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Sally Slate's Reprehensible Sources

By Sally Slate <mssally@onlinejournal.com>
December 18, 2001
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/2001/sallyslatereprehensiblesources27dec01.shtml
(Forward courtesy of  Center for an Informed America <dave@davesweb.cnchost.com >)

'Tis the season to be jolly. You have just six days left to make gone with whatever money you have or can borrow, or face a visit from the  Shopping Police. So spend, spend, spend. It's the "patriotic" thing to  do and you surely wouldn't want to be labeled "unpatriotic,"  "un-American" or worse.

Let us not forget just how generous George W. Bush has been to his corporate supporters. He has given them all the Clinton administration's  surpluses in the form of tax reductions and outright gifts. Why he has  even turned a blind eye to their nefarious deeds. Now he expects you to  do your part. It matter not whether you still have a job or may lose it  tomorrow. Open you wallets, gentle readers, and plunk down those  greenies or credit cards to help empty the store shelves. It's the  "patriotic" thing to do. Charity begins at corporate headquarters.

Scandals and Outrages

As you know, gentle readers, I began this column to have some fun by dishing the dirt on the hypocritical right-wingers who—righteously,  yet—dared point fingers at others. But sexual peccadilloes now pale in  comparison to the outrageous screwing of the American people.

Scandalous is too weak a word for what we have suffered this past year. Ms. Sally even finds outrageous not a strong enough word. We have been raped, pillaged and burned by the regime installed in the White House by the Felonious Five on the Supreme Court, and there is more to come unless our fellow Americans snap out of their somnolence and take control.

The horrors have been coming in torrents. From emptying the treasury and bankrupting the country to an undeclared war that is no war, except a war on the American and all other peoples of the world.

Ms. Sally finds it difficult to make cute quips about these things. If a brilliant mind like Mel Brooks made a film about what the Bush regime is up to, it would be outrageously hilarious, but it would be fiction and undoubtedly would have a happy ending. But what we now find ourselves living through is not fiction.

Twenty-first Century Witch Hunts

They are making lists, gentle readers. And they aren't lists about who is naughty or nice.

Who are "they?" They are The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a right wing academic group founded by Lynne Cheney, the wife of Dick Cheney, upon whom the Felonious Five bestowed the title vice president, and the right wing Media Research Center, founded and headed by Brent Bozell, the man who coined the phrase "liberal media."

Ms. Cheney's group is going after "unpatriotic" academics, while Mr. Bozell's group is focusing on those dastardly "treasonous" members of the media. In other words, dissenters or anyone who raises questions about what the Bush regime is doing.

Professors, reporters and editors who dared to speak up—even in the mildest ways—have lost their jobs. Many ordinary citizens have felt the sting of the Bush regime's "war" on terrorism. When they haven't been barred from boarding a plane because of their politics or the reading material they were carrying, they have been paid visits by the FBI and Secret Service because of tips they were harboring "un-American materials." And woe be to those who are from the Middle East or the
native born with Middle Eastern names.

America even has its own desaparecidos (disappeareds) now. How many have been spirited away and where they are is a closely guarded Bush regime secret. And don't kid yourselves, gentle readers, the desaparecidos aren't all Middle Easterners suspected of being or knowing terrorists. A Thai who was swept up in the net when asked by an immigration judge why he had been taken into custody, replied, "I worked next to a fellow named Muhammed."

Ms. Sally wonders how long it will be before this era's Joseph McCarthy steps in front of a television camera, holds up a sheaf of papers and says, "I have here in my hand a list of [fill in the number] known to [fill in the government agency] as members of [fill in the group of dissenters]."

This time, though, there is no Edward R. Murrow to come to our rescue. Dan Rather has already made it known that he will do anything Mr. Bush asks of him. Tom Brokaw is not about to go against his master, General Electric. Peter Jennings is aware that Disney does not like controversy and if he opened his mouth, he is likely to be deported to Canada or join the desaparecidos. So much for Mr. Bozell's "liberal media."

Congress, which has become irrelevant in the Bush regime's scheme of  things, isn't going to come to our rescue, either. My, what a little anthrax will do, especially when it is sent to the so-called Democratic leadership.

This time, gentle readers, we are going to have to save ourselves. And the only way we can hope to do that is by educating our torpid fellow Americans.

Religious Freedom for Some

Attorney General John Ashcroft, who would cram his Crisco brand of religion down every American's throat and who has yet to declare Clayton Lee Waagner, who vowed to kill abortion clinic doctors and workers and who admitted sending anthrax scare letters to Planned Parenthood clinics, a terrorist, has hailed Germany's new law that bans religious groups allegedly used as fronts for extremists.

