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.

Subj: from an ER nurse

Dear BuzzFlash,

I just saw bush's little speech. If he is so concerned about children why doesn't he do something to make sure they all have health ins.? He left TX with millions of children living in poverty. His brother is more dangerous than the sniper to kids! God only knows how many are missing and dead! I see children everyday that should have been able to see a doctor, but their parents had to wait until the child is critical enough to bring to the emergency room and then I see how they are treated when it is known they have no ins. It makes me sick!!!

Shorty

Subj: Texas Senate

Dear BuzzFlash:

I am a resident of Texas. I know that the polls are registering Ron Kirk behind, but the press is reporting the fact that early vote figures are beginning to eclipse 1998 early vote totals, particularly in black and Hispanic precincts across the state. Houston Chronicle and others have some info on it.

Sincerely,

George E. Oliver

Subj: Heston/NRA

Dear Buzz:

Heston holding up a rifles and saying "from my cold dead hands".
Heston with Alzheimer's.

This is a weird juxtaposition and a potentially lethal mix. Long before his hands are cold and dead, his mental faculties will succumb to the rages of Alzheimer's.

Will Heston voluntarily give up his guns once his dementia set in? Is it a good idea for people with dementia, Alzheimer's or otherwise, to have access to lethal loaded weapons? If an Alzheimer's sufferer shoots someone with a loaded weapon, are they not guilty by reason of insanity?

Only in the US among the developed countries do we allow people with impaired mental faculties access to tools designed expressly to kill people. We understand that the DC sniper does not have all his neurons firing properly. Is it that unreasonable to restrict ownership of dangerous weapons to those that have all their faculties?

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subj: Oh my DOG.

Dear BuzzFlash,

Oh the HORROR.

The deeply visceral reaction I get each and every time I see Ashcroft's evil face is nothing compared to the reflexive stomach-turning event I endured upon actually hearing him SING. The drone, the yowling, drooling 'sincerity' that actually crescendos to a horrible climax of histrionic caterwauling truly defies description. My revulsion grew in intensity for each second the song continued...thank God for your Barf Bag warning, Buzz.

Oh man, this is bad. Really, really bad. He sounds like he looks. Only worse.

But now a dilemma. My distress prevented me from fully reading and comprehending the accompanying text, although I did get the gist. Should I play the movie again and try to read the message? I don't know if I can do it....wait....here are my earplugs. OK, I'll take a deep breath. I'm ready now. Here we go.

Pray for me.

elaine in Petaluma

(http://www.symbolman.com/corpabuse.html)...if you dare.

Subj: Actually, "It's the Media, Stupid!"

Dear BuzzFlash:

- Who decides which people, laws, ideas comes to the public's notice?

- Who decides which person's alleged scandals get wall-to-wall coverage, while another's repeated scandals go unmentioned, waved away?

- Who sets the fees for candidates who want airtime? Fees which force them into debt to the richest, making corruption at the very heart of our "self-governance".

- Who falsifies all debate, presenting life as a war of extremes, while excluding sane, sustained, civil discussion aimed at workable compromise?

- Who decides who's a credible candidate, fit to "debate" in public?

- Who pours the moral equivalent of raw sewerage into the public psyche, solely for their own profit, and at the expense of society? For example, kid shows pushing sugar and junk meals. They make money, we get fat kids with health and esteem problems that tax our healthcare system, which drives up our insurance....

- Who has done everything they can to help al-Qaeda keep Americans in terror?

If you answered "The People" to any of the above, you should gather yourself to memorize this: "It's the Media, stupid!" Yes, the election is now the near thing, and it is appropriate to focus on "It's the Economy", for obvious reasons.

But after the election, whatever the results, we need to make Media's stranglehold the number one issue, to my thinking. Consider: we've had more than two years of almost daily proof that the people in charge are, to put it mildly, not all that interested in about 95% of America, except as cash-cows and soldiers. You ever see that asked about in a poll?

The Media simply is part of the 5%. So come 2004 we'll still be facing an awesome propaganda machine, one probably functioning even more efficiently. (I can see an all-Republican government deciding that forced subliminal advertising does not infringe on liberties. And if it goes to the Supreme Joke we can expect the ruling "According to the 1st Amendment and 4th Commandment, the right of individuals, all of them, to think their own thoughts does not outweigh an advertiser's need to make a decent living".)

Face it. We are excluded from any say in our governance. This is not going to go away by itself. We have to ask ourselves, and discuss "How to change this, and soon?"

I take consolation in the thought that most of the people who do the work in Media are aware of the pervasive corruption it pushes. Much as the rank-and-file in the Soviet Ministry of Propaganda knew it. Maybe they just don't know that we all know. At least, not yet.

JP Thomas

Subj: mailbags 10/16 thru 10/23

Dear BuzzFlash,

Good grief, I have missed you! I do not know how other people addicted to BuzzFlash go on 8-9 day vacations..we should all have laptops and know how to operate them. I has a wonderful time, on the beach in Charleston, but other parts of it was chaotic. Watching an 18-year-old graduate from boot camp is not a joyful thing...I, the person most opposed to war and guns and all the other stuff that goes with it. But, still, mostly I missed my daily read with Buzz!

