Rip Offs Galore

Time for another trip {space theme} into the Far, Far, Far-Out Frontiers of Free Enterprise.

Today, Spaceship Hightower takes you into GoofyWorld, otherwise known as product advertising. With Consumer Reports magazine as our guide, we visit some rather amazing advertizing claims. Let's begin with the "wood library ladder" from Eddie Bauer. It's handmade, folds for easy storage, and costs $99, exclaims the ad for the ladder. But the ad's small print gives a perplexing warning: "Not for use as a ladder."

If that makes no sense to you, consider the label on a package of Prospirit socks, proudly boasting that the socks include "Antimicrobial Protection." Go to the small print again, however, and you're informed that "The antibacterial properties in these socks are for the protection of the socks only and do not protect users agianst bacteria."

OK, but surely we can all rejoice that Duncan Hines "Dark 'N Chunky" brownies mix now produces "20% thicker brownies." The package hails this "new size!" which might lead you to think there's 20% more mix inside. But, nooooo. It's the small print again that explains how the same amount of mix gives you 20% thicker brownies: Put the mix in a smaller pan, and —voila!—you'll get thicker brownies.

At least you get brownies. In an ad run by a Massachusetts Dodge dealer, there's a photo of a Dodge pickup truck, complete with a big snowplow attached to the front. In bold print, you're told that if you buy the truck it comes with "Heavy Duty Snow Plow Prep Package." But here comes the small print: "Snowplow not included." Apparently the prep package consists of some bolts and stuff in case you want to buy a snow plow separately.

This is Jim Hightower saying . . . Heres a final touch from the telephone giant, MCI Sprint which raised recently rates for some customers by $1.30 a month. On the bill, it explains that this is necessary "for Sprint to continue to provide our customers low competitive rates." Thanks, Sprint . .. . for nothing.
© 2001 Jim Hightower's latest book, "If The Gods Had Meant Us To Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates," is available in a fully revised and updated paperback edition.

Bad News When Madmen Lead The Blind

By Norman Solomon

The autumn started with a huge national jolt of shock, fear, grief and anger. Winter has begun with many worries here at home and grim satisfaction about warfare abroad. A line from "King Lear," early in Act 4, is hauntingly appropriate:

"'Tis the time's plague when madmen lead the blind."

Shakespeare's observation fits the current era, and not only with reference to the murderous qualities of Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda network. Few media outlets -- and certainly none of the major national brands -- are willing to scrutinize the unhinged aspects of the adulated leadership in the White House.

Deep introspection for any society is difficult. Precious little danger of that, in the here and now. After more than 100 days of big-type rhetorical questions, the media answers are largely self-satisfied. "Why do they hate us?" Because we're great, though sometimes clumsy on the world stage. "How can the violence in the Middle East be stopped?" By continuing to back Israel, no matter what.

Since Sept. 11, many journalists have commented that the United States is unaccustomed to the role of victim. Left unsaid is how accustomed we are to being victimizers while preening ourselves as a nation of worldly do-gooders. The 3,000 human beings who lost their lives at the World Trade Center are casting an enormous shadow -- as they should. But what about the uncounted people killed, one way or another, by U.S. policies?

The list of countries that the Pentagon has attacked in recent decades is long. The list of governments using American-supplied weapons to repress and massacre is even longer.

And there's quieter slaughter, on a grand scale. During every hour, more than 1,000 children in the world die from preventable diseases. Basic nutrition, medical care and sanitation would save their lives. A fraction of the Pentagon budget would suffice.

But we still live in a society with the kind of priorities that Martin Luther King Jr. described a third of a century ago -- spending "military funds with alacrity and generosity" but providing anti-poverty funds "with miserliness." If he were alive now, his voice would still cry out against "the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth."

King would have good reason to reiterate words from his speech on April 4, 1967, when he denounced "capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries."

Today, advocates for humanitarian causes might see the United States as a place where "madmen lead the blind." But that's kind of a harsh way to describe the situation. Our lack of vision is in the context of a media system that mostly keeps us in the dark.

In American media's echo chamber, much of the genuine anguish from Sept. 11 has segued into a lot of braying about national greatness. Like many other pundits now in their glory days on cable TV networks, Chris Matthews knows how to dodge difficult truths. "Patriotism is more important than politics," he proclaimed the other day. What "unites us" is "democracy, freedom, human rights, the right to pursue happiness."

And what about the "right to pursue happiness" for the kids dying from lack of food or clean water or medicine, while Matthews and thousands of other journalists fawn over the U.S. military?

Anyone watching TV news since early October has seen lots of idolatry lavished on the latest Pentagon weapons. Uncle Sam's immense military power and Washington's role as the number-one arms dealer on the planet add up to a colossal drain of resources -- and a powerful means of enforcing the bonds between the U.S. government and scores of regimes that combine repression with oligarchy, amid rampant poverty.

