POTPOURRI
News, Notices, Bouquets and
Brickbats
Recently Read With Appreciation
Mark Morford,
"Let
us now crush everybody," The Smirking Chimp, June 12,
2002. A beautifully written kick upon the presidential butt from the San
Francisco Chronicle. May their tribe increase.
Robert Kuttner, "The Ideological Imposter,"
The
American Prospect, June 3, 2002. "Run left, govern right: the
fraudulence of the Bush presidency."
Bernard Weiner,
"Time
out! A pause for longer-rage thinking," Smirking
Chimp, April 25, 2002. Bush foreign policy as ignorance unbound..
William Rivers Pitt, "The Death of Us All,"
Truthout,
June 3, 2002.
Larry Chin,
"All
the desperate lies and spin don't change the fact that the Bush
administration had foreknowledge of the September 11
attacks." Online Journal, May 19, 2002.
We've read a great deal this past week about this topic, so
Chin's article does not tell us very much that we haven't read
elsewhere. But it is the best compilation and summary of the scandal
that we have encountered so far.
Renata Adler,
"Irreparable
Harm." This outstanding critique of Bush v. Gore
escaped my notice when it was published last July. Take a look. It
deserves an honest place in your literary arsenal against the usurper regime.
Eric Boehlert,
"All
Bush, all the time," Salon.com, April 18, 2002.
Julian Borger,
"Bush,
Inc. and oil lobby oust climate change scientist," The
Guardian, April 20, 2002.
Suzy Hansen,
"Media
O.D." Salon.com, April 15, 2002.
Bryan Zepp Jamieson, "The
road to clean elections: The route to taking America back" Online
Journal.
Natural Resources Defense Council,
"Rewriting
the Rules," (A summary of the assault by the Bush
Administration on environmental laws and regulations).
Worthy Websites, Recently Encountered
Not in our Name. "A
statement of conscience against war and repression." Read it and sign
on.
Too Stupid
to be President. A collection of priceless mini-cartoon
skits. Don't miss "Chicken Hawks," a total hoot.
Americalivefree.org.
"Working citizens ... concerned about current attempts to weaken or change
provision of the US Constitution."
Partnership for
Civil Justice -- focuses on civil rights issues, in particular,
those generated by USA PATRIOT act.
Medialens.org . "Correcting
... the distorted vision of the corporate media."
Progressive Majority: Features national news, profiles of
progressive leaders, and action opportunities and alerts.
Bushwatch
has the most comprehensive and extensive selection of anti-bush articles that we
know of, meticulously organized and catalogued. A good "first
stop" in your search for ammunition against the Smirk and his cabal. Also
supplies a fresh list of articles and links.
GenderGappers
publishes a weekly column of progressive opinion, from a feminist
perspective. Features an excellent page of links to feminist and
progressive websites.
The Center for
Public Integrity is not simply complaining, they are really
doing
it! Some outstanding investigative reports on the
military-corporate-media complex. Remember "investigative
journalism?"
The Columbia Journalism Review's
"Media
Ownership page" give the straight scoop on who owns and
controls the mass media. Hint: it ain't the liberals!
Mediachannel.org is
another fine watchdog on the media.
Bear Left's
Links Page lists and links hundreds of progressive and other
websites. It is the largest list that we have encountered so far.
Three of Ralph Nader's organizations:
Essential.org,
Citizenworks, and
Democracy
Rising.
Public Campaign
is leading the fight for campaign reform. McCain-Feinberg is only the
first step.
Mediachannel.org
keeps tabs on the state of media freedom, in the U.S and the world. Take
special note of the section on
"Media
Ownership."
Tod Gitlin recommends
OpenDemocracy.com,
a British site devoted to the worldwide progressive movement.
"War Times" is a newly established chronicle of the
anti-war movement.
Global Free
Press, similar to The Smirking Chimp, is a good "gateway"
to the world press.
