Issue 2.05
The Editorial We
Watching the devastation of the California fires is a different kind of horrifying from  the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Mediawise, Katrina was presented as poor black people who lost their modest homes, victims of the weather, bureaucratic incompetence, and their own personal gamble in deciding to live in that area. The stadium they were herded into looked like hell on earth. But the California fires were presented as rich white people who lost their incredible mansions, victims of the weather, bureaucratic incompetence, and their own personal gamble in deciding to live in that area.  The stadium they were herded into looked pretty well stocked.

When the poor lose everything, they don't lose as much as the rich when they lose everything, but that doesn't make their hardship any less vital.

There are lots of agencies out there helping the fire victims, offering the exact same help any homeless person might need, yet their screening process weeds out all the homeless who didn't happen to own a home that recently burnt down. If you're homeless and living on the street because your home burnt down a month ago, you're shit out of luck as far as the agencies are concerned.

There were thousands of homeless before the California fires. Now there are several thousand more. You gotta ask yourself why the newly homeless get preferential treatment. Isn't it possible the previously homeless had catastrophes in their lives just as valid as fire? Shouldn't they be at the front of the line?

The lesson we've learned is that if you're going to lose everything, fire is better than water and rich is better than poor.

More than a million people displaced, the largest peacetime migration since the Civil War if you believe your television, a terrible spectacle of monumental proportions.
 
And yet its only a quarter of the four  million Iraqis who've been displaced by our war, so keep those fire images in mind and multiply by four  just to keep things in perspective.

Further proof that humans can wreak MUCH more havoc than tired old mother nature.

Whenever editors of newspapers are arrested in the middle of the night for exposing corrupt sheriffs, other editors of newspapers can continue to play it safe or further expose the corrupt sheriff. Guess which road we chose? No Dick Cheney he, we found it easy as pie to googlemap Joe Arpaio's home. What did he do? Read America's Most Cowardly Sheriff by Tony Ortega of the Village Voice.

If you were going to go out and hire someone to write a comprehensive history of the use of the N-word in stand-up comedy, you couldn't pick a more knowledgeable writer than Paul Krassner. Luckily, we didn't even have to ask. After reading A Brief History of  the N-Word, you'll totally understand why it was funny when Lenny Bruce said it but not funny at all when Michael Richards said it.

Now that we know Dumbledore's gay, you might be wondering what deep dark secrets are held by other fictional characters. If not, you certainly won't bother reading Top Ten Secrets of Fictional Characters, which you'll find right around Jeff Crook's piece, Dumbledore's Army.

We hereby acknowledge the existence of Pontifica, a new state owned by F.G. Fitzer, who says I Claim 200 Square Miles of Antarctica.
 
If like the rest of us, you've been waiting for a chance to smack Rupert Murdoch in the face, you will certainly want to play Whack-a-Murdoch.
 
Billy Graham was no Mother Teresa, as Michael O'McCarthy knows since he read and reviewed Cecil Bothwell's The Prince of War - Billy Graham's Crusade for a Wholly Christian Empire.
 
In case you've forgotten, Jim Carrey reminds you there's still a War on Buddha and the Miami Herald and Alternet remind you there's still  a War on Plants.
 
Last week, Bishop Desmond Tutu was forbidden to speak at the University of St. Thomas just because he nominated Mordechai Vananu , the Israeli Daniel Ellsberg, for the Nobel Peace Prize. Check out The Censoring of Bishops and Whistle Blowers.
 
Jim Watson apologized for saying something horrible. Pete Stark apologized for saying something absolutely true. One's a putz for saying something but a mensch for apologizing, one's a mensch for having spoken truth to power but a putz for apologizing. They add up to the Apologies of the Week., not the Scumbags of the Week, which is an entirely different feature.
 
When you get A Press Release from the Grim Reaper, you better print it if you don't want pitchfork scars on your buttocks.
 
Shhh, Don't Tell Anyone, is top secret to everyone who doesn't read it.
 
If I forgot to mention the cartoon by Justin Bilicki, High Coup by zEN mAN, Outside the Box, Get Involved, the Real Estate Deal of the Week, Lynette Scheffield's Bad Food, David Schoen's Don't Go, You'll Ruin It, the Google Smackdown of the Week, and lot's of amazing videos, you'll just have to take our word for it that I'll get to it next time.
 
We realize this issue of the Los Angeles Free Press is way too big to be presented in just one long column. There's a learning curve here as we learn InDesign to format everything in a more rational manner, which we assure you is coming up.

Michael Dare: Editor
michael@dareland.com


Sheriff Joe Arpaio
America’s Most Cowardly Sheriff
by Tony Ortega
 
    The owners of The Village Voice were thrown into jail last night, and I wish I could say that it was my fault. Instead, I have to give that credit to my former Phoenix New Times colleague, John Dougherty.
    It was Dougherty who, in 1993, first pointed out that the then brand-new sheriff of Maricopa County (which includes Phoenix), a clown named Joe Arpaio, was a menace. But over the years 1995 to 1999, that beat was all mine.
    By late 1995, two years into his tenure, Arpaio had already perfected his shtick as “America’s Toughest Sheriff.” He craved the attention of out-of-town journalists like the rest of us crave oxygen, and to get it, he turned the county’s jails into a sideshow.
    Arpaio’s big lie was that he was tough on criminals. But even the most cursory attempt at real reporting revealed a very different truth: Arpaio not only endangered the lives of inmates—most of whom were simply awaiting trial, and the majority of the rest serving time on traffic violations—but he also endangered his own employees with his policies and wasted county money and resources on attention-getting nonsense. And, increasingly, he was becoming a very, very paranoid despot.
    I managed to uncover stories about deaths in Arpaio’s jails, assaults on inmates (including one paraplegic inmate whose neck was broken by sadistic guards), and the dirty tricks that “America’s Toughest Sheriff” aimed at his political opponents—despite the fact that Arpaio blocked every one of our (perfectly legal) public-records requests and fired employees whom he even suspected of speaking to New Times.
    When I moved to New Times Los Angeles in 1999, John Dougherty returned to the Arpaio story and really turned up the heat. Though the constant parade of television journalists arriving breathless with admiration for Arpaio’s “courage” never slowed, Dougherty pressed ahead with the real story: that there has hardly been a more untrustworthy politician in Arizona, and perhaps in the rest of the country as well.
    Taking advantage of post-9/11 privacy statutes, for example, Arpaio had convinced the county to remove from public view records of the million-dollar commercial real-estate transactions he was making. How, Dougherty wondered, was a modestly paid county sheriff making those kinds of deals? Arpaio blocked every attempt to answer that question, and then did something even more outrageous: He convinced the county attorney to charge New Times and Dougherty with a felony for including his home address in the Internet version of a story about his real-estate dealings.
    As New Times pointed out, that address is available in multiple places on the Internet from various official and government sources that anyone, to this day, can access.



    Taking advantage of a pliant county attorney and the thug he’s hired to go after New Times, Arpaio is waging a war against my former colleagues’ First Amendment rights. Although Dougherty has since moved on and I’m now editor of The Village Voice, New Times journalists Steve Lemons and Paul Rubin and editor Rick Barrs continue to expose Arpaio for the megalomaniac that he is.
    In the 14 years that those of us at New Times have spent countering the bad journalism done by countless sycophantic reporters who have bought into the sheriff’s fraudulent reputation, we never had to be told that the owners of our company, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, fully support us.
    And that was never made more clear than last night, when Lacey and Larkin were hauled off to Arpaio’s jail after daring to speak out about the sheriff’s latest outrage: Through the county attorney’s lapdog, a grand jury has been conned into doing Arpaio’s dirty work. Although it was technically illegal to do so, Lacey and Larkin went public in a story this week about the draconian subpoena that New Times has been hit with, which calls not only for records about every story the paper has written about Arpaio, but also the identities and other information about every person who has ever looked at the New Times website since 2004.
    Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in D.C., has described the subpoena as “frightening in its scope.” Even those reporters who may have bought Arpaio’s line of bull in the past must see what an abuse of power this is, and how it threatens the journalism being done by papers that dare to question public officials.
    I hope my colleagues in the press understand how important this battle is.
 
