April 1, 2002

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Mr. Bush Catches a Washington Break
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A47313-2001May5?

So, why don't we make a serious effort to put together a well-funded, well-researched, well-connected group of honest Americans to do the job the White House stenographers (AKA Press Corps) are too lazy to do: inform them of the unspun truth about the Bush Administration so they can have time to make money on talking heads shows and yet still have something to send their editors? We might not be able to put together as well-funded a team as the right wing has, but we have honor on our side. That ought to count for something.

Dick Smith
Alexandria, VA

Dear BuzzFlash,

So the Chimp thinks his subversion of democracy is funny??? Read paragraph 16: "Bush ... chuckled in church as the minister, Michael Taylor, invoked hand-counted ballots and contested elections in his Easter sermon."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020331/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_232

A BuzzFlash Reader

Hi Buzz:

First off Happy Easter. Listening to CNN's late edition this AM with Candy Crowley, Bush's very biggest (in all ways) cheer leader. Wolf must be on vacation because I cannot for one minute suspect he's out in the field actually doing any real reporters work, not that prima donna.

Russ Feingold was on the show discussing the crisis in the Middle East. He said Bush was doing a great job in handling the problem -- praising him to the high heavens. Give me a break, George is on another extended Holiday in Crawford while people are going mad in the Middle East. Sure, he deserves another extended Holiday, after all that old campaign trail can be very grueling.

Feingold's statements actually made me sick. This is a prime example of why Bush hasn't been exposed for the lazy, uncaring man he really is. How could Feingold, look into that camera and actually have the nerve to say Bush was doing a good job and keep a straight face? How can we win when the top Democrats in our party, continue to say only good things about our esteemed leader? When did we hear one good thing from any Republican about President Clinton - never, it's not their style. They bash and we kiss butt and look where it's gotten us -- a Country on the road to ruin. I'm just so tired of the Democrats playing politics instead of just plain old telling the truth. It's hurting us all and I for one, am disgusted to the point of giving up on the whole lot of them.

Regards,
Marlene

Re: "I Like Black People Too, Julia!"

Dear Ms. Coulter:

While I thought Ms. Berry's performance at the Oscars was a bit much, your commentary on it was nothing short of your usual incoherent right-wing gibberish and vicious racist invective.

Is your entire circus act a fraud -- merely to get lots of attention and fatten what must be your very large bank account?

If not, and you really do believe all you say, then I'm truly stunned you haven't yet had a severe mental breakdown. No one can possibly survive with as much raw hatred as you seem to have, and not wind up in a padded cell.

If you really are what you seem, then you have my sympathy -- you are truly a very sick person and should seek help immediately!

Best wishes for your recovery,
(Name withheld)

PS: To those of you who publish Ms. Coulter's racist diatribes, and thereby encourage racial division and disharmony, you should be very ashamed!

Dear Ann:

Normally I don't respond to crass invective such as that which you inveigh against Halle Berry and Julia Roberts. But because of my more than 30 year background in the TV and film business I feel it is my duty to respond in kind to you. We all [know] opinions are like rear ends, we all have them.

I have known Halle Berry and Julia Roberts for about thirteen years and I can tell you that neither one of them is the way you seem to perceive them.

I know them as two dedicated and hardworking professionals who have striven hard to make it in an industry that is as cutthroat and diabolical as can be. Through it all they have maintained their ability to cultivate a broad spectrum of friends and maybe, a "few" enemies too, along the way. But that's to be expected in the goldfish bowl of Hollyweird life.

On more than one occasion I have seen you, Ann Coulter, make some of the most outrageous statements without benefit of fact, or at the very least you fabricate and twist the facts to fit your polemical agenda, whatever it may be. Why don't you take a "chill pill" and leave those kids alone? You seem to take great pride in calling people (men) girlie boys (sic)! Here's a suggestion for you, try calling some of your "Hard Right Chickenhawk" buddies the "cowards" they most certainly are! Need some names? How about, Delay, Lott, Limbaugh, Hastert, Kristol, Bill Bennett, et al.

