December 17, 2001

Note: The BuzzFlash Mailbag is updated on an ongoing basis, with the newest material and comments on top. Again, we can only post a small percentage of what is sent to us. Thanks again for your email and your patience.

Just curious: Daschle and Leahy were targeted by the anthrax letters. Any Republicans? I don't remember seeing any.

CJ

[BuzzFlash Note: We aren't aware of any either. Curious, no?]

Dear BuzzFlash,

OK, this morning I received an envelope from the University of Nantes (France) where I am currently a student. Inside the University envelope was a "registration form" from the American Presence Post from Rennes, France. And here is what it says:

(18 Oct 2001)
"Dear Fellow Americans,

"In light of the current worldwide security situation, we would like to encourage American citizens in Western France to register with the American consulate in Rennes."

"Please find attached a registration card for each American citizen residing in France.

"Registration will make your presence and whereabouts known in case it is necessary to contact you in an emergency. No information on your whereabouts will be released without your authorization. If your passport is lost or stolen, registration will also make replacement easier and faster."

"If you are an American citizen living in France and are interested in receiving regular updates from the American Embassy, please register with us and include your email address on the registration form."

"Should you need additional information, please contact us or the American Embassy in Paris.

"Very sincerely yours,

"Maureen E. Cormack, Consul"

And a two page questionnaire follows, wanting my "biographical data", my address, telephone, email, passport info, height, hair color, expected length of stay, emergency contacts, etc. However, there is some sort of Privacy Statement that is supposed to comfort us that this info will remain really private (and voluntary, or shall I say "encouraged" ?).

Yes, here it is the best part:

"DEPARTMENT OF STATE - PASSPORT OFFICE PRIVACY ACT STATEMENT"

"The information solicited on this form is authorized by those statutes of the United States which govern the acquisition and loss of the United States nationality, the issuance and denial of US passports and related facilities, and the violation of those laws; including but not limited to those statutes codified in Titles 8, 18, and 22, US Code, and all predecessor statutes whether or not codified, and regulations issued pursuant to Executive Order
1205 of August 5, 1966."

"The primary purpose for which the information is intended is to establish citizenship, identity and entitlement to issuance of a US passport or related facilities, and to properly administer and enforce the laws governing the acquisition and loss of US nationality, issuance and denial of US passport and related facilities and violations of those laws."

"The information is made available as a routine use on a need-to-know basis to personnel of the Department of State and other government agencies having statutory or other lawful authority to maintain such information in the performance of their official duties, pursuant to a subpoena or court order directing the production of such information, and as set forth in the Federal Register Volume 40. FAILURE TO PROVIDE THE INFORMATION REQUESTED ON THIS FORM MAY RESULT IN THE DENIAL OF A US PASSPORT, RELATED DOCUMENT OR SERVICE." Emphasis is my own.

What in the hell is going on? Why is the University sending me this? Is the same thing happening in the US to foreign students in the US? Are they receiving registration forms from their home countries or from the US government? I admit, my attendance at the school has been rather lackluster, but so are the classes.

This is insane! I don't live in Rwanda or Indonesia where some internal conflict is threatening my safety. I am taking French lessons in a quiet city where the only disturbances are strikes (which get pretty spirited), and car thefts.

A BuzzFlash Reader

PS I would be more than happy to fax you this, so you can post the actual documents on BuzzFlash Plus, I'm 6-9 hrs. Ahead of you guys, so time is no constraint! I couldn't find any fax # on your site. Keep up the good work.

Hi Buzz:

Isn't it ironic the very symbol of Enron is a crooked E?

Regards,
Marlene

Dear BuzzFlash,

Thank you for your article about the Bush idea of breaking up Amtrack. I think he wants to do that just to smack the people on the East Coast around since they voted for Gore and he probably wants to disrupt their transportation."Brilliant" breakups like the phone company breakups under Reagan mean poorer service, higher rates, and more layoff. Do you like your phone service now or did you like it before the breakup of AT&T?

