 |
|
Dear President Bush,
When you were running for office you stated that Jesus Christ was your
favorite philosopher. You have made a point of proclaiming your Christian
faith. You have put time and energy in an attempt to link Church mission
with state social security. You have, particularly since 9/11, continually
preached God Bless America on almost every public occasion. As a
Pastor and fellow United Methodist I need to ask you: "Do you know
what the values and vision of Jesus are?"
I ask the question because I am baffled and confused by your behavior.
You claim Christ but act like Caesar. There is blood all over your hands
with the promise of even more blood to come. You sit atop the nations like
the Biblical Whore of Babylon openly fornicating with the military men of
might, their corporate sponsors, their nuclear madness, and their
insatiable hunger for global armament. Is this how you learned Christ?
You claim the benevolence of your Administration toward the rest of the
world. But the treaties you make continue to be laced with a tightened
rope around the neck of the poor. Is this how you learned to "forgive
our debtors"? Is it really Christ-like to insist on cuts in
life-supporting infrastructure while increasing military budgets and
allowing the plunder of nations to accrue to a very small financial elite?
Have you not been taught that Jesus was crucified by these same
Principalities and Powers?
You practice a patriotic righteousness that visualizes never ending war
against enemies of great evil. You bombed Afghanistan with both guns and
butter to show the difference. But do you really think the few crumbs of
bread airlifted to Afghanistan shield the reality that you have no
intention of assisting in building a sustainable society there? Is this
how Christ taught you to avenge the wrongs done unto you?
I am troubled by your spirit George. You claim you are of the Sustainer
of Life but you practice the terror of Death. You are spreading the war.
Afghanistan is only the beginning. Military presence crops up worldwide.
You bait us with Iraq and shield what you are doing in Columbia. You lay
the groundwork for disrupting Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina. You allow
the dogs of capitalism to sink their teeth into the battered body of a
raped Central America. The buck stops on your desk George: is this what
Jesus would do?
The Spirit of Death rises and nations tremble. We the people of the
United States tremble. We discover how truly powerless we have become. Our
military budget grows to obscene levels bankrupting the social
infrastructure from which our security and freedom rise. We see basic
medical care costs increase even as more and more Americans find
themselves without health care. We see environmental treaties subverted,
ignored and disappeared even as Mother Earth signals increasing distress.
Labor rights are made secondary to the rights of Corporations resulting in
wage reductions and growing financial insecurity. Homelessness exposes
itself through tented cities. Education becomes the victim of budget knife
cuts. A few benefit but the groan of the masses is growing. Whose side are
you on George?
Perhaps you think that God has chosen you for this hour. Perhaps God
has. So again I ask you, "is this how you learned Christ?" If
God has chosen you for this hour then, in Christ's name, serve the values
and vision of Jesus: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, release the
prisoners, cancel the debt, forgive your enemies, practice Jubilee. Then,
through you, this nation and all nations will be blessed.
But beware George: the road of the sword will bring division and much
blood. Those who take it up will be devoured by it. Many people, in the
name of God, have taken up the sword. And many have come to ruin. Thinking
themselves capable of naming evil they have become the very evil they
name.
Seek Christ first,
Rev. Rich Lang
Pastor, Trinity United Methodist Church
oddrev@yahoo.com
....RitaW, 5/9/02
By Ted Glick
March 20, 2002
In four of my last five Future Hope columns I have written about the
importance of independent, peace and justice electoral campaigns,
particularly now as we face, in Dick Cheney’s words, a war that
"may never end, at least, not in our lifetimes." Faced
with such a prospect, it is essential, imperative, that those of us
who understand the "war on terrorism" for the sham that it
is push ourselves to get out there and speak truth to power, as
publicly, visibly and effectively as possible.
Well-organized electoral campaigns can be one of the most effective
ways to reach the largest number of people in the shortest amount of
time. For many U.S. citizens, elections are the legitimate way to
express political views. Even for those turned off to the
corporate-dominated, two-party system, election campaigns are the
primary way they hear about and relate to politics.
Campaigns can educate, and they can also build organization. The
recent Nader/LaDuke Green Party Presidential campaign is a good
example. There is no question but that the national Green Party of
the United States (USGP) emerged larger, stronger and more unified
as a result of that campaign.
Believing that one should practice what one preaches, I have decided
after many weeks of active exploration to be the New Jersey Green
Party’s candidate for the U.S. Senate this year. I will be running
against Democrat Robert Torricelli and whoever becomes the
Republican nominee.
In a letter I began to circulate this week, here is how I explain my
decision, and what I see as the major issues of this campaign:
The primary reason why I am doing this has to do with what happened
in this country after September 11th. Simply put, I believe that the
Bush-Cheney-Rumsfield administration, supported in most respects by
the national Democrats, is attempting to use the threat of more
terrorist attacks to create a militarized, repressive and even more
unequal country and world. This is a bad thing, but what makes it
worse is the fact that their approach to the problem of terrorism
WILL NOT WORK.
The kind of terrorism we saw on September 11th grows from the soil
of human desperation and recognized injustice, which exist primarily
because of the domination of U.S. multinational corporations around
the world. Terrorism is not ultimately a military problem. It is an
economic and social problem. It can only be ended by a new U.S.
foreign policy based upon social and economic justice and the
raising up of the living standards of the wretched of the earth.
We must stand for fair trade and democracy, not so-called "free
trade" agreements that mainly strengthen corporate
"freedom" to exploit human and natural resources. Such
agreements lead to job loss and union-busting and further erode our
democratic rights.
Robert Torricelli and the Republican nominee will be on the other
side of this set of issues. And they are critical and urgent issues.
That is the first reason why I am running.
I am running because there is an urgent need to get serious about
the development of alternative energy sources so that we will not be
dependent upon Middle East oil and so that we can reverse the
growing crisis of global warming.
In the words of former Texas agricultural commissioner Jim
Hightower, we should "enlist our very best scientists in a
crash program... to resolve any remaining technological impediments
to the mass use of fuel cells, biomass, solar, wind, geo-thermal and
other abundant, clean and cheap energy sources."
We need a crusade to weatherize our buildings and homes and make
them much more energy-efficient. This will both cut our utility
bills and provide jobs for those in need of employment and income.
We need to strengthen our rail, bus and mass transportation systems.
Torricelli and the Republican will at best provide lip service to
this agenda. That is a second reason why I am running.
I am running because I believe that the democratic ideals and
principles of our country, applied unevenly and in a discriminatory
fashion before September 11th, must not be undercut further in the
name of homeland security.
It is one thing to take necessary steps to strengthen security. It
is another thing altogether to expand the ability of the FBI, CIA
and other government agencies to eavesdrop, snoop and secretly
investigate those they choose to go after without any court
authorization or accountability.
The USA Patriot Act should be repealed and new legislation enacted
following open and public Congressional hearings into the question
of what additional law enforcement tools are needed post 9-11. Those
arrested, citizens or immigrants, must have due process rights,
including immediate access to family members and lawyers. Racial
profiling must be ended, and firm action must be taken against acts
of police brutality.
You won’t hear these positions being put forward by the Democratic
and Republican U.S. Senate candidates in New Jersey.
I am running because my campaign can help to build movements in New
Jersey for "clean money" elections and instant
runoff/preference voting. I am convinced that we will never get out
from under the domination of big monied interests in this country
without these reforms.
Under "clean money" systems, now in operation in Maine,
Arizona and Vermont, candidates for public office receive public
financing if they raise a certain number of small donations,
demonstrating a broad base of public support, and agree not to raise
any more money after that point. Under an instant runoff/preference
system, voters number their candidate preferences.