Visit
"Tom
Tommorow's site for some comic relief. "Tom"
(a.k.a. Dan Perkins) draws a satiric strip that aims straight for the jugular of
the Dubya/Cheney team.
The Quotation Bin
New Democrats, Old Cowardice
Mr. Daschle and his colleagues have remained inert during
recent weeks and months, while their adversaries compared him with Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein and accused him of giving "aid and comfort"
to the nation's enemies. They have stood by in silence while
authoritarian propaganda emanated from Republican fax machines and spread
across the country. They've allowed the South Dakota Democrat, an Air
Force veteran and bioterror target, to be taunted like a traitor by Rush
Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and other tough-talkers who avoided military
service as if it were anthrax.
Joe
Conason, New York Observer
From Loyalty to Groupthink
The nation's loyalty is turning into groupthink... How
else explain a president who, playing on the war's most visceral slogan, gets
away with justifying an obscene corporate tax cut as "economic
security," a build-up of defense industry stock as "homeland
security," and an exploitative assault on the nation's most pristine lands
as "energy security"? How else explain his contempt for
Congress, his Nixonian fixation on secrecy, his administration's junta-like
demeanor in Washington since September?
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
Quoted by Norman Solomon in
Smirking
Chimp
It Can Happen Here!
"For the Vice President to prevail [against the GAO law
suit] would only require the support of the same five conservative justices
who put the Vice President in his current job with their ruling in Bush v.
Gore. But should these justices decide to hold in favor of Cheney in the
GAO lawsuit, and thus neuter the Congress's authority to investigate the
Executive Branch, the ramifications will be much more serious and far-reaching
than the results of their aberrant holding in Bush v. Gore -- which they
themselves limited even as they handed it down.
"Osama bin Laden himself could not concoct a more hurtful
blow to our democracy...
"If Vice President Cheney were to prevail in such a suit,
the high Court will have decided that Congressional oversight of the Executive
Branch is limited only to what the President and Vice President are willing to
permit. This would be an awesome realignment of power in Washington.
"Before Bush v. Gore, I would have said such a ruling
would be impossible. Today, all I can say is it is a time for
vigilance..."
John W. Dean
FindLaw,
2/1/02
Jesus Wept
"I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over
you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate
is good... Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty, we
are called by God, to conquer this country."
Randall Terry of "Operation Rescue"
Quoted by Benjamin Barber,
Essential Jihad, p. 213.
"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good
to them that hate you."
Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 5:44).
"There'll be no peace until Jesus comes. Any preaching of
peace prior to his return is heresy; it's against the word of God; it's
Anti-Christ."
TV Evangelist, Jim Robison.
(Gave invocation at 1984 GOP Convention)
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
called the children of God.
Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 5:9)
Plus Ça Change. . .
"For fifty years the inhabitants of the United States
have been repeatedly and constantly told that they are the only religious,
enlightened, and free people. They . . . have an immensely high opinion
of themselves and are not far from believing that they form a species apart
from the rest of the human race."
Alexis De Tocqueville, Diary (c. 1831)
Of the Lobbyists, By the Lobbyists, and For the
Lobbyists.
Apparently lobbyists in Washington are "growing
frustrated with long lines at entrances [to the Capitol] and at delays from
new security procedures, which were implemented after threats of terrorist
attacks and anthrax-laced mail." They are seeking their own special
badges, like the lapel pins given to Members of Congress, "for quick,
unhindered access to the Capitol." "when there's a meeting in
an hour, the question then becomes whether you have to go through an elaborate
process to participate in a public meeting or to walk through the hall of
Congress," says James Albertine, president of the American League of
Lobbyists. . .
If Congress does implement a special pass system for
lobbyists, it will just be codifying the already-existing reality of a
two-tiered political system, with one level for people who have and give
money, and another for everyone else who "just" votes."
"Publicus,"
"Leading
the Democratic Corpse"
TomPaine.Com
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