|
The BuzzFlash Mailbag
The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are not
necessarily those of BuzzFlash. Read the BuzzFlash
FAQ for info on submitting to the Mailbag.
Subject: Liberal media - where are you?
Have just run through a whole host of blogs and web sites of
liberal news and opinion. Some of them are reporting on the
Indian Ocean disaster (many, sigh, are not). Most of them are
asking for contributions to sustain themselves. Some do not
even provide email addresses by which they can be contacted
[which means, unfortunately, that the sites that do are hearing
this complaint, and the guilty are not].
I have seen only one single site addressing the question of
"HOW CAN WE HELP" [and that is only a link to for
a generic donation to CARE]. Two days after the earthquake,
I generally find nothing about where contributions can be sent
- Red Cross, UN Relief, or what have you. I finally decided
to contribute to a "faith-based initiative" whose
site did mention that something horrific needed attention.
I realize that people are on holiday, but still...how is it
that our bleeding hearts are not bleeding for the 25,000 dead
(and still counting)? Are we so involved with the personalities
and gamesmanship of politics that we don't see a need for progressive
outreach to the world community?
Please give attention to this issue at your earliest convenience.
New Year's Blessings
RodM
[BuzzFlash Note: We care, as do our readers. Remember, our
focus at BuzzFlash is on presenting political news,
information, and analysis, especially that which isn't widely
available elsewhere. The Red Cross, the U.N., and other humanitarian
agencies certainly need us to help them bring aid to those suffering
in this unimaginable disaster. However, as we write this, we
are unable to provide links to such groups. It appears their
web sites are overwhelmed...probably because so many "bleeding
hearts" are trying to help. We encourage everyone with
the means to do their part.]
Fellow BuzzFlash People,
Our shoulders are heavy with problems the Bush administration
has inflicted on Americans right now. Added to the weight are
allegations of a fraudulent election. I do not wish to lighten
the justified grumbling and efforts to uncover the truth, but
ask all to step back and prioritize the problems in the world
at this time.
Let us take time to bow our heads and pray for those who lost
their lives in the tragedy in Sri Lanka and surrounding countries.
Pray for the innocent little children who make up most of the
fatalities. The pain and suffering of these people will endure
for quite some time. The news reports showing the horror of
parents discovering the bodies of their children is unbearable
as the death count escalates on a daily basis. It is truly a
tragic event of monumental proportions.
Financial situations are tough for many in the US right now,
but if you can help with as little as five dollars, I am sure
you will be blessed. Cost estimates are in the billions. The
only sanctioned charity I know of right now asking for donations
is the Red Cross. Bush has pledged fifteen million to help,
but we don’t know when and if it will be delivered. I remind
you of the monies promised to NY after 911. Alternatively, it
is up to us to make certain that money begins to flow right
now. The needs of these people cannot possibly wait for world
governments to make good on their promises. If we cannot look
out for humanity at this time in our century, we have no hope
of solving nagging problems here in the United States of America.
Cathy
Subject: Tidal waves of aid from the world and merely a ripple
from the United States
This regards the tsunami disaster. America is the richest nation
on Earth and, according to Colin Powell this morning on CNN,
we are only sending $15 MILLION in aid to help the devastated
countries. That's like tipping the waiter of a $100 meal ten
cents. Shame on President Bush and everyone who voted for him.
HUGH SCOTT -- outraged citizen, Vietnam veteran, John Kerry
supporter, lifelong registered Republican and ardent fan of
Ronald Reagan, a REAL compassionate conservative.
Subject: Diego Garcia - 3500 US personnel @ an average
4' above sea level in direct path of the Sumatran Tsunami
Hello...?
Anyone 'there'...?
Multiple interviews with upper echelon US administrators
(including SEC Powell) and not one question about the
fate of Diego Garcia - what gives?
it's all about asking the right question(s).
Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament;
but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a
Fourth Estate more important than they all. It matters
not what rank he has, what revenues or garnitures:
the requisite thing is that he have a tongue which
others will listen to; this and nothing more is requisite.
-- Carlyle (1905) pp.349-350
Subject: Bush's War on the Northeast is the War on Liberalism
Itself
Dear Buzz,
There have been moments since 9/11 when I have experienced
a vivid, quasi-clinical perception that 9/11 itself was the
spectacular beginning of a plan to undermine New York's power,
wealth and prestige permanently, and to shift the real and mythical
center of the nation to the South (Texas perhaps?). This feeling
came back to me today when reading about Bush's desire to eliminate
the federal and state tax deduction ("Bush
Plan Could Imperil Tax Write-Off for New York").