If no candidate receives a majority of the number one votes,
voters’ second and possibly other choices are factored in to
determine the candidate with the most support. This allows voters to
vote for the candidate they like the most without helping to elect
the one they like the least. It expands the pool of alternatives for
the voters and gives them real reasons to vote.
Needless to say, ethically-challenged Torricelli and the Republican
won’t be advocating these reforms.
Finally, I am running because a statewide campaign can help to
strengthen and build the connections that already exist among a
variety of groups: Greens, labor, people of color, feminists,
environmental activists, students and youth, supporters of a death
penalty moratorium, gay/lesbian people, people of faith, peace
activists, senior and community organizations.
For over twenty-five years I have been working to build unity among
all of these various constituencies, believing that only such unity
can lead to the kind of changes we all need. This campaign will draw
from those years of experience.
I hope you will seriously consider support to and/or involvement
with this campaign. We need money, and we need campaign volunteers.
With your support and involvement, I will work hard from now until
November 5th so that people all over New Jersey and beyond will see
that there are new winds of change blowing in this state, a new,
grassroots movement for peace, justice and democracy. Let’s make
it so!
Ted Glick is the National Coordinator of the Independent Progressive
Politics Network ( www.ippn.org)
and author of Future Hope: A Winning Strategy for a Just Society. He
can be reached at futurehopeTG@aol.com
or P.O. Box 1132, Bloomfield, N.J. 07003.
(this article appeared in a ZNET subscriber mailing - please
visit www.zmag.org
and consider becoming a ZNET subscriber)
(Top)
W. David Jenkins III
Michael Moore has done us all a large favor. His latest work,
"Stupid White Men," contains something I needed to remember.
Something we all need to remember. A day we need to relive whenever we
feel like we're losing our grip. The day that redefined a collective
sense of community between many of us in the face of something we
never thought could take place in America. Something many folks refuse
to admit took place.
January 20, 2001. The day "The Coup" became reality.
The first chapter in Moore's book recaps that dark and rainy day a
little over a year ago. I remember feeling somewhat satisfied with the
weather in D.C. that day. It seemed so appropriate and, at the same
time, foretelling of things to come. It was as if Nature decided to
cast a vote seeing that our votes, especially those in Florida, had
been blatantly tossed aside. Nature took it upon herself to stand up
for most of us and rain on the thief who would soon lift her garment
in search of another dollar. And she followed him for months. Some of
you may recall that many of Dubya's outdoor appearances were plagued
by rotten weather early on in his "residency." Like the old
margarine commercial used to say, "Never fool with Mother
Nature!"
Do you remember where you were on that day? Do you remember how you
felt? I remember hearing how Washington D.C. was going to have to add
extra security on Inaugur-Auction Day. I remember hearing about the
masses of expected protesters that were coming. I remember channel
surfing and net surfing looking for hope. Looking for signs that the
rest of America was as angry as I was. I remember seeing a sign
reading DemocraticUnderground.com but the clip was so quick, I had to
call a friend to make sure I'd seen what I thought I'd seen. I
remember spending the months of the campaign going through Bush Watch
and then zipping over to Voter.com and wonder what the heck was wrong
with people? All these polls showing Bush either a little ahead or
neck and neck with Gore. Of course this was before I knew what a
"freeper" was and what they do to polls. And now, here I was
with so many others, staring at my television in disbelief. Do you
remember how sick and angry you were?
Then came that magic moment. I had switched to C-Span because I was
growing sick of the commentators yakking it up or cutting away every
time Dubya's motorcade came across one of the many thousands of robbed
voters who booed him. C-Span was showing just sound and pictures, no
talk. Then it happened. I had to look twice to make sure I was seeing
what I was seeing. But there it was. So beautiful and so appropriate
on this dark day.
The egg. That wonderful angry egg.
I remember the feeling of satisfaction seeing that blessed projectile
slamming into his limousine. I tried to remember, did Clinton get
egged at his inauguration? No.
Did Reagan or Bush Sr. get egged at their inauguration? No.
But there it was. And soon it was joined by another, and another. I
remember wishing that the limo would be turned into a raw, dripping
obscenity on wheels but soon the driver realized what the gas pedal
was for and they sped off.
In the crazy days since 9/11, it's been difficult for some folks to
re-visit the anger and sense of despair we all felt that day in
January. For some reason, some people feel that Dubya woke up on Sept.
12th and became FDR. The media kept telling everybody that he had
somehow "grown into the presidency" while we all shook our
heads and said "Excuse me??" The underhanded way Bush had
stolen away the will of the American people caused many to speculate
as to what really happened on that tragic day last fall. We were and
are being constantly told how united we are without ever once hearing
somebody, anybody, speak on behalf of the misgivings many are having
concerning all this mess. We find ourselves identifying with a roach
like Trent Lott when he said in 1998 he could support the troops
without supporting the president.
But unlike Senator Toupee and his jab at Clinton, it is not blatant
partisanship that makes us question the actual motives in Bush Inc.'s
policies. It's because we simply do not trust him or any of them! They
do not now, nor did they then, have anything resembling a mandate. Yet
they continue to prey upon our weakness and grief over September to
try to make this country an ugly place. From a unified hatred for all
things Muslim or foreign - to the wanton rape of this country in the
name of "security." From the plundering of our civil
liberties in order to advance a government sponsored form of
xenophobia - to the denial of access to information concerning who
really runs this administration.
Bush and Company have desecrated the memory of lost souls in September
by using them as a vehicle to do what we wouldn't have allowed them to
do prior to that horrible day. And every time somebody says "wait
a minute," they have the audacity to point to the wreckage in NYC
and say "this is why. This is why we want you to stay paranoid.
This is why we are going to raise pollution limits. This is why you
must spy on your neighbor. This is why you should stop asking
questions about Enron. This is why I'm going to make Daddy rich with
weapons the military says are useless and out of date. This is why you
shouldn't pry into exactly how terribly I screwed up." It's not
even a matter of reading between the double-speak anymore. They are
being shamelessly conspicuous about it. And, so far, they're still
getting away with it.
So we go back to Democrats.com, Bartcop.com and BuzzFlash.com to make
sure we're not going crazy. We watch garbage passing as news on
television and wonder if these journalist's are really that stupid or
merely being manipulated. We zip back to Liberal Slant, Common Dreams
or America Held Hostile because we crave to hear the voices of those
who speak how we feel. Or we run to MWO and FAIR just to be sure
somebody else knows that Rush and O'Reilly are ignorant shills. It's
so easy to begin to feel like we're alone and that nobody is hearing
how we feel. Then writers like Moore or Carville & Begala come out
with something that reminds us that we're not crazy. That we're not
alone. So what if Barnes and Noble or Borders hide these books in the
back of the store. That doesn't stop us from bringing them back up
front where they belong, does it? That's right. That's what I did.
They only had five copies of "Stupid White Men" left, so I
brought them up front and placed them on top of O'Reilly's and
Buchanan's books. I like to call it "Stealth Activism." Try
it out sometime because I guarantee you'll feel better.
There are signs recently that the worm is beginning to turn. Daschle
and others, including some Republicans, are beginning to ask questions
and put up roadblocks when it comes to Bush's War. People's tolerance
for the secretive operation that is Bush Inc. is starting to fray and
wear thin; much like the cheap flags they spent $14.99 for back in
September. No matter how much the "freepers" have tried to
discredit Moore's book, it's still a number one best seller. Things
are starting to change for the Smirking Chimp (yes, another good site
to check out) that we've been forced to call "Mr.
