March 18, 2002

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I was motivated by the article from MediaWhoresOnline about Bawer's review to email the Washington Post the following:

Dear Ombudsperson:

Residing in rural America an hour and a half from Washington D.C, I used to find it a treat to read the Post on Sundays. As a used book dealer, I also found reading Book World helpful. In the past year I find myself less and less inclined to walk a half a block to get the Post. It no longer enthralls. OK perhaps the internet news has filled some of my news needs. But I don't think that's all of it. It just isn't that interesting.

The recent review of David Brock's book, BLINDED BY THE RIGHT just deepens my disappointment. It's not just uninteresting, it's deceitful not to have noted that Bruce Bawer was an American Spectator writer. OK just as the United States is a nation in decline, promulgating war instead of peace - power by virtue of its military rather than its
leadership as a democratic nation of goodwill, perhaps the Washington Post can't carry the torch of ethical journalism in such a climate.

When Great Britain lost its world dominance it retained a lot of good qualities. As a matter of fact we rely on it for international news. What will the U.S. retain after its decline? Or more to the point, can you persuade the Post to retain some integrity and principles of good journalism in these times??

Sincerely,
Jean (withheld)
Pennsylvania

Dear BuzzFlash,

http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/news/politics/2874926.htm
KRT Wire | 03/16/2002 | White House uses wartime popularity to woo states

With his campaigning, his exercising, his naps, and his forever war, it does not leave time for anything else, does it.

Henry

Dear Buzz,

This isn't the first time The Washington Post has hired an American Spectator writer to review a book that exposes the workings of the Spectator and the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. In 2000, The Post's book editor hired American Spectator critic James Bowen to review Gene Lyons' and Joe Conason's book The Hunting of the President, which exposed the Spectator. It was a deadly hit piece, and caused a furor. Even the Columbia Journalism Review spanked The Post.

http://www.cjr.org/year/00/2/dartsjulaug.asp

Eileen Smith

Dear BuzzFlash,

Subj: NewsFlash: Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) contributed $258,275 to repubs., $0 to dems, 1995 - 2000!

http://www.citizen.org/congress/campaign/special_interest/articles.cfm?ID=5730

...Top "Soft Money" Contributors

So-called soft money contributions are given to the political parties in unlimited amounts from corporations, unions and the wealthy. Table 3 shows that the top 15 auto industry contributors have given more than $3.6 million in "soft money" to Republican party committees and $383,143 to Democratic party committees in this six-year Senate election cycle – that’s nine times more to Republicans than to Democrats.

Dear Buzz,

Subj: New word to use in Buzz headlines.

"Infotatorship"..a form of governing that is based on surveillance and media manipulation rather than on out right physical repression.

This word would fit Ari, Rummy, Shrub, Ashcroft, Powell, Rice, etc. etc. etc.

Chewgababy

Dear BuzzFlash,

http://www.aflcio.org/paywatch/
AFL-CIO: PayWatch

The above site leads to the one below:
http://www.aflcio.org/cgi-bin/aflcio.pl
PayWatch: Executive PayWatch Database

This is a very interesting site listing the payroll of executives of major corporations. Take a look at some of them. For instance, Enron, Global Crossing, UnitedHealth, ExxonMobil, Allstate, American General. Shocking, that's for sure. No wonder these corps get into trouble-nothing can sustain that amount plus they pass it on to us which is even worse.

http://www.aflcio.org/cgi-bin/aflcio.pl?tkr=UNH&pg=1

Fury at oil chief's 58% pay rise
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,666939,00.html

A BuzzFlash Reader

Dear Buzz,

Regarding that so-called "correction" finally issued by the NY Times .....

How much of a "correction" was it really? Verbatim, here is what they printed on March 15, 2002:

"In article on Feb. 1 about a Democratic television commercial that attacked Elizabeth Dole for having attended a fund-raiser given by Kenneth L. Lay, the former chairman of Enron, misstated a connection between him and President Bill Clinton. While they played golf together, records reviewed by a Clinton spokesman show that Mr. Lay did not stay overnight in the Clinton White House. A reader's e-mail reported the error to The Times a few weeks ago; this correction was delayed by an editing lapse."