Delaware Democrat

Dear Buzz,

I was just finished talking about how Bush first blamed Clinton for this economic recession, which he refers to as a slowing, and then blamed September 11, and now he has the unmitigated gall to blame the Senate Democrats? He says it is their fault that we will lose 300,000 jobs. Daschle is just trying to tell Bush that his "stimulus" package will help no one other than the wealthy. Was Daschle correct in saying the tax cut would not help? Huh? Why isn't Bush talking about that now? I would see Bush as "likable", since apparently the media wants us to do that, if just once he would take responsibility instead of always finding a new scapegoat. What he has done for me though is this. My family, who were faithful Republicans, have now become Democrats. My family has done this because Bush of the so-called "Party of Responsibility" has repeatedly found one scapegoat after another for the nation's faltering economy. What kind of a president has a philosophy, "When times are bad, I'll blame someone else."?

George L.

Dear BuzzFlash,

Re: A BuzzFlash News Alert: Bush, The Unilateralist -- Despite What Rove Want...

When are you, and others of your persuasion, gonna have the balls to state that Osama was/is the "savior" for this otherwise-one-term administration? It was almost as if Mephistopheles, himself, had offered junior a clear road to 2004. And don't think he ain't gonna drive this "train" for as long as it runs. This is sounding like the old cold-war screed "there's commies under your bed."

Lastly, unless the rank'n file Dems start waking up and framing an alternative to bush & his "hidden" agenda, which also addresses the de-facto collusion by the "liberal media", no amount of "Buzz-Flash" is gonna is going to rescue this party from terminal Bush-wack.

Greg Pittman
Ps. Thanks for the "New Traditionalist" expose.

Hi Buzz;

Thanks to your great site, I had the opportunity to read an article I would most
probably have missed:

E Mail Gets the Cold Shoulder

Of course it does - Let's face it, most of our representatives would prefer not hearing
from us at all. Yes, it's just too convenient for us to put our thoughts in words, hit
a key and presto, they know how we feel on an issue. Since we are a Republic and they are elected to represent their voters, you would think they would love this wonderful opportunity to hear from so many constituents, more than ever before possible.

No, they prefer letters (anthrax begone), faxes or phone calls. Phil Gramm for instance, values a letter someone sat down at a kitchen table to write on lined paper and a number 2 pencil. Isn't that one of the stupidest statements you have ever heard? That very same letter may have been destroyed or is still sitting in some unopened bin. Hmmm ...Hey Phil, how about calling back the old pony express.

Phone Calls - how many of you have actually ever talked to your elected representative? Zero for me. When I've finished my conversation with myself -- for that's what it feels like because there is normally complete silence at the other end of the line, I get a polite thank you. At my congressman's office, half the time they don't bother asking your name or address - I have to remind them to take it down. I always picture the person on the other end of the line doodling while I'm talking, you know, it's what you do when your bored and have paper and pencil in front of you.

Faxes - Many times I've tried faxing an article or letter and it just won't go through. The machine is busy, broke or off -- can't be sure which however it is extremely frustrating.

Let's face it folks, the majority of them only want to hear from us at election time &
that's in the form of a vote. Large Corporations and large donors opinions are the only ones that matter to them, even if they come via email. However, this does not mean we should give up, we can never stop trying...if we do, they get exactly what they want from us -- silence.

Regards,
Marlene W.

Dear Buzz,

13 Dec. 2001

Bravo! to Buzz and SF-Gate's Joe Carroll for today's on-line article "Executions first, Trials later." I've started a couple of letters taking Conn. Sen. and former Dem. Vice Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman to task, but never quite completed any.

This time around, I want to say that I agree completely with Jon Carroll that Sen. Lieberman is a "nutball." To begin with, imagine the irony: Florida Jews, including concentration camp survivors (no less!) voted for Mr. Lieberman, and how did Mr. Lieberman fight for their rights to have their votes counted? Ans. - NOT AT ALL! Florida law is pretty specific: in the event of a closely contested election, ALL DISPUTED VOTES shall be HAND COUNTED at the request of the losing candidate, and the standard of counting is to be "the intent of the voter" (which is to say, all OVERVOTES clearly
marked for one candidate are to be counted for that candidate, and not discarded.)