Copyright © 2007, Village Voice Media
Posted with the permission of the Village Voice
www.villagevoice.com

"Journalists do not gather or report information merely to satisfy their own curiosity or for their employer's profit. They do so as surrogate stewards of the people's right to speak and publish as they choose. The existence of a free press going about its responsibilities unfettered by governmental intrusion is the practical vindication of the individual's constitutional liberties."
- Tim Rutten: Regarding Media - Reporters should be shielded from jail -

Update

    "As daylight broke, word of the arrests spread quickly. New Times' offices were inundated with queries from the media. TV cameras showed up unannounced at our front door. Phones of editors, reporters, and other staff buzzed incessantly.
    "The significance of what had just happened was immediately recognized by broadcast and print news organizations large and small. From the New York Times and blogs like Gawker to the Arizona Republic and the East Valley Tribune, the tale proved irresistible. After all, how many times in recent history have an American editor and publisher been jailed for a piece they penned?
    "That's more like something that occurs in Myanmar, Iran, or Venezuela. Not in the United States, where freedom of the press is enshrined in the Constitution.
    "Regardless of political affiliation, almost everyone but the most die-hard Arpaio-lovers blasted what they deemed an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment.
    "Clint Bolick, director of the conservative Goldwater Institute's Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation, issued a statement, saying, 'Regardless of one's ordinary proclivities regarding the players involved, there is only one place for friends of freedom to stand at this moment: shoulder to shoulder with the New Times.' ...
    "Less than 24 hours after the arrests, Thomas' staff called the Friday, October 19, press conference that ended up being standing-room only. His introductory remarks were punctuated by nervous coughs. He soon zoned in on the reason for the hastily organized event.
    "'The arrests that were conducted last night I had no knowledge of,' he claimed. 'I got a phone call informing me of that fact. In looking at this matter in its totality over the last 24 hours, it has become clear to me that the investigation has gone in a direction that I would not have authorized. It was an error on my part to allow the matter to proceed to that point without having the proper, well, without basically having the personnel in place to ensure we didn't go off track.'
    "Thomas announced the firing of ally and former boss Wilenchik as a special prosecutor in this and all future matters, though he later admitted Wilenchik would remain on a list of attorneys used for civil litigation.
  



A Brief History of the N-Word
by Paul Krassner

    In the early 1960s, Dick Gregory called his autobiography Nigger, because, he explained, “I told my mama if she hears anybody shout ‘nigger,’ they’re just advertising my book.” Richard Pryor called one of his albums That Crazy Nigger and wrote an article for The Realist about the disproportionate amount of blacks fighting in Vietnam which he titled Uncle Sam Wants You, Nigger! After a visit to Africa, he reclaimed his heritage, promising not to use that word again. And then there was Lenny Bruce, on stage one night, riding an invisible unicycle as he balanced his way along a tightrope into uncharted comedic territory:
    “The reason I don’t get hung up with, well, say, integration, is that by the time Bob Newhart is integrated, I’m bigoted. And anyway, Martin Luther King, Bayard Rustin are geniuses, the battle’s won. By the way, are there any niggers here tonight? [Outraged whisper, as if an audience member] ‘What did he say? Are there any niggers here tonight? Jesus Christ! Is that cruel. Does he have to get that low for laughs? Wow! Have I ever talked about the schwarzes when the schwarzes had gone home? Or spoken about the Moulonjohns when they’d left? Or placated some Southerner by absence of voice when he ranted and raved about nigger nigger nigger?’
    “[In his own voice]: Are there any niggers here tonight? I know that one nigger who works here, I see him back there. Oh, there’s two niggers, customers, and, ah, aha! Between those two niggers sits one kike - man, thank God for the kike! Uh, two kikes. That’s two kikes, and three niggers, and one spic. One spic - two, three spics. One mick. One mick, one spic, one hick, thick, funky, spunky boogey. And there’s another kike. Three kikes. Three kikes, one guinea, one greaseball. Three greaseballs, two guineas. Two guineas, one hunky funky lace-curtain Irish mick. That mick spic hunky funky boogey. Two guineas plus three greaseballs and four boogies makes usually three spics. Minus two Yid spic Polack funky spunky Polacks. [Auctioneer’s voice] ‘Five more niggers! Five more niggers!’ [Gambler’s voice] ‘I pass with six niggers and eight micks and four spics.’
    “[In his own voice] The point? That the word’s suppression gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness. If President Kennedy got on television and said, ‘Tonight I’d like to introduce the niggers in my cabinet,’ and he yelled ‘nigger-nigger-nigger-nigger-nigger-nigger-nigger’ at every nigger he saw, ‘boogey-boogey-boogey-boogey-boogey-nigger-nigger-nigger-nigger’ till nigger didn’t mean anything any more, till nigger lost its meaning, you’d never make any 4-year-old nigger when he came home from school. Screw ‘Negro!’ Oh, it’s so good to say, ‘Nigger!’ Boy! ‘Hello, Mr. Nigger, how’re you?’”
    Four decades later, Dave Chappelle on his TV show played a man delivering milk to the all-white family, the Niggars, and he did indeed say, “Hello, Mr. Niggar, how’re you?” But consider the contrast between Lenny’s good-natured, poetic routine and Michael Richards’ mean-spirited, uncontrollable outburst. In November 2006, at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, in response to heckling from a table of four African Americans (three men and a woman), he suddenly became enraged with repressed hatred:
    “Shut up! Fifty years ago we’d hang you upside down with a fucking fork up your ass! [Laughter in the audience, apparently unaware of the heckler’s race and that the reference is to lynching] You can talk, you can talk, you can talk, now you’re brave, motherfucker! Throw his ass out! He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger!”
    “[A woman in the audience] “Oh my god!”
    “A nigger! Look, there’s a nigger! [Imitating reactions in the audience] ‘Oooh! Oooh!’ All right, you see, this shocks you, it shocks you to see what lies beneath your stupid motherfuckers!”
    [A man at the heckler table] “That wasn’t called for.”
    “What was uncalled for? It’s uncalled for you to interrupt my ass, you cheap motherfucker! You guys have been talking and talking and talking.”
    [Voice from the audience] “Calm down.”
    “What’s the matter with you? Is this too much for you to handle?”
    “I said calm down.”
    “They’re gonna arrest me for calling a black man a nigger? Wait a minute, where’s he going?”
    “That was uncalled for, you fucking cracker-ass motherfucker!”
    “You calling me cracker-ass, nigger?
    “Fucking white boy!”
    “Are you threatening me?”
    “We’ll see what’s up.”
    “Oh, it’s a big threat. That’s how you get back at the man.”
    “You’re just not funny. That’s why you’re a reject. Never had no shows, never had no movies. Seinfeld, that’s it.”
    “Oh, I guess you got me there. You’re absolutely right. I’m just a wash-up. Gotta stand on this stage.”
    “That’s it, we’ve had it. Niggers--that’s un-fucking-called-for. That ain’t necessary.”
    “Well, you interrupted me, pal. That’s what you get when you interrupt the white man, don’t you know.”
    “Uncalled for, that was uncalled for.”
    “You see, there’s still those words, those words, those words.”
    Richards then walked off stage. Later, seemingly stunned at his own racist rage, he apologized again and again as best he could.
African-American comedians reacted to Richards’ use of the n-word. Chris Rock on Bill Maher’s HBO show, Real Time: “He said nigger? Nicotine?” Damon Wayans at a comedy club: “Welcome to Nigger Night.” Jamie Foxx defended the use of “nigger,” but only by black people. He began his monologue at the Borgata in Atlantic City: “I’m an Oscar winner, but I’m a nigger too.” Referring to the Richards incident, Foxx said, “He was just calling us niggers like it was the ’50s. Nigger, nigger, with a ‘e-r.’ Then they said we can’t use the word ‘nigger’ any more. That’s my shit. I need it. I need the word to describe certain things, because at a certain level of excitement, I need to tell you how the shit was, and there ain’t no other word that helps me say that better than that word. White people, you can’t use it. I would’ve booked his ass!”
    The NAACP Philadelphia Youth Council held a mock funeral for the n-word. And, at the NAACP annual convention in Detroit, a horse-drawn carriage pulled a pine casket with a black wreath on top, signifying the death of the n-word.
    In February 2007, a historically black school in Alabama held a four-day event titled the “‘N’ Surrection Conference at Stillman College.” Its goal was to challenge the use of the n-word “through the use of intelligent dialogue and a thorough examination of black history.” Kovan Flowers, co-founder of AbolishTheNWord.com, said that striking the word “nigger” from use would help set an example for other races. “We can’t say anything to Hispanics, or whites or whoever unless we stop using it ourselves,” he said. “It’s the root of the mindset that’s affecting why people are low, from housing to jobs to education.”
    Community activist Tim Robinson pointed out that blacks don't have a problem using the word “nigga” because it’s distinctly different and is considered a term of endearment when they say it to each other. He said, “It was ‘nigger’ which was the bad word, but you’ve got our people that just went and changed it up a bit.” The late rapper Tupac Shakur was credited with legitimizing “nigga” with his song “N.I.G.G.A.” which stood for “Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished.”
    The first season of Aaron McGruder’s TV adaptation of his controversial comic strip The Boondocks on the Cartoon Network angered Al Sharpton and other black activists by the show’s frequent use of “nigger.” The second season was scheduled to devote an entire episode to “The N-word.” Co-executive producer Rodney Barnes explained, “You can’t bury ‘nigger.’ It’s like a vampire. It’s going to live forever. And we can’t let the fans down. Why be responsible now?”
    On the other hand, on the series Cavemen, the cavemen referred to themselves as “maggers,” but this was considered racist, and the word “magger” quickly disappeared from the sitcom’s scripts.
    Attorney Gloria Allred tried to arrange an informal three-member “jury” of a retired judge and two lawyers to decide “whether they think, under the facts and the law, Michael Richards should be accountable and, if so, in what way. We want accountability, and we want the public to understand the significance of the n-word and how it has hurt” her clients. Richards’ lawyer, Douglas Mirell, said that while Richards’ comments were “inappropriate, they are not legally actionable” and that, if Richards faced mediation or a lawsuit, he intended to oppose a cash settlement under his constitutional right to free speech--an incorrect claim, since the 1st Amendment applies only to censorship by the government.
    Elayne Boosler came to Richards’ defense in a blog on Huffington Post:
    “Words won't kill you unless they are ‘Ready, aim, fire!’ Now that some time has gone by since the Michael Richards rant, let's talk about the true victim of the ‘n-word’--stand-up comedy. The L.A. Times continues to feature articles on the Laugh Factory, focusing on further ‘n-word’ developments, and on black comedians lamenting the loss of their use of the ‘n-word’ at the club. They’re determined to say it, even though the club owner is fining them for it.
    “When I watch the majority of black comedians on cable and in clubs, I am amazed the TV version of Amos and Andy was called racist, and canceled due to the main characters speaking less than perfect English in their rhythms. (We're not discussing the radio show, which was done in blackface before television and which, by the way, was voted into the Radio Hall of Fame last week.) Those men had jobs, wore suits, had beautiful wives in earrings and pearls, and ate at tables with tablecloths. They were a classy version of The Honeymooners, the ostensible white welfare show.
    “By comparison, the ‘comedians’ on cable seem to be making Klan recruitment films. There is such a dearth of dignity, but most of all, such a lack of comedy, that every time I try to watch I say out loud to the performer on TV, ‘Hey, I’ve got the Kingfish on the phone here, he'd like an apology.’ These shows have reinvented comedy as style over substance, rhythm over writing. I can’t discern a joke, let alone root for the person up there. Between the ‘n-word,’ the ‘mf-word,’ and ‘bitches’ and ‘hos’ (talk about insulting half the population every waking hour of the day), they have annihilated stand-up comedy. Those words have made it possible for people to fill an hour set without five actual minutes of comedy. Maybe stand-up comedy could hire Gloria Allred to sue on its behalf, for a proper sum for not only hurting its feelings, but destroying its legacy. (Allred, what a great feminist. ‘We're going to find a retired judge and let him decide.’)
    “The rule about heckling is this: You fire at a cop, get ready to die. Yelling ‘You’re not funny’ at a comic is firing with an AK. Hurt your feelings? Tough. Anything goes for hecklers, including excessive force. I lay myself bare up here, at my most vulnerable you shoot me in the chest, I will kill you if I can. You know why Richards looked so shell-shocked at his own outburst? Because he's not a racist, he was simply in the zone. Comedy clubs are like Indian reservations. They are their own country. I don’t think he should have apologized. You pay your money and you take your chances, step right up.
    “Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, far from demanding apologies, should have apologized to Bill Cosby, who tried to point out the heartbreak and social defeat of how some blacks are undercutting their own dignity and chances (did you see Queens of Comedy?). It’s one thing to use the ‘n-word’ when you are an original, like Chris Rock or Bernie Mac, or if you’re a genius, like Richard Pryor. It’s another matter when you don’t have the talent to co-opt the enemy. These currently enraged black leaders are about ten years too late in their outrage, and they are mad at the wrong person. By the way, the best black comedian I ever saw was Marsha Warfield. She cut to the bone of race relations, was brilliantly funny, as well as intense, challenging, and seething with rage, and she never used the ‘n-word’ once....
    “When I started doing stand-up in 1973, the women working in comedy were the caricatures of their time; housewives who hated sex, loved jewelry, hated their husbands, hated themselves, etc. My oath to myself was that I would do nothing, no humor, no matter how easy it would have been, that propagated any of those images of women. I had to work harder, write better, face resistance, lose opportunity, to present a funny woman who was a worthwhile human being deserving of respect and dignity, and who could entertain not just a niche audience, but people. I don’t see too many comics striving for that on cable. You can’t legislate the end of the ‘n-word.’ Nobody can ever tell a comic not to say something, it runs against a comic’s soul. Don't take the ‘n-word’ out of your act because someone wants to ban it. Take it out because you are replacing it with actual comedy.”
    And editorial cartoonist Mr. Fish depicted Jesse Jackson saying, “In light of the Michael Richards tirade, I’m calling for the immediate removal of the letter ‘N’ from the alphabet so that racism will no longer exist in this country.” I decided to send a contribution to the NAACP in support of their anti-discrimination efforts, and I made the check out to the AACP.