Winners get to write history, and that starts with the news. While victory in Afghanistan gets presented as ample justification for going to war in the first place, the message that overwhelming might makes right is ever-present, even if no one quite says so out loud. And when human flesh goes up in flames and human bodies shatter -- but not on our TV screens -- did it ever really happen?

Several decades ago, peace activist A.J. Muste observed: "The problem after a war is with the victor. He thinks he has just proved that war and violence pay. Who will now teach him a lesson?"
© 2001 Norman Solomon writes a syndicated column on media and politics. His latest book is "The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media."

President Bush Is Wartime CEO

Bush is lucky that he does not have Johnson's dilemma or doubts. But he needs to understand the moral limits of military power and not overplay the United States' hand.
© 2001 Helen Thomas

Whitewater Critics Quiet About Enron

You’ll have to imagine, at least for now, because the Vice President and his cronies aren’t talking–and because nobody in the media is even asking.
© 2001 Joe Conason.
You may reach Joe Conason via email at: jconason@observer.com.

And no doubt THAT explains exactly WHY Cheney has been in HIDING for so much of the past three months!!
© 2001 TOP_VIEW

The Wonderful Horrible Life Of John Walker:
Piling on an American Talib

What should be done with-really, to-Walker? If he participated in the planning or execution of terrorist acts against civilians, he certainly deserves to be prosecuted. Otherwise he's not a criminal, just a kid whose youthful quest for meaning in a meaningless world led him to a place few of us have any interest in visiting. Walker, he of the newly-acquired phony accent, may be a victim of overindulgent, divorcing parents from that bastion of anything-goes cultural anarchy, Northern California. His pretentious zeal for imported religion-he left Yemen because they weren't as "strict on Islam" as he'd expected and hoped-may be a symptom of quirkiness with which few of us can identify. But based on the information we have, there's more here to forget than forgive.
© 2001 Ted Rall, the cartoonist and columnist, is covering the Afghan war for The Village Voice and KFI Radio in Los Angeles.

Idiocy Watch: The New Republic

While the magazine is home to a number of talented and eloquent liberal writers on many domestic, legal and economic issues, and still boasts some of the finest literary criticism to be found anywhere--along with Elizabeth Rubin's fine coverage on the ground in Afghanistan--TNR's post-Kinsley/Hertzberg decline continues apace. No wonder owner Martin Peretz was eager to unload controlling interest in the magazine to investors Michael Steinhardt and Roger Hertog. The latter is also a major funder of the right-wing Manhattan Institute and the American Enterprise Institute. A Washington Post writer who has apparently been either asleep or on Mars in recent decades wondered why a conservative would wish to place his millions at the service of this alleged "liberal bastion." Duh. A better question is how Peretz managed to pull it off. Politics aside, it can't be much fun to shell out millions advertising your "intelligence" and attacking others' "idiocy" only to discover that the entire time, you've been looking in the mirror.
© 2001 Eric Alterman

First Principles: A Manifesto For 2002

"The proclamation and repetition of first principles is a constant feature of life in our democracy. Active adherence to these principles, however, has always been considered un-American. We recipients of the boon of liberty have always been ready, when faced with discomfort, to discard any and all first principles of liberty, and, further, to indict those who do not freely join with us in happily arrogating those principles."- David Mamet

In the early morning hours of December 31, 2000, my grandfather passed away. Strength of character had lent him an air of invincibility, despite his demonstrably failing health, and the shock of his passing was as sudden and wrenching as a meteor strike. For sixty years he had been an attorney without peer within the celestial atmospheres of the Boston legal community, one of the great minds of the century. I used that mind as a whetstone to sharpen my own wits, and am much the keener for it.

That evening, gathered with friends to ring in the new year, I contemplated the future without him. Still roiled by the devastating weeks leading up to the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court ruling on December 13th, I was chilled by shadows of dark portents. Somehow, the passing of my grandfather had drawn a shroud around the coming year. Nothing good, I feared, could ensue.

As the clock winds down towards another New Years Eve, the omens I sensed that night have whispered their fanged truths into the soul of the world. 2001 will be marked by history as perhaps the darkest year since World War II. If the pestiferous potential of the events of 2001 ever find the time and opportunity to achieve full bloom, the year may well be recorded as the worst our fragile human race has ever experienced.

The attacks of September 11th, 2001 were the defining events within a year that saw so very much go wrong. The reaction of the current administration has exacerbated the fallout from that traumatic day to such an incredible degree that one is forced to wonder if the terrorists have not already won this undeclared war. This is not the same America that saw the dawn on September 10th, a fact that is sure to bring smiles to the faces of Al Qaeda warriors from horizon to horizon.

So be it. The past cannot be changed. The future, however, is another matter.

