send in your response (click here)Bush and His Token NegroesLost in all the commentary about the economic issues in Bush's press conference was his incredibly insulting, racist response to a question about his administration's civil rights record (or lack thereof). The questioner first referred to the NAACP conference that Bush did not attend, yet again, this year (in contrast to his attendance while campaigning). Then asked what Bush's response was to charges that his administration's record on civil rights is dismal. His response was: "I was sitting at a table with a bunch of leaders, and across the table sat Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice." End of answer. In other words: I've got my tokens, who cares about the real issues? Certainly revealing of his motive in appointing them, I think. I wonder how they feel having been referred to as tokens. ... Rita Weinstein, Seattle, July 10, 2002 - as appeared in Buzzflash See also: Report:
Powell Says "Bastards Won't Drive Me Out"
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml? And let's not forget the unimpeachably George W. Bush comment: "Do
you have Blacks in Brazil?" Bush asks Brazilian president if there are Blacks in BrazilSunday, May 19th, 2002 Translation of article from German to English: It is said about the United States President
that before 9-11, he thought the "Taliban" was a Bavarian brass band. Now the President
of the world's most powerful nation has put his foot in his mouth, yet again.
original article follows:
Bushs Allgemeinbildung
Gibt es Schwarze in Brasilien? US-Präsident George W. Bush wird nachgesagt, vor dem 11.
September habe er die Taliban für eine bayerische
Blaskapelle gehalten.
Nun hat sich der Präsident der mächtigsten Nation der Welt
dank seiner umfassenden Bildung wieder einmal kräftig in
die Nesseln gesetzt.
Washington - Es war Condoleezza Rice, Nationale
Sicherheitsberaterin der USA, die ihrem Chef aus der
peinlichen Lage half. Bei einem Gespräch der beiden Präsidenten
George W. Bush, 55, (USA) und Fernando Henrique Cardoso, 71,
(Brasilien) hatte Bush seinen Amtskollegen mit der Frage
verblüfft:
"Do you have blacks, too?" ("Haben Sie auch
Schwarze?")
Rice, 47, die bemerkte, wie erstaunt der Brasilianer ob der Frage war, rettete die Situation, indem sie Bush aufklärte: "Mr. President, Brasilien hat wahrscheinlich mehr Schwarze als die USA, man sagt, es ist das Land mit den meisten Schwarzen außerhalb Afrikas." Brasiliens Präsident Cardoso urteilte hinterher: Was Lateinamerika betreffe, befinde sich Bush "noch in der Lehrzeit". .... vilma, 5/29/02 Demonstrations Show Deep Opposition to Bush Policies
"The message of demonstrations in Washington D.C., San
Francisco, and Seattle on April 20th was that many Americans
oppose the Administration’s war on terrorism and its impact
on human rights at home and abroad. 75,000 people
[Counterpunch reports as many as 200,000] took to the streets
of Washington, D.C. for various causes that can best be summed
up as opposition to the Bush Agenda. 'I think it is a
tremendous success. So many different people from all over the
place stood together in solidarity,' said Roxanne Lawson, a
national coordinator for United We March, one of the main
organizers of the day's events. While the messages varied, one
thing was clear, over 100,000 Americans were willing to take
their opposition to Bush policies to the streets and express
dissent." So writes Scott Galindez in Truthout.
Comments by California Congressman Pete Stark during house debate on concurrent resolution on the budget, Fiscal Year 2003 -- (House of Representatives - March 20, 2002)
Mr. Chairman, there are some of us who remember this world in
the 1930s, when Hitler suspended the Bundestag to promulgate
conservative ideology and not let people speak. It is a shame
that the Republicans in the House, Mr. Chairman, have taken up
that same ideology and are denying a chance for debate and open
discussion of a budget. It does smack of fascism; and it is too
bad, because the American people will recognize that and
understand that in a free economy, and in a free country that
created programs like Social Security and Medicare and special
education and aid for dependent children and aid for people who
are unable to care for themselves, for the disabled, that to
deny them care is obscene.
I think it will be quite clear that, for whatever reason,
whether it is deficits or anything else, that the overwhelming
desire of the Republican Party is to destroy programs in the
Federal Government, except those few intended for the very
wealthy.
