The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are not necessarily those of BuzzFlash. Read the BuzzFlash FAQ for info on submitting to the Mailbag.

Subject: Congress.org website bias

BuzzFlash:

I first participated in this "poll" months ago when it showed up on the congress.org website.  Since day one and for many weeks following, almost all states showed Kerry far ahead -- except 3 or 4.

Subject: Fear and Loathing

Dear BuzzFlash,

Upon reading about the brouhaha concerning the Online-ad featuring images of Hitler on the BuSh-cheney website, I decided to take a look at both major party candidates' sites. Here are my conclusions:

Shock and Awe are alive and well. I found it fascinating, though not surprising the candidate who has tried to make pessimism his central theme would sport a site overloaded with messages designed to frighten voters. "John Kerry will raise taxes....John Kerry will be soft on crime and terrorism...John Kerry will..." There are no fewer than four images of John Kerry on just the front page of GW's site. Such fear and loathing. What I found scant evidence of was any reference to actual accomplishments of the BuSh-cheney administration much less a plan to take this nation forward. Does no news pundit find it strange it is so hard to find a link to an actual Pro-BuSh ad? Only negative, which I imagine to be synonymous with pessimism.

By contrast, John Kerry's site exudes confidence and optimism. Other than small text links to the blog and the dBunked portion of the site, reference to the failings of GW and crew were few and far between. What was evident was a plan for American health care, fighting poverty, helping restore the environment and hope for improving America's image abroad. The site highlights the American people and their spirit, not the ego of the candidate. I find no images of BuSh-cheney on the front page. The ads linked were ads defining John Kerry and outlining proposals for domestic and foreign programs.

Of course BuzzFlash was one of the first to warn John Kerry to define himself or risk being defined. Kerry's web site does that. I am sick to death of hearing "journalists" and pundits tell the American public that "we just don't know John Kerry." Senator Kerry has an illustrious career of service spanning 4 decades. He brings far more experience and successful legislation to this election than GW has to his credit in a lifetime of failed business, failed state administration and now failed leadership through a time of crisis and opportunity. We selected one leader when we didn't "know him." Even though the evidence was there. Even though drunk driving convictions, possible desertion or at least dereliction of duty while avoiding service, drug use, shady business deals, cronyism were all evident, no one needed to say "we just don't know this guy." Amazing. A career public servant (duly elected) with credentials dating back 40 years "embellished the truth." Yet a an unknown with a non-existent record of service was selected.

let's not let it happen again. As much as I can lament John Kerry not "defining himself," it is our duties as voters to see to it we and others are informed. It is time for all of us to define both candidates. It is time to "go in for the kill" on one of the most deceitful, ill-mannered, unprepared, arrogant and ignorant presidents this nation could ever select. It is time for us to hold up the thoughtful contributions John Kerry has made. It is time to point out that what this administration claims are flip-flops are in fact thoughtful reconsideration of topics and issues that can not be defined in jingoisms such as "for us or against us," "evil or good." It must now be pointed out that Msrs. BuSh and cheney have broken their solemn oath to uphold the Constitution and to protect Americans from harm. Blindly following a failed policy and not changing course when conditions change is not leadership. It is criminally naive.

Thanks for your time

Mark Richey
Tokyo

Subject: War Crimes

Dear Buzz,

As long as the taxpayers are footing the bill for this trial of Saddam, why not try Bush at the same time, and save a few bucks? Sounds good to me. To Andy Grainger of London, Ont., Canada, who said we should send voting officials up to Canada.....Andy, at least your votes in Canada count, and you don't have people trying to 'fix' the election like they try to do in the US...just hang in there.

A Loyal Buzz Fan Forever!

Sharon Carlton
Bellevue, Nebraska

Subject: Tim's last kill

What a heart-wrenching article...so well written. I  am  amazed that that mother had the presence of mind to do it.  It was a story that progressed to the end, so telling. My granddaughter is that kind of "Patriot," and it likely is not going to be so much as Tim.  She cannot be sent back for a year...but will likely be sent into Bosnia or Korea as peace keeping.  She is trying to get certified as a translater in Bosnia, she speaks some...and they have advised her to do that.