 "We commend Germany for its actions to provide greater opportunity to detect and disrupt terrorism through a better framework of laws in Germany," Ashcroft said, following a meeting last week with German Interior Minister Otto Schily.

Now which religious organizations might Mr. Ashcroft seek to ban here, gentle readers? Islamic? Jewish? Wiccan? Any Christian group that isn't into Crisco and homophobia? You can bet that atheists, even though atheism isn't a religion—despite the contentions of the religious right—are high on his list.

As an aside, Ms. Sally thinks this is worth noting: Conservative Christian leaders were upset over the interfaith services held to mourn those who died in the September 11 attacks.

The Rev. David Oberdieck, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Lebanon, Missouri, even went to far as to file charges with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod against a fellow pastor who joined non-Christian clergy in the September 23 Yankee Stadium service.

The good Rev. Oberdieck told the Associated Press, "I wouldn't have brought charges if Jesus Christ was confessed in such a way that he stood out from the smorgasbord of gods."

If you think that was bad, gentle readers, the Rev. Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals was quoted by the AP as saying, "We embrace tolerance in the right sense, which is religious freedom for all, without bigotry, while rejecting a misguided, misunderstood tolerance which sees all religious beliefs as equally valid."

Does that mean some religious beliefs are more valid than others? Orwell would have loved that one. And for those that are "less valid," is it the stake, the firing squad or the hangman? How many more times will we go down this "my god is better (more valid, more everything) than your god" road?

You better put Crisco on your holiday shopping list. It makes an awkward stocking stuffer, but it's better than the alternative. Oh, and be sure you have an adequate supply for yourself.

Lies, Damn Lies and Bush Lies

The list of George W's whoppers is too long to list here, but the mother of them all came in his recent appearance in Florida, where in response to a question from an 8-year-old about the September 11 attacks, he responded, ""I saw an airplane hit the tower—the TV was obviously on—and I used to fly myself, and I said, 'There's one terrible pilot.' And I said, 'It must have been a horrible accident.'"

He saw what? There were no television cameras trained on the World Trade Center that fateful morning. It was an amateur photographer who supplied the networks with his footage of the first tower being hit and that was long after the second plane flew into the second tower. When the first plane struck, Mr. Bush was reading to a group of school children. He continued with his reading even after Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispered in his ear and he reacted with what the media called "a somber" look. Then it was off to flying around the country and finally settling into an underground bunker in Wyoming before he finally
returned to Washington.

But the whopper gets better. Last week, the Washington Post with a straight face reported on a rare public appearance by Mr. Bush's Machiavellian Political Adviser Karl Rove—a safe public appearance before the right wing American Enterprise Institute. The Post likened Mr. Rove's speech before the group to "Garbo speaks."

Said the Post, "Rove told his audience about Bush's sense of command on Sept. 11, after Rove received word that the first tower of the World Trade Center had been struck." It quoted Rove as saying, "The president came walking in the room, took one look at the television set and said, 'We're at war. Get me the vice president. Get me the director of the FBI.'"

What Michael Moore Wants Kept Quiet

Yes, gentle readers, you read that correctly. Michael Moore wants kept under wraps the egregious decision by his publisher, HarperCollins, to destroy all the printed copies of his latest book, "Stupid White Men and Other Excuses for the State of the Nation," because the content is "offensive."

Ms. Sally stumbled across word of this latest act of censorship on the part of a publisher (remember when St. Martin's allegedly destroyed some 90,000 copies of J.H. Hatfield's "Fortunate Son?") on the Library Juice web site.

Mr. Moore, the keynote speaker at New Jersey Citizen Action, told the gathering that his publisher said that he was being "'intellectually dishonest' not to state that GW Bush has done a good job in the last few months," according to the Englewood librarian who attended the forum and let the cat out of the bag.

"When asked by the audience what he would like them to do about this censorship, Moore said to do nothing right now—that not only are his lawyers and other powers he has to bring to bear are doing their thing, but that he feels that there are more important things for people to be protesting and working on in this new period that getting his book out of limbo," she reported.

Ms. Sally is equally outraged by Mr. Moore's response. This is not only about his book, but the books and articles of every other author and journalist. This is about free speech and freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment. This is about a once reputable publishing house that is now owned by Rupert Murdoch's empire, News Corporation. This is about concentrations of power and the ability to control the message by controlling the messenger.

From the Mailbag:

M. Torell wrote: "By the by, do you totally believe the bin Laden tape? No, I am not one of the black helicopters crowd, but our government is not much inhibited by facts and has been known to promote views that are not the truth."

