December 20, 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.

RE: Freedom, Openness And Presidential Papers

This article by the president's lawyer, is the greatest piece of double talk and spin I have ever read!

In it, everything he says is false, black is white, up is down, evil is good. It is truly insulting to the reader!

To you, Washington Post, you are doing your job to inform the public, just about as well as usual. What an absolute disgrace!

A BuzzFlash Reader

Dear BuzzFlash,

RE: Your blurb on top of your site to stand up to the bullies re Daschle

I totally agree with you ... just wonder if it might be a good idea to publish Sen Daschle's email address or fax number on your site and ask readers to write him and offer him our congratulations and encourage him to continue the fight, etc.

I sometimes question whether letters to the editor and the like are meaningful ... wouldn't it be better to use that time and effort to sent one's views to their elected officials ... silly me ... I keep thinking we can actually make a difference.

I have nothing against letters to the editor - but believe it's just not enough - it doesn't go far enough. One gets "stuff" off one's chest - but then what?

What do you think?

Nate Roth
San Mateo, CA

[BuzzFlash Note: Web Contact Form - http://daschle.senate.gov/webform.html; Email - tom_daschle@daschle.senate.gov; Snail Mail - The Honorable Senator Thomas Daschle, U. S. Senate, 509 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510 or 320 North Main, POBox 1274, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57101; Phone - (202) 224-2321 or (605)-334 9596]

Dear Buzz,

This is a quote of Tom "Nice Guy" Daschle's that I just read in the article written by Tom Ferraro and headlined by BuzzFlash:

"I have to try to ignore it, even though it is an uncomfortable situation," he said. "I don't like being called all those names, but I have a job to do, and I'm not going to let it get in the way of getting the job done."

Would someone please tell Tom Daschle not to ignore the name calling and disinformation spread by the Republicans. How do you think the 2000 election ended up close enough for the Republicans to steal. They will do the same thing to him that the did to Gore. To hell with fighting fair. The Republicans don't know what fair is.

Fred Noelke

Dear BuzzFlash,

RE: BUSH: MOUSSAOUI WILL NOT BE TRIED IN MILITARY COURT

An excerpt:

The decision to try Zacarias Moussaoui on terrorism charges in a federal court instead of a military tribunal was made by President Bush, based on the strength of the pending case and an assessment that an open trial would not hurt national security, Vice President Richard B. Cheney said yesterday.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20011219-68198435.htm

So in other words, if there is *not* a strong case against someone they would like to find guilty, *then* it is time for the tribunal!

James Rumsey

Aloha BuzzFlash :)

If Congressional approval is needed to sign treaties before they are valid then why shouldn't Congressional approval be required to absolve those same treaties? It seems this would be logical & would make a lot of sense otherwise you'd get some rogue President in there & he could just absolve treaties left & right regardless of what the people wanted. Now since this is America we are talking about & not a monarchy - I'm sure we don't give
our president the right to absolve treaties just because he feels like it. However I can find any reference to this. Is it possible our past Congressmen & Senators never conceived of this possibility - that it was just too remote to even entertain the though?

Do we now teach our kids how to duck & cover? This is progress? I feel like we've slipped back about 50 years!

Linda Kekumu

Dear Buzz,

Hey, thanks for the link to Bill Clinton's speech in England, "The Struggle for the Soul."

It was refreshing to hear his clear logic and intelligence again. Clinton continues to be a master of communicating and connecting with the people. Everything he said made perfect sense. BuzzFlash needs to keep his speech available for a while and I recommend that others read it.

~ Cathy

[BuzzFlash Note: We're trying to get permission to post it on our site.]

Dear BuzzFlash,

I read this article (http://www.ctnow.com/news/politics/hc-giordano3dec16.story) you linked to about Waterbury, CT mayor (and child sex fiend) Philip Giordano. Aside from the obvious question you raised about the media (how come they're not covering this as much as the Condit case; nevermind that they haven't even mentioned the Florida US Congressman's (I think his name is Scarborough) case, where an intern died in his office and the Congressman is covering up the cause of death), I have another question. It says in this article "The U.S. attorney's office has imposed extraordinary secrecy on the Giordano case". How come Senator Toricelli's case (he's a Democratic US Senator from NJ, my state; he's being investigated -- not arrested or indicted or anything, just investigated -- for bribery). So far, they haven't uncovered squat for evidence and seem to have forgotten about the case, yet they leaked all kinds of stuff about that all over the media (and isn't it illegal for an investigator to leak this stuff?)! How come that case is leaked, while the much more germane case to our national dialog and social issues -- but of a Republiklan -- hasn't had a single leak? Something's fishy here.