The story of Tim's demise into the hatred of this administration is what is troubling. When I think that I got an ulcer one year ago...thereabouts...because I just could not keep my mouth shut about George Bush's administration....I just have learned!!!

When someone you love looks you in the eye and says, about Bill Clinton, my favorite president, that "He should have been hung in the White house,"  I only hope that God does not choose to take his daughter, just to show him the way.

Sorry, but I am convinced that the right wing of this country is, at this time, the most corrupt people on the face of the earth.!! What Cheney did would have gotten a Democrat impeached!! There are some good signs, though.  Today...the ad for Fahrenheit is all over the entertainment page...before it was about a one inch by two inch ad. Now, the other theatres are getting onto it...and of course, they want a piece of the action...they want some of that money that this movie is bringing in...what Idiots!!

I have also been seeing many, many more 'Kerry for President' signs...in yards and on bumpers...I have one up on my fridge door...and did not get shot for that, so I will put one on my car.

Subject: One Way the Right Wins Elections

BuzzFlash writes:

The former head of a Republican consulting group has pleaded guilty to jamming Democratic telephone lines in several New Hampshire cities during the 2002 general election. (AP, 7/2)

Perhaps this guy would make a good GOP Supreme Court nominee. He'd sure fit right in!

Inside each of us, the little boy or girl still hides. We may even dress up in private -- put on a soldier suit or a silly hat and sneak a peek in the mirror. If we have been careful in our choice of profession, we are even allowed to dress up in public. Look at RuPaul, say. Look at Oliver North testifying in his cool Marine threads. Or look at William Hubbs Rehnquist in his black robe with fat gold stripes so everybody will know he's The Biggest Justice of Them All.
But underneath that robe hides the same little scamp, Billy Rehnquist, who used to run around the neighborhood terrorizing minority voters forty years ago.

Return with me now to those innocent days of yesteryear.

It is election day in November of 1962. We are in Phoenix, Arizona, where a young former Supreme Court clerk is doing his unlevel best to see that Barry Goldwater is elected president. The young man, William H. Rehnquist, Esq., has been director of "ballot security" operations for the local Republican Party since 1958. On this day, he is the sole Republican official at a polling station in south Phoenix, which is overwhelmingly African-American, Hispanic, and Democratic.

On that same day in Phoenix, another young lawyer, James J. Brosnahan, is sitting in the office of the United States Attorney in Phoenix. Mr. Brosnahan, a graduate of Harvard Law School, is an assistant U.S. attorney.
Complaints of voter harassment are pouring in from precincts in south Phoenix. Republican challengers are said to be breaking the federal law which makes it a crime to "intimidate, threaten, or coerce . . . for the purpose of interfering with the right to vote."

Mr. Brosnahan is dispatched, along with an FBI agent, to investigate these charges of voter intimidation. Mr. Brosnahan's sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1986 follows:

The complaints we received alleged in various forms that the Republican challengers were aggressively challenging many voters without having a basis for that challenge . . .

Based on my interviews with others, polling officials, and my fellow assistant U.S. attorneys, it was my opinion in 1962 that the challenging effort was designed to reduce the number of black and Hispanic voters by confrontation and intimidation . . .

When we arrived, the situation was tense. At that precinct I saw William Rehnquist, who was serving as the only Republican challenger (emphasis added). The FBI agent and I both showed our identifications to those concerned, including Mr. Rehnquist . . . The complaints did involve Mr. Rehnquist's conduct. Our arrival and the showing of our identifications had a quieting effect on the situation and after interviewing several witnesses, we left. Criminal prosecution was declined as a matter of prosecutorial discretion . . .

I have read the testimony and letter supplied by Justice Designate William Rehnquist to this committee in 1971 . . . He describes his role in the early 1960s as trying to arbitrate disputes at polling places. That is not what Mr. Rehnquist was doing when I saw him on Election Day in 1962.

At page 491 of the 1971 Record in his letter, William Rehnquist stated: "In none of those years did I personally engage in challenging the qualifications of any voters." This does not comport with my recollection of the events I witnessed in 1962 when Mr. Rehnquist did serve as a challenger.