Most of the colleagues who are screaming about the war never
wore a uniform other than the Boy Scout uniform. And I would
like to suggest, as I said before, none of them have worked in
free enterprise, which they tout so loudly. And yet, because
that is where the campaign contributions come from, in the
hundreds of millions of dollars, that is where their allegiance
is. They are forsaking the seniors who need health care and who
need an economic safety net. They are forsaking our children by
denying them the chance to come along and get an education.
I am sure the American public is going to recognize this, and I
am sure they are going to recognize it when they see wasteful
money spent on things like Star Wars, which will not work, and
programs which do nothing except to pay for large defense
contractors, who are related to former Republican Presidents,
and I think they are going to see that this is an obscene,
corrupt, and undemocratic attempt to harm those people who are
most fragile in this country only to benefit the 1 or 2 percent
of the very wealthiest. And I hope my colleagues will vote down
this budget.
FROM BUZZFLASH.COM
Fox News coordinates a Daschle BashRupert Murdoch's Fox News channels used a canned attack editorial on
Senator Daschle given by various management personnel reading from
telepromters in the following cities:
WLOS - Asheville
WBFF/WNUV - Baltimore
KGAN - Cedar Rapids
WICD/WICS - Champaign/Springfield
WCHS/WVAH - Charleston, WV
WSYX/WTTE - Columbus
WKEF/WRGT - Dayton
WDKY - Lexington
WMSN - Madison
WZTV - Nashville
KOKH - Oklahoma City
WEAR - Pensacola/Mobile
WPGH - Pittsburgh
WGME - Portland
WLFL - Raleigh
WUHF - Rochester
KOVR - Sacramento
WGGB - Springfield
KDSM - Des Moines
The text of the Daschle Bash is as follows:
==============================================
The recent discovery of several thousand Taliban and AlQaeda
fighters
hidden in the mountains resulted in the largest U.S.ground
operations
since the war on terrorism began. The sad loss of several
servicemen
underscored the very real threat that continues to exist in
Afghanistan.
Although we have not yet found Osama bin Laden or the disgraced
Taliban
leader, Mullah Omar, there is no doubt that the U.S. has
dismantled an
outlaw regime and has its supporters on the run.
However, we are troubled by an offensive launched by South Dakota
Senator Tom Daschle who criticized the military effort and called
U.S.
prosecution of the war a failure. Historically, Congress puts
partisan
politics aside and closes ranks around the White House during
times of
war. However, Daschle who is reportedly considering a run for the
Presidency and is undoubtedly eyeing this November's mid- term
elections
has attempted to politicize the war effort.
Unfortunately for Senator Daschle, his ill-timed comments
criticizing
U.S. military actions occurred just as our troops came under the
heaviest fighting to date. When it was time to show solidarity and
support for our military forces fighting abroad, Senator Daschle
launched his own war effort in order to advance petty partisan
objectives.
Fox News wants to hear what you think about this at:
.... TomB,3/23/02 View To A CureThe doorbell rings. I open the door. First in is a large young man of serious mien. He is followed closely by President George W. Bush. I recognized others in the group. You know, like, Vice President Dick Cheney and that scary looking six-foot female whose supposed to be the President's most trusted advisor, and Condaleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, fox-faced Ari Fleischer, Colin Powell, and some creepy fringers. Media coverage on the World Social Forum (WFS) vs. World Economic Forum (WEF)I just went on line to get an idea of how much the "main-stream" on-line media reported on the (alternative) World Social Forum (WSF) vs (corporate) World Economic Forum (WEF) and found the following:
cnn.com:
1 hit.
150+ hits.
Of interest is that the "Related Sites" for the WEF
articles include http://www.weforum.org/
but those for the WSF article include http://www.unimondo.org/wsf/italiano/home/index.html
, a website in Italian (how many people in the world understand
Italian vs English?), while, I am sure it was not beyond CNN's
ability to also find an English language website http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/eng/index.asp
abcnews.com
0 hits.
49 hits.
msnbc.com
WSF: ( http://search.msn.com/vresults.asp?q=%22world+social+f
1 hit. (http://www.msnbc.com/news/699709.asp) Secretary-General of AI, Irene Khan, says in an interview:
"There is a group of 40,000 [including high-level
representatives from Amnesty International] at the World Social
Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, right now in a very different kind of
environment. And then there is a very exclusive group of a few
thousand in New York. Yet, there is no bridge between these groups.