Certainly I can see in the actions of Bush and Cheney a hatred
of everything that New York and the northeast represent. In
the old days, this kind of hatred would be expressed as anti-semitism
(as much for the kipoted, religiously observant shopkeeper as
the rootless, godless, cosmopolitan intellectual who studied
theoretical physics). Now I think it encompasses more than that
(although I am willing to argue that the underlying animus still
includes anti-semitism, notwithstanding the professed love of
Israel and the Jews).
New York, in all its rude vivaciousness, represents the twin
triumphs of liberalism and capitalism, with its robust and creative
economy--as a direct result of the successful mixing of a myriad
of ethnicities, races, religions, philosophies, national origins,
and sexual orientations.
What the xenophobes in office can't stand is ALL THAT AUDACIOUS
MIXING: They can't stand the fact that people look different
and speak hundreds of languages. They can't stomach the fact
that when liberalism and capitalism work properly, people who
are different do business together, work together, and socialize
together. As time passes, they may live in the same neighborhoods,
raise families beside each other, go to the same schools, become
lifelong friends, and even form families together, even if this
degree of mixing takes decades to achieve.
But what the xenophobes can't stand even more than the inevitable
mixing itself is the fact that we liberals LIKE the mixing.
They can't stand the tolerance and openness to new ideas and
experiences that it implies.
In this narrative that plays out in my head from time to time,
Bush and his buddies systematically attack the prosperity and
ascendance of the northeast. The question is, is this just my
daydream that could be the basis of an entertaining novel if
only I were a decent fiction writer, or is it real?
Leslie
Winchester, MA
Subject: Immigration
Rabid
immigration opponent Rep. Tancredo signals GOP infighting ahead
over issue 12/27
I like your website, but on this issue, I support the House
Republicans. If you are not an "immigration opponent"
you are not paying attention. We are faced with a massive invasion
that has been out of control for many years. Mexico should not
have special status (that is, illegal is OK in their case) over
any other country. Why should they be able to flout our immigration
laws with impunity?
John Reilly
Menlo Park, CA
Subject: The Supreme Court
How True!!!!! The Supreme Court has ruled that there cannot
be a nativity scene in Washington, D.C., this Christmas.This
isn't for any religious or constitutional reason. They simply
have not been able to find three wise men and a virgin in the
Nation's capitol. There was, however, no problem finding enough
asses to fill the stable.
Merry Christmas, anyway!
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: A Poem for the New Year
The Only Sermon, by Andrea Ayvazian
if we dug a huge grave miles wide, miles deep
and buried every rifle, pistol, knife, bullet, bomb, bayonet
if we jumped upon fleets of tanks and fighter jets
with tool boxes, torches
unwelded them dismantled them turned them into scrap metal
if every light-skinned man in a silk tie said
to every dark-skinned man in a turban
I vow not to kill your children
and heard the same vow in return
if every elected leader agreed to stop lying
if every child was fed as well as the racehorses bred to win
derbies
if every person with a second home gave it to a person with
no home
if every person who has enough said out loud I have enough
if every person violent in the name of God were to find God
we would grow silent, still for a moment, a lifetime
we would hear infants nursing at the breast
hummingbirds hovering in flight
we would touch a canyon wall and feel the earth vibrate
we would hear two lovers sigh across the ocean
we would watch old wounds grow new flesh and jagged scars disappear
as time was layered upon time we would slowly be ready to begin
Forwarded from http://www.theaccidentalactivist.com/poem.htm
Cathy
Subject: Some Dangerous Thoughts Concerning "Freedom"
And "Responsibility"
"Only the liberation of the natural capacity for love
in human beings can master their sadistic destructiveness."
-- Wilhelm Reich, on Sigmund Freud's hope
"The Cry For Freedom Is A Sign Of Suppression. It will
never cease as long as man feels himself to be trapped.
No matter how different the cries for freedom may be, at bottom
they always express one and the same thing: the intolerableness
of the organism's rigidity and the mechanical institutions of
life, which are sharply at variance with the natural sensations
of life.
If there should ever be a society in which all the cries for freedom
fade away, then man will have finally overcome his biological
and social deformity and have achieved genuine freedom.
Not until man acknowledges that he is fundamentally an animal,
will he be able to create a genuine culture.
Man's 'upward strivings' are nothing but the biologic development
of vital powers. Such strivings are conceivable only within the
framework of the laws of biologic development and not in opposition
to them.