Let's be fair, though. After all, Little Billy Rehnquist has come a long, long way from those early days in Arizona. It is 2,300 miles from south Phoenix to Washington.

Howie K.

Subject: RE Afternoon buzz Bush Cartel Censors Saddam Testimony!

Peter Jennings (ABC) did air the quote and many more last night. It was kind of amazing.  Saddam pretty much ran the show. The judge didn't have much to say. ABC showed about 7-10 minutes of it -- all with sound. I'm sure there was much left out, but they definitely aired Saddam saying: "Everyone knows that this is a theatrical comedy by Bush, the criminal, in an attempt to win the election."

Lucinda

Subject: Re Our Man in Iraq

In 1984 the Reagan administration's plan to ignore the will of Congress and crush the duly elected Sandinista government in Nicaragua was in full swing. Money was coming in from the sale of arms to Iran, the CIA was training death squads to kill anyone who opposed the Reagan agenda, and someone had to coordinate those efforts. That someone was John D. Negroponte

Negroponte is charged by human rights groups with running political cover for the CIA sponsored Honduran Intelligence Battalion 3-16. Battalion 3-16, led by General Luis Alonso Discua Elvir, a graduate of the School of the Americas, was directly responsible for the disappearance of thousands of Nicaraguans who did nothing more than resist a foreign overthrow of their chosen leaders.

Lucinda

The reason American progressives/populists keep losing is that they fight as "nice guys," and in the immortal words of Leo Durocher, "nice guys finish last." American fascists do not fight as nice guys. They fight to win, any way they can. Lies, intimidation, slander, bribery, betrayal -- anything and everything that "wins" because they know that above all, Americans love "winners." As the actress Elizabeth Taylor has put it: "There's no deodorant like success." The right wins as the left whines.

gmurs

Subject: Bill Moyers' 7/2/04 PBS show "Now"--You must get people to read transcript...

This is a copy of an e mail I sent to John Kerry -- then I remembered you really need to direct people to this show or a transcript of it -- it is totally mind blowing...

oh my goodness.  on pbs "Now" with Bill Moyers, Frank Luntz (the man put the words in the mouth of Bush administration), is spewing out his secrets to the interviewer.  You must watch or get a transcript of July 2, 2004 "Now" with Bill Moyers on PBS.  Here is the website:   http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript327_full.html -- this will help you.  Also, they did a piece on Congress' raises that are automatic -- and all the health care everyone gets, yet soldiers have a charity food bank on base -- and so many people have no healthcare.  It is weird to know that congress is paying 235.48 dollars a year for a family of four-- and that each of you make over 150,000 a year-- and your pensions...unreal.  This really needs to be fixed. And congress is trying to help corporations lower their companies' pension funds.  What is this?  You all get a raise automatically every year and your pensions go up every year.  SPEAK OUT NOW....

Karin

[BuzzFlash Note: Brancaccio questioned him on his Orwellian, manipulative use of language for political purposes, too.]

Subject: Thank GOD, in more ways than one...

Aha! It was bound to happen. The "we'll give you federal money that you can wisely distribute among your congregation's neediest" has in the last couple of days turned into "...and here's what we want you to do for it," including a timeline with tasks to be accomplished! The points of accomplishments are included in the link.

Thank God not all of them are buying it.

Quote: "On Friday, Land said: "It's one thing for a church member motivated by exhortations to exercise his Christian citizenship to go out and decide to work on the Bush campaign or the Kerry campaign. It's another and totally inappropriate thing for a political campaign to ask workers who may be church members to provide church member information through the use of directories to solicit partisan support."

Baptists Angry at Bush Campaign Tactics

Maria
NYC

Subject: Election Monitoring

http://www.petitiononline.com/cce2004/

To: Jimmy Carter & The Carter Center

There is a crisis of confidence in America both at home and abroad. Starting with the 2000 presidential election and continuing until today, the concepts of democracy and what it means to be American have taken a beating. From the disenfranchised Florida voters to the suspect reasoning for entering into a pre-emptive war against Iraq, confidence and trust in the United States is at an all-time low. We have lost the respect of our friends around the world. So, as we approach another presidential election, rebuilding the reputation of America as a strong and true democracy is of the utmost importance.

