The BuzzFlash Mailbag
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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. The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are the not necessarily those of BuzzFlash. Thanks again for your email and your patience.
Dear BuzzFlash,
WHY DICK CHENEY OPPOSED GOING TO BAGHDAD IN 1991 AT THE TIME OF THE GULF WAR (10-16-02)
Dick Cheney, then Defense Secretary, as quoted in the NYT, April 1991:
If you're going to go in and try to topple Saddam Hussein, you have to go to Baghdad. Once you've got Baghdad, it's not clear what you do with it. It's not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that's currently there now. Is it going to be a Shia regime, a Sunni regime or a Kurdish regime? Or one that tilts toward the Baathists, or one that tilts toward the Islamic fundamentalists? How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by the United States military when it's there? How long does the United States military have to stay to protect the people that sign on for that government, and what happens to it once we leave?
Colin Swales
RE: No mercy for stricken Heston
http://www.nypost.com/gossip/pagesix.htm
Sent to: gossip@nypost.com
Dear Pagesix.com:
I was always a fan of Charlton Heston until I saw Michael Moore's interview of him in "Bowling for Columbine."
Michael Moore was most civil in his treatment of Charlton Heston. In fact, Michael Moore kept repeating over and over again that he was a card carrying member of the NRA.
Charlton Heston truly disturbed me with his references to civil rights and ethnic multiculturalism as being the root cause of gun violence in America. I also was shocked to know that the old guy had a bunch of loaded guns all over his house. Count me out as being a guest of Charlton Heston. Lastly, Charlton Heston really didn't "get it" when he lobbied for the NRA one week after the Columbine shootings and the Flint Michigan shooting by a 6-year old. He reminded me of the Buchenwald Nazi Death Camp Commandant's wife denial to her interviewer in the movie "Shoah" that she did anything wrong during the war. Denial is a powerful potion.
Sincerely,
Delbert Franklin
Subj: John McCain on SNL
Hello,
Why is no one speaking about the disgraceful appearance of John McCain on Saturday Night Live last week? It was totally disgusting and could have passed as an RNC ad. Has Lorne Michaels become another shill for Republicans? I haven't watched SNL in awhile, but is the show no longer anti-establishment, but anti-progressive now???
-Peggy V.
Texas
Subj: Warning to Democrats
Dear BuzzFlash,
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/21/1034561447181.html -- The story is from Australia, but it points to a problem for America's Democrats.
You can't win by being Republicans. If you try it, you lose your base. As the Australian Labor Party has lost its base.
Dana Blankenhorn
Subj: Fetuses with Social Security Cards
Dear Folks--
I'm a bit surprised that there has been so little criticism of Secretary Thompson's decision to give social security numbers to fetuses, so their mothers can receive prenatal care if they are otherwise ineligible for such care. How does one, after all, prove the existence of the fetus -- a copy of one's sonogram, little strip from the home pregnancy test kit?
It appears to be a rather bizarre way of addressing what should have been known as the September Embarrassment. In 2000 the infant mortality rate in the United States was reported at 6.9/1000, while Cuba's was reported at 7.1/1000. This meant that Cuba was poised to equal or best the infant mortality rate of the United States, which would, if the press bothered to report the statistics, have been very embarrassing. (Final infant mortality statistics are reported in September for the previous year.)
In 2001 Cuba implemented a new protocol to address the problem of maternal mortality (the rate per 100,000 of women who die in childbirth or soon after delivery), as Cuba's maternal mortality rate is still substantially higher than that of the United States. This protocol included special examinations for women who were planning to become pregnant, including close monitoring of blood pressure, provision of prenatal vitamins, nutritional and occupational counseling and the like. The spillover effect of the implementation of this protocol was that the infant mortality rate in Cuba fell by .9/1000, to 6.2 in 2001. The US rate was unchanged at 6.9/1000. For the Cubans, of course, this was a major victory, as it should have been a major embarrassment for the United States. (Luckily for our political leaders, world infant mortality statistics have not been reported in the United States since we were beaten by East Germany in the mid-1980s.)
Secretary Thompson apparently became concerned that Cuba might best us two years in a row, at which point the international press at least might report on a trend, and so devised a policy to provide health care to fetuses and, incidentally, to women who happened to be carrying fetuses.
I suppose we'll just have to wait for next year's statistics to see which policy is more effective.
Alison Brennan
Subj: Save Pro Choice Freedom in America, Serious Toon Page: Ray Bush-toons.com
Dear Buzzz.
Please consider posting this short warning page with a serious toon about the potential loss of Pro Choice Freedom in America if the GOP wins the US Senate in a few weeks!!!
