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January 20, 2004 |
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THIS IS PART 2 OF THE JANUARY 20, 2004 BUZZFLASH MAILBAG. CLICK HERE FOR PART 1. Subj: Words like 'freedom' no longer have meaning The day Saddam Hussein was captured was a great day --- a great day for empty rhetoric and meaningless posturing by politicians and journalists. Somehow it was assumed by politicians and the press, without explanation, that Hussein's capture vindicated the Bush administration's attack on Iraq. But from September 2002 to October 2003, George Bush said nothing about capturing Saddam Hussein. Instead, Bush talked incessantly about weapons of mass destruction, as well as al-Qaida camps in the Iraqi desert. How does finding Saddam Hussein make Bush's claims any more true than they were a few weeks ago? In fact, in the early days of this military action, allied forces tried killing Hussein in his own home with a large smart bomb Wolf Blitzer of CNN said that Hussein's capture proves to the world that "the president of the United States means business," whatever that means. In fact, we've known all along that Bush means business --- the business of getting reelected. Donald Rumsfeld said that Hussein's capture means that the Iraqis can now be free in spirit, as well as in fact. How has Iraq been liberated? Let me count the ways: 1) The country is occupied by a foreign power. 2) Its officials are appointed by that foreign power. 3) Its citizens must carry ID cards. 4) They must be in their homes by curfew time. 5) The occupiers have imposed strict gun-control laws, preventing ordinary citizens from defending themselves --- making robberies, rapes and assaults quite common. 6) The occupiers have decreed that certain electoral outcomes will not be allowed. 7) Families are held hostage until they reveal the whereabouts of wanted resisters --- much like the Nazis held innocent French people hostage during World War II. 8) Protests are outlawed. 9) Private property is raided or demolished, with no warning and with no due process of law. 10) The occupiers have created a fiat currency and imposed it on the populace. 11) Newspapers, radio stations and TV are all supervised by the occupiers. This is liberation in the NewSpeak language of politics, made popular during the Clinton regime. Wouldn't you feel free under those conditions? Thanks to the Patriot Act, you may get a chance see for yourself. Words like freedom just don't seem to mean what they used to, do they? Greg Whiton Subj: DOD Providing E-Voting (On Line) THIS FALL in 50 Counties
I wonder if there is any printed receipt? Buzz Reader Subj: bush's great marriage proposal Today's New York Times included a story outlining a Bush plan to spend $1.5 billion dollars to help couples develop "healthy marriages." We'll ignore for a second that he means only to support traditional heterosexual unions, but check out this quote:
Since when did black=poor and since when did Bush become good at helping poor people? a BuzzFlash reader Subj: Probe Koppel Hey Buzz: I found teddy combat koppel cavalier with service deaths in Iraq. Suggest you check out his final Nightline report from Baghdad, where he sloughs off the 500 deaths of our service men and women as about the traffic deaths in Chicago (or something close to that). He gives no thought to the 2500 maimed and wounded. Nor to the $160,000,000,000 of our treasure out the door. Finally, he gives some blather about "freedom" in Iraq still up in the air. Lets see...BU$H to hand things over by July so it won't clutter the election...hopes to get UN fig leaf...then the kurds are betrayed to the Turks and Iranians, the Sunni's are re-armed, the Shiites create a theocracy---just as the BU$H religio-mafia wishes to do in 2005. Just a thought. Timothy Subj: Accusing Dems of treason, Moon sells cars to North Korea Rev. Moon's influence is all the evidence anyone needs to hurl the GOP out of office. This week, as his Insight Magazine accused Dems of treason, Moon landed a $60 million monopoly to sell cars to the enemy of the United States, North Korea. John Sent to: cbs-advertising&promotion@tvc.cbs.com, cbsadministration@cbs.com: Subj: Super Bowl To whom it may concern, I am concerned that during the Super Bowl coverage on February 1, 2004 you plan on running three ads supportive of the government's actions (About Bush's War on Terrorism), yet won't run one ad unsupportive of the government's actions (About the Rising Deficits). What shameful hypocrisy. You betray your duty to inform the public. Please run the MoveOn ad "Child's Play." Sincerely, - Joey Martin, Chicago, IL Subj: Cheney Comments
I cannot believe he said that. A BuzzFlash Reader Subj: The Draft I was listening to the radio while driving the other day and i heard an odd ad. It was for the "selective service" (the draft) in a glitzy style a young man was extolling the virtues of filling out your draft card. Not once was there a mention that it could be used to draft people, but it made vague references to "college loans" and "some jobs" that required the draft card. Could this be the second step in preparing the country for a draft if bush is re-elected? They've already got the draft boards filled, now they just need the bodies. I'm 22 years old and in prime draft age, I didn't join the military for my own reasons, and I hope I don't have to join for their reasons. A BuzzFlash Reader Subj: Why doesn't Scalia recuse himself from cases that involve his "close personal friend of many years.... Dear BuzzFlash, Just asking. Why is Scalia allowed to sit on the Supreme Court and hear cases that involve his close personal friend of many years...Dick Cheney. They just went duck hunting together. This administration is getting more and more brazen. If a jury was being chosen for any case, a close personal relaionship...or even knowing the litigant, would require them to be recused. Shouldn't Scalia recuse himself from the case coming up about Cheney's energy task force not wanting to divulge its membership and work product? Scalia has no judicial integrity...... (Surprise, surprise!) Why was this close personal friendship between him and Cheney not mentioned when he heard the Bush v. Gore case? Alice B. Buzz, I don't know if you have linked this in the past, but it is Greg Palast's hypothetical Bush resignation speech. If only this were the text for the State of the Union speech tomorrow night: http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=275&row=0 We can only dream.... Michael Subj: CBS I think all of the Democratic candidates should vow not to air any political ads on CBS during the election months in protest over the CBS decision not to air the moveon.org ad. I think there also ought to be serious challenges to CBS FCC licenses due to its failure to provide open airwaves to matters of public concern and debate. Let's remember that CBS ran the "Life. What a Beautiful Choice" ads on their network since this "policy" has been in effect. I find it humorous that they say that they would not run abortion related ads either, which is completely false. "Hypocrisy. What a Terrible Choice." Marc L.