So Mr. Lieberman joins thousands of Republicans in saying "that's past history" and he won't make an issue of it.

OK... So, What does Mr. Lieberman do instead?

Ans. #2: He looks for the EASIEST black and white issue he can find, in this case coming up with bashing "terrorists." Only problem, if you suspend due process and trial by jury, WHO determines who is a terrorist, and who isn't??

Ans. #3. Mr. Cheney's friends in the Ashcroft Justice dept. & Bush administration!!

If this is the best "leadership" Mr. Lieberman can provide us, I suggest he stick with the US Senate and not pull another "Bob Dole," who to placate HIS r-w supporters advocated abolishing the IRS. Fighting the "war on terror" without ANY tax revenues, now that would be a real trick. (That, and Mr. Dole (and his dog) drooling over a writhing Brittany Spears, now there's a real step up from Majority leader of the US Senate).

Signed,
LJBK

(PS Of course Mr. Lieberman's claim to fame was that he was more "moral" than Pres. Clinton, who was caught in an affair of sorts. I look at the Clinton WH "affair" and see a man who was greatly improved over his earlier womanizing. I'll take a Clinton, FDR, Kennedy, Johnson, or Martin Luther King, who all stood up and fought their battles, over a Joe Lieberman any day.)

Dear Buzz,

Concerning your BuzzFlash editorial on Dec. 13, 2001, the thought crossed my mind that this is the second time that a video tape has turned up mysteriously, the first being the "interview" with Bin Laden that the administration chose not to release for fear that it contained "coded" instructions (and one that was provided through mysterious agents early on in the war), and like the first it appeared at a very convenient time for the administration.

I have worked in multimedia and computer graphics for a number of years, and this tape raises far more questions than it answers. For instance - who filmed it? Why were the people who people caught on tape so unselfconscious about being taped? In my experience, when you put a video camera in front of people, they tend to mug for it, often make self-conscious remarks, and quite typically talk to the cameraman as well. The only ones who don't are professional actors. I could see Bin Laden perhaps able to ignore this camera, but not the others in the room.

Second, there were remarks about calculating the amount of damage that this would cause, and the expected fallout vs. the real fallout. A physicist might try to do such a thing - and there is typically with large towers an estimate made by the structural engineers about the effects of a collision, but realistically, would terrorists be interested in the specific engineering effects of the attack, to the extent that they would perform very complex calculations that frankly even a dedicated structural engineer would find difficult to make? No ... I don't think so.

There had been some "agonizing" in the White House about whether to release this video because of its inflammatory nature... a very incriminating video found in a "safe house". Hmm, so it's perfectly acceptable to restrict the release of one video that may have actually been legitimate but its all right to release a video that may have been deliberately left behind, and hence far more likely to contain "coded messages". No ...I don't think so.

I'd be a lot more inclined to believe that this particular tape is legitimate if an impartial panel of American, European, and Arabic video experts were allowed to examine the tape to determine: 1) if the people in the video are in fact who they are supposed to be, 2) if the audio track has been redubbed, 3) if there is any evidence of editing artifacts - even a skip would raise serious questions about the authenticity of the tape.

There is compelling evidence that Bush faked his National Guard papers once he got in office, and he is surrounded by people who have come up the ranks in the CIA, who are certainly no stranger to creating falsified video and other records.

This is not to exonerate Bin Laden, who has more than his share of things to answer for. However, this tape conveniently does several things - it distracts a population that is beginning to become alarmed at the actions that Bush, Ashcroft and company are putting into place to restrict civil liberties unduly, it also distracts from the thorny questions about the relationship between Bush and Enron, it acts as a demoralizing agent in those parts of the Islamic world that were beginning to see Bin Laden as a hero, and it renews the blind patriotic feelings of revulsion against the enemy. Bush has been the beneficiary of a large number of these "convenient" revelations and actions, and in a game of dice, getting lucky too often is usually a sign that the dice might be a touch 'funny'.