President." Spring will be here soon and somehow it feels like
this winter wasteland of a sham presidency may thaw with the ice and
snow as well. Like a woodland pond in April, the ice will thin and
George and Company will fall into the still frigid waters. It would
make a great Hallmark card.
"Sorry to hear of your loss…..you Thief!"
But, alas, we know Bush won't give up. Not easily. He's going to keep
on going and the media is going to keep on whitewashing and we're
going to keep on getting frustrated. The little, fortunate draft
dodging AWOL-er is going to keep nauseating us with his "Let's
Roll" garbage while the folks from Fox will still become orgasmic
when they speak of Bush's leadership qualities. That's when we need to
remember January 20th. That's when we need to embrace the
above-mentioned (and other) web sites that remind us we're not alone.
That's when we need to remember "The Egg." That's when we
need to go to the local bookstore and practice a little "Stealth
Activism."
Trust me. You really will feel better.
(Top)
An Open Letter to George W. Bush from Michael Moore
Dear George,
When it's all over in a couple months, and you're packing up your
pretzels and Spot and heading back to Texas, what will be your biggest
regret? Not getting out more often and seeing the sights around Rock
Creek Park? Never once visiting the newly-renovated IKEA in Woodbridge,
Virginia? Or buying your way to the White House with money from a
company that committed the biggest corporate swindle in American
history? I got a feeling you didn't miss much by not spending an entire
Saturday afternoon assembling a Swedish bookcase -- but you should have
known that there was no way you would ever finish your term by hopping
into bed with Kenneth Lay.
It's kind of sad when you think about it. Here you were -- the most
popular president ever! -- the recipient of so much good will from your
fellow Americans after September 11, and then you had to go and blow it.
You just couldn't stay away from your old cowpoke friend from Texas,
Kenneth Lay.
Kenny has always been there for you. You needed a way to fly around to
all the primaries and campaign stops in the 2000 election -- so Kenny
gave you his corporate jet. Did you tell the voters when you arrived in
each city that the bird you flew in on was from a billionaire who was
secretly conspiring to give the bird to all his employees and investors?
He flew you around America on the Enron company jet, and for that favor
you touched down on tarmac after tarmac to tell your fellow citizens
that you were "going to restore dignity to the White House, the
people's house." You said this standing in front of an Enron jet!
Man, you loved Lay so much, you not only affectionately referred to him
as "Kenny Boy," you interrupted an important campaign trip in
April, 2000, to fly back to Houston for the Astro's opening day at the
new Enron Field -- just so you could watch Kenny Boy Lay throw out the
first pitch. How sentimental!
I mean, you loved this man so intensely that, when you were awarded a
set of keys the Supreme Court had made for you so you could live in the
White House, you invited Kenny Boy to set up shop -- at 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue! He interviewed those who would hold high-level
Energy Department positions in your administration.
You not only let Kenny Boy decide who would head the regulatory agency
that oversaw Enron, you let him hand-pick the new chairman of the
Securities and Exchange Commission, Harvey Pitt -- a former lawyer for
his accountant, Arthur Andersen! Kenny and the boys at Andersen also
worked to make sure that accounting firms would be exempt from numerous
regulations and would not be held liable for any "funny
bookkeeping" (don't you wish you were this forward-thinking?).
The rest of Kenny Boy's time was spent next door with his old buddy,
Dick Cheney (Enron and Halliburton, as you'll recall, got the big
contracts from your dad to "rebuild" Kuwait after the Gulf
War). Lay and Dick formed an "energy task force" (Operation
Enduring Graft) which put together the county's new "energy
policy." This policy then went on to shut down every light bulb and
juicer in the state of California. And guess who made out like bandits
while "trading" the energy California was in desperate need
of? Kenny Boy and Enron! No wonder Big Dick doesn't want to turn over
the files about those special meetings with Lay!
The only thing that surprises me more than all the Enron henchmen who
ended up in your cabinet and administration is how our lazy media just
rolled over and didn't report it. The list of Enron people on your
payroll is impressive. Lawrence Lindsey, your chief economic advisor? A
former advisor at Enron! Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill? Former CEO of
Alcoa, whose lobbying firm, Vinson and Elkins, was the #3 contributor to
the your campaign! Who is Vinson and Elkins? The law firm representing
Enron! Who is Alcoa? The top polluter in Texas. Timothy White, the
Secretary of the Army? A former vice-chair of Enron Energy! Robert
Zoellick, your Federal Trade Representative? A former advisor at Enron!
Karl Rove, your main man at the White House? He owned a quarter-million
dollars of Enron stock.
Then there's the Enron lawyer you have nominated to be a federal judge
in Texas, the Enron lobbyist who is your chair of the Republican Party,
the two Enron officials who now work for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay,
and the wife of Texas Senator Phil Gramm who sits on Enron's board. And
there's the aforementioned Mr. Pitt, the former Arthur Andersen attorney
whose job it is now as SEC head to oversee the stock markets. George, it
never stops! My fingers are getting tired typing all this up -- and
there's lots more.
Don't get me wrong, George -- I do not think you're an evil man. You
don't need any crap from people like me -- heck, you got mother-in-law
problems! Now, I have a very good relationship with my mother-in-law,
but then, I never told her to put $8,000 of her money into a company my
administration knew was going belly-up.
You say you didn't know? Your bag man -- Don Evans, the man who squeezed
all that money for you from Enron as your campaign finance chairman (and
is now collecting his reward as your Commerce Secretary) -- has admitted
that he got calls from Enron begging for help last year because they
were going under. Didn't he tell you this?
Then Paul O'Neill, your Treasury Secretary, admitted that Enron and
Kenny Boy called him, too, for some special favors to save Enron. Didn't
he mention this to you? They claim to have called your chief of staff,
Andrew Card, and he said he didn't bother to inform you. What does your
mother-in-law think about these boys her daughter's husband consorts
with?
I love watching the O'Neill and Evans show. What a couple of cut-ups!
They're, like, all proud of themselves for "not doing Enron any
favors." Actually, I think it's more like they didn't do your
MOTHER-IN-LAW any favors. Enron got LOTS of favors. And why not? Kenny
Boy has been your number one financial backer since you ran for
governor. No other American or Saudi has given you more money than Kenny
Boy and his gang at Enron. O'Neill, Evans, Cheney, Energy Secretary
Spencer Abraham -- ALL of them gave Lay and Enron special favors from
day one. The New York Times last May was so concerned about how Kenny
had the run of the place (1600 Pennsylvania Ave.), they referred to Lay
as the "shadow advisor to the president."
And what advice! Who was it that wanted you to deregulate the energy
industry further? Kenny Boy! Who was it that convinced you to explore
the sick idea of PRIVATIZING our water supply and then allow private
corporations to "trade" it in the future? Kenny Boy! Who was
it that wanted Social Security to be tied to the stock market? Yup,
Kenny Boy! (Imagine, if you will, what would have happened to our
precious Social Security funds had they been invested in Enron stocks as
you, George, suggested be done during your campaign as yuppies
everywhere clucked along in agreement over that genius idea.)
O'Neill's and Evans's admission that they "did nothing" when
Enron told them of the company's shell game and impending collapse is
reason enough for you and yours to hit the Beltway and never return to
that sacred trust we call Our American Government. They are proud of
"doing nothing?" By doing nothing, millions of Americans have
been swindled. Tens of thousands have lost their jobs. Thousands more
have lost their savings and their retirement. Yet your cabinet
secretaries gloat over what a "good job" you and they did by
"doing nothing."