If there is any question as to the validity of the election in 2004 it will further erode and undermine the perception of our form of government. The idea of democracy, where the voice of the voter has to be heard, must be restored. Everyone needs to know his or her vote counts and is counted accurately. With the reported problems in Florida in 2000 and with the emergence of electronic voting, we, the undersigned, request that Jimmy Carter & the Carter Center observe and provide oversight of voting on Election Day 2004 to insure a fair, honest and true election. We believe the time has come that we must turn to Jimmy Carter & the Carter Center to fix things at home. There is no one we trust more to restore faith in the democracy this country was founded upon.

Sincerely,

Best Wishes,

Jim Wolfe

Subject: "Bob" Novak

Subject: Katherine Harris is on the Florida Felon List!

Subject: Halliburton

Dear Buzz,

Another short news item on page E2 of the July 2 Wash. Post.  Pentagon Inspector General Joseph Schmitz says no evidence has emerged that Halliburton has been gouging the U.S. government for work to reconstruct Iraq's oil industry and provide services for U.S troops. He says there have been some instances of overcharging and we will...hold people accountable. Do we believe this? I don't.

Harold Martin

Subject: Our Pravda Press, by Lonna Gooden VanHorn, June 28, 2004

In her June 27th review of Michael Moore's film, Fahrenheit 9/11, for Newsweek, Eleanor Clift made a comment I find very ironic. She writes: "Moore's film is a cinematic tour de force. It is bitingly funny, and connects the dots in a way most media hasn't dared in terms of who profits from the Iraq war, and who fights it."

In a country which boasts of having a "free" press which feeds the public "news" and "truth" rather than propaganda, WHY should the media be "afraid" to say what Michael Moore said in his movie since it IS factually true?? If it were not true, he would not have dared include it knowing that some very powerful and rich people would sue him for libel. It is only his interpretation of what his facts mean that is open to dispute. Why, then, hasn't the media "dared" to "connect the dots?" Is that not their job? Of whom are they afraid?

Perhaps we should ask Helen Thomas, Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, or General Shinseki, along with Tami Salicio, the woman who lost her job for daring to photograph the "truth" of the flag-draped coffins returning home from Iraq, and Teresa Chambers, the Park Ranger who told the truth about the sorry state of the budget and staffing for our National Parks (to name only a few) why everyone is so afraid of telling the truth under our current government.

As a kid growing up during the time of Ann Coulter's hero, Joe McCarthy, I was told it was reporters in the U.S.S.R. who didn't "dare" write the truth for fear of punishment. I am sure it would be a shock to most Americans to know that Reporters Without Borders ranks the U. S. as 31st among the nations of the world in the "freedom" of its press, down from 17th place in 2002. The Scandinavian countries remain at the top, and Cuba and Korea hold on to the bottom two slots.

IF any of what is documented in Moore's film had happened under Clinton or Gore, the general public would have known about it almost immediately because Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and the rest of the right-wing propagandists would have yammered about it incessantly on a daily basis.

For the left, it takes a Michael Moore movie.

SOME of what is in Moore's movie may have been touched upon lightly by the mainstream press, but because the left commands almost no voices on mainstream media broadcast sources and their talk shows, and the only priority, now, seems to be ratings and "the bottom line," the general population was not IMMERSED in the stories as they were in the much more important to the welfare of the people of the country and the world stories about Monica Lewinsky or Kobe Bryant.

Walter Cronkite, the most revered broadcast journalist of all time, said the media is no longer giving us the information we need to make informed decisions. The truth of that statement as well as the most searing indictment of what passes for the news these days is borne out by the fact that nearly 70% of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 because the media did not make it a priority to inform them that the truth was otherwise.

