Letters to the Editor/<br>  Free Press Forum

A few days ago the Clean Money Elections bill, AB 583, died a quiet, lonely death in a California State Senate committee. This bill would have given candidates for public office a choice in financing their campaigns: Do what they do now, which is solicit and accept large donations from wealthy individuals and corporations or, they could collect only small, individual donations and receive public financing. More importantly, this bill would have given us voters a choice too. We would have been able to vote for a Clean Money representative able to vote his own conscious or for the usual, Pay to Play politician.

Dear Friends and Family,

I need your help to protect my “family,” the collective efforts of tens of thousands of citizens known as the "Rainbow Family." This week, near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, the U.S. Forest Service has taken illegal action to stop this annual assembly for expression and prayer, in gross violation of the participants’ essential Constitutional rights.

The 'Rainbow' Gatherings have borne a legacy of spiritual & cultural pilgrimage to the National Forests since 1972, the purest exercise of open consensual assembly in our time. The annual 'Gathering of the Tribes' draws thousands over the first week of July, focusing on the 4th as a holy day of prayer for peace and freedom. In recent years small regional events in this mode have emerged, and such gatherings have taken place in many nations around the world.

THE GATHERING EXPERIENCE --

Sirs:

Thank you for your diligence.  I mused the other day with a friend that this is the 1st father/son Presidency since??? ... "The Adams Family". 

Although H.W. advocated a "kinder and gentler" approach, his eldest son has taken the opposite tact - "meaner and tougher" ... how did "kinder and gentler" turn into "shock and awe"?  Well, in view of the declared Jihad, I have come to the conclusion that Mr. Bush II (*with whom I served in the service) is a "necessary evil".

Kind regards,
  Jim Waters

To Editor:

In the next few weeks Representative Deborah Pryce is expected to vote on a bill (HR 3997).

This bill is being pushed by the big credit bureaus and their lobbyists.

Despite the rampant problem with identity theft, Congress and the big Credit Bureaus are teaming up to pass this legislation that would revoke consumer protection rights.

This bill will overturn dozens of state laws that offer consumers crucial protections against identity theft and financial fraud.

9 million people are the victims of identity theft each year.

1 in 10 Americans are victims of identity theft in their lifetime.

An identity is stolen every 4 seconds in the U.S.

In the last 12 months over 50 million consumer data records were lost.

The average cost to restore a stolen identity $8000.

Representative Deborah Pryce needs to do the right thing for Ohio and vote against this bill.

Sincerely,
Miles Sanger
Grove City, OH

Not to extend Ann Coulter's fame past the news cycle on her latest indescretion but I have to say Bill O'Reilly got it right when noting that people like her make for bad PR for the "convervatives." It makes me wonder what they are conserving? Ann Coulter gives Connecticut Yankee such a bad connotation I want to take the name off the candle.

The Ann Coulter book "Godless" tells that pretty much anyone in America can get a book deal if they look hot enough regardless of whether they are completely ignorant over matters over which they profess expertise and live close enough to New York.  I should think of moving for just that reason.  Publishers want revenue plain and simple, so if Anna Nicole Smith wanted to opine on Supreme Court precedents she too could get a book deal. That is because the crowd who judges books by their covers forget that every shade of blonde comes in bottles and contact lenses come in three shades of hazel.  Men flock to book signings just to give her their card in hopes she calls. That doesn't mean you or I should have to listen to her or care what she thinks in between the polluted air in her head.

Revolutionary Greetings!

On Sunday, May 21st, ‘Joe’ a WWII veteran was standing at a regular vigil at 15th and High Street on the Ohio State University Campus in Columbus, Ohio. Joe also attends a Saturday vigil that I attend. Joe’s sign says,”Jail Bush.” Joe told me he was walking up the sidewalk arguing about the war in Iraq with an ROTC student in uniform.Hewas attacked from behind by a male in civilian clothes who is thought to be a friend of one of the ROTC Gestapo and is reported to be an OSU Pre-Med student. A witness to this cowardly act told me that the male ran up behind Joe and jumped into the air to hit Joe around the shoulders which knocked him to the ground. The attacker continued to run but was arrested. Although Joe sustained both a injuredwrist and rib in the assault, he was at the Saturday vigil the following week.

these guys, Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman, are tireless. month in and month out, they lay it on the line. in the 16 months since the 2nd stolen prez election, NOONE has risen to the occasion like these guys in giving me concrete numbers, facts and reports to butress my arguments to the nonbelievers about our hijacked democracy. they should have swept all the 'journalist awards' of the last 2 years.

thanks for the new ammo, guys, you are true heroes of investigative journalism.

Carol Fisher was found guilty today of two counts of felonious assault of two 200 + pound Cleveland Heights policemen (who, collectively, can bench 700#’s) and whose testimony contained serious contradictions.  None of the other witnesses provided by the prosecution actually saw “the assault.”  Their claims had more to do with Carol’s perceived lack respect for authority.  The jury deliberated for more than 8 hours over two days before announcing the verdict. 

Former prosecutor Judge McGinty, who was supposedly “randomly” assigned to Carol’s case, is known to be “police-friendly,” a fact that was painfully obvious to observers.  McGinty ruled out key pieces of evidence as “not relevant” to the case, denying the jury the opportunity (obligation?) of hearing them.  The fact that virtually everyone in Cleveland Heights can relate “horror stories” about the Cleveland Heights police was not to be known by the jury of individuals born and raised in Northeast Ohio, but not in Cleveland Heights.   As the court transcript will show, McGinty showed clear bias toward the prosecution.

To The Editor:

Brian's great piece on Michigan's sell out to Corporate financial power and political privilege was much needed and appreciated. Perhaps our fair-lady-- faint-hearted governor does not realize what she did. I will never vote again for her, and she knows this.

My best to THE FREE PRESS. May you long continue the good fight and endure the subversive corporate pressures of the dark side of our corrupted Capitalism.