Let me ask you this: If someone was setting a house on fire, and they
called you to help them set it on fire, and you said no you wouldn't
help them -- BUT then you also DIDN'T call 911 and inform the police
that someone was going to burn down a house, do you think you would have
committed a crime?
Of course you would have! You had prior knowledge and then you knowingly
and purposefully HID this information from the authorities and the
people living in the house! You only admitted that you knew a house was
going to be torched when you were confronted by the police. Are you
complicit? Yes! Are you an accessory? Yes! Who would even think of going
around boasting, "Hey, look what a great guy I am -- a friend of
mine told me he was going to commit an act of arson, and then I decided
NOT to tell ANYONE about it!! WHOO-HOO!!"
Enron and Kenny Boy bought your silence and the silence of your cabinet
members. You yourself didn't have to actually raid the 401(k) accounts
of those poor people in Houston (many of whom probably voted for you
every time your name was on a ballot). All you had to do was remain
silent, change the government regulations that let them get away with
it, and install their hand-picked cronies to sit on the
"oversight" boards which were supposed to be keeping an eye on
them.
While doing all this, you told the American people that these rich
friends of yours were not getting any special breaks -- when, in fact,
Enron had already scammed their way out of paying NO taxes in four out
of the last five years. Your economic "stimulus" bill that you
got the House to pass after 9-11 had a section that would give Enron a
gift of $250 million of our tax money. You were pushing this bill in
November and December, long after your administration knew that Enron
was raiding the vault and screwing its workers and investors.
You and your Republican friends are quick to point out that Enron had
their claws into the Democrats as well. Yes, they did, and thank you for
making the case why we not only need an alternative to the current
make-up of the Democratic Party, we need private money removed from our
electoral process ASAP.
But, George, let's be real -- the Democrats only got a pittance from
Enron compared to the millions you and the Republicans received.
Democrats just don't have the killer instinct to do anything right, and
they certainly don't know much about making money the old-fashioned way,
one off-shore tax shelter at a time. I would expect nothing less from a
Party that couldn't even put their candidate in the White House after he
had already won the election.
The Democrats are like a Yugo -- you know it won't last long or work
well, but it will occasionally get the job done. Fat cats know they can
buy the Democrats at discount prices, and so they do. Anyone who tries
to deflect this scandal away from you, George, or away from the
Republicans, or away from the whole dirty way we elect our leaders, is
someone who is desperately trying to cling to what's left of a very
crooked system that has to go and go now.
The saddest part of this whole affair was the day the scandal was
revealed -- and you denied that you even knew your good friend, Kenneth
Lay. "Ken who?" you said. Oh, he's just some businessman from
Texas. "Heck, he backed my opponent for governor, Ann
Richards!" was your way of trying to deflect the truth that was
hitting you like a Mack truck. You knew that he, in fact, endorsed YOU
and gave you THREE times the money Ann Richards ever saw from him.
I hardly ever talk to the guy, you said. You were like Peter outside the
walls of Herod after they grabbed J.C. from the Garden of Gethsemane.
Three times he denied he knew Jesus, and three times the cock crowed.
But Peter, unlike you, felt shame and wept, and then ran away.
What shame do you feel tonight, George, for the lies you have told? What
shame do you feel using the dead of 9-11 as a cover for your actions,
hoping that our sorrow for those lost souls and our fear of being killed
by terrorists would distract us from what your boys and Kenny Boy were
up to during those horrific weeks in September and October?
It was during those very days, while the rest of us were in shock and
sadness, that the executives at Enron were selling off their stock and
shifting assets to their 900 phony partnerships overseas. Did they
notice the remains of the dead being pulled from the rubble while they
were downloading their millions, or were their eyes glued only to the
bottom third of the TV screen as the stock ticker with the rigged Enron
price crawled across the images of firemen desperate, in tears, to find
their fallen brothers?
The country was behind you when you said you were fighting the evildoers
who did this. In fact, all the while, the real fight your friends at
Enron were conducting was the fight against the clock, to see how fast
they could transfer all the loot to their personal accounts and run
away. Those were the evildoers, George, and you knew it. And because
you, by design or negligence, allowed this to happen, it is time for you
to resign. The cock has crowed for the last time.
At the very least, your mother-in-law deserves better.
Yours,
Michael Moore-- American Son-in-Law
Owner of 7th LARGEST COMPANY IN AMERICA! (revised ranking)
Dear Citizen,
As this year comes to an end, with daily news of war, destruction,
erosion of civil liberties, and corporate profiteering, it's important
to imagine an America full of peace and justice. At Citizen Works, we
remain focused on building citizen participation in power to advance
justice. Your support is more important than ever.
We can envision a future where citizens have the skills, power and
organization to establish that in America we:
1. Strengthen citizen participation in our political economy. Enact
legislation that mandates publicly-financed public elections and broad
reforms of the electoral process so that votes count far more than
dollars.
2. Enact living wage laws, strengthen worker health and safety laws, and
repeal Taft-Hartley and other obstructions to collective bargaining and
worker rights.
3. Issue environmental protection standards to systematically reduce
global warming, and other damaging environmental toxics and promote
sustainable technologies.
4. Provide full Medicare coverage for everyone and revamp our national
programs for prevention of disease and trauma.
5. Launch a national mission to abolish poverty, as other western
democracies have done, based on proposals made long ago by
conservatives, liberals, and progressives.
6. Design and implement a national security policy to counter violence
and the silent mass violence of global diseases, environmental
devastation and extreme poverty. Reduce waste and corporate domination
of defense budgets - a wasteful defense is a weak defense. Wage peace
and advance nonviolence by educating, foreseeing and forestalling global
perils.
7. Renegotiate autocratic NAFTA and GATT to be democratic and to be
"pull-up" not "pull-down" trade agreements that
subordinate labor,
consumer and environmental standards to trade matters.
8. End criminal justice system discrimination, reject the failed war on
drugs, and replace corporate prisons with superior alternatives.
9. Defend and strengthen civil rights and the civil justice system,
apply criminal laws against corporate crime, and fully prosecute
consumer fraud and abuses. Expand consumer, worker and children's
health, safety and economic rights.
10. Strengthen investor-shareholder rights, remedies and authority over
managers and officers and boards of directors so that those who own the
companies also control them. End the massive corporate welfare schemes
that distort and misallocate public budgets. Reintroduce the historic
function of corporate chartering as an operating instrument of insuring
corporate accountability and the sovereignty of the people.
Please make a donation so that we can continue our programs that teach
citizens, link existing citizen organizations, and protect our future.
Citizen Works has just received tax-exempt status so that means every
gift you give Citizen Works to further democracy is tax-deductible to
the extent provided by law. Please take a quick moment right now to
visit our website at http://www.citizenworks.org
and donate.
You can also make a gift in honor of a friend, colleague or relative.
Citizen Works will send a card letting them know that you donated in
their honor to advance justice. This can be a meaningful gift for people
you know who share your dedication to making this world a more just and
democratic place.
Please take a moment now to go to our website and make a tax-deductible
donation that will build democracy and make a better America by giving
power back to its rightful owners – all Americans. Together we can
make a difference.
Thank you!
Ralph Nader and the Citizen Works Team
www.citizenworks.org
Liberties Be
Damned
By Richard Cohen
It was said of Jerry Ford that if he
met a homeless person in front of the White House, he would give the
guy a couple of bucks. It also was said that if he were asked to
approve a program to aid the homeless, he would veto it. These
things were said because Ford has a generous manner but a
conventional conservative ideology. In George W. Bush, as with Ford,
the former masks the latter.