The entire right wing corporate media is avoiding the subject entirely! Lindsey Graham, R. Rep, running for Strom Thurmond's US Senate seat in SC is going to introduce legislation to outlaw abortion in the USA asap if the GOPS take back the US Senate. Lindsey Graham is winning Strom's seat. We must get the word out somehow Buzz! The folks in my newsletter loved the serious toon and the copy below, and got very angry. It's good sign to me -- so I posted the newsletter info on my site or you to see.
http://rayberry.com/Save_Roe_V_Wade.html
GRRRR. Ray Berry, fighting in the trenches!
Under every Bush there is DIRT!
Bush-Toons.com :)
Subj: van had Bush/Cheney bumpersticker
Dear BuzzFlash,
I'm watching the local news here in Richmond, VA as the white van possibly connected to the "serial sniper" is towed away and there can be seen on the rear bumper a "Bush/Cheney" sticker, a Marine Corps "Semper Fi" sticker and two others that I couldn't make out.
Being curious, I search the web for images of the back of this van but strangely enough I cannot seem to find any clear images so far even though the area was swamped with reporters and photographers.
I wonder what the other stickers were and why I can't find a clear image of the back of this vehicle.
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?c=news_photos&p=van
Mark Newton
[BuzzFlash Note: This is the best shot we've seen of it so far.]
Subj: Yahoo! News - Iraq Can Be Disarmed Peacefully, Bush Says
Either he had a brain transplant, finally heard the voice of the people or is lying through his teeth. I wouldn't bet on the first two.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=584
&ncid=584&e=2&u=/nm/20021021/pl_nm/iraq_usa_dc
Cynthia Putt
Dear BuzzFlash,
Well, here it is..bush pere proclaims his progeny the prez-select to be greater, better or somehow superior to one of our greatest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln. I don't know if you posted this already, but it is nauseating to the extreme. Probably our worst non-elected president being compared to one of our greatest. The bushes are an evil lot..mendacity is their trade and they are very adroit at it! It's undoubtedly in their genes. I am certain that you can come up with a colorful tag for this pile of u-know-what from dubya's daddy.
http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4789004/19520607.html
A BuzzFlash Reader
Hi,
Hope all of our sharp-eyed BuzzFlash readers caught the sticker in the rear window of the van the police swooped down on yesterday in Virginia. Yes, folks, it was a bush/cheney sticker. And for their support of the pretender to the throne, the two men--both illegal immigrants, according to media reports--have been turned over to the INS.
Ah, the irony...
Liz
Houston
Re: A Message from the DNC to BuzzFlash Readers
Dear BuzzFlash,
I'm sending emails left right and down the center to get people to the polls. I cant help being a bit annoyed with the DNC, though. They need to get a better handle on making the actual wording of bills available to members. I'd like to be able to quote the Bush Prescription Pharce to various seniors I know. I guess I will have to get the info from the Congressional Record, though.
It seems to me that BuzzFlash is far better at providing documentation for their statements than the DNC.
Now is that not a SAD state of affairs?
I love my Buzz Flash T Shirt!
Morgaine
Re: A Message from the DNC to BuzzFlash Readers
Buzz,
Hey, I live in Minnesota and have been involved electing Paul Wellstone Senator for 12 years. Just yesterday, the day after Deputy Dawg came to Minnesota (again) to rail against Wellstone and dems and suck in more money into the IR coffers, the polls first started showing Wellstone pulling ahead. Apparently Minnesotans are getting tired of their wasting taxpayer money to campaign. This morning, one poll showed Wellstone - 47%, Norm Coleman - 41%. The GHP's dream is my nightmare and I have been fighting it. I support the DNC's new program and encourage everyone who can help to look into it.
Sharon Rickert
Subj: Arizona Shootings?
Dear BuzzFlash,
There was a tiny blurb in the paper 10/21/02 about illegal immigrants being shot and kidnapped in Arizona. Do you have any more information about this? If it is true, could this be the first instance of American death squads? I have not been able to find any other mention of this event.
Last night we tuned to MSNBC to watch Donahue interview Michael Moore. Not only was the program preempted by a meaningless "special report" about the sniper, but all references to the program were purged from Donahue's pages on the MSNBC web site. Wow, real politically motivated censorship, just like Hitler and Stalin used to do!
Any chance you folks could follow up on either or both of these?
Steve Kramer
[BuzzFlash Note: We noticed it, too, but haven't found anything to post on the subject.]
Dear BuzzFlash,
While scrolling through Yahoo's top photos today, a strange, but sadly expected, pattern emerged. Amidst the many photos of the scenes of sniper shootings in Maryland and Virginia, Rumsfeld press conferencing the War on Iraq, the suicide bombings in Israel, the latest selloff on the stock market, and Jiang Zemin's arrival in Chicago, the only photos of Bush and Cheney were of them at fundraisers.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index2&cid=705&pg=1&cap=0
Joey
Martin
Chicago