    On 60 Minutes in 1998, Don Imus told Mike Wallace that his show had someone specifically assigned to do “nigger jokes.” In 2000, Newsday’s Philip Noble monitored the Imus show for months, then cited numerous examples of his racist, homophobic and misogynist references. In 2001, Imus promised syndicated columnist Clarence Page that he wouldn’t make racist comments about black athletes any more.
    But in April 2007, on the morning after the mostly black Rutgers University women’s basketball team had reached the finals of the NCAA women’s basketball championship, Imus offhandedly remarked, “That’s some nappy-headed hos.” Calls for his removal from the airwaves were invoked by public figures ranging from Barack (not black enough) Obama to Al (too black) Sharpton, from feminist Eleanor (not woman enough) Smeal to Jesse (“Let’s go to Hymie-town”) Jackson. Although Imus proceeded to apologize all over the media, ranging from Sharpton’s radio program to the Today show, he felt that he was only following the lyrics of black rappers, from the Wu Tang Clan (“nappy-headed niggaz”) to Ludacris (boasting of random “hos in different area codes”).
    Platinum-seller Chamillionaire, admitted, “I’ve always used the n-word,” but after he went on tour and saw mostly whites in the audience lip-synching it along with him, he announced that his new album, Ultimate Victory, would not include the n-word, explaining, “I’m not going to say the n-word on this one because when I go back on the road and I start performing, I don't want them to be saying it, like me teaching them.” He said this conversion was a moral issue and not a result of the backlash against Imus. Snoop Dogg said that rappers “are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We’re talking about hos that’s in the ’hood that ain’t doing shit that’s trying to get a nigger for his money.”
    In 1992, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons had stated that “oppression of artistic expression, like any sort of oppression, should not be tolerated.” In 2007, he told reporters that offensive references in hip-hop “may be uncomfortable for some to hear,” but that his job wasn’t to censor expression. Yet, only one week later, in the wake of Imusgate, he joined Al Sharpton’s insistence that broadcasters should ban “bitch,” “ho” and “nigger.” Sharpton, who had announced to the press in 1995 that record-label executives shouldn’t “cave in” to right-wingers wanting to censor lyrics because it would “infringe on our 1st Amendment rights,” now justified his turnaround because James Brown on his deathbed had urged him to “be more aggressive in cleaning up the music.”
    Two months before the Imus incident, New York City Councilman Leroy Comrie successfully sponsored a “symbolic moratorium on the use of the N-word.” (Other cities passed similar measures.) Ironically, at a hearing on Comrie’s resolution, the word “nigger” was said nearly fifty times in less than two hours. The founder of the Ban the N-Word Movement, Marcia Harris alone said “nigger” nineteen times. One man who didn’t say it was Atlanta-based attorney Roy Miller, who managed to get the word stricken from the Funk & Wagnall dictionary. A few days later, inside Harlem’s Uptown Jeans clothing store, the voice of rapper 50 Cent, one of whose songs is titled “To All My Niggers,” blared over the loudspeaker, “Nigger you front you gone get it, OK now maybe I said it.”
    “What difference does it make if they ban the n-word?” a bookseller asked. “Ban police brutality. Ban racial profiling. Ban that. Forget the n-word.” Four months after the plethora of rap-lyrics criticism that followed the Imus incident, New York City Councilwoman Darlene Mealy tried unsuccessfully to ban the words “ho” and “bitch” (which was referred to in the attempted legislation as the “b-word.)” Basketball star Isaiah Thomas said that although it’s wrong for a black man to call a black woman a bitch, it’s much worse for a white man to do it.
    On April 9, CBS Radio announced it was suspending the Imus in the Morning show for two weeks. Two days later, a Pennsylvania radio station fired a disc jockey for urging listeners to mimic the Imus epithet. That same day, MSNBC decided to cancel its simulcast of Imus’ radio show. Although sponsors - General Motors, GlaxoSmithKline, Procter & Gamble, American Express, Sprint Nextel, Bigelow Tea, Staples - had pulled their commercials from the Imus show, NBC denied that the loss of advertising motivated his cancellation. The next day, CBS fired Imus. Sponsors had already dropped out, and others were threatening to do so.
    Imus hired attorney Martin Garbus - who had once represented Lenny Bruce - announcing that Imus would sue CBS for $120 million, since they had contractually encouraged Imus. A clause acknowledged that his program was “unique, extraordinary, irreverent, intellectual, topical, controversial.” Garbus said the firing was “unconstitutional,” which could be considered an accurate claim, since the FCC is a government agency. Imus and CBS settled out of court. Meanwhile, a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle was “Fired celeb,” and the correct answer was “Imus.”
    In a Los Angeles Times op-ed, civil rights attorney Constance Rice sounding somewhat like Lenny Bruce, wrote, “But rest assured, the Imus crew has plenty of kike, wetback, mick, spick, dago, Jap, Chink, redneck and unprintable Catholic priest jokes too. Not to mention the rabid homophobia and occasional Islamophobia... Imus’ remarks were racist, offensive and, given that these athletes are not fair targets, out of bounds. There is no excuse for what he said. But there’s also no basis for firing him or ending his show. Firing Imus for racist riffs would be like firing Liberace for flamboyance. It’s what he does. More to the point, Imus should only be fired when the black artists who make millions of dollars rapping about black bitches and hos lose their recording contracts. Black leaders should denounce Imus and boycott him and call for his head only after they do the same for the misogynist artists with whom they have shared stages, magazine covers and the awards shows.”
    Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz - Imus had once referred to as “a boner-nosed, beanie-wearing Jewboy” - stated, “I do not believe Imus is a bigot - not a man who raised millions for cancer-stricken kids of all races to stay at his New Mexico ranch.” New York Times columnist Frank Rich argued in favor of free speech, and that Bill O’Reilly should be allowed to say “wetbacks,” a term used as dismissive shorthand for undocumented Mexicans. O’Reilly claimed that he was actually searching for the word “coyote.”
    Gloria Allred represented a member of the Rutgers team who planned to sue Imus and CBS for slander and defamation of character, charging that his comment had damaged her reputation. This was reminiscent of the joke about a public speaker who stated, “The trouble with women is that they take things too personally”- then a woman in the audience stood up and said, “I do not.” In September 2007, the basketball player’s frivolous lawsuit was withdrawn, ostensibly so she could focus on her education.
    In April 2007, CBS fired the hosts of The Dog House with JV and Elvis, after they placed an on-air order to a Chinese restaurant for “slimp flied lice” and compared food items to body parts. “In the wake of the Imus case,” said New York City Councilman John Liu, “it would have been maddening to the community if these idiots did not get fired.”
    The next month, XM Satellite Radio suspended shock jocks Opie and Anthony for 30 days after they aired a segment with “Homeless Charlie.” When they mentioned Laura Bush, Condoleezza Rice and Queen Elizabeth, he said about each, “I’d love to fuck that bitch.” Although the station is not subject to FCC regulation or punishment, it does need FCC approval to merge with satellite-radio competitor Sirius. In 2002, the pair had been fired by CBS Radio for broadcasting a call from two listeners who said they were having sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Now they expressed sympathy for Don Imus, saying that his career was “gone, just because he was trying to entertain people.” In fact, though, Imus would be returning to radio, on ABC.
    Meanwhile, Glenn Beck called antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan “a pretty big prostitute,” then softened that epithet to “tragedy pimp.” Michael Savage called Barbara Walters “a mental prostitute” and “a double-talking slut.” GQ editor Jim Nelson, parodying The Secret, advised readers to “visualize what you want (an Alfa Romeo? Leather pants? An Asian whore?), think positively and the universe will make it happen to you.” Presidential candidates Mitt Romney and John McCain used the racially offensive term “tar baby” and later apologized. Black comic Sheryl Underwood called Monica Lewinsky “an amateur ho.” And Don Imus referred to his own wife, Deidre, who is an environmental activist, as “the green ho.”