The world was born again by fire on the morning of September 11th, 2001. In its wake lies the tattered remains of a nation that once was considered a beacon of freedom that lit the world. We are tasked to live on in the wreckage, and are faced with a defining realization: At the bottom, the passivity of the American people invited the catastrophes of 2001. We were unconcerned, unprepared, disinformed, disinterested, willfully blind.

September 11th jarred us into comprehending a fundamental truth that had for too long been obscured. In the final analysis, each and every American has a personal stake in the dispensation and cultivation of true justice and equality within our borders and around the world. When there is economic disenfranchisement, boiling poverty, political suppression and abridged freedom, we American civilians become the targets of murderous hate and violence. Religiously extremist fundamentalism breeds like a virus in such circumstances, both here and abroad, and is the last bastion of the desperate and the disenfranchised.

If we are to survive and flourish in this brave new world, we must acknowledge the hand we have played in the flourishing of these circumstances. Our addiction to oil, our propensity for diplomatic expediency for the sake of that poisonous ooze, the globalization of the vicious immoralities and inequities found within the gears of unrestrained capitalism, and the profound ignorance of our populace regarding all matters pertaining to the aforementioned, have led us inexorably to the realities presented in the wake of 2001.

We must not let it happen again.

What follows is a petition of grievances. Our will and ability to address them in a comprehensive fashion will determine the fate of this nation and this world. There can be no more compromise, no more patience, no more passivity. We cannot survive another year like 2001, yet if we fail to act, this dying year will be marked as mere preamble to horrors beyond comprehension.

A Constitutional Amendment: The Right to Vote

Americans make much of their rights, but few are aware that technically there is no right to vote in this country. We are allowed to vote by our legislators and our leaders but, if they feel the need, those votes can easily be taken away. This was outlined succinctly in the Supreme Court Opinion from Bush v. Gore:

"The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States unless and until the state legislature chooses a statewide election as the means to implement its power to appoint members of the Electoral College…the State legislature's power to select the manner for appointing electors is plenary; it may, if it so chooses, select the electors itself."

The 15th and 19th Amendments to the Constitution do not grant an affirmative right to vote. Rather, they seek to thwart any actions that may thwart certain groups - women, minorities, immigrants - from casting a ballot. At the end of the day, the right to vote lives within the largesse of those who hold elective office in whatever state you vote in.

When drawing the first dim outlines of our national charter, the Founders specifically left off a Constitutional right to vote. At the time, each state had its own set of voting standards, and it was feared that an all-encompassing Federal rule pertaining to voting rights would impede ratification and scuttle the deal.

As time passed, more and more freedoms were outlined within the voting charter: women, then immigrants, and then minorities were given Constitutional voting protections by the Courts, but none were given the specific right to cast a ballot. Many of these leaps forward came in the aftermath of war - women gained suffrage after WWI, the poll tax was eliminated after WWII, the voting age was dropped after Vietnam, and minorities were given protections slowly but surely throughout the Cold War.

A Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote for all citizens is essential as we approach a new election season in 2002. The catastrophes of Florida in 2000 cannot be repeated; indeed, many of the problems from that election would have been much more easily handled if Americans had the solid right to vote, instead of merely the opportunity.

The mistakes made by ChoicePoint in the compilation of Florida voter roles, mistakes that stripped voting privileges from tens of thousands of minorities, would have been a Constitutional issue instead of an example of corporate malfeasance. Secretary of State Harris and Governor Jeb Bush would not have dared to act as they did had voting been a Constitutionally-protected activity. The Republican-dominated Florida legislature would have been unable to muddy the waters by threatening to choose their own electors. The Supreme Court would likely have not been able to toss aside 50 million votes in their decision.

The document says We the People for a reason. If Americans are truly supposed to decide their own fate, if we the people are meant to rule, our right to exercise power at the voting booth must be Constitutionally protected. An amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing the right to vote for every American citizen must be introduced, and passed, by Congress in 2002.

Campaign Finance Reform: End Legalized Bribery

The fundamental concept underlying a Constitutional right to vote is that each American individual has an equal say in determining the fate of the republic. Sadly, that pure democratic ideal has been grossly undermined by the profligate use of 'soft money' in campaigns - funds raised by corporations, interest groups and wealthy contributors that goes almost completely unregulated. These funds are collected by the two main political parties, who act as a middle man because it is illegal to give such funds directly to a candidate. Those funds are then used to promote one candidate or to smear another.

In the 2000 election cycle, some $457 million in special interest funds were collected by both parties: $239 million by the GOP and $218 by the Democrats. This is as bipartisan an issue as can be found on the political landscape, for both parties are guilty of the practice.