Sincerely,

Ron Gordon
Freelance Film/TV Cameraman
Vietnam Veteran (USMC)
Princeton, NJ

Dear Buzz,

As a result of a remark made by my 38-year-old daughter at lunch today, I was amazed about what little her generation knows about the Bush administration.

The episode went like this:

Daughter: Mom, you know my unemployment ran out 8 months ago. And you know that unemployment extension that Bush initiated? Well, I wonder if I would qualify for it?

Note: I could hardly contain myself!

Mom: Bush didn't initiate the 13 week unemployment extension. It was the Democratic Congress who fought tooth and nail to help average unemployed Americans like you.

Daughter: Oh, I don't want to hear all that political stuff. I just want to know, do you think I should apply for it?

Mom: Well, you should pay more attention to what Bush is really up to and which representatives are truly working for the average people like yourself.

Daughter: You don't understand. Even if I did follow it all, there's nothing I can do about it.

Sorry to say, there is a sizable grouping of people, 30 to 40 years of age, who think the same way as my daughter. These are the ignorant ones who hear nothing but propaganda, then pop in and out of the voting booth after voting for candidates who will do them the most harm.

Hear me loud and clear. This age bracket is the one to target. How one goes about that is another question. The 30 - 40 year generation still thinks that the Brady Bunch is the way the real world really is. Few have little interest in politics or government. In a way, who can blame them? Thirty to 40 year olds are busy raising families, working and striving to get ahead. They get news on their way to and from home via capsuled news bits on car radios. We all know that most radio stations are owned by huge corporate conglomerates, who lean heavily toward the republican agendas. When we try to inform this generation as to what is really going on, they don't want to hear it. They have too much on their plates as it is.

There has to be a way to get to this generation. Maybe a grassroots effort consisting of this age bracket is in order. Possibly drafting entertainers in their own age bracket to be a part of a grass roots movement would be a good strategy. Appealing to young voters worked for JFK, didn't it? Let's face it, that generation can name nearly every movie and TV star and their productions. The Dems. are actually looking a gift horse in the mouth and failing to take advantage of it.

A word of warning. If the Dems. don't begin targeting the starry eyed 30 -40 year olds, that age bracket will be further swayed by republican sound-bite car radio news... and that age bracket will vote according to what they hear on those car radios.

~ Cathy

PS: Listen to 30 - 40 year-olds sometime. It is astounding to find how little they know about this administration, other than what comes from republican propaganda. I also overheard one of them refer to "that old chubby, bald guy... you know, I think he's the VP or some other biggie."
(Oh are WE in trouble!)

[BuzzFlash Note: In our experience, it's not just the 30 to 40-year-olds. There are plenty of people, of all age brackets, who could care less about politics (and it's the people who don't vote who seem to be the first to complain about a politician). All we can do is try to inform them with the truth and hope they pay attention in the future.]

Dear BuzzFlash:

While I like your website and generally agree with the basic position you are taking I think that in one particular area you are very mistaken. You constantly criticize George Bush for not doing enough for Mideast peace and then contrast him in this regard with Bill Clinton. This shows a lack of analysis on your part. Bill Clinton was actively involved, because at that time it appeared (to myself also) that Yasser Arafat's goal was a Palestinian State in peaceful coexistence with Israel. Anyone who still believes that today has their head in the sand. The goal of Arafat along with most of the Arab states is clearly what it has always been, the desire to destroy Israel. During the Oslo "peace process" he inundated Palestinians and particularly Palestinian children with Nazi anti-Semitism; he turned down Ehud Barak's generous offer for peace without even a counterproposal holding out for the supposed "right of return" meaning the demographic destruction of Israel as a Jewish State. He then launched a terrorist war against Israel with the purpose of demoralizing Israelis and provoking a strong defensive response from Israel which could be used to portray the Palestinians as "victims" and turn world opinion against Israel. His goal now is to make the situation so bad that he can get international intervention to enforce a "solution" unfavorable to Israel while giving up nothing and continuing his terrorist war against Israel. The so called "peace process" is nothing but a war strategy being used by Arafat and the Arab states. Therefore to suggest that Bush could do something to intervene for peace is completely naive and misguided. In order for peace to be possible it requires both parties to want peace. General Zinni's attempts at peace talks have clearly shown their futility resulting each and every time in a unilateral cease fire by Israel with continued terrorist attacks by Palestinian terrorists and Arafat doing nothing concrete to stop this. The clear fact that you apparently have not yet realized is that Arafat does not want peace. He wants, as he always has, the destruction of Israel. Therefore at this time there can be no peace until he realizes that he has to abandon the use of terrorism or until he is replaced by a Palestinian leadership which truly wants peace. The best thing that Bush can do now is to let the Israelis defend their citizens by attacking the terrorist infrastructure. Anything else is futile, plays into Arafat's hands, and is morally bankrupt by not allowing Israel to defend itself against the very same terrorism that killed 3,000 Americans. Also, anyone who thinks this is a normal conflict between two sides caught up in a "cycle of violence" is lacking insight as to what the real situation is. The real problem is Islamic fundamentalist ideology and its adoption of Nazi like anti-Semitism and its uncompromising desire to destroy Israel along with its hatred of the West. As long as this ideology is dominant in the Mideast, which it is now, there can be no peace between Israel and the Arabs.