Paul Krassner is the author of One Hand Jerking: Reports From an Investigative Satirist, and publisher of the Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster--both available at paulkrassner.com.
 


Dumbledore's Army
by Jeff Crook

    Now that Dumbledore is officially out as a gay man, surely this just goes to prove that all those people who were against him and Harry Potter, people like Jerry Falwell, Bill O'Reilly, and Lord Voldemort, were justified in their hatred of this man and his very gay crusade to turn all the little witches and wizards into an army of homosexual tolerance crusaders of paganowiccaSatanifascism.
    Dumbledore made the kids use wands, after all - that should have been a dead giveaway, along with all the subliminal messages hidden in Rowling's seven guides... er, books. Let's see how many we can find:
    "The wand chooses the wizard." Wow, this is a pretty obvious reference to homosexuality, laying the foundation in young minds for the false lie that a person is born gay. At the same time, it shows the power of "the wand," especially a large, black, turgid wand with a phoenix feather core, to convert an otherwise straight man into a raging homowizard.
    Cornelius Fudge? Oh, come on! This name screams gay. And he was Minister of Magic! That's like the president or something.
    Quidditch is a game based on soccer (only slightly less gay than gymnastics), in which boys and girls compete as equals (as if) as: Chasers (chasing tail) who chase a quaffle (to swallow!); Beaters (!!) who whack mindlessly violent balls(!!!) called Bludgers (anti-man) with penis-shaped bats; a Seeker (code for gay temptor of straight men) who tries to catch a Golden Snitch (a spy trying to discover the real motives and methods of the gay agenda, someone like Rev. Ted Haggard or Sen. Larry Craig). When the Snitch is caught, the game is over!
    Speaking of Quidditch, what kind of man rides a broom? A gay man, of course. Real wizards ride gas-powered leaf blowers.
    I'm sure you can think of others. There's bound to be tons. Just be careful in your research. If you read these books too closely, you're liable to find yourself having odd thoughts and desires about your beer drinking buddies. Normally, it is perfectly safe to have odd thoughts and desires about other men, but these books will also have conditioned you to accept them as normal and fill you with an irresistible desire to act upon them, which you MUST NOT DO openly. REMEMBER, if you gaze too deeply into the abyss, the abyss gazes into you and turns you gay as a smurf.

http://jeffcrook.blogspot.com/2007/10/dumbledores-army.html
 

Top Ten Secrets of Fictional Characters
 
  1. Ahab used a butt plug.
  2. Mary Poppins was a man.
  3. Hamlet gave Ophelia crabs.
  4. Bob Cratchet molested Tiny Tim
  5. Forrest Gump had an enormous penis
  6. Fletcher Christian secretly enjoyed being whipped
  7. Kilgore Trout hated Philip K. Dick
  8. Batman couldn't get it up without Viagra
  9. Whenever Sherlock Holmes "played his violin," that was a metaphor for blowing Watson
  10. Jesus Christ was never circumcised

 
Pontification of the Week
 
    "You might have heard of the plan by the UK to claim sovereign possession of one million square kilometers of Antarctica.
    "The thought occurred to me this morning: If the British can do it, why can't I?
    "Here goes. I hereby declare possession of 200 square miles of Antarctica. This small area is hereby known as Pontifica, and will eventually be merely the ancestral homeland for a larger nation, Greater Pontifica.
    "Pontifican citizenship is open to all those who embrace liberty, and use their liberty to express what they have to say. Pontificate freely from Pontifica, with no restrictions. There will be no balancing of freedom and security in Pontifica.
    "Who's with me? Bring your coat!"