-- Kurt Cagle

Dear BuzzFlash,

Just heard president Bush say that, in effect, that since the international (as opposed to domestic) terrorists are funded by drug profits, that if you are a drug user, and quit using drugs, you have done your part to fight international (as opposed to domestic) terrorism.

Okay, sounds good. And, I am not for using drugs. BUT, by extension, then, if you DON'T stop using drugs, you are abetting international (as opposed to domestic) terrorism. And, as we all know, you're either with us or against us in our fight against international (as opposed to domestic) terrorism.

See where this is going. Soon, we will have secret tribunals for drug offenses. Heck, let's do our part to combat international (as opposed to domestic) terrorism, and eliminate a (suspected) drug user. It's only patriotic.

Now, since oil money is also used to finance international (as opposed to domestic) terrorism, does that mean that SUV owners are part of the international (as opposed to domestic) terrorism network? Or at least are sympathizers?????

Kevin Gallaway

Dear Buzz,

A little something found on Bartcop.com addressing the very issue we hear almost daily about how 9-11 is Clinton's fault....

Mother Jones magazine attacked Clinton for terrorism vigilance

Excerpt: Clinton and his defense secretary both seem to believe that a terrorist disaster of catastrophic proportions is not a matter of if, but when. "There is not a moment to lose," Cohen says, conjuring up images of "a plague more monstrous than anything we have experienced."

Appearing on ABC's "This Week" in November 1997, Cohen plopped a five-pound bag of sugar on the table and claimed that an equivalent amount of anthrax could kill 300,000 people.

Five months later, a team of four experts demonstrated in the Archives of Internal Medicine that it would take more than 100 pounds of anthrax to kill far fewer people.

While the press and the Ditto-Monkey congress had their attention glued to Clinton's zipper, he & Cohen were trying to get people to take terrorism seriously. Nobody would listen. Publications like Mother Jones were scolding Clinton for crying wolf on terrorism.

Check that last sentence - it would take 100 pounds of anthrax to kill far fewer than 300,00 people? That's what MoJo's experts used to portray Clinton as the fool.
Fourteen months later experts agree the single Leahy envelope could've killed 10.000.

Liberals and Democrats spent more time attacking Clinton than they did the GOP. Still do.
That's why I gotta get out of this party. BC

http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/SO00/phantom.html

Dear BuzzFlash,

I just read the letter sent by Jerry Falwell to his supporters re: the Pledge of Allegiance. As a dedicated Christian, I have to take issue with his view as expressed in the letter (and this won't be the first time that I've taken issue with the right-wing Christians such as Revs. Falwell & Robertson!). What he seems to be saying in a nutshell is that the U.S.
Is God's chosen country. Now, I'm going out on a limb here, but I just can't imagine that God really cares a whole lot about the boundaries we humans draw on this planet to make our own distinctions between "us" and "them". I've read the Bible a bunch of times and I
can't seem to find any mention of the U.S. In there...

The phrase "God Bless America" has become very popular as of late. Well, I don't have any argument with it--in one sense anyway. Indeed, I would have to say that we Americans *are* very blessed. Anyone can see that we have an abundance of resources in this
country. But what we choose to do with our blessings determines if we really behave as a "Christian nation" should. Do we feed the hungry, clothe the homeless and heal the sick with our abundance? Or do we squander it on showy displays of wealth, or perhaps
worse yet, make sure it becomes even more concentrated in the hands of a privileged few? I'll leave the answers to those questions up to others.

And the "sniveling Mr. Myers" that Mr. Falwell derides in his letter makes an interesting point--some people refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance because it "pledges allegiance to something other than their god". Well, guess what Mr. Falwell? As a devout Christian, you should know that God just may have a problem with someone pledging allegiance to something man-made (such as a flag), rather than to the Word of God.

If my country is behaving in a way that is opposed to Christian teaching, then it is my responsibility to point it out & try to change it--especially if my country is claiming to be a "Christian country". Blindly saluting the flag, regardless of what is going on here and abroad because of our country's policies, will never make up for that.

Drew