December 24, 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:commentary from Liz in Houston

Amen! I wish each and every democrat would grow a backbone asap! This is serious people. I have never in my life seen people in government so afraid to speak up. What in the hell is going on? Are all the "leaders of this country," holding every one of different politics hostage???

Jeez, it is getting depressing to read of all the illegal, slimy things these people are doing
and getting away with! Help! We need someone who will grow a brain and a spine before it is too late!

Thanks,

Liz Shirley, St.Louis

Subj: Army of God/Anthrax letters

I thought you'd like to see this - it's a link to pictures of the Army of God letters regarding the bombings in Atlanta. Do they remind you of any other letters?

http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/rudolph/letters.htm

Great site, keep up the good work.

Steve Smugar

Subj: GLORIA'S RIGHT ON TARGET, AS USUAL!

I read Gloria LaLumia's article, nodding my head as I read.

I, too, can no longer stand to watch fox, msnbc, etc., etc. I am so sick over what they have done to our democracy and the fact that we have no voice at all anymore, that I just refuse to watch it. I now watch nick-at-night and watch Archie Bunker and remember when Americans still had journalists, real news, and programs that made one think...instead of Rudy Giuliani and Laura Bush 24/7.

Harriet Helman

When it comes to the anthrax investigation there is Scott Shane of the Baltimore Sun and then there is everyone else. Check it out:

http://www.sunspot.net

Alice Marshall
Fairfax, Virginia

Dear Mr. Sanders:

I agree with everything you said in your column.

With all the brain-dead reporters in the mainstream media wrapping themselves up in the flag of "patriotism," the republicans will continue to loot our treasury along with our constitutional rights and civil liberties. I had to turn off CNN when I heard Lou Dobbs trying to rationalize and justify Enron's despicable acts!

George Bush, Cheney, and the rest of their bunch, are connected at the hip and in the wallet with Ken Lay and Enron, but I fear we'll be hearing less and less about that.

It seems that the democrats also, are too timid to go there. I cannot put into words the OUTRAGE I feel at what is happening to this country!

Thank you for your courage in speaking the truth. I hope that many Americans are listening.

Sincerely,
A BuzzFlash Reader

RE: American Airlines Flight 63

If "Richard" had been successful in igniting his foot bomb, and if the explosion had caused the plane to go down over the Atlantic, it's unlikely we would ever have known the cause. For this reason, the would-be bomber was probably acting on his own and not connected to any organized terrorist organization. What would be the point of committing such an act if no one could know you did it and no one would have need to fear your group?

FJ Calandra
Webster, NY

[BuzzFlash Note: A life-threatening situation with unknown causes is a greater threat than one with a known cause. If you know what caused something, at least you can try and do something about it.]

Just came across this article. Now, please note, correspondents say that the agreement will prompt the construction of a pipeline linking Kazakh oil fields to western market via Turkey.

I read recently Turkey has taken our views on the need to "get" Sadam and will allow the US to occupy their country to fight Iraq if necessary. Turkey's sudden change of heart -- they finally saw the light and realized Sadam is evil or just a lucky coincidence? Don't think so..

US and Kazakhstan sign oil deal
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1724000/1724652.stm

Regards,
Marlene W.

<< For weeks, people have been asking why the Republicans choose to attack Tom Daschle rather than work in a bipartisan way to get things done. The Luntz memo shows once and for all that this is part of a concerted strategy to avoid a debate on the issues by engaging in the type of negative Washington politics that President Bush pledged to change during his campaign and throughout his Presidency. They're unfortunately using the politics of personal destruction to try to deflect people's attention from the real issue that divides Democrats and Republicans in Washington today: Should an economic stimulus plan should include temporary unemployment and health benefits for laid-off workers? Democrats say yes, Republicans say no. >>

- from Sen. Daschle's response, @Truthout.com

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

BRAVO! There had to be SOME sentient Dems. out there... Sen. Daschle's office v gop Attack Machine.

I have long wondered where those "best and brightest" Democratic aides and staffers disappeared to.... you know, the paid, professional lawyers, and analysts, and advisors who help Democratic Senators and Reps. at home and in Washington. The one's who look at GOP propaganda (which is usually the "mainstream" media's meat and potatoes) and have the TIME and RESOURCES to look up the facts and rebutt the propaganda.