Play Whack-a-Murdoch
 

Read Responsibly

Reviewed by Michael O'McCarthy


    "Oh White God From Heaven, welcome to our shores and home..."
    Thus we are told Columbus and mates were greeted upon landing by the various and unsuspecting peoples who lived and thrived there.
    Thus, was the first evangelical named. Thus, he promptly began to fashion the means of the genocide to come. This chronicle of the exploitation and subversion of the human spirit by the Christian men of the cloth inflicted its torturous, hypocrisy upon the misnamed America and the world for the last 600 years.
    Cecil Bothwell's spare and well documented, unauthorized biography of William Franklin Graham, The Prince of War, captures Graham's rise from his familys anti-Semitic, quick dealing legacy in the south of Charlotte, North Carolina to become the Crown Prince of Protestantism. His position as Christian patron has been to the masses and Presidents alike; to the post-colonial destitute of the 3rd world; reaping both the privileges and patronage of the Oval Office. Billy Graham is friends and advisers to Senators, Generals, right wing businessmen, yellow journalisms giants and Commanders in Chief. Perhaps no other preacher broke through the barrier of church and state as did Graham, all too often in service to what President Dwight Eisenhower, one of his fondest worshipers, would come to call, the military industrial complex.
    The truth is: Billy Graham never saw an American war he did not love!
    Bothwell's is not an academic treatise. What Bothwell's book does is to tear away the chiseled-chin, white matinee idol glamorous mask of Graham and reveal a man who catered to the worst fears of America. From that of the black race seeking its freedom and its due to the much touted, little effective thirst of Communism for the soul of white folks and their servants of color at home and abroad.
    Further Bothwell does a service to all of us tired of the self-righteous condemnations of these Holy Roller messengers from Charlton Heston sets. Tired of the never-ending broadcasting pabulum sent at us in behalf of these liars of faith and their patrons in high corporate and government office.
    These savior-proxy hypocrites of a white Christ are caught often enough with their pants down with the whores they fuck and condemn male and female alike. Heard too often spouting their pious and non-ending promises of pie in the sky when you die as long as one gives their life, soul and tithes to Christ today. Shouting hallelujah from their multi-million dollar cathedrals in honor of they Lord Thy God they preach the lessons of Christ who loved the poor, all the while the poorest among us are homeless, laying dead and dying in the gutters and weeds. These embezzlers purses are filled with the dollars and dimes from the gullible and from out of which they pay for their overly bountiful fruits of the Earth. These spiritual-capitalist pied pipers pray seriously for only a few things other than their own longevity: that is your money and your idolatry.
    There are two Christs of this world. The first is the child Christ who in nursery rhyme and Sunday school calls come all ye little children, and whose giving spirit is as white as driven snow. Then comes the adult Christ who came, they now tell us, not to bring peace unto this earth but carrying a mighty swift and terrible sword. For the record Grahams child's Christ was over when at the infamous Bob Jones University, a citadel of right wing, racist, sexist Christian conservatism, Graham and friends threw rocks at kids cars as the came through campus playing stupid pranks with fireworks.
    We gave it to them good. Breaking all of their windows and showering them with broken glass.
    This narrow, mean mindedness of Graham would evidence itself in the later years in the company of the alcoholic traitor and would be thief of the US Constitution, Richard Milhous Nixon. Paranoiac, mean and spiteful, Nixon often sunk to the lowest of common denominator when scapegoating a people for the ills of failed imperialism. Like the Nazi hierarchy of his recent past, Nixon, his fascist shadow Kissinger and his Oberfuhrer Haldeman often lapsed into reviling the Jew for their troubles.
    Bothwell once again tears away the beatific mask of Graham in documenting how Graham participated in those demeaning, scurrilous rants against the Ever Present Nameless Jew whose fault it was that capitalism was under assault from within. On more than one occasion, Bothwell documents those enjoinders of Graham with Nixon. One in particular is that from a redacted ninety-minute tirade worthy of Hitler. As Bothwell notes from the archival research Graham is recorded as saying of the Jews: This stranglehold has got to be broken or this countrys doing down the drain,
    Bothwell rips through Grahams Madison Avenue PR attempt to position him as a regretful pal of Nixon just going alone with an obviously upset buddy; putting up with his letting off steam.
    I learned that the conversation had lasted an hour and a half, had rarely strayed from the denunciation of Jews and had sometimes been led by graham, writes Bothwell q. (p10)
    Then we have this schizoid pronunciation of love for the state of Israel by Graham. And what follows is nothing but a bizarre irony in the new love affair of convenience by the Christian fundamentalists who believe in the Tribulation and Rapture.
    This is wherein Jesus will return to earth when certain preconditions have been met. The first of these was the establishment of a state of Israel. The next involves Israel's occupation of the rest of its "Biblical lands" (most of the Middle East), and the rebuilding of the Third Temple on the site now occupied by the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques. The legions of the Antichrist will then be deployed against Israel, and their war will lead to a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. Then the Jews will either burn or convert to Christianity, and the Messiah will return to earth. What makes the story so appealing to Christian fundamentalists is that before the big battle begins, all "true believers" (i.e., those who believe what THEY believe), will be lifted out of their clothes and wafted up to heaven during the Rapture. Not only do the worthy get to sit at the right hand of God, but they will be able to watch, from the best seats, their political and religious opponents being devoured by boils, sores, locusts and frogs, during the seven years of Tribulation which follow.
    This is the whole cloth of these religious witches who prey upon the ignorance and fear of the common person. They feed this toxic brew to salve the pain of their exploitation by their bosses and political leaders. It is their infectious medicine for the ills of this planets most vulnerable species.
    But in the end it is not the philosophic that worries: One of the assets of being the color called white in America is that you are privy to the insanity that makes up the racist mind of these Euro-Americans.
    In the club locker rooms, the ball field bleachers, pool halls, intimate one-on-ones between father-in-law and prospective groom, in the corporate offices the denunciation of peoples of color, like the masculine form of gossip about bitches and cunts, is where one learns how seriously this culture is dominated by the myth of while male hierarchy and its pathetic insecurity. What comes with that package is the reference to niggers, spics, wops, kikes and slopeheads. What is result of this racial superiority leads not only to discrimination, but the underlying rationale for most of the US's wars.
    It is an all too human to err. But when you have God on your side, when you speak for the Lord Thy God, you give racism a Holy carte blanche. Likening to the noxious spiel of the Bin Ladens of this world is that when you play high priest to the ruler you insure his racism is carried out with God's blessing. And that just what Graham did for Johnson and more so Nixon.
    When Graham urged Eisenhower to invade Vietnam he became a military adviser; when he urged Nixon to bomb the dikes in North Vietnam, a barbarous act that would have killed a million people and destroyed the entire agricultural base of the nation, he was guilty of conspiracy to commit war crimes.
    As Bothwell notes, The German high commissioner in occupied Holland, Seyss-Inquart, was sentenced to death at Nuremberg for breaching dikes in Holland during WWII.
    Graham is in good company with George W. Bush. Both are partial to the commission of war crimes in the name of their Lord. Perhaps when Bush is indicted for his crimes against humanity Graham will be alive to offer him spiritual solace and visit with him in his cell, or walk with him on the way to the gallows.
 
Brave Ulysses Books
PO Box 1877
Asheville, NC 289802
www.Braveulysses.com

Good News

   
    "The Los Angeles City Council adopted a resolution Tuesday calling for an end to the war in Iraq, making it the largest city in the nation to make such a call.
    "'Today the city of Los Angeles is sending a message loud and clear -end the war in Iraq,' Councilman Bill Rosendahl said, drawing cheers from an anti-war audience packing the council chamber.
    "'We are calling for an immediate and complete withdrawal of United States military personnel from Iraq,' said Rosendahl, who introduced the resolution. 'We have lost too many of our young men and women to this illegal and unjust war.'
    "The resolution passed on a 12-2 vote, with Dennis Zine and Greig Smith dissenting. Councilman Jose Huizar was not present for the vote.
    "Rosendahl said that among the more than 3,500 members of the military who have died in Iraq, 409 came from California, including 115 from the Los Angeles area and 25 from the city.
    "'Supporting our troops does not mean keeping them in Iraq,' he said. 'Supporting our troops means taking them out of this war and bringing them home.'
    "Rosendahl said the expense of fighting the war has meant that more than $4.5 billion in tax revenues have been diverted from Los Angeles.
    "'This war has diverted funds that could be used for important domestic needs that would improve the quality of life for Los Angeles residents,' he said. "
- LA City Council Adopts Resolution To End Iraq War; Resolution Calls For Withdrawal Of All U.S. Troops From Iraq (PDF of the whole resolution) -

"Well, that's all well and good, but are they doing anything about pricey drinks and movie tickets?"
- Anil  -

    "The effort to unify and mobilize the indigenous of America took a large step last week with the first ever American Indigenous Peoples' Encuentro held in Yaqui tribe territory in Sonora, Mexico. Among its participants was a strong presence of indigenous from the United States and Canada, as well as the Mexico's National Indigenous Congress and Subcomandante Marcos representing the EZLN. Ral Romero and Juan Trujillo write from Sonora about the events of the inauguration of the Indigenous Encuentro and what its participants plan to bring to it.
    "Within the framework of working groups about 'The history and the word of our peoples,' indigenous nations members' participation, in particular those from countries that are called 'Canada' and 'United States' has had special strength due to the large number of delegates who have attended this encuentro."
"[T]he curator of the Rotterdam Natural History Museum asked the public to donate pubic crabs, claiming that their population was dwindling as a result of Brazilian waxes. 'Pubic lice,' he explained, 'can't live without pubic hair.'"
 