One last point. People on the left have a blind spot in that they typically cannot see evil in the third world. They also assume that everyone is like them, that is everyone is rational and has humanitarian motives.

What we see now with the rise of extremist Islamic fundamentalism is essentially the reemergence of Nazism which poses a threat to the entire world. The failure to see this at this time represents both a dangerous intellectual and moral failure.

Robert Thompson, Ph.D.

Dear Ann,

I just read your column, "I Like Black People Too, Julia."

It's nice to know a conservative like yourself is working hard to bring back that old fashioned, all-American value of racist bigotry. Maybe someday we'll have a world run exclusively by people just as blonde, beautiful and stupid as yourself. You go, girl!

-JS

Dear BuzzFlash,

Why must you glorify that piece of trash by having her on your headlines nearly daily? To quote an old Democratic friend of mine: "When you dabble with sh__, you're apt to get it on you". Nothing she says amounts to a tinkers damn.

Marian Risker, a Missouri Democrat and mighty proud of it.

Dear Ms. Coulter,

I read your article, when I went to BuzzFlash, and I was shocked that you are so hateful toward African-Americans. As a Christian, I must tell you that I am offended by the way you attacked African-Americans and attacked Jimmy Carter. I cannot possibly believe you are a Christian. The bible tells us that you reap what you sow. How dare you!

Martisa Vignali
Phoenix, Arizona

Dear BuzzFlash,

The Bush-Cheney administration claim no undue influence from Enron and other large energy corporations - the administration's people and policies just coincidentally coincide with energy corporation interests.

Is this supposed to make us feel better?

Gary Berg

A BuzzFlash Reader letter to CNN:

Dear Mr. Isaacson,

Seriously Walter, you guys are unashamedly sucking up to the cretins on the right and you're just digging a great big hole for CNN to jump into. Fox has already carved their niche and that rabid right market is pretty much saturated.

Think about it Walter, Bush is a minority president. The Republicans and Bush bullied their way into the White House. September 11 was the best thing that ever happened to this bumbling group of bozos... you know it...I know it...we all know it.

Why not do a real show on some of the "patriotic" Americans on the right? You know, guys like DeLay and Lott and Nickles and Armey and Hastert and Bill Bennett and Bill O'Reilly?

Didja know that none of the above, I'll repeat that, none of the above spent a day in the military? Karl Rove...no military service. Dick Cheney? No military service. John "never met a breast he couldn't cover" Ashcroft...no military service. How about Pat Buchanan or George Will or Rush Limbaugh? Nope, not a day! How about Billy Boy Kristol? Nope, him neither. (By the way, this information is available at http://www.awolbush.com/whoserved.html.)

I think CNN would do democracy a great service by examining the military records (or lack thereof), of some of the above patriotic Americans who are so quick to label others as traitors. C'mon Walter, the above Dream Team from the Rabid Right snickered as Daschle was being compared to Saddam Hussein....

Didja know that Daschle served his country while the above "patriots" avoided military service?

I stopped watching CNN after the post election travesty which resulted in Bush stealing the presidency. I won't bother going into the media's coverage of the Republicans' coup in plain sight...too frustrating.