Because such massive amounts of unregulated funding are poured into campaigns by wealthy contributors, those contributors necessarily have far more influence over legislative decisions than you or I. Politicians who need this money to compete, because their opponents can outspend them with their own contributions, become swayed by the donors and wind up making decisions based upon the needs of the rich moneylenders, rather than the needs of their constituents.

These actions undermine the fundamental principle of one person-one vote, and do great damage to our democracy. The final determination of this issue holds the key to solving dozens of other problems in this country. If the wealthy special interests are no longer able to be the dominant voice in government, true reform based upon the needs of the people will come.

Two pieces of legislation were introduced for Congressional consideration not long ago: the Shays-Meehan and McCain-Feingold reform bills. They have languished since, thwarted at every turn by anti-reformers like Tom Delay (R-TX). In 2002, these bills must be reintroduced and passed, and must be signed into law by George W. Bush. If he is a reformer with results as he claims, he can prove it in the coming year in a manner he has thus far failed miserably to do.

No More Tax Giveaways to Corporations and the Rich

When George W. Bush took office in 2001, his first priority was the passage of a massive tax cut that overwhelmingly benefited corporations and the wealthy. Nearly half of the trillion+ dollars he stripped from the Federal budget went to these two groups, leaving average Americans to collect a paltry $300 per person. The geometry of this action was determined in no small part by wealthy donors who, using financial influence described above, were able to lobby Bush and Congress to great effect.

They didn't need the money. The tax laws in this country already enormously benefit corporations and rich people. They did not need this tax break. Rather, they are offended by the very idea that they are required to pay taxes at all. Bush, clearly under their sway, resolved to give them their money back. The result of this decision has been disastrous.

With the slowdown of the economy, the vast Clinton surplus projections became depleted. The tax cut further stripped money from the Treasury. The events of September 11th required massive spending by the Federal government for clean-up operations, investigations, and military preparations. Today, because of these factors, the United States has returned to the ruinous days of deficit spending. Had George W. Bush not gutted the Treasury with his tax giveaway, the Federal Government would not be spending in the red.

The ultimate motivation for the tax cut is clear: Bush is influenced by those who believe the Federal government is too large, and should be, in the words of one hardcore anti-tax advocate, shrunk to a size where it can be drowned in a bathtub. The attacks on September 11th, and subsequent reactions to same, have proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that Republican rhetoric regarding the size of government has been terribly misplaced. Had the Federal government not been as large as it is, had it not been equipped to deal with the fallout from those attacks, thousands more would have died and the republic may well have fallen into total disarray.

Even with these facts staring him in the face, Bush and his Republican cohorts tried last week to ass yet another tax giveaway package, disguised patriotically as a 'stimulus package' for the economy and the people. In truth, the package would have been an early Christmas present: billions of our dollars for corporations already operating in the black.

Only the determination of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who refused to allow passage of the House bill in the Senate unless protections for the million or so newly-unemployed Americans were included, kept this farcical 'stimulus package' from passing. In an astounding example of aerobic backpedaling, Bush responded by claiming that, in reality, he wasn't sure if the stimulus package was actually necessary.

It is worth noting the thin margin Daschle had in his decision. Had James Jeffords not switched parties early in 2001, giving majority power to the Democrats, the ruinous House bill would have likely passed through the Senate with ease.

Twenty two years ago, George H.W. Bush referred to Reagan's trickle-down economic theory as 'voodoo economics.' He was more right than he knew. Reagan's folly left millions of the living dead walking the earth: AIDS victims, crack addicts, millions of Americans suffering the deprivations of recession, all left exposed by a plundering of the Treasury that fed wealthy corporations at the expense of vital social programs. George W. Bush would see this flawed trickle-down concept returned to government. It must not be allowed to happen.

Congressional Democrats, as well as Republicans of good conscience, must at all costs continue to thwart any move Bush makes to further undermine the ability of government to aid the people in these trying times by giving more of our needed money away to those who do not need it. Furthermore, they must revisit the tax plan already passed and restructure it accordingly, with the current circumstances clearly in mind. 2001 was a bad year for the average American, but a boon for the rich. 2002 will be worse if our government is too poor to help us.

Accountability for the Airline Industry

Many factors allowed terrorists to commandeer those commercial airplanes on September 11th. One factor that has been largely ignored is the criminal negligence of the airline industry, whose security precautions were and continue to be so weak as to be non-existent. This is a failure of catastrophic proportions, and is largely responsible for the death and ruin we have experienced.

For years now, the airline industry has lobbied Congress through the unregulated use of soft money contributions in an effort to keep any laws demanding that they beef up security off the books. On September 11th, the terrorists passed through security checkpoints manned by people with little or no security training and who earn only the minimum wage. These security personnel were employed by companies under contract with the airline industry, such as Argenbright in Boston's Logan airport, whose safety records are nothing short of abysmal.