    "Money magazine columnist Jean Chatsky polled 1,500 people for her book You Don't Have to Be Rich and found that more money makes people significantly happier only if their family income's below $30,000, but by $50,000, money makes no difference.
    "'Once you get to that $50,000 level, more money doesn't buy more happiness,' she said."
- John Stossel: Myths, Lies and Straight Talk -
"The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) today announced the imposition of financial sanctions against 418 Burmese military generals and their family members."
- Mizzima: No more bank accounts for Burmese generals in Australia -
    "Liberal Al Franken is good enough and smart enough to win some of conservative Ben Stein's money and doggone it, Stein likes him.
    "Stein, an actor, writer and economist, has contributed $2,000 to Franken's Minnesota Senate campaign. The two men have known each other for about 30 years.
    "'I'm struck by what an incredibly capable, hard-working guy he is,' Stein told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday. 'He's a very smart liberal, he's a thoroughgoing patriot, and I would feel better with him in the Senate.' ...
    "The two worked together during Comedy Central's coverage of the 1992 political conventions. They also did debates together in front of corporations and universities 'because we could be billed as Franken/Stein,' Franken recalled. 'To have fun, we used to always insist on being billed as Stein/Franken.'"
 
"It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection. These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times."
    "The essential document in the current Iraq debate is a letter of commitment, now endorsed by 89 members of the House, that says the signers "will only support appropriating additional funds for U.S. military operations in Iraq during FY08 and beyond for the protection and safe redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq before the end of President Bush's term in office."
    "In an important new letter to President Bush, the 89 representatives -- 88 Democrats and Texas Republican Ron Paul -- say, 'More than 3,800 of our brave soldiers have died in Iraq. More than 28,000 have been seriously wounded. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed or injured in the hostilities and more than 4 million have been displaced from their homes. Furthermore, this conflict has degenerated into a sectarian civil war and U.S. taxpayers have paid more than $500 billion, despite assurances that you and your key advisers gave our nation at the time you ordered the invasion in March, 2003 that this military intervention would cost far less and be paid from Iraqi oil revenues. We agree with a clear and growing majority of the American people who are opposed to continued, open-ended U.S. military operations in Iraq, and believe it is unwise and unacceptable for you to continue to unilaterally impose these staggering costs and the soaring debt on Americans currently and for generations to come.'
    "At a time when the president is requesting an additional $50 billion to maintain www.Braveulysses.comhis escalation of U.S. military operations in Iraq through next April, on top of the $145 billion he requested to continue military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan during the 2008 fiscal year, the letter says what all of Congress should be saying: No."
- The Nation: 89 House Members Tell Bush: No More Money for Occupation -
    "Santa Claus will once again parade down Hollywood Boulevard.
    "Though, in March, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced will no longer sponsor the annual holiday parade, the Los Angeles City Council decided to throw its financial weight behind the effort and ensure that a procession will indeed be held in Hollywood.
    "The value of the city's sponsorship has not yet been determined, but City Councilman Tom LaBonge said other sponsors will be sought to help pay for the event. The Chamber of Commerce said it was dropping plans for the event after 75 years because it had lost about $100,000 staging the 2006 parade and losses were expected to double this year.
    "The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce owns the name "Hollywood Christmas Parade," so the revived event will be known as the "Hollywood Santa Parade." The new event will happen on the evening of Nov. 25 -- the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It will include the traditional mix of floats and bands. Bill Lomas of Pageantry Productions, based in Lynwood, will produce the parade. "

"Trailblazing city plan provides services regardless of residents' immigration status or medical history."
- John M. Glionna: S.F. offering healthcare to neediest -
 
"In a major victory for Uganda's people, rainforests, environment and ecologically sustainable development aspirations; the Ugandan government has finally scrapped controversial plans to allow Mabira rainforest, one of the country's largest and most important protected area, to be partially cleared for sugar production for biofuels. This may sound slightly familiar, as on a previous occasion it was reported the plan was dead but it came back to haunt us. Statements by the government this time are from the Minister of Finance, other numerous sources and are more firm. Mabira rainforest will remain protected, and a precedent has been set that protected rainforests must not be cleared for biofuel production. This is huge!"
"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson -
Bad News

   
"The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise their power from behind the scenes."
- Justice Felix Frankfurter: USA Supreme Court -

"The entire horrific crime was captured on tape, and a (second) autopsy showed 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson died of suffocation after being gang-muscled by guards on his very first day at a Florida boot camp. Despite the medical and video evidence, an all-white jury took only 90 minutes to find the guards innocent of all wrongdoing - a miscarriage of justice so blatant it recalls the worst days of official Jim Crow lawlessness. The guards - who were careful to keep their hats sitting jauntily on their heads throughout the fatal assault on Anderson - enjoyed the impunity that flows from a society in which Black life has no value."
 
    "The Bush administration rejects the idea that the war in Iraq has driven young Arab men into the arms of al-Qaida. But if you believe the young men themselves, the administration is wrong.
    "At a Baghdad jail for prisoners who have attacked U.S. forces, everyone to a man says it was the U.S. occupation of Iraq that drove them to violence. And they are not alone. Across the Middle East and South Asia, the same story can be heard in Internet cafes, mosques, safe houses and prisons."
 
    "Consumers have unknowingly put the plastics recycling industry in the United States on a starvation diet by failing to recycle sufficient quantities of soft drink bottles and other waste. That's the conclusion of a story in the Oct. 15 issue of Chemical & Engineering News.
    "In the article, C&EN senior editor Alexander H. Tullo explores the critical role of consumers in efforts to save energy and raw materials by transforming plastic wastes into new products. Tullo notes that barely 25 percent of the billions of pounds of plastic bottles and containers manufactured annually in the United States enter the recycling stream.
    "While major cities like New York and San Francisco have shown that plastics recycling can be done successfully on a large scale, fueled by recycling educational programs and environmental pride, many municipalities are still falling far short of their desired recycling goals.
    "Financial concerns, technological difficulties, and stiff competition for raw materials by recyclers at home and abroad are among the combined challenges facing the plastics recycling industry, Tullo notes.
    "But the fate of the plastics recycling industry may ultimately rest in the hands of consumers, he writes. Tullo's bottom line is a quote from one recycling expert: 'There is not enough scrap material being collected.'"
 
 "Bo Ward, the proprietor of a barbershop near the Army's Fort Campbell, committed suicide at a town meeting in Clarksville, Tennessee. Ward had requested that his home be rezoned as a commercial property to increase its value and to offset the losses he suffered when most of his regular patrons, among them General David Petraeus, were deployed to Iraq; the City Council refused. 'Y'all have put me under,' said the barber before inserting a pistol into his mouth. 'I'm out of here.'"
- Harper's Weekly -
    "If the Department of Homeland Security and the Army Corps of Engineers have their way, a 'vehicle barrier' made of railroad ties will cut across the river (although it will have to be removed each year before the monsoon floods, which would easily whisk it away). There are plans for permanent vehicle barriers just beyond the riverbed -- steel posts sunk into 3 feet of concrete. And for 'pedestrian fencing' made of double rows of concrete-filled 14- to 17-foot-high bollards. And for the 'Sandia'-style variant, which uses panels of tight steel mesh. There will be a new 'all-weather' road, lighting and electronic surveillance towers.
    "And a price tag of $7 billion. For starters.
    "Faraway Washington has forgotten just how much cowboys can't stand fences. And in this case, there are lots of cowboys: artists, students, activists, even politicians...
    "The San Pedro River, which runs atypically from south to north, will be virtually dammed as far as most people and many animals are concerned. Human migrants will be pushed from the river valley to torturous trails that cross the 9,000-foot-high peaks of the Huachuca Mountains; it is nearly certain the human death toll will begin to rise in the area.
    "This will happen because the Department of Homeland Security says so. The Secure Fence Act of 2006 mandates 700 miles of barriers, easily the most ambitious and controversial infrastructure project in border history. And although the department does indeed have the power to say so - including the authority to waive National Environmental Policy Act rules in the name of national security - resistance to the 'wall' is proving to be a political obstruction Beltway politicos and Homeland Security functionaries hadn't counted on...
    "The Great Wall of America underscores a delusional faith in technology as the only solution to a problem that has nothing to do with technology. Ultimately, such Ozymandian monuments say more about the minds that conceived them than any 'enemies' they actually contain. Think of the grandiose barriers of history - the walls of Troy and China and Berlin; the wall that kept the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. Think of their fate, their ultimate symbolism. Each began with the idea that people - and their ideas - could be restrained by barriers, just like rivers can be dammed. A simple feat of engineering.
    "And yet we believe that our wall will be the exception.
    "Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has done his best to dress up the beast. During one news conference, he condescended to Texans fuming about their soon-to-be-erased view of the Rio Grande by assuring them the fence would be 'aesthetically pleasing.' During another, he appropriated a thin slice of environmental rhetoric: The wall will be 'good for the environment' because migrants would no longer leave a trail of litter.
    "The cowboys who can't stand fences -- the environmentalists and artists, the anarchists and the migrants -- know that the wall will cause more death in the desert and leave a scar upon the land...
    "It will not work, because not even the greatest engineers can make a mad idea sane."
 