You'll note it mentions "While [Lay and Clinton] played golf together . . ." It STILL sounds as if they were "buddies"; no mention that (a) it was ONE golf game; and, (b) they played AGAINST each other in a Dems vs. Reps kind of game.

While I suppose we should be grateful that they printed a correction, and that it was the first of many printed (should tell you something right there), I wonder if the correction wasn't worse than the original lie. It just reads as so patronizing; more of the "well, we know he's guilty of SOMETHING" nonsense that is still being perpetuated more than a
year after he left office. Absolutely unbelievable.

Patricia S.
Las Vegas, NV

Dear BuzzFlash:

I woke up yesterday and suddenly was struck by the thought, "Hey! Why didn't Bush and the White House condemn like crazy the "leaking" of the Nuclear Posture Review to the L.A. Times?" Til yesterday, like most everybody, I'd just been consumed by how insane and scary it was. I wondered if your readers had been asking the same question and went back through last week's mailbag. I saw that Lee Roskin had been much more awake than I've been and questioned it on the 11th.

Like him, I find it hard to wrap my brain around the kind of convoluted shell game that might provide a self-serving reason for the administration to scare the whole world with this story. To deflect attention from Enron, or Dr. Barbara Rosenberg's allegations that the
government knows who the anthrax mailer is, or related stories about secret work our bio-defense industry was doing before September 11, or to scare everyone enough about external nuclear/bio threats to force Congress to ram through the defense budget, or....??? Who knows. It takes an army of "suspicious minds" to shine light on all the possible cover-ups behind each day's new terrifying revelation from/about this administration. Fortunately, in BuzzFlash and its readers we have such an army -- God bless all your suspicious minds.

If the nuclear review was intentionally leaked, like all the admin's actions it fails to take into account the reactions of people and countries around the world. I'm afraid the admin thinks it's just a matter of manipulating information -- as "J.A. in LA" put it, playing the nuclear threat/the "war on terrorism," etc. "like a board game"--and utterly fails to comprehend the possible destabilizing effects around the world, particularly in increased
hatred of the US

Another possibility, I fear, is that Bush just plain gets high on war. The press report of his news conference this week said he was "high-spirited and confident" (while still managing to squeeze out a tear for our soldiers lost in Afghanistan). I'm no doctor or psychiatrist, but I'm suspicious that Bush is starting to exhibit something of a manic high about "the war."

And finally, out of all of it this week, the most disgusting thing I read: the Washington Post's report of Bush's fundraising trip to Florida (March 9). The piece starts out with Bush shedding tears and hugging the families of two soldiers killed in Afghanistan (the Post sympathetically describing as a "rare public display" the way "his voice caught, he struggled to regain his composure"--gag me). The families were present for Bush's speech at a semiconductor facility. The rest of the article, though, provides details of the fundraising part of the trip, "his third to Florida in five weeks to promote his brother's reelection bid. This trip, according to the White House, raised $500,000, but the Florida news said was "at least $750,000." It is only in the third-to-last paragraph of the 3-column article that it is mentioned that "as with other fundraising trips, the White House added an official presidential speech that allows the party to share the trip's cost with the government." Yes, boys and girls, our taxpayer dollars are funding Bush's trips to get his brother reelected. Bush told donors on the trip, "I told Jeb I'll do anything he wants me to do to get him elected." Who says he's not an honest man?

We have to keep turning a searchlight on each and every action of this administration. The majority of Americans may seem to be still asleep, but they're the same people who, when all was said and done, refused to let the manipulations of the right-wing crazies and a biased press run Clinton out of the White House. Eventually, I believe, they'll all wake up to the fact that we're being played for suckers.

