March 19, 2002
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To the editor, Washington Post:
Subj:
The Hunting of the President
Let's see...whom should we get to review the Conason/Lyons book "The
Hunting of the President"? It should obviously be someone who can
give a "fair and balanced" appraisal. Someone totally objective,
with no ax to grind. Someone believable and respected.
Of course! James Bowman! After all, he's a respected journalist for the
American Spectator. Isn't that the publication funded by Richard
Mellon Scaife? The guy whose brainchild was the "Arkansas Project"?
The far-right wing plan to bring down a twice elected president they couldn't
honestly defeat at the voting booth? Yep, Bowman! That's our guy. It's
about time we tried to reestablish some credibility around here.
What WERE you thinking?
Massey
Lambard
Foley, Alabama
Dear Buzz,
Anyone who hasn't checked out the interview with David Brock on Cspan yet, do so now.
A very welcome corrective to the abuses of the last decade.
I am terribly impressed by the calm and reasoned way in which Mr. Brock answers all questions put to him, and gently but firmly deflects all attacks. This is a must see...
-- Peter Sinclair
Dear BuzzFlash,
I was in Portland, Oregon recently and saw a headline on the "street final" edition of The Oregonian (3/14) that was so amazing, I was stunned that people weren't gathering around the newspaper box in wonderment.
The page one headline read: LIVING WAGE REDUCES POVERTY
Only in contemporary America would a news editor consider such a commonplace to be "news."
Andy/Linda
A Letter to the Washington Post:
ms. arana, mr. coll,
i am incredulous that the washington post would assign the review of david brock's book, blinded by the right, to bruce bawer, considering Mr. bawer himself is mentioned in the book. one would think that journalistic ethics demand that a neutral, uninvolved third party would be the one to review any book, political or otherwise.
i'm not saying Mr. bawer doesn't have a right to express his opinions about the book, or Mr. brock; but it would seem to us of the old school, ie, journalistic ethics school, that such expression would go into the opinion section of the post, and not in the book review section. after all, Mr. bawer had an express interest in the spectator, having worked for that publication for the very years that Mr. brock deals with in his book.
even if it we put aside the obvious conflict of interest Mr. bawer has in reviewing Mr. brock's work, one would at least think such a publication as the post would have the wherewithal to at least mention such connections somewhere in the article/review. i am flabbergasted that no mention of Mr. bawer's obvious connection to the material he reviews was made. does the word disclosure mean anything to you folks?
i would respectfully request that you make such disclosure public in your next edition.
gil
christner
american citizen
ps, regarding last week's editorial stating that ex-president clinton "committed crimes," which crimes did he commit? now, i am only counting crimes he was convicted of, because anything else, while perhaps being outrageous or unethical, cannot be called a crime, lest we admit george w. bush "committed crimes" with his harken/enron/service corporation international connections.
Dear
BuzzFlash:
Thank you, thank you, thank you for lumping Salon and the Washington
Post together as examples of the "liberal press" in regards
to trashing David Brock's book and motives. It's about time that point
was made. I lived in Washington DC for seventeen years and came not to
expect a lot from the Post, but I do expect more of Salon and have been
sadly disappointed again and again. And thank you for presenting the interview
with David Brock as well as all the other stories that I depend on daily.
Your news service is truly remarkable. I give out your website address
to just about everyone I meet. Please keep up the great work.
Sincerely,
Karen Boyd
Glendale, AZ
Dear Buzz,
Following the links in a story on Yahoo, I can across a page that lists elected officials, "Capital Hill Basics" and an "Issues and Actions" section where you can email to specific "issues from organizations, large and small, that span the political spectrum." You can even email the pResident. "Great!" thought I, until I read the Yahoo "privacy" statement, which I summarize below. As great a resource as this page appears, I think that copying down the email addresses and then sending them from your own email application is a better way to go. I don't believe for one minute that ole General Ashcroft isn't using this huge internet conduit to keep an eye on "dissenters" like us. And they say they're using our personal computer information (the "cookies" part of the program) to "customize advertising content"....yeah, right.