Mr. Daschle's letter below is just what is needed to rebut the GOP "spin" and lie machine. And it is SO easy... simply look at the record, and rebutt the exaggerations, lies, or spin!

I mean, HOW ABSURD IS IT that blatantly partisan Bill O'Reilly can call his show a "NO SPIN ZONE" day after day, and say it with a straight face! It is even worse that the Bush admin. can push a (quotes!) "STIMULUS PACKAGE" that is nothing more than a huge tax give away for bush's largest, most profitable supporters and campaign contributors.

Sen. Daschle's office has finally responded to the obvious... the relentless stream of GOP spin that, like Bill O'Reilly, will try to make black seem white; a fiercely conservative partisan show as a "no spin zone;" or (the daddy of them all) the FIERCELY PARTISAN bush admin. as "A NEW, BIPARTISAN TONE IN WASHINGTON."

Here's hoping the rest of the congressional Democratic staffers are able to read from the same page.

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

http://www.truthout.com/12.22A.Daschle.Fleischer.htm
STATEMENT SENATE MAJORITY LEADER TOM DASCHLE
RESPONSE TO WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN ARI FLEISCHER
Friday December 21, 2001

Judge for yourself: White House misleads on nominations. Again.

In recent weeks, as part of their strategy to "do exactly the same thing to Daschle [that Democrats did to Gingrich]," the White House has engaged in a number of attacks on Daschle and the Democratic-controlled Senate.

LJBK

Subj: An Open Letter to Enron Employees

With all due respect, the people that brought George Bush to power are the people that did this to you folks.

What's been done to you was done to the nation last November.

I wonder if y'all have learned anything?

-- Peter Sinclair
http://www.alexsrestaurant.com/library/sample.html
It's Alex's Restaurant, the Cartoon of Mind, Body, and Planet!

RE: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/04/20010424-2.html

Check this April 2001 Official White House web page out... scroll down to where it says,

"The President intends to nominate Thomas E. White to be Secretary of the Army. He is currently the Vice-Chairman of Enron Energy Services. He has served as Chairman and CEO of Enron Operations Corporation and as Chairman and CEO of Enron Power Corporation since joining Enron in 1990."

........... I'll bet the Bush admin don't even realize this page is up..!!!!!!!

Daniel Gargus

Hooray for Liz from Houston---I have been wandering when the Democrats were going
to get their backbones riled up--I can't believe we now have no surplus-spending surpluses for the next ten years easily-BigBig favors for businesses-a tax reform that once April comes the American public will see what a farce and maybe start waking up from the Dead Beat of the Drums on the National Media--Maybe they will wake up soon-How do you spend all that surplus-give tax breaks and then budget yourself into a complete mess with bail outs-etc., for companies that were already in trouble due to their own stupidity and do nothing for the millions now unemployed due to some of this same stupidity-------Who is going to pay for it?????????Yep-the middle class who got $600 rebates and will probably have to give it back in April or it will come off what they would have gotton back-----Why aren't the news people on the trail of all the money lost from Enron--where are the employees who ought to be speaking out-Of course, we know part of that money went to the Republican party for Bush's election----I sincerely hope the Democrats have gotton some of their backbones back because they are going to need it---by the way--who is saying anything about Bush's current ties to the CIA-or past connections -----And are any of the Justice Dept. career lawyers doing any leaking or is everyone keeping their mouths shut--Hopefully they will have a vision and decide things aren't going as they should---

A BuzzFlash Reader

Re: A BUZZFLASH CONTRIBUTOR COMMENTARY: THE CLINTON RULES

I am so disappointed by all the same things that anger Liz from Houston.

I think all Democrats need to rent a copy of "All The President's Men" and watch it AGAIN to REFRESH their minds about just how corrupt Nixon and his Republican cronies were almost 30 years ago. Bush and his EVIL Republican cronies are still doing the same kinds of things today.

Does any Democrat remember that the Republicans had "Reputation Assassination Squads" way back in the 1970s that gave themselves the Name "Rat Fuc_ers" referring to the decent Democrats whose reputations they were trying to destroy and Democrats who they were manufacturing lies about????

Does any Democrat remember seeing Lucianne Goldberg on TV in recent years bragging about how she was a planted Republican SPY who rode on the George McGovern's campaign planes all around the country?????