Jeff Schwarz

BuzzFlash,

Every hair on the back of my neck is on end, having just read your 12/19 analysis of the anthrax mess. You've been reading my mind -- I've felt all along it could well be a rightwing nutcase, and maybe not even too far into the fringe. I've wondered why the mainstream news media (TV news is a joke) hasn't noticed the targets were Democrats and the liberal (or what's referred to as liberal, another joke) media.

And don't be so sure that some dark forces not far removed from those running the country did not have anything to do with or know about some of the bad things that have happened. I don't subscribe to any conspiracy theory. I just wouldn't put it past 'em. Weirder things have happened.

Thanks for being there.

Skrufffy

Dear Buzz,

Lets revisit Newt Gingrich, the guy who got blow jobs in a limo parked outside the hospital where his wife was inside dying. Newt advises the Gov interns to work 80 hours per week. Newt has never worked 80 hours a month but, like a typical Republican political bozo, he trumpets family values on one side and pumps up goofy exhortations on the other. How one practices family values if they can't see their family except at midnight we'll have to leave to the towering intellects on the right. Shine guys think Newt would be doing us a favor if he and his pals would work less instead of more.

Babs Fleisholson
Press Sec & Frycook
Shine A Light Mission
(Fried potato skins & stone soup)

Dear BuzzFlash,

RE: Commercials Propagandizing Shrub

Those SLICK ads by Mr MARRIOTT and the Travel Industry Association of America, produced by the McCann Erickson ad agency, which deify Shrub under the guise of bolstering the economy, are STILL running, although their press release said they would run from Thanksgiving through about last week. The TIA websites have conveniently been unavailable since last week. Immediately following is a feedback page on a TIA-related site, followed by the complaint I sent there. Below that is the link for marriott.com.

http://www.seeamerica.org/contact.asp

The TIA websites have been down or unavailable for several days. But my complaint has to do with the Marriott and TIA sponsored advertisements (McCann Erickson) featuring G.W.BUSH in his official government capacity in a commercial activity. Under the cover of bolstering the national economy, some very specific private entities are profiteering with Mr BUSH's collaboration, while also propagandizing his own image. The ads were supposed to run out last week according to your press release, yet are still running as of 12-19.

************

This is Marriott's:

http://www.marriott.com/suggest/suggest.asp

John Garza

Dear Buzz,

I am forwarding this email to you concerning Media Research Center's non-profit tax status from the editor of Media Transparency.

My conclusion is that you should change your tax status. Even the playing field. No need to play nice nice when you are fighting the radical right wing media machine. With one arm tied behind your back.

Think about it!

Best regards,

RA in LA

[BuzzFlash Note: If we took advantage of the system, we'd be no better than the rest of them.]

*******************

You are correct about the tax status on both regards. The problem is twofold:

1) The IRS as an agency is decimated, and these charities have exploded since the late 1980s.

2) The laws and regulations are very vague. In essence, a charity would have to run a campaign for someone to be judged violating the political provisions (although some have in the past. See the case of Newt Gingrich (GOPAC, and the case of the National Policy Forum, which lost its status for being "too Republican." ) A charity can also lose its status by providing a "private benefit" to some group, i.e. the Republican Party.

This link tells a little about the National Policy Forum:

http://www.mediatransparency.org/stories/cae.htm

Case of Newt:

http://www.courttv.com/legaldocs/government/gopac3.html

Thanks for the note,

_rob_levine

----- Original Message -----
From: R Anderson
To: media@cursor.org <mailto:media@cursor.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2001 11:28 AM
Subject: Question about Media Research Center. Inc.'s tax status

Hi,

I turned to your site this morning as it was referenced on Buzzflash.com in regards to the funding behind Media Research Center. I must say it was an eye-opener. You have a great site!

Can someone with your organization answer the following question for me?

At the bottom of Media Research Center's sales pitch it has this line: "The Media Research Center is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit corporation. All contributions are fully tax-deductible."

Now as far as I can tell this organization is purely political in purpose, i.e. radical right wing. Shouldn't contributions to it therefore be non-tax-deductible? Am I missing something here? Can their status be challenged and if so how?