The link is at: http://yahoo.capwiz.com/
And a very brief summary paragraph from their "privacy statement" reads:
"Yahoo! collects personally identifiable information when you register for a Yahoo! account,...when you visit Yahoo! pages...Once you register with Yahoo! and sign in to our services, you are not anonymous to us. Yahoo! also automatically receives and records information on our server logs from your browser including your IP address, Yahoo! cookie information and the page you requested. Yahoo! uses information for three general purposes: to customize the advertising and content you see, to fulfill your requests for certain products and services, and to contact you about specials and new products."
So, although it is nice of Yahoo and Capitol Advantage (the page's sponsor, who by the way, collect info on you as well) to provide these email addresses, I will use them in an email format separate from Yahoo, as I do not support their tactics (although I do wonder....is it too late anyway? Big Brother has arrived and is not leaving)
Thanks,
Buzz for your great work!!
elaine in Petaluma
Dear BuzzFlash,
I
started my pc just now to scream to you about the media and their obsession
with
President Gore's beard, and found that you all are as po'd about it as
I am (the media is obsessed with Al Gore's beard). I get so mad I almost
boil over.
Speaking of boils...
You know, not once did I hear mention about the chimp's boil...( of course
that may be because I was spending all my time reading BuzzFlash instead
of watching the "news").
If I hear Judy Woodruff talk about Gore's beard one more time I am throwing
the TV away.
It is indeed sad when all that the media can find to criticize Gore about
is his beard or lack of one. My God, don't they realize where the chimp
is taking this country or is it that they just don't care?
Love you guys,
Paula
[BuzzFlash Note: There's a point in certain careers (e.g., politics, entertainment, upper management) where a person can completely lose perspective (or, perhaps, as with Bush, they never had it) and they no longer have the ability to judge what is truly relevant to their audience (e.g., constituents, moviegoers, employers). It is from within this bubble that these unconnected fools issue the garbage (e.g., tax breaks only for the rich, anything with Tom Green in it, cutting benefits to maintain profit margins) that makes the rest of us furious with disbelief. We have but one option: protest, act (e.g., vote, read books, find a new job), and inform the offending parties that it was their actions that moved you to make the change. Not only must we speak up and take action, it is equally important to inform the idiots why we did it. Perhaps (and this is a stretch where Bush is concerned), they may one day learn from it.]
Dear Buzz,
During the campaign of 2000, Saturday Night Live did a segment on "President Bush" in the Oval Office thinking to himself . His words were, "I think I'll start a war. It's like executions, only super-sized!"
Interesting, now that we have a never-ending war reaching into the far corners of the earth, possibly being fought with nuclear weapons.
Anonymous
Dear BuzzFlash,
Man. This is tiresome. The Bush Administration lays back and lets this kettle boil to overflowing in the Middle East... only then do they send an "envoy" and blame Bill Clinton. At the same time, they send our "ailing" V.P. on a "..We Are Going To 'Ask' You All What You Think About Nuking Iraq And Then Ignore Your Answers.." tour.
Today CNN headlines with "Israel Agrees to Pull Back" with a picture of Sharon shaking Cheney's hand!? Huh?
So, CNN, let me get this straight. In reality, this administration can easily be faulted for the deterioration of the Middle East to this point... but CNN, by association, is trying to heap credit for this "agreement" on Dick Cheney because he happened to step off a plane (under his own power!) on the SAME DAY?! Or maybe the picture was "mistakenly" attached to the story?!
Somebody please help me if I am missing anything, or is the American Press Corpse actually this blatantly active in helping Karl Rove rewrite reality?!
John L. Johnson
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/03/18/mideast/index.html
Dear BuzzFlash,
Re: BuzzFlash Interviews David Brock
In a message dated 3/18/02 7:38:47 AM, BuzzFlash@lb.bcentral.com writes:
>The
right-wing Republican media pundits march in lock step behind books
>that bolster their political goals.