In Bush's case, the buoyant demeanor of the
locker room towel-snapper has long obscured an indifference to civil
liberties. The proof of that is the adamant position he repeatedly
took on the one civil liberties issue that dogged him as governor of
Texas: the death penalty. He just didn't give a damn.
Now, I grant you that in the conventional
sense, capital punishment is not seen as a civil liberties issue.
The Constitution permits it -- as it once did slavery. Yet nothing
could be more heinous than the killing of an innocent person by the
state -- or, in my view, a guilty person who was insane or immature
at the time the crime was committed. Under any circumstance,
executions serve no purpose.
Capital punishment is the harshest, most
terrifying use of government power, and it explains why elsewhere in
the Western world, the death penalty has been abolished either in
law or in practice -- and why, incidentally, Spain is balking at
extraditing alleged terrorists to the United States. Yet Texas's
sloppy and inexcusable application of capital punishment troubled
Bush not at all. He dispatched 152 people and slept the sleep of a
baby.
So, for that matter, did the occasional
defense lawyer in a death-penalty case. Many defendants went to
their deaths represented by hacks or incompetents, and almost all
the court-appointed lawyers, underfunded by the state, were
handicapped in mounting an aggressive defense. Minors and the
mentally feeble were executed for crimes they dimly perceived, and
such was the condition of Texas's capital punishment system that as
soon as Bush decamped for Washington, the state moved to clean up
its act.
All this would be mere history if it were
not apparent that Bush the president is as apathetic as Bush the
governor when it comes to civil liberties. Attorney General John
Ashcroft, less amiable than his boss, has played the heavy in much
of what has recently been done in the cause of homeland security,
but he is Bush's man -- down to, and including, a manic enthusiasm
for the death penalty.
In the name of anti-terrorism, the
government has abridged what was once the unquestioned right of
lawyers and their clients to confidential consultations. Certain
exceptions will be made -- just a few, mind you -- but if there were
more, we would not know it. We do not even know how many people have
been detained -- and for what. But even if the numbers are few, they
are real people, legally innocent and deserving of both an
accounting and representation.
The Bush administration has also announced
that it will have the military conduct the secret trials of
certain alleged terrorists. The penalty could be death --
please, Mr. President, stifle your yawn -- by a two-thirds vote of
the tribunal. Even in a court-martial, it takes a unanimous jury to
apply the death penalty. Bush has done away with that -- and with
appeals of any kind.
The entire package, implemented by this or
that executive order, represents a grave assault on civil liberties.
It is defended as an appropriate and needed response to the current
emergency -- Don't ya know there's a war on? -- and that, of course,
is a powerful argument. But it is not wholly persuasive.
Why, for instance, can't the government ask
the permission of the court to eavesdrop when lawyers talk to
clients? Why can't it simply move legally against the lawyer if it
feels he's part of some terrorist plot? It already has the authority
to do that. And why can't civilian courts try alleged terrorists?
We've done it in the past, and we can -- despite the difficulty --
do it again.
Given the current situation, we may all
have to breathe a bit more shallowly of the bracing air of freedom.
But the new procedures would be less troubling if we had a president
who had shown himself to be commendably suspicious of police power
and who appreciated that civil liberties do not favor the guilty but
protect the innocent. The record shows, however, that he is not the
type, that he is tenaciously incurious and jaw-droppingly gullible
in his approach to criminal justice matters. Unlike some Texas
defense lawyers, our defender is not asleep. He's merely
indifferent.
Tuesday, November 27, 2001; Page
A13
Washington Post
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
(Top)
from OnlineJournal
None other than conservative columnist William
Safire issues a withering, scornful attack on Bush's dictatorial
executive order to hold military trials: "In an Orwellian twist,
Bush's order calls this Soviet-style abomination "a full and fair
trial."
November 15, 2001
Seizing Dictatorial Power
By WILLIAM SAFIRE, THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON -- Misadvised by a frustrated and
panic-stricken attorney general, a president of the United States has
just assumed what amounts to dictatorial power to jail or execute
aliens. Intimidated by terrorists and inflamed by a passion for rough
justice, we are letting George W. Bush get away with the replacement
of the American rule of law with military kangaroo courts.
In his infamous emergency order, Bush admits to
dismissing "the principles of law and the rules of evidence"
that undergird America's system of justice. He seizes the power to
circumvent the courts and set up his own drumhead tribunals — panels
of officers who will sit in judgment of non-citizens who the president
need only claim "reason to believe" are members of terrorist
organizations.
Not content with his previous decision to permit
police to eavesdrop on a suspect's conversations with an attorney,
Bush now strips the alien accused of even the limited rights afforded
by a court-martial.
His kangaroo court can conceal evidence by
citing national security, make up its own rules, find a defendant
guilty even if a third of the officers disagree, and execute the alien
with no review by any civilian court.
No longer does the judicial branch and an
independent jury stand between the government and the accused. In lieu
of those checks and balances central to our legal system, non-citizens
face an executive that is now investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury
and jailer or executioner. In an Orwellian twist, Bush's order calls
this Soviet-style abomination "a full and fair trial."
On what legal meat does this our Caesar feed?
One precedent the White House cites is a military court after
Lincoln's assassination. (During the Civil War, Lincoln suspended
habeas corpus; does our war on terror require illegal imprisonment
next?) Another is a military court's hanging, approved by the Supreme
Court, of German saboteurs landed by submarine in World War II.
Proponents of Bush's kangaroo court say: Don't
you soft-on-terror, due-process types know there's a war on? Have you
forgotten our 5,000 civilian dead? In an emergency like this, aren't
extraordinary security measures needed to save citizens' lives? If we
step on a few toes, we can apologize to the civil libertarians later.
Those are the arguments of the phony-tough. At a
time when even liberals are debating the ethics of torture of suspects
— weighing the distaste for barbarism against the need to save
innocent lives — it's time for conservative iconoclasts and
card-carrying hard-liners to stand up for American values.
To meet a terrorist emergency, of course some
rules should be stretched and new laws passed. An ethnic dragnet
rounding up visa-skippers or questioning foreign students, if
short-term, is borderline tolerable. Congress's new law permitting
warranted roving wiretaps is understandable.
But let's get to the target that this
blunderbuss order is intended to hit. Here's the big worry in
Washington now: What do we do if Osama bin Laden gives himself up? A
proper trial like that Israel afforded Adolf Eichmann, it is feared,
would give the terrorist a global propaganda platform. Worse, it would
be likely to result in widespread hostage-taking by his followers to
protect him from the punishment he deserves.
The solution is not to corrupt our judicial
tradition by making bin Laden the star of a new Star Chamber. The
solution is to turn his cave into his crypt. When fleeing Taliban
reveal his whereabouts, our bombers should promptly bid him farewell
with 15,000-pound daisy-cutters and 5,000-pound rock-penetrators.
But what if he broadcasts his intent to
surrender, and walks toward us under a white flag? It is not in our
tradition to shoot prisoners. Rather, President Bush should now set
forth a policy of "universal surrender": all of Al Qaeda or
none. Selective surrender of one or a dozen leaders — which would
leave cells in Afghanistan and elsewhere free to fight on — is
unacceptable. We should continue our bombardment of bin Laden's
hideouts until he agrees to identify and surrender his entire
terrorist force.