Does any Democrat remember the gall that old corrupt John Mitchell had when he told one of the Washington Post reporters (who by the skin of their teeth and by the grace of GOD) uncovered the HUGE Republican WATERGATE SCANDAL to tell Katherine Graham who owned the Washington Post that she was going to get "her tit hung in the ringer" (his words---not mine) if she kept printing the truth about the VERY CORRUPT Republican Nixon Administration in her newspaper????

Does any Democrat remember how John Mitchell and his evil and corrupt Republican cronies actually kidnapped his own wife, Martha Mitchell, and held her hostage for a long time because she was talking too much to suit the EVIL Nixon Republican regime???? I remember hearing her on TV later saying those men who had held her hostage gave her injections of some kind, and she later came down with CANCER and died. Were those men who held Martha Mitchell hostage against her will renegade FBI and CIA Agents????

Does any Democrat remember that we learned during the Republican Nixon Watergate Scandal that both the CIA and FBI were apparently working with the Republicans in the Watergate Scandal???? Was the CIA and FBI both working with the corrupt Ronald Reagan Republican Administration during Iran-Contra???? Are some Republican renegade FBI and CIA Agents working now with the corrupt Bush Administration trying to cover up who actually has been trying to kill Democratic Senators and other Democrats with ANTHRAX????

Does any Democrat remember that Nixon and his evil cronies apparently tried to set JOHN DEAN up for the fall of the Nixon Administration during the Watergate Scandal????

Does any Democrat remember how the Republicans harassed the Clinton's and the Clinton Administration with outright lies for 8 whole years?????

What is wrong with our Democrat elected representatives in Washington that they appear to be too afraid to stand up to the EVIL, CORRUPT REPUBLICANS who are trying to destroy Democrats, one and ALL, and appear to be too afraid to call them on the carpet about all of their outright lies, character assassinations, and their attempt to destroy our country and push it back into the DARK AGES???

We Democrats desperately need to set up a "War Room" just like President Clinton had to try to give the Republicans a low blow right back every time the Corrupt Republicans give the Democrats a low blow.

God Help the Democrats if we do not have the back bone to fight back.

CAH---A REAL Texan who is a Democrat

Subj: Remarks by the President

Read this. Does it sound disjointed or is it me...we wanted you to come to the Oval Office so we could show you our rug??

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011221-2.html

Chewgababy

Subj: Bush's Kildeer

A Buzzflash link I followed yesterday sent me to an article in the Austin American Statesman http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/friday/editorial_2.html about Texas Governor Perry's attempt to hide information from the press. This article contained an obscure statement at the bottom, "But even Texans would probably forgive a man for shooting one by accident. George W. Bush once fessed up to illegally downing a killdeer, after all."

The more I thought about this, the more I realized that it offers a surprisingly vivid look into the soul of our appointed leader.

I have been a bird hunter for over 40 years. I've hunted a variety of game birds in many states, over pointers and retrievers and flushers, and with a variety of great human companions as well. Over the years, I've seen many types of hunter in the field. By far most sportsmen I've met have been just that, honoring the rules and regulations while participating in an activity that connects us with our human hunting ancestry. I know many of my fellow liberals believe that killing an animal for sport is unconscionable. I don't expect to change anyone's mind about that but I can say that I find it fulfilling and humbling to personally participate, under rules of sportsmanship, in all the steps of the meat eating process.

But I learned early on that there are a few real jerks out there. One does not accidentally shoot a bird. Shooting a bird on the wing requires a conscious skilled purposeful act. Each species has characteristic coloring and flight patterns that any hunter would recognize. If you can't identify the bird you do not shoot - it's that simple. But birds are shot illegally - usually by someone who is having a bad day. Perhaps they missed an easy shot or two in front of their friends and now they need to look good by killing something, anything. The truth is that non-game and out of season birds are killed on purpose by assholes who know better. True sportsmen, which include most of us out there, are repelled by this type of pseudo hunter.

Most civilized people understand that taking life, whether by capital punishment, in war, or even while hunting, is a serious undertaking that requires just motives and an underlying structure of legality and fairness. Look at this simple hunting violation in the context of Bush's history - the way he evaded duty in Vietnam by being the son of a wealthy connected politician, his record on capitol punishment when he was governor of Texas, the way he mocked Carla Fay Tucker before executing her, his flight to an underground bunker while America was under attack by terrorists, his bizarre pronouncement now about getting his terrorists "dead or alive" - and a truly sinister image of the soul of this coward and bully who pretends to be our president emerges from the Texas scrubland.