Sincerely,

Robert Anderson

Dear BuzzFlash:

Whoever sent those Anthrax letters is guilty of murder of at least five innocent people. Why aren't the lives of these people as important as the lives of those victims of the 9/11 attacks??

Julia Johnston

Hey guys,

Thanks for a great website. It keeps me up to date on what's going on out there. It is one of the few web sites that I visit everyday. I've turned a few of my friends on to your site as well. We are all better informed and ready to do verbal combat with any right wing ideologues that we might encounter. As far as I can tell you are the only answer to Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and the other right wing media outlets.

Keep up the good work,
Charles Lemmon

Dear Buzz,

Dick Cheney should be made to testify as to how Enron helped shape his energy
policy. Kenneth Lay's private meeting with Cheney is definitely in need of questioning. What influence did Lay have on Cheney? Plenty, I'll bet....at least $2 million worth.

Gigi

Dear BuzzFlash,

Bush will argue that he is only following the precedent set by Bill Clinton in making making recess appointments (mark my words on that one). The key fact he will be missing is that Clinton did so after his nominations sat without being considered -- because the Republiklan's refused to consider them -- for longer than Bush has even been in office.

Erskine Harris

Hi, Buzz:

This morning (Wednesday), I was fortunate to miss 99% of the "interview" GMA's Charlie Gibson had with george I and bar. But, I did catch the very end when Gibson asked george I a question that went something like this: "I understand you have a unique suggestion regarding a punishment for John Walker. What is it?"

george sr.'s response was, not surprisingly right in line with the bush's credo of 'appearance over substance': "Leave his hair the way it is and don't let him clean his face. Then let him walk around the streets and see how much sympathy he gets." Wow, how retro; how redneck! The words "long haired hippie" and "Nixonian" immediately came to mind. How glaringly simple minded! Now we know for certain where jr. gets his pithy phrases: "crusade", "wanted dead or alive", etc.

Next thing you know, daddy will be suggesting that george II take Walker outside to go "mano a mano" to settle the score.

Liz
Houston

Dear Buzz,

http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/flag/nyc.html

In Joe McCarthy's day they were called "snitch lines." They worked like this: if you suspected your colleague or neighbor or employee was up to something un-American - leaving lights on when nobody was home, sympathizing with the Communists, etc. - you could call up a special phone number and anonymously rat them out.

In this time of heightened national security, the snitch lines are back. In the aftermath of September 11th, the FBI received tens of thousands of calls on so-called "tip" lines, and folks were broadly rounded up for questioning.

One tip-line caller reported a suspicious-looking billboard near Times Square in New York. Soon after, a Department of Defense agent paid a visit to Chashama, the theater and art gallery that had leased space to Adbusters for its Corporate American Flag billboard. The agent had a lot of questions: Why were they displaying the billboard? Who paid for it? Who created it? (One clue might have been the website listed on the sign.)

......more......

D Mullaley

BuzzFlash,

I watched Mary F. Berry, and let me tell you, that is some woman to be proud of. I love
her style. She knows how to to put people in their places with just the right smile. Here is honesty at it's best. (Now if we could find a man with the same qualities that man would be awesome) for she is awesome! I hope she is destined for bigger things. Mary Berry is *I am woman hear me roar*!

Angela

Dear BuzzFlash,

We loved Jon Stewart.

That is until I stayed up late last night and decided to watch his show, which we usually watch early evening, the next day. Poor Jon has succumbed to the right wing. We know he has republicans on his show, and was tasteful about it.(we felt him to be liberal, a little) Peggy Noonan was his guest, you know*thousand points of lights*! There was praise to high heaven for Reagan, daddy bush, and boy george, and then the best for last,
condemnation, who else, of course, President Clinton. Well that's the last time we'll be watching Jon Stewart, and here we thought we had a friend! Money talks!

Ang and Len

[BuzzFlash Note: The Daily Show is generally an equal-opportunity satirist. However, BuzzFlash thinks this interview was a corporate inside job. Noonan's book was published by Viking, which is part of Penguin-Putnam, which is owned by Pearson, which also owns the Financial Times. CBS Marketwatch's two largest investors are Pearson and CBS. Comedy Central is a joint venture of Time Warner Entertainment Company and Viacom International. Viacom owns CBS. One could easily imagine how a conservative, profit-goaled company like Viacom might "make some phone calls" for Noonan and force her on The Daily Show.]