Lippincott Subj: LAPD officers lead belated air delivery of Christmas gifts for poor Mexican children The gift flights were delayed this past holiday season due to the federal government's Code Orange terrorist alert, http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/8127885p-9059889c.html A BuzzFlash Reader SENATOR KENNEDY AND PAUL O'NEILL TOLD THE TRUTH ABOUT GEORGE BUSH. IN FACT BUSH'S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS WILL PROBABLY BE A PACK OF LIES JUST LIKE LAST YEAR'S. YOU CAN'T TRUST THE REPUBLI-CANS. BECAUSE OF THE LYING BUSH HAS LOST CREDIBILTY WITH MANY PEOPLE. A BUZZFLASH READER Subj: It's lyin' time again............. In last year's State of the Union address, President Bush used stark imagery to make the case that military action was necessary. Among other claims, Bush said that Hussein had enough anthrax to "kill several million people," enough botulinum toxin to "subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure" and enough chemical agents to "kill untold thousands." So, how many lies will he tell in this address? we need a web site we can watch as he talks and watch his nose grow the whole time! :):):) A BuzzFlash Reader Subj: 9/11 Commission The traitors in this country are those who don't want and won't allow an extension for the 9/11 Commission. A BuzzFlash Reader Subj: Perpetual Emergency vs. the Rule of Law Hello Buzz, There have been so many changes since 9/11 that the American people have not yet fully assimilated just how much their country has changed in the "process" issues which are beneath the headlines and public discussion, but so critical to the tenor of our daily lives. The Bush administration may or may not be a passing aberration, a Grant administration-like mardi-gras for corruption and plundering of the public coffers. We can always install a Democrat administration in 2004 (assuming the voting process is still uncorrupted and assuming the Democrat message can get out despite structural changes in the mass media that favor the GOP) and begin to repair the damages. What will not be so easy to repair is the basic post- 9/11 weakening of what we call "the rule of law" in this country. We have suffered through corrupt administrations in the past. Bush/Cheney will probably go down in the history books as one of the top 3 such. What we haven't had to deal with, at least since Palmer was AG, is the unprecedented attack on civil liberties undertaken by this administration with the tacit complicity of SCOTUS. What might be called the "red state" voters don't realize yet how serious this is or how far down the road America has travelled to becoming a country distinctly different in "feel" from what it was in the 20th century. A tragedy of history is that Gore was not in office when 9/11 happened; our probable subsequent reaction to it under a Gore administration, while just as effective in enhancing security would have, in all likelihood, been within the rule of law and respective of laws. Such aberrations to the American spirit as Homeland Security, TIA, Patriot Acts, etc. would have been still-born. Corruption is as American, unfortunately, as apple pie; we have always had it, and probably always will. A security-state, a police-state is aberrant and completely outside our historical precedent. But that's what we are getting: http://www.lchr.org/us_law/loss/assessing/introduction.htm The danger is that the changes, if not soon challenged and overturned, might become the new "normalcy", the new standard: just as liberalism which was formally centrist became marginalized and the right wing moved into the center. It is going to be difficult to change things back to the way they were ante-9/11. The "land of the free", must not devolve to "the land of the watched", "the land of the monitored." Michael Subj: Bush is Lying about Social Security Dear Buzz, Bush is lying about Social Security The Social Security trust fund is not a pool; it is a river. The money comes in and goes out; it does not reside in place. The money paid in, today, in payroll taxes, goes out the first of next month as payments. So, if Bush allows an entire generation to DIVERT their money into a DIFFERENT river -- the stock market, for instance (where his corporate friends can make $Billions in profits) -- that money is NOT going into the Social Security river. Therefore, there will NOT be enough money to write the monthly Social Security checks. Anyone who is paying attention can figure out what Bush's goal is. Bush wants to DEPRIVE the Social Security fund of adequate funding, so he can say,