When I came back, my computer crashed, has been out all week, I just got it back tonight. Sooo, I cheated a little at work and caught up on all the mailbags, didn't have time for all the other things every day, but enough to know that you are still the one!

To everyone who writes in, some everyday....I love the writers, too, have missed some of the great things that people write and some of the things that were written to me just before I went away...its no wonder to me that you are my favorite website!

I think one of the most enjoyable things that I read on this website (funny how some things stand out) I am not sure of the day, but the e-mail came from (Chewgababy) please forgive if I misspelled that....When he put into words how I have always felt about Rush Limbaugh...just was never brainy enough to put it into those words..... He said something to the effect.."You have to remember that Rush puts his head into a microwave each morning at full throttle for 20 minutes just to make sure he is stupid enough for the day...." I laughed for the rest of the day....It was great!!! Glad to see all the familiar names....Dee Turner, you are still hanging in there...as I am..and many familiar names, funny how you get to where you think you actually know all the people who write in...just a bunch of friends!

I love you all....and especially the people who hang in there at BuzzFlash!!!! The greatest website in the Universe!

Thank you,

Shirley St. Louis

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"If Carnahan loses in Missouri, the GOP will have a Senate majority until Jan 1. Since she's an appointed replacement for her husband, Talent would take the seat immediately while other new senators have to wait for Jan. 1 to start their terms. The Republicans could confirm all of Bush's judges in eight busy weeks."

-- toe sucker Dick Morris.

Chewgababy

The President should be Impeached

Dear BuzzFlash:

The following information appears from my research to be true and factual, and to be honest, this only the "half" of it. The information is chronologically ordered beginning in Dec. 2000. Compared to "lying about sex" the following summary clearly holds up a charge of "impeachment" against both the President and Vice President.

1. Atta and associate abandon Cessna on major runway at Miami International Airport; nearly create an accident, yet walk away after FBI questioning. The FBI takes no further interest in "keeping an eye" on these people.

2. Terrorists are openly training in several flight schools around the country; FBI and CIA are aware of this, nothing is done.

3. Known terrorists, as reported in Time, are overlooked. Dry run by Atta and four of his associates reported by prominent person in first class, who told the FBI that these four were "testing the waters". No follow up. Atta at this time has literally gotten away with both the Miami and a practice run without suspicion (their dry run occurred on the very same flight which was later hijacked).

3. Moussaoui is placed in jail, a suspected terrorist, yet, even in jail, Rumsfeld upholds his rights not to have his computer examined.

4. Bush and Cheney threaten the Taliban with war after negotiations of a trans-Afghanistan pipeline break down, reportedly the Taliban were told, "…it is your choice, a carpet of gold or a carpet of bombs." The Taliban were painted into a corner by Bush and Cheney (around June 2001, just after we sent the Taliban $45 million for its stand against poppies - but in reality a warm up check). Arguably, the WTC attacks can be attributed to this threat of War.

5. Jeb Bush declares Sate Emergency and Marshall Law in the state of Florida on Sept. 7th , citing "imminent terrorist attack", yet NORAD, our billion dollar first line of defense on the East coast, was on standby on Sept. 11th.

6. A flurry of dozens of warnings from Europe, England and Israel, among other countries, arrive just days before Sept. 11th, warning of an imminent attack, probably a hijacking, and probably to occur in the US. The warnings were there, it is not a matter of connecting the dots, and this was "different" than anything we had seen before. In addition, the mode was expected to be an aircraft (remember Condi Rice's lie "who would have know") and the WTC were without question the primary target of this attack, yet not a single thing was done to protect the WTC.

7. Shortly before 9-11 Bush's cabinet has switched to flying private jets and military aircraft. When Rumsfeld was asked by a Reporter why the "sudden" change, he answered, "…because the current situation demanded it" leaving the reported, like the rest of us, a bit dazed at this answer.

8. With a mountain of evidence that a terrorist attack is imminent, why did George Bush continue to reading to 2d graders, even after hearing of the "second" flight that hit the trade towers? Still, at this late time, NORAD had not heard from the President. When Bush finally calls, he contacts a NORAD base some 200 miles from New York (other bases were closer). Furthermore, it is now known that Bush continued to interview the children for 12 minutes AFTER hearing of the second plane attack, i.e., he did NOTHING except run like a scared rabbit lying to the American people that "…they were after him."

9. Flight 93 over Pennsylvania is more than likely shot down. The President is the only one authorized to call for this action, but he was busy interviewing 2d graders in Miami (more than likely Cheney ordered the shootdown since Bush was preoccupied -- the fact that thousands of Americans were at that time dying, and the future uncertain, Bush came across as if "nothing had taken place" (see the video of Bush in the classroom).