The subsequent passage of a bill Federalizing airline security has shored up the security failures to some degree, but nothing has been done to address the accountability of the airline industry in the attacks of September 11th. Instead, $15 billion of our tax money was given to the industry as a bailout, with no strings attached. This must not stand. The recent capture of an airline passenger with explosives in his shoes demonstrates that security on passenger airlines is still less than adequate; the suspect raised suspicions on Friday because of a questionable passport, but was still allowed to board an airplane on Saturday.

The airline industry's negligence, years in the making, came about because they did not want to spend money on security. They must be called to task for it. Congress must in 2002 instigate a penetrating investigation into the vast array of failures and greed-motivated negligence that permeate this industry. We the people must exert market pressures upon these companies by instigating a nationwide boycott of their services. They will do nothing on their own, as has been demonstrated, unless we compel them to.

END PART 1
© 2001 William Rivers Pitt

No Way To Get Their Message Out!
By BartCop

CBS's Bernard Goldberg has written an expose on the liberal media entitled Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News

This is a good example of smart writing and even better marketing. If Goldberg had written the truth, that the media is nothing but right-wing pimps working for Bush, if would sell about as many copies as Fortunate Son and be withdrawn from book stores right away.

But since he's selling the LIE that left-wingers control the media, something very different will happen to Mr. Goldberg and his book.

He'll get to go on:

The Rush Limbaugh show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Bill O'Reilly show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Sean Hannity show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Eva Von Zahn show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Belway Boys where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Brit Hume show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Tony Snow show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Juan Williams show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Mara Liason show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The McLaughlin Group where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Chris the Screamer show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The G. Gordon Liddy show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Laura Schlessinger show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Michael Medved show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Sam & Cokie show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
Meet the Press with Tim Russert where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The John Hockenberry show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Ollie North show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Neil Bortz show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Robert Novak show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Paul Weyrich show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Brian Williams show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Wolf Blitzer show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The Don Imus show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
The John Stossel show where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.
Reliable Sources with Howie Kurtz where they'll say conservatives have no voice in the media.

Then,

David Horowitz will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Maureen Dowd will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Ann Coulter will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Laura Ingraham will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Peggy Noonan will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
William Safire will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Andrew (bareback) Sullivan will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
David Limbaugh will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Jonah Goldberg will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Mona Charen will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Linda Chavez will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
John Fund will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Paul Greenburg will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Jeff Jacoby will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Dick Morris will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Thomas Sowell will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Cal Thomas will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Walter Williams will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Mort Zuckerman will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Brent Bozell will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
William F Buckley will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Neil Cavuto will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
David Hackworth will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Charles Krauthammer will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
William Raspberry will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Phyllis Schlafly will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
George Will will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Matt Drudge will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Luci (The Bat) Goldberg will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Michael Barone will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Lawrence Kudlow will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Marlin Fitzwater will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Pat Buchanan will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Ari Fleisher will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Christopher Hitchens will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Rich Lowry will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.
Kate O'Beirne will write a column saying conservatives have no voice in the media.

Isn't it a shame that the radical right-wing has no way to get their message out?

...And Mr. Goldberg? He's going to make millions selling red meat to the dittoheads.
©2001 BartCop

Dead Letter Office

Heil Bush,

Dear Propaganda Ansager Gallagher,

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 Wolf's Lair (formally Rancho de Bimbo) on 12-31-2001. We salute you Frau Gallagher, Sieg Heil!

Signed,
Deputy Fuhrer Cheney

Heil Bush

No Security For Natural Resources
By Molly Ivins

AUSTIN -- When George W. Bush was governor of Texas, many political observers had a theory that whenever he started holding photo ops with adorable little children, it was time to grab your wallet because it meant some unconscionable giveaway to the corporations was in the wind.

I did not fully subscribe to the theory, but having noticed a number of adorable-child ops in the past few weeks, I decided to check for what might be flying under the radar, with the following results:

-- The Bush administration has reversed Clinton-era regulations for mining on public lands, including a measure that gave federal officials power to block mining operations that could cause "substantial and irreparable harm." The Environmental Protection Agency says about 40 percent of Western watersheds have been polluted by mining. From California to Alaska, bankrupt and abandoned gold mines leak acid and heavy metals into streams. There are 500,000 abandoned mines around the country with cleanup costs estimated in the tens of billions.

More than a third of the Western United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, is owned by the public, which receives no royalties from mining companies that exploit it. Mark Rey, undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources, told the Northwest Mining Association the administration wants to reinvigorate mineral exploration in national forests, according to The New York Times. The 1872 Mining Law, meant to help small-time pick-and-shovel miners back in the day, is now the protector of giant corporations mining for gold, silver, copper and uranium. The gold mines use cyanide to leach out their product, which makes an unholy mess. The Mineral Policy Center had already sued the administration, challenging the revisions.