If he does, our criminal courts can handle them
expeditiously. If, as more likely, the primary terrorist prefers what
he thinks of as martyrdom, that suicidal choice would be his — and
Americans would have no need of kangaroo courts to betray our
principles of justice.
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
(Top)
Nader
Blasts Bush's War at San Francisco Rally
by Jonathan
Nack, October 12, 2001
SAN FRANCISCO - Former Green Party Presidential candidate Ralph
Nader roundly criticized the Bush Administration's war on
terrorism in a speech before an enthusiastic paying audience of
approximately 2,500 at the San Francisco Masonic Center last
night. Nader called for a democratic debate over the
Administration's policies saying, "the mindless bombing of
Afghanistan's infrastructure will not end well for Afghanistan
and, I fear, it will not end well for us." "We are
entitled to ask what this war will cost: what it will cost
Afghans, what it will cost our rights and democracy here, and what
the huge shift of money into the military and corporate bailouts
will cost our domestic programs?"
Nader
called for, "sobriety in these moments of impetuousness,
restraint, and to move forward under international law to
apprehend the criminals." "This is an international
crime and we've got to find ways to bring these criminals to
justice."
Nader
said that, "grief and mourning for the victims must
eventually give way to honoring their memory," and quoted a
statement by President George W. Bush that the terrorists,
"hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom to
assemble, our freedom of speech, and our freedom to
disagree," in justifying the appropriateness of his own
remarks. Nader said that the best way to honor the memories of
those lost on September 11th was to exercise and defend our
democratic freedoms and to, "make sure our government doesn't
slaughter the lives of hundreds of innocent people."
Nader
charged that, "thought police in Washington dismiss all
critical analysis a as justifying the terrorist attack,"
calling for a rejection of that notion while describing the
terrorists' act as, "criminal butchery, a massacre more than
an attack, and with no justification". He urged the audience
to, "never allow Washington to tell you to shut up, get in
line, and waive the flag." "Never let them take your
flag away from you." Nader urged the audience to think for
themselves, to not inhibit what they have to say, and asked,
"how many times have we been told that they were dropping
bombs only on military targets?" Nader concluded that there
was no such thing as limiting bombing to only military targets and
that, "we are not going to be able to bomb our way to a
solution of this problem."
Nader
described the Administration's rationale for the bombing as
"cheap propaganda", which is, "going to get more
rancid and grim." "U.S. attacks on Afghanistan will
spread more hatred of our country and our allies." He also
worried that 7.5 million Afghans face starvation this winter,
which he said was only four weeks away in Afghanistan, while the
U.S. has dropped only "135,000 snacks."
Quoting
approvingly Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's assertion that,
"poverty, disease, and illiteracy are breeding grounds for
tolerance of terrorism," Nader proposed a profound
reorientation of U.S. foreign policy to support democratic forces
and to, "side with the millions and millions of workers and
peasants rather than with dictators and oligarches." He
proposed a, "balanced approach to resolving the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict," and an end to economic
sanctions against Iraq which he said was taking the lives of 5,000
Iraqi children a month. "You do not destabilize a dictator by
destroying the lives of innocent children and adults," said
Nader.
Nader
also called for a renewed defense of civil liberties, opposition
to unwarranted curtailment of them, and reform of intelligence
agencies, including making them "leaner and more
efficient" by reducing their bloated budgets and
bureaucracies.
The
focus of speech was a major departure from the usual agenda of the
longtime consumer activist who usually sticks closely to themes
concerning how corporations have gained too much power and are
subverting democracy. Nader did draw a connection to those themes,
noting that corporations are taking advantage of the tragedy of
September 11 for their own greedy purposes. He pointed to
corporate lobbying for government bailouts, even by industries in
trouble long before the terrorist attacks, for the limiting of
regulations, including the opening up of the Alaskan Arctic
reserve, and opposing benefits for workers who are losing their
jobs.
The
event was billed as a "People Have the Power" rally in
support of San Francisco ballot initiatives for a Municipal
Utility District, which would create public control of power in
response to California's failed electricity deregulation. Nader,
and numerous speakers before him, called for volunteers for a
grassroots campaign which could overwhelm the big money being
spent by Pacific Gas & Electric to defeat the initiatives.
However, Nader and other speakers clearly felt compelled to
address the war. The event was also organized as part of a series
of "super rallies" being held around the country by
Nader's new Democracy Rising campaign. Click
here for audio of Nader's presentation
By FRANK RICH
Welcome back to Sept. 10.
October 27, 2001
The "America Strikes Back" optimism
that surged after Sept. 11 has now been stricken by the multitude of
ways we're losing the war at home. The F.B.I. has proved more
effective in waging turf battles against Rudy Giuliani than waging
war on terrorism. Of the more than 900 suspects arrested, exactly
zero have been criminally charged in the World Trade Center attack
(though one has died of natural causes, we're told, in a New Jersey
jail cell). The Bush team didn't fully recognize that a second
attack on America had begun until more than a week after the first
casualty. The most highly trumpeted breakthrough in the hunt for
anthrax terrorists — Tom Ridge's announcement that "the site
where the letters were mailed" had been found in New Jersey —
proved a dead end. And now the president is posing with
elementary-school children again.
Given that this is the administration that was
touted as being run with C.E.O. clockwork, perhaps it should be
added to the growing list of Things That Have Changed Forever since
Sept. 11. But let's not be so hasty. Not everything changes that
fast — least of all Washington. The White House's home-front
failures are not sudden, unpredictable products of wartime confusion
but direct products of an ethos that has been in place since Jan.
20.
This is an administration that will let its
special interests — particularly its high-rolling campaign
contributors and its noisiest theocrats of the right — have veto
power over public safety, public health and economic prudence in
war, it turns out, no less than in peacetime. When anthrax struck,
the administration's first impulse was not to secure as much Cipro
as speedily as possible to protect Americans, but to protect the
right of pharmaceutical companies to profiteer. The White House's
faith in tax cuts as a panacea for all national ills has led to such
absurdities as this week's House "stimulus" package
showering $254 million on Enron, the reeling Houston energy company
(now under S.E.C. investigation) that has served as a Bush campaign
cash machine.
Airport security, which has been enhanced by
at best cosmetic tweaks since Sept. 11, is also held hostage by
campaign cash: As Salon has reported, ServiceMaster, a supplier of
the low-wage employees who ineptly man the gates, is another G.O.P.
donor. Not that Republicans stand alone in putting fat cats first.
In a display of bipartisanship, Democrats — lobbied by Linda Hall
Daschle, the Senate majority leader's wife — joined the
administration in handing the airlines a $15 billion bailout that
enforces no reduction in the salaries of the industry's C.E.O.'s
even as they lay off tens of thousands of their employees.
To see how the religious right has exerted its
own distortions on homeland security, you also have to consider an
administration pattern that goes back to its creation — and one
that explains the recent trials of poor Tom Ridge.
Mr. Ridge is by all accounts a capable leader
— a successful governor of a large state (Pennsylvania) who won
the Bronze Star for heroism in Vietnam. A close friend of George W.
Bush, he should have been in the administration from the get-go, and
was widely rumored to be a candidate for various jobs, including the
vice presidency. But after being pilloried by the right because he
supports abortion rights, he got zilch. Instead of Mr. Ridge, the
administration signed on the pro-life John Ashcroft and Tommy
Thompson — who have brought us where we are today.
The farcical failures of these two cabinet
secretaries are not merely those of public relations — though Mr.