It is hard for the elderly to understand what is about to happen to them. Some are too frail to deal with all this bad news. Some are too ill to deal with all this bad news. Some are too trusting that what they hear on TV or read in their newspapers is factual, as things USED to be in America -- before the Bushites grabbed power. Please explain to any and all elderly people you know -- especially those who depend on their Social Security checks to stay afloat -- what Bush has in mind for them. No sensible elderly person (unless extremely wealthy) should vote for Bush for president, or any Republican for Congress. Bush and the Republicans WILL do away with Medicare and Social Security; anything else they tell you is a lie. Remember all those Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq?.... and Rumsfeld knew exactly where they were -- in Tikrit and the outskirts of Baghdad. These are people who will take us to war based on LIES. Do you think they will not LIE about their intentions toward Medicare and Social Security? Read *Bush to revive Social Security plan* at: http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2004/01/16/stateofunion/index.html - - - - - - - - - - - A BuzzFlash reader Subj: CBS and Super Bowl Dump CBS and the Super Bowl--the best place to run anti-Bush ads is on programs that appeal to women. Women and minorities are the ones that will decide the 2004 election. http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert131.shtml And remember--"It's not the votes that count, it's who counts the votes."-- Josef Stalin :-) Kelle Sent to: tcurley@ap.org <tcurley@ap.org>, cjrtips@yahoo.com <cjrtips@yahoo.com>; pcondon@ap.org <pcondon@ap.org>; traum@ap.org <traum@ap.org>: Subj: Why can't AP reporters get their facts straight? Dear Mr. Curley, Regarding Patrick Condon's 01/19/04 article titled *Edwards pushes to convert late enthusiasm into caucus surprise* (link citations following email), Mr. Condon issues this paragraph (since corrected by the AP): *"The South is not George Bush's back yard," he said of the Texas-born president.* While I'm happy to see Mr. Condon's error was quickly corrected to " Texas-reared", what remains on the record, unfortunately is his apparent determination to make Mr. Edwards appear uninformed when, in fact, it is Mr. Condon who has a poor grasp of both history and geography. After closely following the AP's coverage of the primaries, I see that your reporters losing no opportunity to take a cut at Democratic candidates or Democrats generally, even for quite ordinary and understandable activities. For example, several reporters routinely use words like "bickering" to describe the unsurprising existence of differences among the Democratic candidates. Surely, this isn't the first primary the AP has ever covered. I don't recall the candidates' differences in the hard-fought 2000 Republican primary trivialized as " bickering", nor were all the candidates expected to speak in one voice, lest the entire party be typified as lacking unity, as has also been levelled against the Democrats lately. Perhaps the best example of the AP's honing of the stereotype of Democrats as bickering (and from accumulating AP articles as innately petty, partisan, hypocritical, lying, self-contradicting and flip-flopping) while Republicans are routinely portrayed as the innately neutral, objective, unified standard. A perfect example of this is the following telling paragraph from AP reporter Tom Raum (01/15/03 *Clark's words draw new scrutiny from both rivals and Republicans*): "As the race tightens in Iowa and New Hampshire, the words of the retired Army general are undergoing closer scrutiny and prompting criticism both from his foes and Republicans, who may fear the four-star more than Howard Dean in a general election contest against President Bush." What can the strange phrase "from his foes and Republicans" possibly convey other a ludicrous belief that the various Republican criticisms that follow the cited paragraph bear neither the malice nor subjectivity of criticisms from one of Clark's "foes", his fellow Democrats. Once again, we learn from the AP that Democrats are not only partisan but inclined to attack each other, while Republicans are neutral in their criticism and, of course, unified. This disparity in coverage can no longer be dismissed as a simple case of differing degrees of experience and writing ability among your various political reporters, as these errors and lapses overwhelmingly stack up against Democratic candidates and Democrats generally. The AP has no excuse not to take immediate action to improve the factual accuracy and integrity of your election coverage. Regards, EP Verdi * * * 01/19/04 AP article *Edwards pushes to convert late enthusiasm into caucus surprise* 01/15/03 AP article *Clark's words draw new scrutiny from both rivals and Republicans* Subj: Bush's "pretty face" comment. Do you suppose he's seen _Deliverance_ just once too often? Tom Edmisten [BuzzFlash Note: That must explain why when Bush looks at average Americans, he pictures an unclothed Ned Beatty. "Squeeeeaal!"] Subj: Let's call our Congress reps and say "Hold up a 500 sign Tuesday night" Let's all call our Congressional representatives and ask, nay, BEG them to hold up a sign during the State of the Union message. Just a simple "500" sign -- to represent the 500 brave American heroes who have died