-- Charles Peters of Washington Monthly notes that the Bushies did decide to keep the Clinton standards on arsenic in drinking water, giving us a policy of arsenic-no, but cyanide-yes.

-- The administration has proceeded with plans to allow more road-building in national parks, a notorious subsidy for the timber industry.

-- It has decided to push back the planned phase-out of snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The original plan was to shift over to the less-polluting snow coaches, which also have far less impact on wildlife, over three years.

-- In another move, the administration has relaxed the rules on developing wetlands: malls in the marshes, just what we need.

-- The EPA has pulled information about chemical plants and pipeline safety off the Web, apparently on the theory that terrorists might use the information. "There are numerous information purges occurring," Paul Orum of the Working Group on Community Right-to-Know told the Charleston Gazette.

It's hard to see what terrorists could do with information on the pollution of drinking water by chemical companies, but it's sure easy to see why the chemical companies would like to keep it quiet. As Robert Rackleff, chairman of the National Pipeline Reform Coalition points out, the lack of information allows companies to "conceal existing safety problems from any independent scrutiny."

-- The EPA has diverted about 40 percent of its criminal enforcement division to anti-terrorist activities, also moving hazardous waste inspectors to the World Trade Center site. This may well be advisable as we all struggle to get a grip on "homeland security," but it also be smart to remember that more people were killed by the 1984 chemical plant accident in Bhopal (3,000 died immediately and 200,000 were injured -- more have died every day since, so the tally is not final. It's generally put at 5,000) than died on Sept. 11 (3,273, according to The New York Times).

-- And, of course, the prize environmental move of all is the administration's insistence that it is necessary to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because of Sept. 11. The Philadelphia Inquirer refers to this as the "It's patriotic to pollute" theme. Of course, drilling in ANWAR will do nothing for our dependence on foreign oil. Even the most optimistic estimates of ANWAR's output won't make a dent in the 50 percent of the oil we use that comes from abroad.

I suspect that when the history of this era is written, the lack of vision on the part of our government will be deemed the greatest tragedy of all. This was the opportunity, this was the great shining moment when we could have reversed energy policy -- as Bush so stunningly reversed his foreign policy -- and moved toward energy independence based on conservation and the development of renewable resources.

The president had only to ask: Americans are so eager to help. Instead of asking us to begin to conserve and convert, he asked us to go shopping instead. So we will remain dependent on some of the most backward and unstable regimes in the world.

Our entire transportation system is based on oil, and we know it is poisoning the planet, but still we do nothing. Well, Bush always did have trouble with the vision thing. Watch out for those adorable-kid photo ops.
© 2001 Molly Ivins To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

Geraldo: Proof You Don't Believe Everything You Hear
By Helen Branswell

Washington - Geraldo Rivera went to Afghanistan to remind American TV viewers he was first and foremost a serious journalist.

But the man who has been a leading figure - some might say offender - in the blurring of the lines between news and entertainment has found himself a figure of fun instead.

The former investigative reporter turned down-market talk show host turned war correspondent is being ridiculed publicly for a Dec. 6 report from what he described as "the hallowed ground" where three American special operations soldiers were killed by friendly fire.

That event took place in Kandahar. But "the hallowed ground" Rivera stood on when he did his report was hundreds of kilometres away, near Tora Bora.

While competitors can't resist the temptation to crow - CBS ran an item on its website earlier this week captioned: Where's Geraldo? - media analysts are indignant.

Rivera's error and the overall tone of his reporting from Afghanistan are casting journalists in a negative light, they suggest. "This is terrible for the profession," says Jim Naureckas of the New York-based media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

"When there are questions about his honesty, folks think about Rivera as part of the world of journalism," agrees Bob Steele, director of the ethics program for the Poynter Institute, a renown journalism school.

Rivera quit his high-paying job as a talk show host on CNBC in November to join Fox News and a chance to get into the field. Such was his zeal to get into the action that he took a 25 per cent cut in pay.

Like the network he works for, Rivera made no effort to keep partisanship out of his work, openly admitting he wanted a chance to put a New York City fire department hat on Osama bin Laden's corpse.

"It's deeply personal, on the one hand," he said last month. "On the other hand, it is my professional calling."

Others argue it is anything but the professional duty of a journalist to become so heavily involved in the story.

"For Geraldo, it's all about getting into the story. It's sort of a performance art piece," Naureckas says.

"You don't watch Geraldo Rivera to find out what's going on in Afghanistan. You watch Geraldo Rivera because you enjoy the spectacle of one man's defiance of the Taliban."

Rivera has also vowed that if he found bin Laden he would "kick his head in, then bring it home and bronze it." He has been shown carrying a gun on camera, a move most media analysts suggest could further endanger the lives of journalists covering the war.

"If the combattants in a war believe that journalists are potential combattants themselves, you might as well put a target on their back," Steele says.