The will to freedom and the capacity for freedom are nothing [but]
the will and the capacity to recognize and promote the unfolding
of man's biologic energy (with the aid of the machine). It is
out of the question to talk about freedom if man's biologic development
is choked and feared.
Under the influence of politicians, masses of people tend to ascribe
the responsibility for wars to those who wield power at any given
time.
In World War I it was the munitions industrialists; in World War
II it was the psychopathic generals who were said to be guilty.
This is passing the buck.
The responsibility for war falls solely upon the shoulders of
these same masses of people, for they have all the necessary means
to avert war in their own hands.
In part by their apathy, in part by their passivity, and in part
actively, these masses of people make possible the catastrophes
under which they themselves suffer more than anybody else.
To stress this guilt on the part of masses of people, to hold
them solely responsible, means to take them seriously.
On the other hand, to commiserate masses of people as victims,
means to treat them as small, helpless children.
The former is the attitude held by genuine freedom-fighters; the
latter the attitude held by the power-thirsty politicians."
--Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism
Wilhelm Reich was a psychologist and author who came to the United
States in order to escape Fascism and the ravages of the Second
World War.
The American authorities showed their subsequent appreciation
for his work by burning many of Dr Reich's books in 1950s. (Not
unlike how the Nazis did twenty years before.)
Forwarded by A BuzzFlash Reader, from
http://www.orgone.org/wr-quotes-01a.htm
I agree whole-heartedly that the only way we will have fair
elections in the coming years is to return to voting on paper
ballots. The way the Republicans have things set up they will
win all seats for Congress and the presidency. I don't trust
them no further than I can see them.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: Bush faces GOP fight over guest workers
Dear Buzz,
So Bush wants to ensure his cronies an ample supply of very
cheap, expendable labor for their household chores and their
factories. Isn't he the thoughtful one?
This fight is between the people who want to pay illegal immigrants
slave wages as temporary guest workers, giving them absolutely
NO chance of earning permanent resident or citizenship status,
AND the people who just plain hate illegal immigrants period
and wouldn't want them to have even slave wages for a few years.
I guess the second group can't get over their racism sufficiently
to enjoy the advantages of exploiting this group of people,
but the first group can. I guess the first group is rather progressive!
By the way, at the same time as this plan provides a mechanism
for permanently exploiting Mexican and Central American workers,
it simultaneously deprives legal residents and citizens of those
same jobs at slightly more than slave wages and some paltry
benefits.
What a world we live in!
Leslie in
Winchester, MA
Subject: Comments on Blackwell
Hello Buzz,
Kenneth Blackwell's request to prevent him from being interviewed
by lawyers, in my opinion, is that he is above the law and has
something to hide. Also regarding Rumsfeld, "In the speech,
Rumsfeld made a passing reference to United Airlines Flight
93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted
to stop al Qaeda hijackers." But in his remarks, Rumsfeld
referred to the "the people who attacked the United States
in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania."
A Pentagon spokesman insisted that Rumsfeld simply misspoke,
but Internet conspiracy theorists seized on the reference to
the plane having been shot down.
"Was it a slip of the tongue? Was it an error? Or was it
the truth, finally being dropped on the public more than three
years after the tragedy," asked a posting on the Web site
WorldNetDaily.com.
In my opinion, Rumsfeld has spoken the truth. Sometimes, our
own tongues can betray us. Maybe very soon, Bush and the Pentagon
will, by slip of the tongue, tell the whole truth, nothing but
the truth.
Elizabeth
Subject: Pentagon: Rumsfeld misspoke (when he said shot down)
on Flight 93 crash
Pentagon:
Rumsfeld misspoke on Flight 93 crash (CNN)
Secretary
Rumsfeld says Sept. 11 flight over Pennsylvania was 'shot down'
(bluelemur.com)
Do these idiots live in a world that recognizes facts, or is
this guy simply senile????
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: RUMMY'S SLIP OF THE TONGUE
It's about time this story was brought to public attention.
I know a woman in PA who has a friend who owns a farm. This
farm is right by where the plane went down. This woman has said
that she saw the plane get shot down by another aircraft before
it crashed. There are witnesses to the crash--try to get to
them before the govt. "disappears" them.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: Where was Bush on Christmas?
Does anyone know where our God loving Born Again Christian George
W Bush and his family attended services on Christmas?
Just Curious
Subject: Why aren't President's daughters enlisting to serve
in Iraq?
Are there any journalists near retirement age who would dare
to ask the President this question?
Nate Roth
San Mateo, CA
|