10. It is now known that there was substantial evidence that an attack was imminent on the United States, yet NORAD was on standby; the Airlines had not been notified (airline hijacking would have been the No. 1 anticipated mode). 9 of the 18 hijackers were pulled out of the line when they were boarding, yet allowed to continue because the airline "had no idea." This might not have happened if the Airlines would have been notified of the imminent danger expected. Indeed, the ease with which the hijackers overcame the pilots is evidence enough that they were not "on guard" as clearly they should have been.

11. Less than a week after the trade tower bombings, the air space over the US is gratuitously opened to the bin Laden family. The bin Laden family jet travels from NY, then Chicago, then points out west, picking up family members, including bin Laden's mother and brother, and finally arriving in Saudi Arabia. Why did this family have special clearance when all other aircraft were grounded? It is known that Bush Sr. has been a long time associate in Oil with the bin Laden family? Did they receive special treatment? It appears that they did.

12. Bush/Cheney use ENRON/WorldCOM jets during campaign. Ken Lay and George Bush have been close friends for nearly 20 years. Bush indeed, owes his rise in fortune to this man. Is Ken Lay getting away with ripping off hundreds of millions of dollars without question? Where is the indictment for Ken Lay?

13. Bush connected with insider trading and offshore tax evasion; never cleared by SEC investigation in insider deal (case was left open). Bush refuses to release Harkin papers. Republicans argue it's 10 years old yet Whitewater was over 20 years old and we turned every stone in that situation.

14. Immediately after the trade towers were hit Bush and Cheney both pronounce that they would not support an investigation into the reasons why there was so much information breakdown citing security reasons. Today they still inhibit and delay this investigation.

15. Cheney connected with Halliburton scandals. Halliburton fined $2 million dollars in June 2002 for 242 frauds committed under Military contract while Cheney was CEO (primarily overcharging). Clinton's order to refuse future contracts with Corporations committing fraud against the government is softened by Bush and his team; Halliburton continues to receive lucrative contracts. In addition, Bush eases restrictions on the exportation of "millions" of corporate dollars outside the country (something Clinton had clamped down on).

16. Cheney is first VP to be sued by the GAO and other organizations for withholding legally classified "public documents" from release (of course, we all know what he's hiding).

17. Cheney, Bush refuses to release financial records. By 2 to 1, the American people believe Cheney and Bush are hiding something.

18. Tax benefits aimed at upper 1% of Americans, DOW tanking, American consumer confidence dropping, and record deficits with War against Iraq on the horizon.

19. Bush's record on the Environment, under any definition, has been abysmal. Second highest official in EPA resigns after Bush lets Corporate execs walk away from an ongoing settlement under the Clean Air Act (more deaths allowed in the Tennessee Valley - but hey, they're just hillbillies anyway). Dozens of executive orders has degraded and minimize EPA's executive authority.

As a Democrat, I get tired of hearing the Right argue that we embrace "wishful thinking", etc… I hardly doubt that. I challenge any right-winger out there to dispute a single fact in the above discussion. And I think you know too that the above information is enough, certainly much more than lying about a sexual encounter, to attain the definition of "High Crimes & Treason" as that phrase has been recently redefined by the right to include "lying about sex." Not only was the election stolen, we are now paying the price of having to be led under the leadership of a proven failure.

If Clinton can be "impeached" for lying about sex, surely Bush and Cheney can be impeached for high crimes against the American people by doing NOTHING to prevent or prepare for 9-11 and other crimes committed by them.

Jim Johnson
Crestview, FL

Dear BuzzFlash,

Here in Kentucky we have the loathsome Congresswoman Anne Northup spewing lies about her Democratic opponent Jack Conway...even accusing him of wanting to destroy the "sacred trust of social security" she claims to embrace. Need I mention the disgusting incumbent Mitch McConnell who is also a Kentucky Senate candidate. I wrote the following letter to our Courier- Journal newspaper. I think it is a fundamental fear that all of us "Buzzies" should also hold....soooo..get out your pens and telephones and write, talk and spread this truth.

Wednesday, October 23, 2002

Dear Letters to the Editor,

The election in November is a simple problem. It does not matter about the nuances of the positions of either Conway or Northup. If you want the House and Senate to be controlled by Republicans, be aware that ALL branches of the federal government…including the presidency, the Republican Supreme Court..will be under one world view. There will be no checks and balances. Be prepared for laws to change in favour of the anti-abortion groups, the N.R.A.( do you like cop-killer bullets and assault weapons), corporate freedom to run rampant and avoid taxation, religion in the schools including Creation curriculum, cessation of environmental protections, war and defense spending for the foreseeable future, and a stacking of all federal courts with ultra-right wing judges who are stuck somewhere in time before the Civil War. Those citizens should vote for Northup. If you want to stop this agenda, if you believe abortion is a woman's decision, if you believe in the promise of unfettered stem cell research, if you don't want the economy to continue to fall through the toilet, if you want investigations to freely and fully search for the facts behind Cheney's secret energy plan…and much more…vote for Jack Conway and Lois Weinberg.

M.G. Schiller