As long as you have these social issues unresolved, you cannot talk
about prosperity for the few. At the end of day, we should not be
talking about profits but about people."
51 hits.
cbsnews.com
14 hits.
nyt.com
6 hits. Not possible to verify since you only get a summary and need
to purchase the full etxt to actually see the article (older than 7
days).
123 hits.
wallstreetjournal.com
WSF: ( no URL available )
6 hits.
WEF: ( no URL available )
47 hits.
The pattern clearly emerges and is not surprising. (BTW, a nice
summary of WSF can be found at http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.js
Information + Knowledge = decision-making = power
The main-stream media are not in the business of informing the
readers but in the business of making money. (Perhaps they are in
the business of informing the readers too, so the discrepancy in
reporting reflects discrepancy in readership, who knows.) This is
not surprising either. The main goal of any business (they teach
that in any graduate school of business) is always to protect the
shareholders' interest, where first on the list of shareholders are
the stockholders, followed by public, employees, creditors and other
groups further down in the distance. In case of a non-government
business that interest is only reflected through shareholders'
wealth accumulation in the narrow sense of the word. Consequently,
this invisible force which makes non-government business work
directs the media to report on events which maximize shareholder's
wealth by focusing (in the case of WSF vs WEF) on the "good
news" in business which increases expectations of future
profits thus, through the vapor-ware mechanisms of the stock market,
yields rising stock prices and the circle is complete.
In the environment of full information and knowledge (one of the
basic assumptions of the free market) this circle would not complete
itself because the news are, in fact, not so good (just ask yourself
about your own life experiences). Therefore, motivated by
self-interest, representatives of business interests hide
information in order to maximize short-term benefit to them. Once in
a while (as it is the case with Enron) this "short term"
is really short, the whole scheme gets exposed and we are shocked,
while in the meantime the main power brokers will have already
creamed the pot and hid away (some of them stick around for too long
and get caught with their fingers deep in the cookie jar). But,
should we be shocked? Not it we fully understand what motivates the
whole mechanism to work against the general public and in the
interest of the few.
The non-owners (general public, that is) are thus blindly
facilitating the transfer of wealth from the pockets of the many to
the pockets of the few either as workers (through direct
exploitation), or as consumers (through secondary exploitation), or
generally though environment degradation in the broad sense of the
word. Recently the scheme became even more devious whereby large
portion of the public act as the owners by proxy (pension funds are
the most obvious example). They get tricked into believing that they
have now "arrived" too, gladly relinquish the control of
their resources to the professional money managers, and get schemed
as well (can you trust the fox with guarding the chicken pen?).
So, what does the general public do? Having full information is one
of the key elements in self-empowering. First step is to realize
that there is a problem, the problem of living unnaturally. We must
ask ourselves why 9/11? why layoffs? why Enrons? why privatization?
why child
-abuse? why spousal abuse? why so many homeless? why schools do not
work? why people die in ER waiting rooms? why am I afraid to speak
out in my workplace? why am I stuck in traffic? why do people
protest WTO? what is wrong with NAFTA and FTAA? why all this and
much more?
Studying these questions (and others) does not come free, it
requires knowledge and effort. Consequently, most of us resort to
the path of least resistance and uncritically swallow the answers
served to us by those who do not work in our best interest - the
main-stream media and government officials. Those answers inevitably
do not give us full information (they serve the short-term interests
of information providers), which makes it possible for the circle
alluded to above to complete itself and makes us willing and
sheepish participants in our own exploitation and maintaining of our
own misery.
Perhaps that's the way it is supposed to be. Perhaps it is the
natural way. Perhaps I do not like it because I see the other
possibilities for a meaningful life. Perhaps the misfortunes of the
individuals are only to be blamed on the individuals themselves (in
the superficial sense) and there is nothing inherently wrong with
the system. I don't know. What do you think?