Linda

Dear Buzz,

The one about how George has taken over and does as he pleases. I have a voice, and I have a backbone. But, unfortunately, I have fallen into a family and most friends who either don't give a damn or think Bush is equal to God. My voice, and I do stand for my beliefs, always! . . . are not heard. Have you ever been in a crowd of one minded, one thinking republicans? I have. And, they come at you with every silly, inane, argument. For instance, my daughter, whom I love dearly, became a stepford wife in the last election. (I
might add, she and her husband both voted for Clinton) both times! And, every time I would ask her what Clinton had done that was so bad...her answer was always the same..He lied, he lied ,he lied to all of us! Is that the most ignorant thing you have ever heard? George Bush had lied to all of us before he was even elected (RE: Have you ever been arrested?) And there likely is not a day that goes by that he does not lie and now I am terrified of him and his entire regime. I truly believe he knows a lot more about the attacks on the trade center and the anthrax attacks. I do not spend a day in my life that I am not afraid of what is and might be happening to this country. I think..hope some
democrats out there are starting to stand up to the extreme right. I hope they do not seat one judge that this imbecile nominates! Look what the Reagan and Bush judges did to this country when they put him in office. At the place where I work, out of six employees, only one of them is a staunch democrat and she is afraid to open her mouth..The others, all Bushites, are exactly like, Fred Barnes, Tony Snow, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'reilly...need I go on???? And, worse I live with a man (whom I love) who would vote for Adolph Hitler if he ran on the republican ticket. I sometimes do not know how James Carville and Mary Matalin do it!

Shirley, St. Louis

Dear BuzzFlash,

Rogue CIA elements may have attacked America...

Sen. Trent Lott tells victim and survivor Sen. Maj. Leader Tom Daschle "ASK NO QUESTIONS, you liberal traitor!"

Maybe Sen. Lott should check his medication, and with his CIA friends, before questioning the US Senate's right to be informed on "secret" government activities and expenditure....

We DEMAND and investigation! If the administration or authorities are harboring a terrorist, we demand impeachments and prosecutions!

LJBK

Anthrax attacks
14/3/02

A Newsnight investigation raised the possibility that there was a secret CIA project to investigate methods of sending anthrax through the mail which went madly out of control.

The complete article is here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/audiovideo/programmes/newsnight/
archive/newsid_1873000/1873368.stm

Dear Buzz,

I just got this in an email today and thought it was a pretty interesting review of a pretty controversial book that might be worth forwarding. I went ahead and ordered a copy for myself today but I'm pretty sure that Brock's revelations will do nothing more than confirm what I already thought. The amazing thing is how many of the people he names in his book were rewarded with appointments to the current Bush administration. Think it's possible that they had a plan? What they've done over the last nine years (and are continuing to do now) is a play straight out of history circa 1934.

Up next for me when credit card balances allow it: Michael Moore's "Stupid White Men"

Alan

"Copied from an Amazon reviewer of Brock's book, Blinded by the Right, now number 6 at Amazon:

Reviewer: A reader

Though nowhere near the importance or writing quality of a Koestler book, nevertheless Brock's book blows the lid off the moral emptiness of movement "conservatives." I'm "anonymous" for a reason: I witnessed a lot of the events that Brock portrays accurately in his book, and I am a conservative who was also a firsthand witness to the Gingrich revolution. I bought the book with the mindset that Brock was a scam artist and opportunist; I finished the book with the mindset that he has done this country, and true conservatives, a great service. Take it from me: though Brock may have lied in the past, in the service of his paymasters, he is NOT lying now.

Brock describes so accurately how hypocritical a lot of conservatives are. No one is flawless, but it's sickening to read Brock's chronicle, and to remember my own recollections, of how movement conservatives would attack others for the same behavior they themselves engage in.

Hypocrisy is just the tip of the iceberg. Brock accurately cites the bigotry that pervades the movement, especially sexual bigotry like homophobia. Movement conservatives' obsession with sex, which culminated in the constitutional bonfire of the Clinton impeachment, did not just cause the undoing of some conservative politicians' careers (Livingston, Gingrich), but is a particular epidemic of the movement. Washington is Sodom and Gomorrah rolled up into one, at least on the conservative side.