Have
you seen what the Far Right TV has been doing to this guy? CNBC (which
is quite extremist on it's political shows) has this one show with a neo-Nazi
and a moderate rightist-- that's "balance" in BushEnronMcWorld's
infotainment -- and the neo-Nazi, Lawrence Kudlow, who was part of some
rightist Administrations and more recently was banned from TV for his
drug abuse and a mental breakdown, went bonkers on Brock, attacking him
viciously and screeching about what an honorable and upright and saintly
man Ted Olson is. It was scary to watch. It looked like Kudlow was coming
apart on the screen, so filled with hatred and bile was he when he was
"questioning" Brock. You could just see in his selfish, beady,
psychotic eyes how badly he wanted to start screaming homophobic expletives
at him. The "moderate rightist" -- also banned from TV for shady
dealings about a year ago -- did not come to Brock's defense, but also
attacked him -- although in a more moderate way.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Dear
Buzz,
In reference to "US
puzzled as battle zone yields few bodies," courtesy of BuzzFlash,
3/18/2002, I read the following excerpt, also with puzzlement:
"On the number of enemy fighters killed, they seemed less certain. Some officers said that body counts were not considered reliable at Shah-e-Kot because the US's 750-kilogram satellite-guided bombs may have pulverised the fighters or buried them in caves or bunkers. Another reason is that the fighters may have tried to bury their dead promptly, in accordance with Islamic custom."
Aww, come on now. Isn't that some stretch of the imagination? We should believe that the enemy, with bombs falling like rain and running to save their own lives had the presence of mind and time to of bury their dead in accordance with Islamic custom? Pulverized? Wouldn't the troops have found fragments of the fallen enemy? Just as comparison, the World Trade buildings fell into dust and they are still finding bodies and body fragments.
I'm not falling hook, line and sinker for this one... nope, not me. And speaking of fishing gear, didn't you smell something fishy when you read the article? Just asking!
~Cathy
[BuzzFlash Note: In related story, the Office of Disinformation Denies Its Existence.]
Dear Barbara,
I really think your observations on politics, but I think you have taken a cheap shot on doctors with a paucity of information. I am a pediatrician and take every patient who comes. However, for patients on Medicaid I get paid only 40% of Medicare. I can't make enough from these patients to cover the cost of rent, nurses, vaccines, etc. It's a mess. In no other profession does a person receive services and then pay you 40% of the accepted cost of those services. We will see children until we drop dead in our tracks because we enjoy our job. But it gets pretty hard sometimes.
B.J.
Corden MD
Dear Buzz,
I just wanted to give a heads up to BuzzFlash readers to keep an eye on Senator John Kerry. I've heard several of his speeches of late and they are elegant, thoughtful and VERY frank. He does not parse. It is so difficult to find politicians who are willing to say the things that need to be and should be said. It will be interesting to see how long it takes the rapacious Repugs to begin his deconstruction.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Dear BuzzFlash,
I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to find out which house and senate committees will be holding hearings on 9/11 and when.
It is important that those who support asking the hard questions be able to direct email or faxes to those in congress in positions to ask those question. If you can get hearings info out there, it would be a great service.
Tom Wolfsehr
[BuzzFlash Note: We found an audio webcast site that records various hearings, Hearings.com, but we couldn't locate info on any specific hearings about what went wrong and allowed 9/11 to happen. We recommend that BuzzFlash Readers contact their local representative's Washington office and ask them.]
Dear BuzzFlash,
Subj: America's Energy Plan in Action by Terry Tempest Williams
And in Representative Waxman's report to Congress, "How the White House Energy Plan Benefited Enron," Kenneth Lay is quoted as saying, "I think certainly we've got to get access to more land on which to drill for natural gas."
Access appears to be no problem. Count some of our nation's most pristine wildlands among those slated for development. Oil and gas leases have been purchased adjacent to Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and in the case of Dead Horse State Park, the seismic explorations of last fall were a precursor to the oil drilling now planned for the rim overlooking the Colorado River.
http://www.oriononline.org/pages/oo/sidebars/front/index_front.html
Chewgababy