I am one of those who knew virtually all of the facts in Moore's movie because I gave up on the mainstream broadcast news media years ago when it was taken over by events such as the Simpson trial, Princess Di's death, and Clinton's sex life. I now rely on the internet for information, and on C-Span, FSTV and World Link for my television news sources.

Amy Goodman and Democracy Now on FSTV, and "Mosaic" and "Conversations with History" on World Link are among the programs I find most informative. I live in fear Rupert Murdoch will buy up their media outlets and shut them down. Those channels were about the only places one heard any voices of dissent before the war -- voices the public needed so desperately to hear. Voices that, had they been heard by the masses on the mainstream network channels in the run up to war, according to many sources, Phil Donahue was fired for attempting to raise a dissident voice -- might have prevented the expensive tragedy in which we are now engulfed for the sake of what Eisenhower originally wrote was the "military-industrial-CONGRESSIONAL complex." In his worst nightmare, however, Ike would not have believed a United States president would allow his family to profit from a war fought while he was in office, or that our vice-president's former employer would be the primary benefactor of the war and its aftermath, including the building of at least 4 new bases in what General Smedley Butler called "the newly acquired territory." Ike might have envisioned a world in which elements of the military-industrial complex owned the media and the profit-driven media pushed a war that at some level they knew would up their ratings.

Interestingly, Bush, Sr.'s former Carlyle group has now bought up a theater chain! Ike, that true patriot, must not only be turning in his grave, but spinning!!

Lonna Gooden VanHorn

P.S. It is my opinion that we should be handing out the impeach petitions one can download at www.votetoimpeach.org to people coming out of the Fahrenheit 9/11 movies. Mick Youther wrote an article in the Intervention online magazine in which he said the Republicans should be leading the charge because they could use the same arguments they used for impeaching Clinton. Then he quoted which congressperson said what regarding why Clinton must be impeached. We could hand that article out along with the petition. Carl Bernstein wrote weeks ago that Republicans, IF they cared about their party and its image, should be leading the charge to get rid of the man and the administration that has done so much to damage the image of their party and America both at home and around the world. Move on is sponsoring Fahrenheit 9/11 parties, impeachment petitions would be ACTION!! If my memory is accurate, Bush is now subject to 11 causes for impeachment. It is shameful that Bush and this entire administration has not yet been impeached!

Subject: religious? right

Just wondering if anyone at BuzzFlash saw the Peter Jennings news briefing the morning of the Hussein trial. At the close, he said, "Saddam then got up and left the room." When the female anchor (Diane Sawyer?) said, "I'm surprised he would just be allowed to leave the room," Peter's eyes shifted back and forth...I don't know who or what he was looking at, and he pretended not to have heard her. She repeated and his response was totally unrelated to her question/comment. In subsequent broadcasts, the comment was changed to "he was escorted from the room." What's the real story????

Carol

Subject: Ohio GOP Shennanigans

Subject: Re: Today's Top 5 Headlines on BuzzFlash.com

Please help me to understand, the number dead "in" Iraq.   Why do the soldiers that are swiftly shipped out of country and die from injuries suffered in Iraq not count?  Why does this not fit into the equation?

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Playing the Waiting Game

Subject: Go F*** Yourself, Dick Cheney

BuzzFlash, 

I think it would be really neat if people made a practice of chanting "Go F*** Yourself, Dick Cheney" whenever he addresses the public.

Joe Cantwell

Subject: What happened when we tried to see Fahrenheit 911

So my girlfriend and I were on our way to see Fahrenheit 911 at the Green Hills Mall when a 7 foot tall cop (or so he appeared) yelled over to us in the parking garage, "You lookin' for somethin'?" 

"No, we're just going to the movie theater," I called out. He began walking towards us. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I noticed that the three of us were all alone in that darkened part of the parking garage.

"You goin' to see that --" he snarled the words, as if they were lodged painfully in his throat --"911 movie?"

Stupidly I said yes. When you've lived in a nice suburban neighborhood in Nashville, a city that wins the "Friendliest City in America" prize year after year, you forget that there are things to be afraid of. That there are things you'd be better off not saying. You start thinking that everybody's friendly, everybody respects you as a fellow citizen. You start thinking you're safe -- and free.

