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Columbus Free Press Editor Bob Fitrakis spoke at the WBAI-sponsored alternative 9-11 forum in New York City to commemorate the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Fitrakis joined Cynthia McKinney, Greg Palast, Mike Ferner, Danny Schecter and William Rivers Pitt among others at the Riverside Church. Fitrakis’ presentation, “The War on Drugs, Prelude to the War On Terror,” a topic he originally published in the Free Press Hemp Journal. His thesis is that the only reason George W. Bush is President, usurping democracy and plunging the world into war, is because of our country’s racist and authoritarian drug war which disenfranchised 31% of all black male voters in the 2000 Florida election. Look for the papers presented at the conference to be published soon by Apex Press. Parts of the forum were broadcast on WBAI and the sessions can be accessed at the WBAI website.

The climax of the big demonstrations against President Bush on his recent London jaunt was the toppling of a papier-mache statue of the commander in chief -- a reprise on the carefully staged pulling down of Saddam's statue in Baghdad earlier this year. If those London jokesters had tried this in Miami during the recent protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit, it's a pretty safe bet they would have been gassed, tasered with electric stun guns, battered with rubber bullets, arrested and charged with felony counts costing them thousands until a judge threw the charges out.

Hello,
I am in the process of listening to the subject (audio) book by Michael Moore.  I believe that this book deserves some recommendation on your site, as it reflects many of the beliefs that are already shared on your site.  I obtained it from Audible.com.  I hope this book makes the BestSeller list like Stupid White Men did.  It's time that the average American wakes up and smells the coffee, and "Dude, Where's My Country"  (hopefully) goes all long way to do exactly that.

Problem: Raw sewage is a serious health threat, yet the City of Columbus has allowed illegal sewage spills for years.  Instead of fixing the problem, the City has spent our money on risky sewer expansions.  As a result, there have been over 10,000 reported cases of sewer back-ups in Columbus basements over the past five years, exposing our neighbors to diseases like E. coli and Hepatitis C.

Now the City Council is considering a historic sewer rate increase, but hasn't created a long-term plan to make sure we fix our sewer problems.

Solution: The City of Columbus must work with the Sierra Club and other concerned citizens to develop an effective and enforceable sewer investment plan. It 's time for Mayor Coleman and City Council to stop sewage overflows - for our families, for our future.

Action Needed: Please contact Mayor Coleman and the Columbus City Council today and ask them to join with Columbus residents to create a sewer plan that works.

Deadline for responding: Please take action by 30 December 2003.

To send a message, please click the link below:

Hello!

I can't help but to notice that you have a picture of Bush & Hitler on your front page of your website.

I am definitely not a proponent of George Bush, or the republican platform, however I believe you are mis- guiding your supporters.

Thru research you will find that George Bush is actually an executive tool used by special interest. Ergo, Bush will say & do whatever he is told to.  I believe you would agree.

Therefore understanding the above truth, then you have to represent Bush as a reflection of the special interests.

If you honestly believe Bush is babbling words of the Nazi leader then you are misguided.  This executive is strongly guided by Isreali special interests such as Jensa, and other Zionist factions.

Strong arming in the shadows is Isreals methods of gaining every ounce of government power, ours that is.

I would say that Bush is a tool of Isreal, which is a secular community somewhat like that of the Nazi purists.

Keep up the truth!!

regards,
RL Kirshner

Reuters is one of the more independent wire services. So, a recent news story from Reuters -- flatly describing American military activities in Iraq as part of “the broader U.S. war on terrorism” -- is a barometer of how powerfully the pressure systems of rhetoric from top U.S. officials have swayed mainstream news coverage.

     Such reporting, with the matter-of-fact message that the Pentagon is fighting a “war on terrorism” in Iraq, amounts to a big journalistic gift for the Bush administration, which is determined to spin its way past the obvious downsides of the occupation.

     Here are the concluding words from Bush’s point man in Iraq, Paul Bremer, during a Nov. 17 interview on NPR’s “Morning Edition” program: “The president was absolutely firm both in private and in public that he is not going to let any other issues distract us from achieving our goals here in Iraq, that we will stay here until the job is done and that the force levels will be determined by the conditions on the ground and the war on terrorism.”

Washington, DC, November 20--The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) applauds the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) for reaching a constructive settlement with United Airlines.  According to the DOT, United Airlines acted in a manner inconsistent with federal laws that prohibit discrimination. The DOT order further requires United Airlines to provide annual civil rights training to its employees for three years at a cost of at least $1.5 million.

Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, ADC filed and assisted others in filing numerous complaints with the DOT against airlines for allegedly removing passengers based on their perceived ethnicity and/or religion. Then in June 2002, ADC joined the American-Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in filing lawsuits against American Airlines, United Airlines, and Continental Airlines alleging that the airlines engaged in the unlawful removals of Arab, Arab-American, Muslim, or South Asian passengers based on their perceived religion, ethnicity, or national origin.

Can the Brits feel the love yet? Exporting democracy, it turns out, means more than just showing unfortunate non-westerners the joys of having someone else write a decent constitution for them. We have now advanced to the point where we can tell even the land of the Magna Carta just where they went wrong. Apparently, they are so inept at running their own country that George Bush and his coterie of war criminals need to tell them just how to tailor democracy to American tastes.

The exported version, of course, is frighteningly like the domestic one. Free speech, first of all, is overrated, and is easily abused by misfits, peaceniks, trade unionists and other pesky troublemakers. Might we suggest a few important, um, improvements to make the whole thing run a little more smoothly? Really just a nip here and a tuck there. There you go-a Rolling Exclusion Zone would be nice. That way no one can ever get anywhere near a visiting head of state, even if he dragged your country into war and your people are plenty pissed off about it.

Thanks to millions of real American patriots (peace, freedom, and environmental activists from every walk of life) the truth about the ugly goals of the murderous Bush regime are being widely recognized.

In the face of the raucous and near-constant barrage of Republican neo-con lies and deceptions, as broadcast to us by the handful of fanatical right-wing billionaires that control our mass media, learning the truth about Bush is perhaps the greatest demonstration that our evolving democracy is still functioning.