If you wanna outfox Fox, you gotta get your old audience back. You know, folks that like their democracies with free speech and dissent. You're not gonna beat Fox at their game...you can keep dragging out those old, tired right-wing propaganda hacks but it won't do you any good. I mean, where did these guys come from! Who died and made them pundits? Do you ever listen to the claptrap they speak?

And I wish you media guys could get your polling stuff together. Yeah, Americans support a war against terrorists, but Bush ain't as popular as you think. Not by a long shot. But 2004 will be the proof of the pudding.

So, if you really wanna be a FoxNews wannabe, why not get Ann Coulter and Paula Zahn to mud wrestle in the nude...it's what Rupert would do. Otherwise, why don't you guys get your cajones back and start reporting and probing what is really happening in our country.

I'd love to reveal my name, but I can't. I figure if our public servants can't reveal who they're meeting with to determine policy, I should be able to withhold my name. If Bush can establish a shadow government without informing Congress, and if Dick Cheney can retreat to "secure, undisclosed locations," and only show himself at fund raisers and late night talk shows, who am I to buck a trend?

A BuzzFlash Reader

Dear BuzzFlash,

Support corruption, fraud, layoffs, deficits, government in secret, cutbacks in health, education, social security, and other social programs: VOTE REPUBLICAN!

Vote Republican! Help bush rob your social security, give your tax-dollars to his billionaire friends, and in the end try to get you to hate your own government, which (as in South America) he uses as a piggy-bank for the elite.

Vote Recession!
Vote Corruption!
Vote Disenfranchisement!
Vote for Secret Government!
Vote for Insider Trading and Closed Door Energy "policy"!
Vote for Media Consolidation, airwaves CLOSED to your point of view!
Vote for multimillionaire media "personalities" who don't give a hoot about your life, your job, your family, your health, your town, your community or city, or about the economic state of your nation!

Vote for politicians like Tom DeLay, Trent Lott, Jesse Helms, and others who make a lifetime career out of bashing the federal government, and especially "BIG government spending," at the same time as they direct tens of millions of fed. $ to their own districts and supporters.

Vote for unregulated pesticide use, and uninspected meats! (Oops! my bad! "self-inspected" by meat-packing companies...)

If all the above is your idea of Good Government, the Choice is Simple:

VOTE REPUBLICAN!!

(To be an ongoing, updated list...)

LJBK

Hi BuzzFlash,

I'm writing in response to your interview with Paul Begala. Paul Begala is one of my favorite democrats in the entire world so writing this letter is very painful for me. While I agree with most of what Paul Begala said in this interview, I must strongly object to his blame the victim attack on President Gore.

I used to live in Florida and I volunteered on numerous democratic campaigns while I was there. Because of this, I'm acutely aware of the crimes committed by the Bush campaign and its surrogates in stealing the election and that blaming President Gore for these Bush
crimes is totally false. Bush lied throughout the campaign and the pro-Bush media let him get away with it. It was the pro-Bush media who routinely misquoted then Vice President Gore and who continued to recycle these misquotes despite the fact that they'd been proven to be false. Had the pro-Bush media told the truth, there would be no stolen election and no idiot thief illegally squatting in the White House. I urge all BuzzFlash readers to check the archives at the web site of the Daily Howler at www.dailyhowler.com to find the documentation on this.

This web site did a magnificent job of documenting the pro Bush media's bias and it's refusal to report on this issues and policy proposals that then Vice President Gore was talking about. Had Bush gotten the trashing that President Gore got, he'd be back in Texas hiding under a rock. We must never forget that despite the pro Bush media, President Gore did get the most votes on election day and did win the election. The election was stolen in a broad daylight coup by Bush and his election-stealing surrogates in Florida, Congress and on the U.S. Supreme Court. It's these criminals who must be held accountable for their crimes and not the victim of these crimes.

Nancy Kuhn

BuzzFlash,

Subj: Blinded by the Right

This book truly alarmed me.

I could not believe the depth of hatred the *conservative right* has for us, Democratic Democrats.

To me this hate, is from the bowels hell. There is a lot to fear in this book.