He believes Rivera blurs the lines between news and entertainment, but persists in calling what he does journalism - to the detriment of the profession.

"Is he a journalist or is he an entertainer? Is he a professional or is he a patriot? Is he a reporter or is he a bin Laden bounty hunter? Is he a correspondent or is he a gunslinger?

"If it comes down in each of those cases on the side opposite journalism, then I think there are profound questions as to why he should be doing there what he was doing as a journalist. Or portraying himself, if you will, as a journalist," he said.

But until the hallowed ground incident, the grumbling was quiet. When it appeared that Rivera as blurring the line between truth and fiction, it turned into open criticism.

Called on the discrepancy by the Baltimore Sun, Rivera put it down to a mistake caused by "the fog of war."

He said he confused the Kandahar incident with another he'd witnessed in Tora Bora in which several northern alliance soldiers were killed by friendly fire.

His explanation was quickly exposed as fiction, however. It turned out that the friendly fire incident in Tora Bora occurred three days after Rivera filed the Dec. 6 report.

"The explanation he gave, whether a justification or an excuse, doesn't fly," Steele says. "So if you put all these facts together and assuming that they are correct - and neither Rivera nor Fox has disputed that - I'm deeply troubled. It raises significant questions about his professionalism and about his ethics."

Rivera, who left Afghanistan this week for what Fox says was a scheduled trip home for the holidays, has not addressed the fact that his explanation was exposed as being patently untrue. Nor has the network, which has said Rivera will return to Afghanistan at some point.
© 2001 Helen Branswell

The Cartoon Corner

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

THE PETITION

We, the people, do hereby demand that Congress investigate the following actions taken by George W. Bush and his administration, and call for the IMPEACHMENT of Bush, John Ashcroft, the five members of the Supreme Court who violated State's Rights to select Bush, every member of the administration who also served in George H.W.Bush's administration, and every person who has executive and monetary ties to the oil industry.

The Republican Party spent $40 million of our tax dollars trying to crucify Bill Clinton for his sexual activities, and there has barely been a whimper â€" but one is finally emerging -- about GWB's desecration of the very foundations of our democracy. We, the people, demand investigation of the following crimes of treason -- with the intent to impeach:

1. Tampering with the 2000 presidential election process, e.g. hard plastic inserts causing "no vote" in the Gore column of Florida ballots. (Cited by Diane Feinstein.) We demand investigation and imprisonment of all those in the State of Florida who participated in this obstruction and the blocking of recounts in Florida.

2. Violation of State's Rights by the last and final bastion of law in the United States â€" the Supreme Court. Violated State's Rights to recount, and Florida State Law that automatically requires a recount in close elections. We demand impeachment of all "Justices" who desecrated our democratic process and appointed Bush to the White House.

3. John Ashcroft, to gain office, said he would not let his personal beliefs interfere with his position that wields power of the laws of our nation. Investigate and impeach for violating State's Rights by overturning the will of the people of Oregon that allows assisted suicides.

4. Investigate and impeach John Ashcroft for implementing laws that are so vague in describing "terrorist" that they potentially violate the civil rights of citizens and residents of our country, thus destroying the tenets of democracy that made this country great.

5. Investigate and imprison members of our "intelligence" who met with bin Laden in July 2001. Since bin Laden was, even then, a "war" criminal, investigate why he was MET WITH and NOT ARRESTED. Impeach the final authority who directed the visits.

6. Intelligence members have stated that Bush TOLD them to back off from bin Laden to NOT investigate him and his cohorts. Investigate and IMPEACH the final authority who directed that surveillance of bin Laden and his cohorts be stopped prior to the attacks.

7. Members of our "intelligence" placed PUTS on United and American airlines two days before the attacks sent the stocks plummeting. Although software supposedly tracks abnormal trading, the 1200% gain in PUT activity on those two airlines was not revealed. Investigate and imprison all who profited from these puts. Investigate and IMPEACH the final authority who gave notice that the event would happen.

8. Bush has attached his unpopular agenda items to his so-called "war" bills, and has used the "war" as an excuse to undermine every tenet of civil rights inherent in our democracy. Compile a list and remove his agenda items, as well as every "law" that erodes and violates our civil rights. Note that every participant in this agenda commits TREASON and is a TRAITOR to this great nation.

9. Bush is buying up every satellite image of Afghanistan â€" with our tax dollars. His daddy didn't do this, and reviews of satellite photography after the Kuwait "war," where GHWBush didn't bring in Hussein, showed that there was NO enemy presence in Kuwait - hence our soldiers died from "friendly fire." Investigate and impeach anyone who endeavors to maintain exclusivity and secrecy in our democracy. Democracy works by keeping WE, THE PEOPLE, informed of all actions of our politicians, in order that we may more properly select who will REPRESENT us. SECRETS are TREASON to democracy.