Sex, as well as disregard for the rule of law and common sense, is why conservatives went after Clinton. I was no fan of Clinton when he was in office, and my only beefs with him were legal (lying before a grand jury) and political, not personal. Still, I became sickened as the impeachment process wore on, but I laughed at the same time, because many Clinton critics' own personal lives would put Monica Lewinsky's to shame. And I remember being in Washington, and watching Hillary Clinton attacking a "vast right-wing conspiracy." Though I knew of many coordinated efforts to "get the Clintons," I was not aware of how vast this extra-constitutional effort really was. Brock is so incredibly precise in explaining the machinations, fueled by far right-wing money, of movement conservatives trying to undermine a sitting president.

I can't say enough about Brock's book. As a conservative, I am appalled at how the party of Reagan and Lincoln has been taken over by hucksters, charlatans and confidence men, posing as principled members of the right. With both political extremes showing themselves capable of pursuing their aims at all costs, I fear for our nation, because one day our system may break from the stress of yet another hypocritical witchhunt. Or, maybe Brock's book will touch enough people and change enough minds, like it did mine, and we will become less destructive in our politics."

Dear BuzzFlash,

Bush is going to cover-up the SEC investigation on ENRON by underfunding the SEC, making it impossible for the SEC to fully investigate. Bush-Cheney's corruption is outrageous, like a 3rd world country. The 'mainstream' media in the USA continues to ignore the ENRON scandal, ENRON-GATE, and instead focus on trivial news stories like "dog bites man" stories, distracting the public from the real problems that effect their real everyday lives.

"... Securities and Exchange Commission had insufficient funds to crack down on corporate misconduct ..."

Bush brushes aside concerns over SEC funding
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/020313/n13361157_1.html

A BuzzFlash Reader

Dear BuzzFlash,

re: Bob (Bonehead) Barrs plea for money

All during the Clinton years I got this kind of drivel. I never voted republican in my entire
life and will never . . . but none the less, they all solicited me! Are they just dumb or is it something else??? I got letters from poor Linda Tripp, Larry Clayman's group when they were trying, along with everyone else, to topple Bill Clinton. I have no idea what makes them put one foot in front of the other. I got letters from the entire Republican party to help! I have come to the conclusion that they are not a very smart bunch. Even that idiot James Rogan who lost his seat in the congress, you know, the managers who tried in vain to impeach the president. He was on c-span this morning. The idiot in the white house has given him some posh job, unbelievable!

Shirley, St. Louis

Greetings!

I would appreciate your well-informed feedback on the following letter that I have composed and already sent to the NYT. Although I doubt, and sincerely hope, that the editors--in their infinite [un]wisdom will not publish it--I've no wish to be detained and 'disappeared'--I believe that I have managed to say something of substance herewith. And although I don't wish to totally offend--emphasis on totally--the uber-powers completely, I do wish to irritate them enough to take notice of what I have written.

Thank you for your indulgence.

Live long and prosper!

Peace, love, and happiness,

Kathleen Trevena
Salem, New Hampshire--"Live Free or Die!"

----- Original Message -----
From: Kathleen Trevena
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 7:25 PM
To: letters@nytimes.com
Subject: "The Stolen Election in Zimbabwe"

So stunned was I by today's editorial--"The Stolen Election in Zimbabwe"--that I assumed I had clicked onto either "The Onion" or "Satire Wire"--and not "The New York Times," the icon of journalistic integrity, the source of "All the News That's Fit to Print"! After confirming that I had indeed just read a NYT editorial, I honestly did not know how to react: laughter, tears, apoplexy? Considering the fact that your publication did not see 'fit to print' an editorial condemning the stolen election in the United States of America in December 2000, my reaction consisted in an admixture of shock, insult, and bewilderment that you were compelled to print one about the recent 'election' in Zimbabwe. And I wondered why you declined to point out that Mr. Mugabe employed many of the same tactics used by the state officials of Florida--and to the same effect. Of course, your esteemed newspaper also failed to report the gross violations of voting rights and election laws--both state and federal--that transpired in Florida in November 2000, but I'm certain we shall hear all about the violations of election laws in Zimbabwe. And your paper also did not call for Justices Scalia and Thomas to recuse themselves in adjudicating the decision in the case of Bush v. Gore because both had members of their immediate families working for the Bush campaign--a son and a wife, respectively. But I'm sure you will let us know at length the details of political favoritism and nepotism in the election in Zimbabwe. Nor did you print editorials revealing the outright fraud committed by the state of Florida in eliminating qualified voters from voter registration rolls--a total of approximately 173,000. However, I await your precise accounting of the disenfranchised in Zimbabwe. Nor did you expose the collusion between the states of Texas and Florida, governed at the time by a pair of brothers surnamed 'Bush,' in exchanging lists of convicted felons who 'might have' moved from Texas to Florida in order to prevent said felons from voting. Yet I am comforted to know you will investigate all hints of familial collusion in the polling practices of Zimbabwe. Nor did you editorialize about the fact that the person who oversaw both the purging of the voter registration rolls and effectively stopped the precinct-by-precinct recounts was one Katherine Harris, simultaneously Secretary of State for Florida and co-chair of the Bush presidential campaign. But knowing your dedication to truth, I am comforted in the knowledge that you will surely publish the lurid details of the gross collusion involved in the elections in Zimbabwe.