    "Today marks five years since the authorization of military force in Iraq, setting Operation Iraqi Freedom in motion. Five years on, the Iraq war is as undermanned and under-resourced as it was from the start. And, five years on, Iraq is in shambles.
    "As Army captains who served in Baghdad and beyond, we've seen the corruption and the sectarian division. We understand what it's like to be stretched too thin. And we know when it's time to get out.
    "What does Iraq look like on the ground? It's certainly far from being a modern, self-sustaining country. Many roads, bridges, schools and hospitals are in deplorable condition. Fewer people have access to drinking water or sewage systems than before the war. And Baghdad is averaging less than eight hours of electricity a day.
    "Iraq's institutional infrastructure, too, is sorely wanting. Even if the Iraqis wanted to work together and accept the national identity foisted upon them in 1920s, the ministries do not have enough trained administrators or technicians to coordinate themselves. At the local level, most communities are still controlled by the same autocratic sheiks that ruled under Saddam. There is no reliable postal system. No effective banking system. No registration system to monitor the population and its needs...
    "Iraqi security forces would not be able to salvage the situation. Even if all the Iraqi military and police were properly trained, equipped and truly committed, their 346,000 personnel would be too few. As it is, Iraqi soldiers quit at will. The police are effectively controlled by militias. And, again, corruption is debilitating. U.S. tax dollars enrich self-serving generals and support the very elements that will battle each other after we're gone.
    "This is Operation Iraqi Freedom and the reality we experienced. This is what we tried to communicate up the chain of command. This is either what did not get passed on to our civilian leadership or what our civilian leaders chose to ignore. While our generals pursue a strategy dependent on peace breaking out, the Iraqis prepare for their war - and our servicemen and women, and their families, continue to suffer."
- 12 Former Army Captains (Jason Blindauer served in Babil and Baghdad in 2003 and 2005. Elizabeth Bostwick served in Salah Ad Din and An Najaf in 2004. Jeffrey Bouldin served in Al Anbar, Baghdad and Ninevah in 2006. Jason Bugajski served in Diyala in 2004. Anton Kemps served in Babil and Baghdad in 2003 and 2005. Kristy Luken McCormick served in Ninevah in 2003. Luis Carlos Montalvn served in Anbar, Baghdad and Nineveh in 2003 and 2005. William Murphy served in Babil and Baghdad in 2003 and 2005. Josh Rizzo served in Baghdad in 2006. William "Jamie" Ruehl served in Nineveh in 2004. Gregg Tharp served in Babil and Baghdad in 2003 and 2005. Gary Williams served in Baghdad in 2003.): The Real Iraq We Knew -
    "Ratcheting up the pressure on Tehran, the United States on Thursday designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a proliferater of weapons of mass destruction and its elite Qods force a supporter of terrorism. In total, Washington slapped sanctions on more than 20 Iranian companies, major banks and individuals, as well as the Defense Ministry, in a bid to pressure Tehran to halt its nuclear program and curb its 'terrorist' activities.
    "The other shoe, when it falls, will sound something like this: At least 26 U.S. troops are reported dead after an assault on their small base near the Iranian border this morning, said Gen. David Petraeus, commander of American forces in Iraq. While details are still sketchy at the moment, Gen. Petraeus said it was 'almost certain' that the attackers were units of Iran's elite Qods force, an arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.President Bush is now consulting his national security team, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. 'When we have all the facts, then the president will decide upon the appropriate response. For now, our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of those killed in this horrible sneak attack.'"
-  - Chris Floyd's Empire Burlesque: People Get Ready: One Shoe Away From War With Iran -
 
    "It is clear that Nancy Pelosi's reign as Speaker has been an absolute disaster for the Democratic party and for the entire nation. Her eagerness to cooperate with the Bush regime is matched only by her incompetence in leading Congress. Under her watch, Congress gave Alberto Gonzales, on his way to riding out of town on a rail, a significant victory by expanding FISA regulations to allow warrantless surveillance of American citizens.
    "The story of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act debacle has been blamed on Bush. It is true that he once again lied about a terror threat, but it is not true that Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats were innocently stampeded. The Democrats had every intention of caving from the very beginning. Pelosi and the rest of the leadership promised the ACLU and other civil liberties groups that they wouldn't pass a bill without first investigating the extent of White House law breaking and without consulting them first. They did no such thing. As an ACLU lobbyist put it, 'They turned around and screwed us over - and the Constitution - all at once.'
    "Disappointment in the Democrats, pleas to 'grow a spine' miss the point entirely. Pelosi and her clique have no interest in Democracy. They go through the flimsiest pretense of opposing Bush when they have no interest in doing so. Her goal is to preserve the status quo, not to overturn it...
    "Pelosi and her leadership clique have never had the slightest intention of seriously opposing George Bush, since they are quite content with a status quo of endless war, half of New Orleans abandoned, true universal health care on perpetual hold, and a growing police state. Every constituency of the Democratic Party has been betrayed, with the complicity of Pelosi and her crowd. And there must be pay-back for back-stabbing...
    "Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of what passes for Congressional leadership have perfected their criminal enterprise. Every act of treachery is followed by lame excuses for inaction. The truly spineless ones, progressives wallowing in denial, foolishly whine, asking each other what is wrong when the answer stares them in the face. The Democratic party is complicit in killing democracy. 


The War on Buddha

    "China lashed out Tuesday at President Bush's White House meeting with the Dalai Lama, arguing that it would seriously damage relations between Washington and Beijing, and called on the U.S. to cancel plans to honor the famous Tibetan figure with a Congressional Gold Medal.
    "'We solemnly demand that the U.S. cancel the extremely wrong arrangements,' Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told reporters hours before the meeting. 'It seriously violates the norm of international relations and seriously wounded the feelings of the Chinese people and interfered with China's internal affairs.' ...
    "The White House dismissed China's concerns, saying the president has had private meetings with many religious leaders, including the pope.
    "'The president believes that people all over the world should be able to express their religion and practice their religion in freedom. And that's why the president wants to meet with him,' White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said. 'He believes he should be honored as a great spiritual leader.' ...
    "'These sorts of criticisms will not help the image of China internationally,' said Tsering Tashi, the Dalai Lama's London-based representative at the Office of Tibet, a group that considers itself the government in exile.
    "Beijing could find itself frustrated by the growing number of Chinese embracing Buddhism and becoming increasingly interested in Tibetan people and culture, he said"
- Mark Magnier: China fumes over Dalai Lama visit -
"Americans cannot look to the plight of the religiously oppressed and close our eyes or turn away, and that is why I will continue to urge the leaders of China to welcome the Dalai Lama to China. They will find this good man to be a man of peace and reconciliation, unlike myself."