Thanks to Mr. Brock, we now know our enemy. We now know what our reactions should be for our protection,and what to look for. These conservatives are very sick, and very rich. Some combination!!!

A thankful and alarmed BuzzFlash reader

ms schmidt, mr. coll, et. al:

i am writing in response to the fact that ms. schmidt apparently contacted the employer of a person who sent a critical email to the washington post, apparently in an attempt to intimidate the sender of said email.

i am simply aghast that ms. schmidt would respond to a reader's criticism by taking time out of her business day to research the source of the email (not an easy task, i assure you) and then report the sender of the critical email to that sender's employer, in what can only be construed as "payback." where did you learn your journalistic ethics, ms. schmidt? the third grade playground? are you going to tattle on everybody that doesn't agree with your obsession with clinton's (completely exonerated) past behaviors? are you rubber and am i glue and does everything i say bounce off you and stick to me?

so apparently the wash post is above criticism, and nobody is allowed to have an opinion different than yours; otherwise you will go running to the adults and tell on us. ooooh, i'm scared, I'm a-shakin' in my boots. so go ahead and report me to my boss: luckily for me, i am self-employed, so i am sure my boss will not only agree with me, but heartily congratulate me for my initiative in pointing out the childish behavior of a so-called journalism publisher.

gil christner
american citizen

Dear Buzz,

In view of the administration and Ridge's refusals to brief the appropriate Senate committees on Homeland Security while offering to do virtually the same to interested business groups willing to pay $2000 to have Ridge and his taxpayer paid entourage come and speak, I think an excellent idea for Sen. Richard Byrd and other Senate Democrats is to get a large silver trough, have each of 20 senators put a hundred dollar bill in it during a Press conference and invite Ridge to come and speak at their gathering of interested business people - those that do the people's business. Perhaps that would wake up some of the sleeping masses who have become lulled into acceptance of anything and everything by the use of soothing phrases by Bush and his brain - Rove's well-polled phrases.

Peggy Carlin, Hurst, TX

Dear BuzzFlashers,

Perusing the [Montana] site [linked from BuzzFlash], I found the link below which lists links to all primary documents in the Montana drunk driving case of the governor's chief of staff. Of particular interest may be the investigator's report where he reports he clearly told the aide to stay at the hospital and was surprised to find he'd gone.

http://www.montanaforum.com/sliter/index.php

And good gosh, did y'all note this portion of the Washington Post article included below? Basically, the director of the CIA admits having warnings for months of impending large scale terrorist attack, had known of Moussaoui's arrest and flight training, and never made any connection between the 2 even though the CIA had an extensive file on the man.

That just defies belief.

It's absolutely incredible, and even more incredible still that an ex-CIA employee is running the investigation in the Congress.

A BuzzFlash Reader

(about halfway down page)

The Secretary of State in Peru: 'Go Tell Them We're Leaving'

In Lima, Powell abruptly ended his breakfast with the Peruvian president after getting word of the second strike on the trade center and made plans to return to Washington. "Get the plane," he told an assistant. "Go tell them we're leaving." He had a seven-hour flight, with poor phone connections, ahead of him.

At the St. Regis Hotel, aides hurriedly approached Tenet's table next to a window overlooking K Street. "Mr. Director, there's a serious problem," one of them said.

Through much of the summer, Tenet had grown increasingly troubled by the prospect of a major terrorist attack against the United States. There was too much chatter in the intelligence system and repeated reports of threats were costing him sleep. His friends thought he had become obsessed. Everywhere he went, the message was the same: Something big is coming. But for all his fears, intelligence officials could never pinpoint when or where an attack might hit.

"This has bin Laden all over it," Tenet said to Boren. "I've got to go." He had another reaction in the first few minutes, one that raised the possibility that the FBI and the CIA had not done all that they could to prevent the terrorist attacks from taking place.

"I wonder," Tenet was overheard to say, "if it has anything to do with this guy taking pilot training." He was referring to Zacarias Moussaoui, who had been detained in August after attracting suspicion when he sought training at a Minnesota flight school.

Moussaoui's case was very much on Tenet's mind. The previous month, the FBI had asked the CIA and the National Security Agency to run phone traces on Moussaoui, already the subject of a five-inch-thick file in the bureau.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26