Thompson often comes across as a Chamber of Commerce glad- hander
who doesn't know his pants are on fire, and Mr. Ashcroft often
shakes as if he's not just seen great Caesar's ghost but perhaps
John Mitchell's as well. Both have a history of letting politics
override public policy that dates to the start of the
administration. They've seen no reason to reverse their partisan
priorities even at a time when the patriotic duty of effectively
fighting terror should be their No. 1 concern.
Pre-Sept. 11, Mr. Thompson, in defiance of
science, heartily lent his credibility to the Bush administration's
stem cell "compromise" by going along with its
overstatement of the viability and diversity of the stem cell lines
it would deliver to researchers. Post-Sept. 11, he destroyed his
credibility by understating the severity of the anthrax threat, also
in defiance of science. Now he maintains that the $1.5 billion the
administration is requesting to plug the many holes in our public
health system — almost all of it earmarked for stockpiling
pharmaceuticals, not shoring up local hospitals — is adequate for
fighting bioterrorism. This, too, is in defiance of all expert
estimates, including that of the one physician in the Senate, the
Republican Bill Frist.
It should also be on Mr. Thompson's conscience
that for the first two weeks of the anthrax crisis he kept the
federal government's house physician — David Satcher, the surgeon
general and a much-needed honest broker of public health — locked
away, presumably because Dr. Satcher, a Clinton appointee, became
persona non grata in the Bush administration for issuing a June
report on teenage sexuality that angered the religious right. Only
after Mr. Ridge arrived on the scene was the surgeon general
liberated from the gulag.
As for Mr. Ashcroft, he has gone so far as to
turn away firsthand information about domestic terrorism for
political reasons. Planned Parenthood, which has been on the front
lines of anthrax scares for years and has by grim necessity
marshaled the medical and security expertise to combat them, has
sought a meeting with the attorney general since he took office but
has never been granted one. This was true not only before Sept. 11
but, says Ann Glazier, Planned Parenthood's director of security,
remains true — even though her organization, long targeted by such
home-grown Talibans as the Army of God, has a decade's worth of
leads on "the convergence of international and domestic
terrorism."
Ms. Glazier found the sight of Mr. Ashcroft
and other federal Keystone Kops offering a $1 million reward for
anthrax terrorists a laughable indication of how little grasp they
have of the enemy. "Religious extremists don't respond to
money," she points out. Such is the state of the F.B.I., she
adds, that one agent told a clinic to hold onto a suspect letter for
a couple of days "because we have so many here we're afraid
we're going to lose it" (perhaps among the Timothy McVeigh
documents).
If either the attorney general or the
secretary of health and human services inspired anything like the
confidence that, say, Mayor Giuliani does, there wouldn't have been
a need to draft Mr. Ridge. Even so, he's mainly a P.R. gimmick — a
man who should have been in the administration in the first place
reduced to serving as a fig leaf for lightweights. As director of
homeland security, he's allegedly charged with supervising nearly 50
government agencies — so far with roughly a dozen staff members.
When asked to define Mr. Ridge's responsibilities, Ari Fleischer
said on Wednesday that it was "a very busy coordination
job," but so far Mr. Ridge is mainly sowing still more
confusion.
The one specific duty that he has claimed —
in an interview with Tom Brokaw — was that he'd be the one
"making the phone call" to the president to shoot down any
commercial airliner turned into a flying bomb by hijackers. That
presumably comes as news to Donald Rumsfeld, who made no provision
for any homeland security czar in the Air Force chain of command he
publicly codified days after Mr. Ridge's appointment.
Since the administration tightly metes out the
news from Afghanistan, we can only hope that the war there is being
executed more effectively than the war here — even as Mr. Rumsfeld
and his generals now tell us that the Taliban, once expected to
implode in days, are proving Viet- Cong-like in their
intractability. The Wall Street Journal also reported this week that
"instead of a thankful Afghan population, popular support for
the Taliban appears to be solidifying and anger with the U.S.
growing."
Maybe we're losing that battle for Afghan
hearts and minds in part because the Bush State Department appointee
in charge of the propaganda effort is a C.E.O. (from Madison Avenue)
chosen not for her expertise in policy or politics but for her
salesmanship on behalf of domestic products like Head &
Shoulders shampoo. If we can't effectively fight anthrax, I guess
it's reassuring to know we can always win the war on dandruff.
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company |
Privacy Information
(Top)
First there were the terrorist attacks of 9-11,
followed by shock and horror.
Then the country was rushed through an
accelerated grieving process that left emotions frayed, feelings
unresolved and questions unanswered. Love and compassion remain, but
now they are secondary to the reverberation of "war" drums
and cries to subdue a vaguely defined enemy.
Then the propaganda machine kicked into high
gear. Fear has been aroused in the minds of the masses, along with
loathing, anger and vengeance. The colors have been unfurled to the
tune of our patriotic songs. The enemy has been labeled and demonized,
we are all on the bandwagon and told to unite but remain vigilant,
support our country and leaders but be expected to sacrifice some of
our cherished liberties. We are euphemistically told that we will
"smoke out" the bad guys, that "humanitarian"
relief is on its way to civilians who may be in the line of fire.
Not far behind is censorship of the media, of
the postal service, the internet and other forms of communication that
we take for granted. At the same time we are expected to go about life
as usual. Cognitive dissonance deepens. A national malaise and
indifference toward policy and actions sets in, regardless of the
deaths and unnecessary suffering they bring.
After these paradoxes are firmly entrenched in
the psyche and accepted by the masses, will mandatory testing for
biological agents be required? Followed soon thereafter by mandatory inoculation?
Will many gladly step in line out of the fear that has been sown
through the mainstream propaganda machine? Some medical experts (The
American Public Health Association, the Journal of the American
Medical Association and the British Public Health Laboratory Service)
recommend both a vaccine and antibiotics as a treatment for anthrax
exposure. Perhaps contraindicated with our doses of Prozac and Valium,
would that we become a nation of guinea pigs and zombies?
For those who refuse either testing or inoculation,
will their jobs be taken from them in the former case? And will they
be imprisoned, quarantined, demonized ("The Scarlet Letter")
or, worse, forcibly vaccinated against their will in the latter? All
for Security of the Homeland? The Writ of Habeas Corpus is all but
suspended. New legislation gives law enforcement broad power to arrest
and indefinitely detain persons, all the while withholding arrest
information from families and media. There is even open talk of
torture - not by any agencies of the US, of course, but by its allies
who have less rigid laws prohibiting such methods.
There is growing fear of "agroterrorism",
with concern about ways to protect a food supply that is becoming more
reliant on imports. Irradiation (the equivalent of 10 million to 70
million x-rays) may be the next step to protecting us from this
threat. The FDA has already approved using radiation on a wide range
of foods to increase shelf life and to kill food-borne pathogens that
result from filthy slaughterhouses and unsanitary farming and food
processing practices. But with higher levels of arsenic in our
drinking water, higher levels of pollutants in our environment,
lowered safety standards in the workplace if we even have a job, and
Big Brother right outside our doors, who's going to notice a few rads
in our children's milk and cereal? After all, won't their shelf life
be extended in the process?
Bank accounts have been seized. Switzerland,
currently being chastised for not joining the coalition to globalize
world economics, is also reported to be on the verge of financial
collapse, with pressure to join the EU. (Read: Swiss bank accounts
will no longer be secure from prying eyes.)