    "In a rare statement in its mouth piece the New Light of Myanmar the Burmese military junta on Wednesday admitted to arresting nearly 3,000 protesters and is still continuing to hunt down more of them as a part of its ongoing crackdown on last month's demonstrations.
    "'Out of 2,284 persons who were summoned from Yangon [ Rangoon] till date, 2,094 have been already released on a pledge and there are 190 persons detention,' the statement said.
    "Of 643 persons arrested from different parts of the country 365 have been released after signing a 'pledge'. The newspaper does not elaborate on this.
    "Some of the detainees, who have been released, said they were made to sign a paper stating that they will not participate in any anti-government movement in the future.
    "'Those who led, got involved and supported the unrest which broke out in September were called in and are being interrogated,' the statement said.
    "The junta last month brutally crushed a monk-led protest that posed a direct challenge to its rule and began to arrest monks and civilians in midnight raids and random searches on the streets.
    "The junta said 10 people were killed when troops opened fire on protesters in order to disperse them. But diplomats and dissidents said the number could be far higher.
    "'Some are still being called in for questioning and those who should be released will be released,' added the statement.
    "The junta's statement came amidst increasing international pressure calling on the junta to immediately halt its man hunt and release all political detainees.
    "Gambari, the UN special envoy to Burma, on Monday told reporters that information of more arrests are disturbing and are countering the world body's effort to promote change in the country."
    "The brutal military dictatorship that controls Burma showed the world just how thuggish it is when it recently attacked and imprisoned Buddhist monks who had dared to protest peacefully against the regime. To see the military cracking heads and hauling off so many monks was appalling but what can we do?
    "Well, you can strike a financial blow against the Burmese oppressors by simply not doing something: Don't buy gems that are mined in that country.
    "Burma is rich in precious gems, producing 95 percent of the worlds rubies and 99 percent of the worlds jadeite, known as imperial jade. The military regime there pockets more than a quarter-billion dollars a year from exports of these gems money that helps fund its bloody repression.
    "Wait, you say isn't it against the law to import Burmese products into the U.S.? Sort of. The raw gems cant be brought directly here from Burma, but they can be imported indirectly. China, for example, buys raw Burmese rubies and jade, then cuts and polishes them into jewels, which it turns around and sells to U.S. retailers. So, bloody Burmese bling is being sold by American jewelers, ranging from Wal-Mart to Nieman Marcus.
    "Recently, a watchdog group called U.S. Campaign for Burma launched a national effort to persuade retailers and importers not to buy or sell any jewelry containing Burmese gems. Tiffanys is the first retailer to agree, and the campaign is now calling on consumers, shareholders, churches, students, and the general public to write letters and emails, make calls and visits, and join local protests and other actions to convince the other jewelry retailers to stop being a conduit for blood money to Burma's dictators.
    "To find out what you can do to support 'No Burmese Blood Bling,' call the U.S. Campaign for Burma 202-234-8022."
- Jim Hightower: Burmese Blood Gems -
 
    "I have been banned for over one and half year, nearly two years now. It affects one's livelihood. How can we survive without work? We know nothing about other trades. We can't learn how to fire a gun at this age. The ban brings a lot of trouble to these writers and artistes. As for the people, they have to suffer too; they cannot read the works of these writers and cannot see the films of these artistes.
    "As far as I know, we cannot say the movement has ceased. It is simmering under the ashes temporarily. It's just temporary, it cannot be stopped, and the movement is simmering in the hearts and souls of the people...
    "It has two sides, both positive and negative for the people and the country. I think it is good. My children who are in their early 20s can't believe the atrocities committed in the 88 uprising when I tell them about it. They think we are exaggerating and lying. Now they have seen what happened with their own eyes. Now they realized we are not lying only telling them the truth and facts. I like this situation very much."
- Burmese comedian, actor and director Ko Zargana (Tweezers) who was released from detention on the 17th this month -
    "MAE SOT, Thailand: One of the main organizers of the September protest marches in Myanmar, Ashin Kovida, a 24-year-old Buddhist monk, escaped to Thailand last week by carrying a false identification card, dying his hair blond and wearing a crucifix.
    "On Thursday, Ashin Kovida offered details of his harrowing escape and insights into what has remained a central question about the September protests: Who organized the orderly lines of saffron-robed monks who marched through Yangon - and how.
    "Ashin Kovida crossed the border to Thailand illegally and said Thursday that he was planning to request refugee status. He is wanted by Myanmar's military government, which accuses him of storing explosives in his monastery in Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar.
    "The monk called that accusation absurd.
    "In a six-hour interview in this border town, he painted a picture of a bare-bones organization, a group of 15 monks in their 20s who organized the September demonstrations. He said he had been elected leader of the group and had been inspired by videos of the popular uprisings in Yugoslavia against the government of Slobodan Milosevic."

    "That Japanese journalist who was killed in Burma is a lesson to us all - when you go to a protest, even one that you believe or hope will be peaceful, don't wear flip-flops. Always dress as though you're going to have to run for your life, because you might.
    "The reason there has been so little response in the Western media to events in Burma is because there's no boogie man in Burma. Most articles you read about Burma only refer to the 'Military Junta.' A bunch of nameless faces are hard to get excited about. And 'Than Shwe' has too many soft consonants to sound threatening. Our great Satans have always had names that slap you in the face, with the stress on the first syllable, and the best ones have names that actually include negative words:
  • Hitler (HIT-ler)
  • Stalin
  • Kruschev (to crush)
  • Khaddafi (never was the best bad guy because his name could be pronounced 'ka-Daffy')
  • Saddam (both 'sad' and 'damn', and notice Bush the Smarter switched the stress to the first syllable whenever he said Saddam)
  • Khomeni
  • Hirohito (again with the hitting)
  • Osama bin Laden
    "Compared to these, Than Shwe sounds like someone with a lisp getting an erection."
- Jeff Crook -

The Human Rights Action Center
www.humanrightsactioncenter.org

U.S. Campaign for Burma
www.uscampaignforburma.org
 
Jim Carrey calls for people to support the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi.
 
Update

"Dalai Lama Renaissance" Documentary (with Harrison Ford)
 
Let's hope Bush's visit with the Dalai Lama worked out better than Steven Seagal's
 
The Censoring of Bishops and Whistle Blowers
Bishop Desmond Tutu & Mordechai Vanunu
 
    "Bishop Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his courageous and fearless opposition against the South African apartheid system. This year, Bishop Tutu nominated Mordechai Vanunu, the whistle blower of Israel's WMD Program for the Nobel. Last week, the University of St. Thomas' president Father Dennis Dease, after pressure from a few local Jewish leaders, canceled a scheduled presentation by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
    "On April 30, 2007 , in Jerusalem, Vanunu was convicted on 14 [out of 21] counts of violating a court order which denied his right to speak to foreign journalists in 2004 after his release from 18 years in jail for telling the world the truth that Israel was already nuclear in 1986. Vanunu was also convicted for traveling the few miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem when he hoped to attend Christmas Eve mass at the Church of the Nativity, his first Christmas after being released from 18 years in jail [most of it in solitary] on April 21, 2004. His appeal against a six month sentence in jail begins November 13, 2007.
    "Vanunu has spent the last three years under house arrest in Jerusalem forbidden to speak to the likes of me, but in 2006 he informed this civilian journalist, 'This administration tells me I am not allowed to speak to foreigners, the Media, and the world. But I do because that is how I prove my true humanity.
    "'The Dimona is 46 years old; reactors last 25 to 30 years. The Dimona has never been inspected and Israel has never signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty but all the Arab states have... Twenty years ago when I worked there they only produced when the air was blowing towards Jordan ten miles away. No one knows what is happening now.
    "'The Israelis have 200 atomic weapons and they accuse the Palestinians and Muslims of terrorism. The world needs to wake up and see the real terrorism is the occupation and the Palestinians have lived under that terror regime for 40 years.
    "'It's very sad that Hilary Clinton went to the Jewish Wailing Wall and forgot the real crying wall is the Palestinian wall...the apartheid wall... the wall is not for defense, but to keep this conflict permanent.
    "'My human rights have been denied me because I am a Christian. When I was on trial I was treated just like a Palestinian; no human rights at all and cruel and unusual punishment, all because I told the truth. The only real way to worship is in loving one's enemies. It was not easy to love my tormentors, it was only because I felt so much like Jesus crucified on the cross, and me crucified in prison, that I could do it. It was not ever easy. I have forgiven but not forgotten anything and I never will. In Israel, a life sentence is 25 years. Even murderers go free after 17. They imposed the same restrictions on me that Palestinians receive; no human rights at all.
    "'The only way to peace is peace; the only way is non-violence. The only answer to Israeli nuclear weapons, their aggression, occupation and oppression, the wall and refugee camps is to answer them with truth and a peace-full voice. When I became the spy for the world I did it all for the people of the world.
    "'If governments do not report the truth, if media does not report the truth, all we can do is follow our conscience. Daniel Ellsberg did, the woman from Enron did, and I did. The USA needs to wake up and see the truth that Israel is not a democracy unless you are a Jew.
    "'Israel is the only country in the Middle East where America can right now find WMD's. America can also find where basic human rights have been denied Christians, right here in Israel."
    "'When I decided to expose Israel's nuclear weapons I acted out of conscience and to warn the world to prevent a nuclear holocaust. The Israeli media demonized me. They published many lies about me and Israel kept me totally isolated in prison for most of the 18 years. I am also regarded as a traitor because I was baptized a Christian. Israel is only a democracy if you are a Jew.'"
    "For the last three years, Mordechai Vanunu's speech and movement have been restricted under the British Mandate Emergency Regulations -a relic from the British Mandate period in Palestine - before the state of Israel was founded and replaced British rule. Nothing like it exists in any democracy in the world. When Vanunu was convicted, he joked, 'Perhaps I should turn to the Queen or Tony Blair