is endangered from within by the grave and potentially fatal flaws in our voting systems exposed by the Presidential Election of 2000.

As our elected representatives, you have the duty, the opportunity, and the privilege to correct these flaws and to restore fair and honest elections throughout our nation. To this end, we charge you to construct and pass a VOTERS BILL OF RIGHTS, which shall include:

Strict enforcement and extension of the Voting Rights Act to prevent the disenfranchisement of voters and require full investigation and criminal prosecution of any offenders;

Standardized, easily understandable federal election ballots

Funding to replace old and unreliable voting machines to ensure that every vote is counted fairly and accurately

Genuine campaign finance reform that bans campaign contributions from special interests

Replacement of the Electoral College with a majority-rule election, or substantial reform of the Electoral College to allow for proportional representation

Measures to increase voter participation by eliminating bureaucratic hurdles to voter registration and turnout, including language barriers, physical barriers, archaic equipment, and lack of resources

Enactment and enforcement of a VOTERS BILL OF RIGHTS will restore trust in our government and encourage participation in our democratic processes. The linchpin of a democracy is the process by which we select our representatives and leaders. The right to vote is our defining right as citizens of this nation. We call upon our elected representatives to protect our Constitution from abusive exercise of government power by enacting a VOTERS BILL OF RIGHTS.

We pledge our full and constant support for enactment of a VOTERS BILL OF RIGHTS.

A Note of Protest:

It is likely that 50% of the U.S. population is strongly dissatisfied with the ascendancy of George W. Bush to the office of President. There are three likely reasons:
1. Bush won the election under questionable circumstances;
2. Bush has espoused a reactionary platform that places him far to the right of mainstream America;
3. Bush has demonstrated none of the intellectual attributes expected of a president.

In the interest of democracy, one could discredit election gripes (point number one) as being unfair to our longstanding electoral college process.. Also, one might disregard Bush’s agenda (point number two) because the hallmark of the United States Constitution is tolerance for divergent political and moral beliefs.

However, point number three leads to a more egregious problem, namely that a rather anonymous man, with no distinguishing ambition or vision has, by virtue of family wealth and connection, been installed as President of the United States. Even the most cursory glance at George W. Bush’s history and character builds a strong case for charges of nepotism and cronyism. Such a glaring display of favoritism, to benefit an individual with no considerable talent, runs counter to the spirit of competition and fair play that has driven the engine of American capitalism for more than two hundred years.

There is a way to tangibly and immediately raise a voice in protest of George W. Bush as President. For the remainder of his term, conscientious Americans should simply write "George W. Bush is an Idiot" on all U.S. currency that passes through their hands.

This protest has already begun. The first bills were marked and spent in San Francisco as of January 26, 2001. What is important, though, is to not only begin marking all currency (and to continue the effort throughout the Bush presidency), but to forward this memo as much as possible so as to replicate the message throughout our money supply.

In an effort to mark money more industriously, many of us have ordered a BUSH IS A FRAUD rubber stamp; these self-inking rubber stamps are useful for marking the "Fraud" message in red ink.

Make your voice heard,
Steven Capozzola
San Francisco, California