so far because Bush lied to us. Our country simply can't survive any more pain and death and educational opportunities lost and jobs lost and money lost because of lies. Regards, Jane Stillwater, Berkeley, CA Subj: Oh, Come ON! One thing you can say about the Bush Administration - they never disappoint. Just when you think it can't get any weirder, they up and surprise you with bizarre paraphrased lines from violent, vaguely homo-erotic 70's movies starring Burt Reynolds. Don't tell me I'm the only loyal BuzzFlashian who found GW's reference to the Canadian Prime Minister's assistant Scott Reid's "pretty face" disturbingly close to that unforgettable line, "You got a purdy mouth," from the movie Deliverance. I swear to God, this is the STRANGEST damn thing I've heard Bush say, and that's saying a lot. Lynne Keeley Subj: We need to enlist the UN to make sure Diebold Voting Machines ...keep an accurate vote count and paper trail. "U.N. Asked to Study Elections for Iraq" Hmmmm??? Natalie
Roth Regarding "Is Bush Coming Out of the Closet or Just Plain Bizarre?": After Bush said "you got a pretty face", did he then also say, "now let's you just drop them pants"? Just wondering. Mike Lauderdale Subj: Racism and Insecurity Okay, this time call me disgusted *and* baffled. In the Telegraph story "French Fury over U.S. Treatment of Air Staff", the following paragraph explains the new policy:
Okay, putting aside the obscene racism of the policy, does anyone else find it odd that Saudi Arabia is not on the list of suspicious birth countries? Did I dream that most of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi born? And isn't monster-at-large Osama bin Laden Saudi Arabian? Now I'm *not* suggesting Saudi air crew or any Saudi traveler should be tormented via our misguided security measures, but why is Saudi Arabia given a pass when the above 10 countries are targeted as likely breeding grounds for terrorists? SNAFU? FUBAR! A BuzzFlash Reader Subj: Follow the Leader! Apparently, our fearful leader was having a “log cabin”moment. This must have impressed Ed Gillespie (RNC-Whining Tool) because he said he thinks John Edwards is a “handsome devil,”but completely unsuited for the presidency because he was a “trial lawyer.” I guess the sound of Taps being played throughout the U.S. can be replaced by Dueling Banjoes. Turk Meister Subj: The Sad State of the Economy Just peruse the headings in this doozy article from cnn. Surely the world's economic potentate can do better than this. Please start by repealing those massive tax cuts to the rich. Get your fiscal health back! ( It's funny how the accompanying graph puts the deficits on top and the lowly Clinton surpluses on the bottom.) I can't take it checking out the American press. I get a sick feeling... A BuzzFlash Reader Subj: Perpetual War for Perpetual Poll Numbers Buzz, The Cabal seems panicked about getting out of Iraq by July 1st. Why? Because DimSon's poll numbers might be seriously tanking by then? And what raises them every time? War. So are they shooting for July 1st so they can start shooting another war [Iran? Syria? France?] before elections? We don't have enough troops to continue in Iraq and start another war, so do they plan to redeploy our young soldiers to another country then? No journalists have proffered this possible scenario. And regarding the polls - how in the world can 50% of the populace approve of what is going on? What can they possibly point to in support of their belief DimSon/Cabal are tough on terrorism? Oh, I forgot; most people watch TV and TV anchor-action-dolls don't tell the whole story - or the truth. T Quigly Subj: The Press Gets Howard Dean The pundits aren't happy unless they are savaging a democrat. Dean was Gored by the media in the last few weeks. What do you think they will do with Kerry? They will be criticizing his wife, his hair and anything else they can dig up. Margaret
Kimberley Subj: Washington Post Contest You have to scroll down, but: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28028-2004Jan18.html
A BuzzFlash Reader Dear BuzzFlash (http://www.BuzzFlash.com/contributors/04/01/con04023.html post), and Dear American Politics Journal (' "College Republican" brownshirt assaults rock legend and Democrat Joan Jett at campaign rally' 01-18-04), After reading that WOI-TV had pulled down the web-posted story of proBush Brown Shirts -- College Young Republicans of Little Brain roughing up Dean supporters in Iowa, including Joan Jett -- I emailed the News Director. I ask him if he thought this story had disappeared just because the station pulled down the post? News Director Scott Frederick wrote back and says the story has been re-posted. http://www.woitv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1607003&nav=1LFWKHOb A BuzzFlash Reader Dear BuzzFlash, Take careful note that, unlike the Dems in FLA, Joan Jett pushed back. It makes for all the difference in the world. Howard
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