...DK, 2/17/02
|
 |
There are doubtless many steps that could be taken to enhance security in the air. Such steps might include, for example, enhancing the job status, motivation, training and supervision of ground personnel who are responsible for passenger and cargo security. However, even if such steps were effective in preventing a recurrence of today's disasters, these steps would be of no benefit against the myriad other potential forms of terrorism, from the release of chemical and biological agents to attacks on nuclear reactors. The following are some steps we could take to reduce the likelihood of terrorist attacks in general: 1. Begin working now to end our dependence on petroleum. A considerable portion of oil reserves lies in countries with unstable and autocratic political regimes. Both the leaders of those regimes (like Saddam Hussein) and those who rebel against them (like Osama bin Laden) are likely to engage in violence, and they have the resources to do significant damage. Reducing dependence on petroleum- through conservation and the development of solar energy- will reduce the revenues of these regimes while reducing global warming and enhancing the quality of life of everyone from the world's wealthiest to its poorest people. 2. Condition support for Israel on its immediate withdrawal from the occupied territories and implementation of an effective right of return (including a right of appeal to an international tribunal) for those Palestinians who have been forced out of their homes and off their land. Continuation of the current U.S. policy of virtually unconditional financial (at least $3 billion per year) and diplomatic support for Israel will almost inevitably continue to antagonize large segments of the Arab and Islamic world. 3. Reform the international banking system to eliminate havens for criminals. The United States recently withdrew its support for efforts (initiated by the European Community) to eliminate such havens. The current system makes it too easy for terrorists and their sponsors to maintain anonymous accounts in limitless amounts. 4. Osama bin Laden was trained to be a terrorist by the CIA, as were a number of other well-known terrorists. The Taliban regime that shelters him is also the product of U.S. intervention in Afghanistan during the last days of the Cold War. We should end our training of terrorists and all other unilateral violent interventions abroad. We should also end arms sales, which feed violence and drain resources away from basic needs. 5. Most important, we should conduct our foreign policy in such a way as to reduce the number of people in the world who are alienated to the point of murder and martyrdom, and who are likely to see us as a major source of their problems. That means taking the side of those who are impoverished, subjugated and exploited, rather than of those who oppress them. It is commonly assumed that the rules of morality change at the water's edge, and that our role in the world should be determined by some version of "national interest" in which violence is acceptable as long as it is practiced by us, or by those we support. However, we live in a world in which our borders no longer insulate us from outside threats, whether those threats take the form of pollution, climate change, the exhaustion of fisheries and other natural resources, infectious diseases or terrorist attacks. In this new world, the traditional approach will not work any longer. Our true national interest is in a peaceful world. However, in the absence of justice, there can be no true or lasting peace, and no real security. By placing ourselves on the side of justice, we will slowly make the world a better and safer place for all who live in it, including ourselves and our children. ...Santiago G. Leon (Top) |
|
WHY
INSPIRE HATRED?
|
|
"At this time, let us in the the pro-democracy movement give ourselves to the heart of democracy -- by sharing our best selves with those in pain, in need, in emergencies, and in unfathomable grief. Let us focus in the immediate on the spirit, the deeper soul and body of our nation -- to address, with loving hearts, minds and hands, our physical, moral and spiritual wounds, which wounds are so deep and many tonight. We are all suffering tonight, but others suffer more than we do. Let us help them. Let us suspend our grievances for a brief time, to focus on the well-being of our fellow human beings." So writes Michael Rectenwald, Founder of Citizens for Legitimate Government. (Top) |
|
President Bush supports the polluters' wish listThe Bush energy plan as passed by the House gives away $27 billion in taxpayer subsidies and tax breaks to the fossil fuel, auto and nuclear industries. The House bill would open the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. At the same time, the House rejected an amendment to increase fuel economy standards for SUVs and light trucks, which would have conserved more than twice the amount that could ever be drilled in the Arctic Refuge. President Bush is also considering repealing a key element of the Clean Air Act that forces old and dirty power plants to meet modern pollution standards. In Florida, these old plants produce one-third of all smog-forming pollution and are responsible for 1,740 premature deaths. Without strict government standards, polluting power plants will have no incentive to upgrade their facilities. Sens. Graham and Nelson should oppose the polluters' wish list passed by the House and instead support energy policies that promote clean, renewable energy and increased energy efficiency. DAPHNE SORENSEN, Field Organizer, Florida PIRG |
Have something to say?
|
|
Yes. You can publish this. |
No. Keep this private |
Can you give us a one-line summary on the form below
Participation in this project is easy. This is not a poll, and there are no right or wrong answers. We do ask that your responses be studied, not just opinions, and not geared to finding fault or placing political blame. Certainly we ask you not to be rude - there are flames enough in the telling of the truth... Please read our Service and User Agreement before posting.
If a confirmation notice does not appear after submitting this form please try again
or email us at info@whitecloud.com.com