Monthly Archives: March 2004

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Support the Troops, Impeach Bush!

Military Families Speak Out

Military Families Speak Out is an organization of people who are opposed to war in Iraq and who have relatives or loved ones in the military. We were formed in November of 2002 and have contacts with military families throughout the United States, and in other countries around the world.

As people with family members and loved ones in the military, we have both a special need and a unique role to play in speaking out against war in Iraq. It is our loved ones who are, or have been, or will be on the battlefront. It is our loved ones who are risking injury and death. It is our loved ones who are returning scarred from their experiences. It is our loved ones who will have to live with the injuries and deaths among innocent Iraqi civilians.

If you have family members or loved ones in the military and you are opposed to this war, join us. Send us an e-mail at mfso@mfso.org.

Letters-to-the-Editor

Campus Radicals

It is despicable that someone defaced posters advertising a

speech by the Radical Right’s Ann Coulter, who lauds Joe McCarthy, American Fascist, as a hero. We should all speak out against the

childish vandalizing of these posters. In fact, the Democratic Party should pay Coulter to speak — she scares the hell out of some

conservatives, too.

However, we should all also speak out against lying in order to infiltrate, spy on and denounce your classmates,

as a young Republican did on campus after this incident (and as police everywhere do today, with John Ashcroft’s blessing). This kid

will go far in the Bush administration.

As to the Republican students’ ”study” indicating there are few Republicans on the

faculty, let’s put aside their spying and efforts at intimidation and bullying and ask, if this is true, why? Maybe being a teacher

isn’t the best route to riches, fame or power? Maybe being a teacher requires real compassion, not pretend. Maybe a campus is not the

best place to be if you need everyone to agree with you and ask no questions, or if you’re just ”incurious”. Better the White

House. mjh

[printed in the Daily Lobo 3/12/04]
Read the background stories …
Continue reading Campus Radicals →

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It’s Simply Huge and We Know Who to Blame

THE DEFICIT CRISIS

President Bush’s reckless tax cuts for the wealthy have squandered a historic budget surplus and thrown the country into the largest deficit in history.

Due to fiscal mismanagement, the current $374 billion deficit is expected to rise to more than $520 billion in 2004. As a result, states are losing out on federal aid and are being forced to cut health care and seniors programs and increase college tuition in virtually every state.

Bush 2005 deficit will top $520 billion. In his proposed 2005 budget, Bush revealed the budget deficit will reach an astonishing $521 billion — a full $150 billion higher than last year’s record-setting deficit. (”Deficit Is $521 Billion in Bush Budget,” Washington Post, February 2, 2004)

And, if Republicans have their way and make the tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, our national debt will exceed $10 trillion by 2014. As they stand, the Bush Administration’s tax cuts for the rich are projected to add $2.6 trillion to the government’s debt between 2002 and 2014. If the tax cuts are made permanent, an additional $2.9 trillion will need to be borrowed over the next decade — a total of $5.5 trillion over the next ten years to pay for the tax cuts alone.

[mjh: Thanks, MD]

Most people’s eyes glaze over at such numbers. We all know how speculative such projections are. What we need to remember is the tax cuts were passed with an expiration date — that’s HOW they made into law. Since then, a lot of things have changed for the worse. Now Bush says anyone who doesn’t vote for making them permanent is for tax increases (not simply for fiscal responsibility). He’s using the same argument with the ”Patriot” Act. Bush is a scoundrel. mjh

Mine

Martha, My Dear!

1 Comment

What does the confiction of Martha Stewart have to do with the rise of American

Totalitarianism? As many cheer and jeer, why should we worry about the fate of the ”nation’s homemaker”?

In federal court, if

you speak in your own defense and are subsequently convicted, you are guilty of lying, of perjury. Imagine yourself wrongly accused,

confronted by ambiguous evidence. Wouldn’t you want to speak for yourself? By twisted judicial logic, an innocent person who maintains

his or her innocense MUST have been lying if convicted, because the system is held as infallable. How many of us find it suspicious when

people don’t speak in their own defence. We believe you cannot be compelled to testify against yourself. As it happens, you can

be compelled not to testify for yourself — by the threat of perjury.

Still, this is not what happened to Martha.