Ray Pelland
Port Townsend, WA

Subj: Barbara Olson's book contains urban legend

I just completed a review for the Amazon web site of The Final Days by the late Barbara Olson. On pg. 29 of The Final Days, Olson passed on as truth an urban legend: “Some even noticed that when Clinton was President, Marine guards failed to execute a right face to stand facing his back as he walked away. The Marines somehow relearned this maneuver on January 20, 2001, when the new Commander-in-Chief, President George W. Bush, took office.” This petty smear of President Clinton, debunked by several urban legends web sites such as snopes.com and urbanlegends.com, is especially pernicious because it besmirched the professionalism of the Marine guards, who have no dog in the fight. No big surprise: Olson once referred to President Clinton’s mother, who to the best of my knowledge never wronged anyone, as “a barfly who gets used by men.”

Sincerely,

Scoobie Davis

FINALLY! Hooray! A Dem. steps up to the podium, and calls the WP out for being liars....

Instead of linking this article as "Prisoners of the Senate," Buzz could mention: "Dem Congressman Calls the Washington Post to task for Biased Editorial."

By now, the WP and NYT have gotten away with outright lying articles and editorials for so long, that Dems should take a tip from Pres. Reagan: "Don't get mad, just LAUGH! at your opponents."

Every time the NYT or WP gets caught lying again, they should make "the liar's Hall of Fame." Saying that Sen. Daschle scuttled the insurance bill, when in fact it was a last minute rider tacked on by the GOP leadership, counts as outright lying to this reader!

LJBK

'Prisoners of the Senate'
by JOHN CONYERS JR., U.S. Representative (D-Mich.)
Friday, December 21, 2001; Page A44
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9946-2001Dec20.html

I respectfully disagree with the Dec. 17 editorial "Prisoners of the Senate," which accused Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle of unfairly holding up the terrorism insurance bill.

Just so you know -- MY Congressman, Henry Waxman is kicking ass! He's on the Enron deal. He's not sitting back and give the Republicans free reign, nor has he ever. I called his office and told them that I wanted to launch an Internet campaign contribution program for him, and they told me that he was OK for right now. Can you believe it? This guy is a Saint and deserves major credit for all his dragon slaying in Congress.

Merry Christmas,
Kevin Knox

Subj: Barf Alert Roundup

************BARF ITEM #1*************
Get ready for Faux Propaganda Sunday, when that merry madcap, Britster, will be getting joshed by those kidders BARNES and SNOWjob about being an Olympian. 12-22 Faux was airing the light variety of propaganda of Brit being one of the relays for the Olympic torch. Really, there's not much to say here.------ Heck, I'll say more. He's just so INSPIRED by this illegitimate Shrub administration, its plutocratic cronyism, its immoral hypocrisy that he just literally JUMPS for joy. He's an AMERICAN journalist.

**************BARF ITEM #2***********
Signing off his "Hardball for Dems, Puffball for Repukes" show 12-21, Tweezer the Loser MATTHEWS bade us fond adieu, unfortunately not forever, saying he is going on vacation with his family "to the part of Africa where I was in the Peace Corps." This sick EGOMANIAC is going through his midlife nostalgia crisis. He actually believes his particular life is a significant epic. Even while he admits he actively chose the Peace Corps as a way of evading Viet Nam. Imagine his now TAWNY locks wisping up in the air, while he points out to his wife and kids, who VERY probably want to be elsewhere, how CHURCHILL this way passed, preparing the way for the Tweezer yet to be born, just as John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ. If he actually had a brain he would NOW go to Viet Nam and write a book about what he sees now, OR a book about Prez CLINTON with a serious attempt to see the reality OR a book on how the media perpetrated "the GORE treatment" during the campaign. Any one of THOSE bestsellers wouldn't fall off the list in a week, unlike his current wiffleball of a "book." He not only misses things the first time around, he misses the point the next times around.