There are many theories about the latest bin Laden video. Even one that suggests it was a CIA sting operation and that the unnamed sheik was a CIA operative. While, if the video is genuine, Mr. bin Laden may have been complicit in the September 11 attacks, the simple "I am responsible for them" is lacking. So, Ms. Sally will hold judgment for now. However, as BuzzFlash out, was it a coincidence that the video was released on the same day that Mr. Bush announced he was unilaterally pulling out of the ABM treaty and flexed his executive privilege muscle? The latter got little play on the nightly news, which was consumed by the bin Laden video. One thing we can bank on is that the administration doesn't want Mr. bin Laden taken alive. If he were to be imprisoned or condemned to death by a secret military tribunal, he would become a martyr to his followers. If he were given a civilian trial in an open court, what he might say could bring down the Bush regime. So whether it is by his own hand or Washington's, Mr. bin Laden, if he is found, will be toast.

Concerned Citizen and Democracy Activist Sara S.D. had this to say: "Has much of the media adopted the position that Bush must be praised or it does not get into print? Numerous print journalists begin or end columns with references to Bush as a "successful wartime president." This one-voice media seems attuned to the prevailing administration view that one can only speak praise-of-bush or be labeled traitor.

 "What is the fate of the voice of dissent in the United States? According to John Ashcroft's statements in his recent Senate hearings, those who hold opposing points of view about the current administration's attacks on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are guilty of treason. I remind all who choose to listen that Fascism is defined as, "A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism." Does the current administration, with it's long arm of the 'Justice' Department, meet these criteria? Lets review the evidence. First, there was the bloodless coup d'etat by the U.S. Supreme Court that selected Bush as the 43rd president. Then there was Bush's poorly constructed executive order for secret tribunals that does not limit this mode of action to terrorists; with the current wording anyone or any group could be targeted, tried
and executed without legal recourse. Again, by executive order, with no input from Congress, the Bill of Rights was shredded, first for one group, but how long will it be before other groups are targeted?"

Holly B. wrote: "My observation of what is happening today is that 'dissent' is more and more becoming 'terrorism' in the eyes and minds of the administration and the FBI, CIA, military, Home Security minions. And you know the more a person goes down this path, the more 'terrorism' is found and the broader the search for dissent-terrorism must become, the more repressive the response to dissent/terrorists becomes and, eventually, the more brutal the treatment of those who dissent and,
thus, terrorize the state."

>From Florence in Arizona: It seemed like forever since your last article appeared and I wrote to the 'masters' crying out like a voice in the wilderness. I feared you had been dragged off by the men in black suits and dark glasses for writing things un-American or, God forbid, taken to a 'secure and undisclosed location' possibly there to engage in debate and fisticuffs with Big Dick himself!  "Think then, how relieved I was to see you re-appear with your usual delightful humor and terrifying insights into our new reality. Our country has fallen into dark despair, not only because of the horror of 9/11 but because of what is happening now as the people in charge use that dreadful event to cheat the American citizenry. Our civil rights are not just being trampled on, they are being completely dismantled, redesigned and redefined and any 'patriotic' citizen who is willing to accept such actions should be put on notice that once such rights diminish they remain diminished!"

They haven't taken me away yet, Florence. But I am afraid that my humor has grown short, unless you are into the gallows variety.

Stephen J. Metts wrote: "Keep up the fight. The powers of the Right Wing may seem relentless, but it's people like you and me who will bring this political machine down. Keep hope alive."

Larry said, "I am just an unimportant citizen from Vancouver, WA, who is very pleased to read something that doesn't praise Bush, the Supreme Court and John Ashcroft. I hardly read anything anymore or watch television news. Every time I do, there is Bush's face, or some other Reprehensible Republican . . . And of course, Rush Limbaugh is running out of material now that President Clinton is retired. I enjoy all the writing that appears in the Online Journal. Outside of the Moscow Times, it is my only source of news I can believe."

Oh dear, Larry, that Moscow Times remark surely will get you on a right wing "list." Imagine, reading that godless, commie rag. By the way, Ms. Sally reads it, too, along with Pravda and anything else I can glean a shred of truth from.

And, last but not least, from Richard, a retired trucker: "Sally I just read your Where's the Beef? article and it sure is refreshing to see some thing in print telling it like it is. I am so damn mad at what that s.o.b. and his handlers have done to us that I can't watch the media at all any more and I just canceled my newspaper too. I told them I am sick of paying them to read just republiCONS propaganda. I am up in the Iron range part of Minnesota and wish I were younger so I could get out and protest more. I won't be happy until I see them crooks, all of them behind bars."

Find your joy this holiday season in your families, friends and the wonders nature provides. Oh, don't forget to spend; your freedom may depend on it. And if you can spare a few dollars for the care and feeding of Online Journal, I know our dear editor would be very grateful. Happy holidays!

Until next time . . .
 
Sally Slate welcomes mail from her readers, especially mail containing  factual items and tidbits from sources who can't go public. You may email her at mssally@onlinejournal.com.


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