The officer came very close to us, leaned down from his towering heights, and squinted at a manila folder held by my friend Kathy. "Those aren't flyers, are they?"

Kathy, a pretty 32 year old secretary with perfect skin and tailored clothes, was suddenly looking nervous. "Yes, but -- "

"You weren't planning to hand them out, were you?" he asked, his body stiffening. I stepped back a bit.

Unsure of what was happening, Kathy smiled sweetly and stuttered, "well-I-yes I was going to maybe hand some of them out after the movie, it's about this online discussion group that MoveOnOrg is -- "

The cop put one hand on his gun holster and the other on his leather belt, stood to his full frightening height, and spoke in officious tones, "I'm going to have to ask you not to hand those out. This is private property, this mall is private property, and the theater is private property. The parking lot is private property, and the management has stated that it will not tolerate any flyers being handed out."

I winked at Kathy to start moving towards the elevator and away from this man, whose own Fahrenheit was rising rapidly. Much to my dismay, he followed us. Once in the elevator, I pushed the button for Level 4, where the cinema is located.  But Robocop was not finished with us.

"We've just had an ugly incident, and it's a shame when somebody has to be arrested for something stupid."

They always tell women to beware of parking garages, but this one was in such a tame little neighborhood, and anyway, I'd seen cops on every floor. I'd always thought policemen were nothing to worry about. I'd always thought they were the good guys.

I asked him what he meant -- had someone been arrested?

"Yeah, " he reared back with pride as he told his tale."I had to send a guy to jail. I sent him to jail because he didn't do as I told him to do. I told him to stop handing out those flyers, because this is private property and we won't tolerate that, but he mouthed off at me. So I sent him to jail."

I shuddered to see his glee at having made a mountain into a molehill for some poor chap, some kid who had the audacity to believe that in America we're free to hand out flyers in parking lots. A perverse curiosity took hold of me and I found myself asking, "So was there a violent incident? Did that person you sent to jail have a gun?"

I must have said the right thing, for he reared back once again with puffed out chest and glowing face, chuckling with a hint-hint, nudge-nudge air, "Oh there was a gun alright -- I have a gun, right here!" And he patted his revolver lovingly once again.

Finally the elevator doors opened and we began to step out towards the theater. Not so fast.

"I'm going to have to ask you to take those flyers back to your vehicle before you go to the theater. If you don't, they will be confiscated."

Kathy and I looked at each other incredulously. What? Are we being told what to do and where to go in our favorite mall, in our hometown, in America? Were we -- weighing 120 pounds each, wearing strappy heels, fussing with our makeup and having no experience with law enforcement beyond the occasional parking ticket -- being threatened by a cop?

He blocked the door of the elevator for just a second. No longer, just a second. Just long enough to make a very subtle but potent point. He repeated, "I'm going to have to ask you to go back to your vehicle right now with those flyers."

I wanted to say, "Sorry, we don't want to go find our car right now because we're running late. We'll take these with us but we won't hand them out." But one look at Kathy's face told me that she desperately wanted to get away from this man. She was scared, and that made me angry. For gosh sakes, we were just trying to see a movie!

Now I wanted to test the limits. I wanted to see what freedoms an average citizen still has -- or maybe doesn't -- in Bush's America.  I wanted to say, "You know, we were mistaken -- those aren't Moveon.org flyers. They are our private papers and we don't want to discuss them and we don't want to put them in our car. Now excuse us please while we go see Fahrenheit 911."

But I didn't, because Kathy was stressed enough as it was. She looked down and replied quietly, "Okay, we'll go put these back in the car." The cop stepped out of the elevator at long last, as we stepped further into it. I pushed the button to return to the car and, as the doors were closing, I couldn't resist shouting out one question, "What's going on here, anyway -- was there a bomb threat or something??"

To which the man with the leather belt and the badge and the gun yelled back, "Hell no, just too much of that Michael Moore!" 

Teresa Josette

Subject: michael moore, my hero

Hi, Buzz and fellow Buzzers!!