****************BARF ITEM #3********
Tweezer the Loser Matthews unethically (what else is new?) showcased Frank LUNTZ as "independent pollster" many, many times throughout the campaign, when it was obvious that this LUNTZ was a PARTISAN RIGHT WINGER in the way he slanted the questions and the outcomes. Here is a new article labeling him as "Republican strategist," as we always knew he was, with his strategy to TRASH Senator DASCHLE. HAST TWEEZER NO DECENCY???? Thank goodness for Heaven and Hell, 'cause there ain't no justice here. (By the way, since Shrub now claims the stimulus package wasn't needed after all, we'll be waiting for the obstructionist" epithet about the Senator to be retracted. Hey, out there, we'll be holding our breath.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/21/politics/21DASC.html
December 21, 2001
GOP Pushes to Make Daschle Appear a National Villain
By TODD S. PURDUM
"It's time for someone, everyone, to start using the phrase `Daschle Democrats' and the word 'obstructionist' in the same sentence," the Republican strategist Frank Luntz wrote in a memorandum of suggested talking points to the Senate Republican caucus on Wednesday. "It's time for Congressional Republicans to personalize the individual that is standing directly in the way of economic security, and even national security," the memorandum added. "Remember what the Democrats did to Gingrich? We need to do exactly the same thing to Daschle."

***************END this edition of BARF ALERT ROUNDUP************

Subj: Limbaugh Hired by the White House?

Ariliarpantsonfire on the reason a major part of the bin Laden transcript was omitted:

"Any missing words from the transcript released December 13 are "a function of interpreting and translating tapes that are in many places hard to hear," Fleischer told reporters.)

Just who the hell did their translating? Rush Limbaugh?

Does Ari mean to suggest that ABC has access to better technology and translators than the all powerful White House, Pentagon and Homeland Security? Yeah, right! If so, we're really in a world of manure.

This has got to be the biggest load of BS to come pouring out of Ari's mouth since his lies about the White House and Air Force One being targets on Sept 11, or as I refer to it, "Operation Erase the Yellow Streak."

~Antonia

Some thoughts from the Founding Fathers - did they anticipate the Bush administration and its assaults on our cherished liberties? Abraham Lincoln thought so (see the last paragraph).

"A free-born people are not required to submit to tyranny!"
-- Citizens of Marlborough, Massachusetts, 1774

"The Administration has totally lost all sense and feeling of morality [and is] governed by passion, cruelty and revenge."
-- Samuel Adams, May 18, 1774

"Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"
-- Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

"O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare to oppose not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted around the globe. O! Receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind!"
-- Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
-- Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."
-- Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, December 19, 1776

"I have sworn, upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
-- Thomas Jefferson, November 23, 1800

And finally, Abraham Lincoln. Of the Founding Fathers, Lincoln, on August 17, 1858, said:

"Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the tendency of prosperity to breed tyrants, and so they established these great self-evident truths, that when in the distant future some man, some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine that none but rich men, or none but white men, were entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity might look up again to the Declaration of Independence ... so that truth, and justice, and mercy, and all the humane and Christian virtues might not be extinguished from the land."

Ann Davidson
Philadelphia, PA

- Storm Cestavani

------------------------------------

Hello!

I hope you will be as excited as I am to learn that Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris has decided to run for the United States Congress from the 13th District in Florida.

As Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, I meet with hundreds of candidates and few match the credentials, credibility and integrity of Katherine Harris.

Katherine has been an outstanding Secretary of State in Florida who has never wavered from her principles. She swore an oath to uphold the law and to honor it. And that is exactly what she has done.

You will remember, last year, Katherine stood her ground in the face of unrelenting attacks, fighting for what was right--following the law. Now she is ready to work in the United States Congress to fight for our values, our economy and our nation.

Let's get her campaign started right. Take a moment to visit Katherine's new website http://www.ElectHarris.org. Sign up for email, offer to volunteer, and make a donation. Let's all show Katherine how proud we are of her and that we are behind her 100%!!!

Thank you, and God Bless America.

Tom Davis, 11th District Virginia
Chairman, National Republican Congressional Committee

PS It doesn't matter if you live in Florida or not, it is important we get behind strong Republican candidates who can help us increase our House majority. And I know Katherine would be honored to have you on her Friends of Katherine Harris team. Please visit http://www.ElectHarris.org/donate today!

***************************************
If you would like to unsubscribe from further updates, please place your email address in the subject of an email and send it unsubscribe@kharris.focusds.net.

[BuzzFlash Note: Formatting the Harris email nearly caused BuzzFlash to involuntarily discharge the contents of our stomach. Instead of selling the country on bipartisanship, the Democrats should offer bicarbonate.]