Long before any

of us had heard anything about the case, Martha Stewart was suspected by the government of securities fraud. During the investigation,

she was interviewed by the FBI. More than likely, she lied to those agents of the Homeland. That’s bad, right? Maybe, but is it actually

a crime?

Note that the government’s case on the real crime was dismissed. However, on the charges of the heinous crime of lying to a

federal agent, Martha was convicted. Remember, she wasn’t under oath. She had not been charged with a crime. There is no transcript or

other verbatim record of the interview. She did not commit perjury.

Now that she has been convicted, Martha needs to be careful about

maintaining her innocence. She can’t be charged with perjury, but her lack of remorse (for a crime she doesn’t believe she committed)

can be held against her in sentencing.

What are you going to do when a federal agent appears on your doorstep and asks you if you’ve

ever smoked pot, or exceeded the speed limit. Or what you think of the perpetual War on Terrorism? Think twice about lying to the agents

of the Homeland.

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Crushing Dissent in America

John Timoney

BENTLEY KILLMON: They say Homeland Security, it’s homeland suppression. This is not America.

KATHLEEN HUGHES [NOW Correspondent]: At least 234 people were arrested, and before it was over, police had fired over a thousand rounds of rubber bullets and other projectiles. …

Miami’s Chief of Police John Timoney says police face a new reality in confronting dissent as a result America’s War on Terror. … Timoney, is proud of what his force accomplished at the FTAA protests [Free Trade Area of the Americas, November 20, 2003]. …

CHIEF TIMONEY: And so, this was the first big event for Homeland Security which includes a whole host of federal agencies including Coast Guard and Customs and things like that. It really was the first real, realistic, if you will, run-through to see how it would work. And it worked pretty well. …

KATHLEEN HUGHES: Miami Police Chief John Timoney, remains convinced the actions of the anarchists, on balance, justified the police response.

CHIEF TIMONEY: These are not your father’s protesters. They’re pretty smart. They’re well organized. They’re trained. They have a game plan. They have a pre game plan. They have a game plan. They have a post game plan. You’re part of the post game plan.

KATHLEEN HUGHES: In other words you’re saying they’re manipulating–

CHIEF TIMONEY: Oh, of course. Without a doubt. Without a doubt. Without a doubt. Cause I could tell by the questions and the stuff you’re asking that you’re another pawn in the post game show. That’s all.

KATHLEEN HUGHES: So– in other words by questioning what happened–

CHIEF TIMONEY: No. No. You’re allowed to question. But it’s the type of questions– what you’re alleging– you’re alleging things that didn’t happen. But you– you know you– you– you’re doing the bidding. You’re looking for sound bytes. You’ll get all that and that’s fine.

KATHLEEN HUGHES: Timoney charges that a journalist’s questions are part of a plot against the police. …

Remember that 87 billion dollar emergency appropriations bill for the rebuilding of Afghanistan and Iraq? It included eight and a half million dollars for security at the Miami FTAA meeting.

JIM DEFEDE [columnist at the MIAMI HERALD]: We spent you know, in a bill designed to provide billions of dollars to bring democracy and ordering stability to Iraq, we were able to funnel off eight and a half million dollars to do just the opposite in Miami.

The government’s growing crackdown on dissent NOW with Bill Moyers.

You should see and hear Miami Police Chief John Timoney. His is the bland face of American Fascism. Self-righteous and paranoid. mjh

Dump Duhbya

Selling Bush

Relatives condemn Bush 9/11 ads BBC NEWS

The four television advertisements, which began showing on Thursday across the US, marked the beginning of the Bush administration’s campaign for the 2004 presidential elections.

”I’m optimistic about America because I believe in the people of America.”

Among the images shown in two of the advertisements are images of firefighters carrying a body, draped in a US flag, from the rubble at Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center once stood. …

[R]elatives said they felt their loved ones were being used to score political points.

”Families are enraged,” victims’ advocate Bill Doyle, who lost his 25-year-old son in the attacks, told Reuters news agency.

”What I think is distasteful is that the president is trying to use 9/11 as a springboard for his re-election.”

”It’s entirely wrong. He’s had 3,500 deaths on his watch, including Iraq.”