In closing, I would like to commend you for your commitment to the truth surrounding the election in Zimbabwe; were I a citizen of that nation, I would sleep soundly at night knowing that a free press watches over my hard-won rights. But I was born, raised, and remain a proud citizen of the United States of America; thus I shall not rest until the foremost voice of freedom and democracy in my land devotes its considerable resources to upholding the laws of my country as it does to those of Zimbabwe.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Trevena

Dear BuzzFlash,

I've just been having this hilarious thought..for days. Ever since I read those little thoughts of Tipper running. Wouldn't it be great if there was another Clinton/Gore ticket in 2008??

Just asking! Just asking!????

Shirley, St. Louis

Dear Mr. Shapiro,

Subj: "Anti-anti-war crowd dreams up a disloyal opposition"

Thank you for your column, which I read via a link from my favorite website, BuzzFlash.com.

It's good to know not every journalist in Washington DC has been reduced to repeating administration propaganda. The fact that your column runs in the ultra-mainstream USA Today gives me hope the American people will wake up sooner rather than later as to the danger posed to our country and the world by this out-of-control, unelected administration.

The chicanery that installed George W. Bush in the White House is already on the record, if essentially ignored by the media and political establishment; his actions on every front since being handed the presidency like an unearned gift have been literally jaw-dropping. I am convinced that at some point in the future we will discover what really happened prior to and on 9-11 that suddenly gave George W. Bush a bottomless blank check - and it will not be pretty.

Sincerely,
Joe Strike

Dear Senator Lott:

An AP article available on Yahoo! states the following: "I'm not going to let go of it for a long time," said Lott, upset because the Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) killed the nomination of U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering of Mississippi to the U.S. Appeals Court in New Orleans."

Senator Lott, apparently you have forgotten the abysmal treatment given the President Clinton's nominees for just about everything for his entire eight year term, and unlike Mr. Bush, President Clinton was ACTUALLY ELECTED.

Furthermore, from all I have read Mr. Pickering was simply not suitable for a lifetime appointment to the federal judiciary.

Apparently you have forgotten that while in control of the senate, you blocked everything you personally disagreed with (such as campaign finance reform) against the wishes of a clear majority of the American People.

The Republican party did everything in its power immediately following the September 11 atrocity to prevent making flying safer for the American people, preferring instead to let petty politics jeopardize the lives of countless citizens. We have God to thank for the fact that there were no similar attacks on our soil since then, not the Republican party.

May I respectfully suggest that you might try to get your own house in order before you go throwing temper tantrums and further impede progress.

Sincerely,
Thomas Vincent
Schenectady, NY

Dear BuzzFlash,

I just popped over to the article mentioned today Yahoo! News - U.S. Won't Recognize Mugabe Gov't. - as usual there is a number posted for the number of comments regarding this article. Thought I would take a look and see if others thought the same as I- hypocrisy in action- Amazingly the note says that there are forty plus messages. However, when you look for them there are none. Guess they didn't like the comments! Probably wouldn't have cared for mine either. Censorship apparently is alive and well at Yahoo.

Peggy from TX