10. Bush has by Executive Order hidden all presidential papers -- that BELONG to WE, THE PEOPLE. His order locks other presidential records, including his daddy's and Reagan's. The order has a "double lock" on it, so that if either the creating or the sitting president says "no" to releasing the records, they remain locked from the public. We, the people, demand that Congress act in unison to destroy this "Executive Order." We demand investigation of what the Order seeks to hide, and full revelation to the people.

11. Bush has requested power to "quarantine" American citizens in the event of a smallpox (or communicable disease) breakout. He has refused to discard American supplies of the smallpox virus. History has proven that quarantines do NOT WORK. Should he accuse bin Laden of threatening with smallpox, and then mandate a nation-wide inoculation, he will set the "bio-terrorism" in motion himself, as there are always people who become sick from the vaccine, and the American people today already have massively corrupted immune systems. Recall Ford's attempt to force inoculations for Swine Flu - and that he killed people. Every person with a weakened immune system has the potential of contracting the disease, and then contagion will have been set in motion - with only blame on, but no action from, bin Laden. Ensure that Bush cannot in ANY way cause or allow to be done the releasing in ANY FORM of any virus or anthrax that can harm we, the people.

12. People have already been concerned that FEMA would have totalitarian powers if a national emergency were declared. Bush has now sought the same power for himself. He has stripped all rights from "foreigners" (racism) the diversity of which made this nation great. With quarantine powers, he can strip all rights from citizens -" WE, THE PEOPLE, and prevent movement within the country. (Read this as Hitler's Germany.) He can imprison (quarantine) people in stadiums. Entire cities could be herded into unsheltered, unhealthy environments. He has taken the power to turn hospitals into prisons. WE, THE PEOPLE demand that Congress overturn this Executive Order, for it does NOTHING to stop terrorism.

13. Bush has set in motion SECRET military tribunals, once again declaring "needs of security." He has made it law that a person's home is not longer his castle, and it can be entered and searched without a warrant. He has made it a law that one is no longer innocent until proven guilty. One now only needs to be "suspected." One now has no guarantee of a fair and democratic trial. One can be tried by a secret military tribunal and be executed â€" in total secrecy. This constitutes a police state and NOT a democracy. We, the people, DEMAND that this power be stripped away and never set in motion. We demand that Bush be IMPEACHED for granting himself "unusual powers" for a "war" that is phony - and not declared by Congress, and for further destroying the character of America in the world community.

14. Bush is buying all satellite images of Afghanistan, he has locked down presidential papers, and he wants to conduct secret executions â€" to prevent the airing of any testimony that might incriminate him and his role in the attacks used to set in motion all of these assaults on American citizens. We, the people, demand IMPEACHMENT for his destruction of the ELECTION PROCESS and his intent to grant himself FULL DICTATORIAL AUTHORITY.

15. The anthrax distributed in the mail - and sent only to Democrats -is the variety held by our own military. We, the people, demand investigation of our own military and administrative authorities who have command over U.S. supplies of anthrax. Imprison all who participated in its release, and IMPEACH the highest authority.

16. Bomber pilots are saying that they are being prevented from bombing military complexes in Afghanistan. Rumsfeld declared the "anonymous" pilots to be "royal thumb suckers." Rumsfeld tripped over his own lies as he first denied the charges with that idiotic remark, and then admitted it when someone rephrased the question. He stood LAUGHING at some of the questions. Excuse me, did someone say this was about "war"???? Investigate WHY the military is under such discretionary control, and the reasons for it. IMPEACH all who are calling the orders in this phony "war."

17. We, the people, demand an investigation into who controls the news media so that it is not screaming from the headlines, and at the top of the hour, about these acts that are TREASON to our nation. The news media's purpose is not to amuse and deceive.

18. Investigate "profiteering through government" during this time of assault upon the American people via permission by you in Congress who have failed in your purpose to represent WE, THE PEOPLE. You have handed BILLIONS of our tax dollars to Corporations â€" letting these corporations "take the money and run" â€" even as individuals lose their jobs, and will wind up working for $6 an hour to pay for the massive government debt being created by Bush - and yourselves! STOP and REVERSE these handouts.

19. Investigate WHY Congress has cooperated so fully in Bush's destruction of our democracy under the pretext of "war." If there has been any threat, or collusion to deceive the American people, IMPEACH all who participated.

20. Investigate the role of OIL in this entire charade, and the monies paid by "religious" influences who also seek destruction of American rights and freedoms. Clean up our government, beginning with your own apologies to the American people - and to the world. We could FEED the world with the BILLIONS that Bush is giving to war barons and corporations. This is a dark hour in our history, and each of you need to bring all of these TREASONOUS and TRAITOROUS acts into the LIGHT.

Representing We, The People,

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.