Wonder of wonders, "Fahrenheit 9/11" has come to Emporia, Kansas! This county is such a Republican swamp that I figured I'd have to wait till September and rent the DVD. But no, the local theater is showing it, right here in front of God and everybody!! I was in the audience last night, and it was a terrific evening. The only thing that really surprised me about the info in the film was how little of it was new to me. I have Buzz to thank for that, since that's where I've been getting most of my news lately (having gotten fed up with Wolf Blitzer after he had Ann Coulter on his show).

Memorable moments: The unidentified congressman who responded to Moore's suggestion (that he put his kids in the military to help in the Iraq effort) with a look that had everybody in the theater laughing. Also, who would have thought John Ashcroft could SING!? I'm a voice teacher, with a doctorate and everything, and I was impressed. Too bad he went to Washington instead of Nashville. All the more reason to impeach him now: After he's thrown out of office and pays his debt to society, he'll have another career ahead of him. After all, having done time is no disadvantage in a country singer. Michael Moore, you The Man!!

Jane Hawes
Emporia, KS

Subject: RNC Video

I saw the RNC video that was supposed to compare the Democrats to Hitler, and honestly, if it hadn't been on their site I would have thought it was a BuzzFlash satire.  Hitler was juxtaposed with Bush, and the quotes from the Democrats had utterly nothing to do in content or tone with Hitler's rants.  And the cheesy music at the end really took the prize!

I don't know who put it together, but it seemed to be saying: see how calm and rational the Dems are compared to George.

Shelley
Los Angeles

Subject: flagging right -- Saturday

Dear Buzzies,

It's bare disrespect when Cheney is so unflappably wound tight -- even if he wants to cover-up -- that he tells someone "Go flag yourself." Aren't all the officials in Wash.D.C. already flagged? This whole country is flagged. Have you flagged yourselves? People flag the world around. A flag can be for descendants, as our ancestors gave a flag for us. Seeing it outdoors, on a lawn or in a beautiful garden, undulating on an erect pole, many people who govern their behavior for it salute such a flag. It's so colorful. A warm flag may have red all over it. Some flags are white as immaculate sheets. Black flags are associated with lusty pirate-types. There's short flags and long flags. When people think of a flag, some think of a union jack, some think of the tricolor, or a jolly roger, or a pennant chase, tied ribbons, or a good old glory flag, maybe a southern cross or a northern dipper, and some just like to see stars and stripes. If each of us shared a flag with our close friends and coworkers, or simply spontaneously with someone we just met, indeed, shared our flags between people from every country in the world -- oh, oh, what a good feeling that would give us and what joy and peace. Everyone should flag around, I say. I even see flags inside cars, pressed in some position up against a window maybe moist in the rain and sweaty-beaded, or passing a glance over into a car in the next lane. You just don't know where people like to have a flag. There's a flying flag, an unconnected flag off, you can 'flag this' or 'flag that;' FLAG is just maybe everyone's favorite four-letter F-word. The first letter even looks like the idea of it, F or f, either way. It does seem a bit of an insult for Cheney to say who gets flagged and who doesn't, senator or not. If there's not enough flags in his secret bat-belfry hideaway maybe he needs to get down and be out more joining with people. So yeah, go flag yourself, oh presider in vice. Don't leave the best flag you got laid wrinkled in a lump on the bed, as your boss put it.

Wendi Meremark
Oregon City

Subject: Saddam and Dumsfeld

BF,

Will 'Dumsfeld' and Saddam be tried for torture, rape, and war crimes in the same Iraqi court of law with freedom and democracy, subject to the full rule of Law???

Where is the speedy investigation into prison abuse in Gitmo and Iraq?? A lot of Iraqis died in 'Dumsfeld's' custody; when will the 'Chicken-hawk,' War Wimp,' show some sack, and take responsibility???