At home, no one has stepped forward to claim
$2.5 million dollars that was made on American and United Airlines
stocks just days before the 9-11 attacks. Multi-billion dollar
corporations have been bailed out and subsidized with taxpayer money,
within months of receiving the largest tax breaks in history. Now
Congress is considering an economic stimulus package that is no more
than partisan tax relief for the rich and powerful, with the poor and
unemployed getting nothing of consequence. Under the cover of crisis,
anything is possible. Are we to consider these opportunistic
individuals and corporations as patriots?
Polls show 90 percent of Americans (Which ones?)
support military action in Afghanistan. Almost two-thirds of Americans
(Which ones?), 65 percent, said they would still support the war if
1,000 American troops were killed. The same survey found the public
(Which ones?), by wide margins (How wide?), willing to continue even
if the war on terrorism (As defined by whom?) meant there was less
money to spend on domestic programs, prompted a long recession or
caused taxes to rise. Most of us have enough trouble balancing our
checkbooks, let alone being bothered to reason through, argue and
debate manipulative "polls" and "surveys."
Republicans are Americans. Democrats are
Americans. Muslims are Americans. Jews are Americans. Buddhists and
Hindus are Americans. Protesters are Americans. Poor citizens and
rich, from all classes of society, are Americans. Were all of these
populations represented in the polls cited above? How were the
questions asked to the people who participated in the polls?
Photos are distributed throughout the mainstream
media. Close-up images suggest masses are protesting against America
and its allies. But what do the photos really show? At closer glance,
if counted, are there usually no more than a dozen or so people in any
of these photo ops? Are these really the mass demonstrations we are
led to believe? Or just more propaganda?
We are told of the history of Afghanistan or
Pakistan and the plight of their peoples, all the while attention is
deflected away from the US and its historical role in large numbers of
imperialistic acts, both at home and abroad. Is Manifest Destiny alive
and well? Is it a never-ending phenomena that justifies and excuses
all sorts of violent, selfish, and reprehensible acts. Rather than
buckskins, our free-trade pioneers wear $500 suits and blaze their way
across the globe, dead-set on razing the wilderness of third world
"savages" and claiming what is left for their own.
Is it International Destiny (Michael T. Lubragge,
"The American Revolution"-an .html project) that now will
make excusable new humanity crimes and the establishment of
free-market economics, consumerism and corporate profit as the Holy
Trinity of a new world religion? Can we really afford to pray on it,
count our Rosaries and wait to find out?
"To criticize one's country is to do it a
service and pay it a compliment," said former Senator J. William
Fulbright. "It is a service because it may spur the country to do
better than it is doing; it is a compliment because it evidences a
belief that a country can do better than it is doing. In a democracy,
dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is
not in its taste but its effect, not how it makes people feel in the
moment but how it makes them feel in the long run. Criticism, in
short, is more than a right; it is an act of patriotism, a higher form
of patriotism, I believe, than the familiar rituals of national
adulation."
As a friend recently remarked, "The more
events unfold in this latest "war to end all wars", the more
it seems we are sitting in the audience of a really bad B movie full
of clichés, one dimensional and vacant characters who recite the same
inane dialogue." Is it enough to be able to see through the
character's shadowy actions, to know them for what they really are? To
wince at their use of predictable, violent methods of response to the
attacks of 9-11? When does "self-defense" become just
another instance of "terrorism?" Is it enough to know all of
this without crying out, "No!", it should not be this way?
"All of us today share a feeling of grief
and outrage over the events of September 11 and a desire that those
responsible for mass murder be brought to justice," wrote Eric
Foner, Columbia University Professor of History. "But at times of
crisis the most patriotic act of all is the unyielding defense of
civil liberties and the right to dissent."
Is there more that you and I can do?
Jacob Lerner, 10/25/01
(Top)
By Pepe Escobar
ISLAMABAD - "This information cannot be
independently verified."
This is the new mantra on 24-hour news TV as the
Slaughter Show of the world's most miserable by the world's most
affluent reaches its third week - with very good ratings indeed.
Shame on CNN and BBC. Shame on Donald
"Duck!" Rumsfeld. Fact: Afghan civilians are dying by the
hundreds, victims of American bombing. But for Christiane "The
Vulture" Amanpour, Father John Simpson, those sparkling,
bubbly, fizzy CNN talking heads, and those dour, somber,
frozen-cucumber BBC talking heads, "this information cannot
beindependently verified".
CNN and BBC are now indistinguishable from
"Duck!" Rumsfeld. They behave like fundamentalists: with
arrogance - in their sense of unquestionable superiority; with
certainty - in their iron belief in a set of absolutely
universal values; with prejudice - why would they waste their time
trying to understand what is profoundly different from themselves?
As BBC's Tim "Mr Righteous" Sebastian
put it in referring to Pakistan, why should the West cut "shabby
little deals with shabby little nations"?
The Rasool family was having breakfast in Kabul
when a bomb supposed to hit a military base a mile away struck their
house, killing nine members of the extended family and injuring
12. Refugees crossing the Chaman border every day tell of dozens of
civilian victims in Kandahar. "Duck!" Rumsfeld would say
they are nothing but liars.
Afghan civilians, for CNN and BBC, obviously do
not qualify as independent. They are the only eyewitnesses of the
carnage inside Afghanistan. But "independently verified"
means verified by CNN or the BBC - in their arrogant, barely contained
rage at not being there, inside Afghanistan. Every serious
journalist now working in Pakistan is obviously
on the verge of a nervous breakdown brought on by the impossibility of
being in the theater of war. But it is hard enough trying to convince
the Taliban that it is in their own interest to open the borders for
the global print media - without having to cope with the "You're
lying" shrieks of CNN and BBC.
Al Jazeera - the Qatar-based TV station -
happens to be inside Afghanistan and as close to the theater of war as
possible - but that is too much for the Anglo-American media giants,
and Way Too Much for America itself, which does not think twice about
censoring "sensitive" Al Jazeera broadcasts. Mohamad Bourini
is a reporter covering the war for
Al Jazeera from Peshawar. He worked for
three years in Afghanistan. He said he was "never
censored" by his bosses in Doha, Qatar.
The smart, high-IQ bombs of the Pentagon may not
find Osama bin Laden and the evildoers of Al-Qaeda, but they are
finding houses a mile away from their targets, UN mine-clearing staff,
shepherds and their families, a whole village, a Red Cross compound, a
school, a bus, the bazaars of Kandahar, a hospital in Herat. It is a
sterling record - but of course this cannot be independently verified.
One of these days the Pentagon may even "inadvertently" drop
a bomb on Al Jazeera's office in Kabul - and remain mute about it. Or
accuse any accusing voice of lying.
As this is an invisible war, and
perception is reality, the fact is that the Pentagon can say or not
say anything it wants: its barrage of disinformation cannot be
independently verified.
So the major public relations lesson is this: if
you are rich and poweful and Western, you can bomb whatever you like,
the way you like, for as long as you like. And you disclose
information - if any - about it the way you like. If you are poor and
miserable and Islamic, you shut up and get bombed. Don't make any
attempt to say anything about it, because your information cannot be
independently verified.
The Greatest Armada in the History of the
Universe took four days to secure "aerial supremacy" over a
pair of ailing MiGs. Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, the Taliban
supreme military commander, said that not a single leader or commander
was killed in two weeks of American ballistic fury. He said the
Taliban planes were "safe", and Osama bin Laden was
"safe, sound and in good spirits". The Taliban says it
downed an American helicopter: but the spare parts shown by the
Taliban, says the Pentagon, were made by Bin Laden Enterprises.
So T S Eliot was wrong. This is the way the
world ends: not with a bang - but with zillions of whimpers which
cannot be independently verified.
|