Subject: I only hope the media will start getting mad soon...because this is the most blatant manipulation I've heard of yet (and I've heard of a lot). Quote:

 According to American journalists present at the 30-minute hearing of Saddam and 11 former ministers at Baghdad airport, an American admiral in civilian clothes told camera crews that the judge had demanded that there should be no sound recording of the initial hearing. He ordered crews to unplug their sound wires. Several of the six crews present pretended to obey the instruction. "We learnt later," one of them said, "that the judge didn't order us to turn off our sound. The Americans lied -- it was they who wanted no sound. The judge wanted sound and pictures." http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp?story=537630 http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/070404F.shtml

Maria
NYC

Subject: An email sent to the Fridley Theatre chain

I have read that the Fridley Theatre chain is not going to be running Michael Moore's new film. I read a quote from the owner saying, "Our country is in a war against an enemy who would destroy our way of life, our culture and kill our people."  I would submit that Osama bin Laden has not restricted freedom of speech in America , but the Fridley Theatre chain HAS. Restricting our choices to hear different points of view is NOT preserving freedom. Don't  surrender America's values to the terrorists who would take it, help America be the land of the 'free.' Remember that phrase, "I may not like what you have to say, but I will fight to the death to preserve your right to say it!" As a theater owner you are part of that fight, don't surrender to having Osama bin Laden restrict your programming.

Promoting freedom by committing censorship is the start of a sad downward path. Please don't take that path.

Signed,

A BuzzFlash Reader and Big Time Patriot

Subject: As if there isn't proof enough already...

Quote:

Under the Halliburton deal, Cheney retained 400,000 unvested stock options that will "vest" in batches over the next three years. That means their value depends on Halliburton's stock price at the time the vested options are exercised. Unlike other holdings, unvested options cannot effectively be put in a blind trust since a trustee cannot do anything with them until after they vest, ethics expert[s] note. In other words, Cheney will be aware that his personal wealth will rise and fall along with Halliburton's stock prices.

During his tenure from 1995-2000, while Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, Halliburton set up an off shore company in the Cayman Islands called Halliburton Products and Services, Ltd.; per a 60 Minutes' investigation this subsidiary has no known actual office or employees and its mail is forwarded to Halliburton's offices in Houston, Texas. It was created to circumvent American laws that prevent American companies from doing business with countries that sponsor terrorism as the law does not apply to any foreign or offshore subsidiary so long as it is run by non-Americans. So Halliburton Products and Services, Ltd. began doing business with Iran, a country that has long supported terrorist activities, a country that this past year bought about $40 million dollars of oil production related services from Halliburton.

Cheney, Halliburton, Loyalty to a Company, & Patriotism (Magic City Morning Star)

Subject: Could neocon taunting have contributed to Marine Corporal's execution?

From a Marine officer on the Iraqi warfront with Jihadistan...

Tuesday, 29 June 2004

This is an open letter to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, "Islamic Response," and the rest of the so-called al-Qa'ida "insurgents"in Iraq and elsewhere. We don't have an e-mail address for these swine -- though we are closing in on their snail-mail address, but we are forwarding this letter to Federalist Patriots around the world in the hope you good people will forward it to as many other Patriots as possible to rally prayer and support for our fellow Marine, Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun. Should these al-Qa'ida pigs spill his blood, we want them to rest assured that the contents of this letter will eventually be nailed to their foreheads. Thank you for your assistance.

To al-Qa'ida terrorists in Iraq: I see that you have captured a U.S. Marine, and that you plan to cut off his head if your demands are not met. Big mistake. Before you carry out your threat I suggest you read up on Marine Corps history. The Japanese tried the same thing on Makin Island and in a few other places during World War Two, and came to regret it. Go ahead and read about what then happened to the mighty Imperial Army on Tarawa, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They paid full price for what they did, and you will too.... While it is true that this country has produced nitwits like John Kerry, Michael Moore, Howard Dean and Jane Fonda who can be easily manipulated by your gruesome tactics, we have also produced men like...  [more] http://www.mwv.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=2

Subject: Cheney

Dear BuzzFlash,

As if the religious issue wasn't enough, now Cheney wants to amend the "Pledge of Allegiance" to read, "One nation, under God, indivisible, and go F___ yourself!

Rob Moitoza
Seattle, WA

CLICK HERE FOR PART 2 OF THE JULY 6, 2004 BUZZFLASH MAILBAG.