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PRESIDENT BUSH: Alright! Alright! Alright! Karl Rove. You are the man. Arnold
Baby in California. You are a GENIUS! I haven't had so much fun since I went
AWOL from the Guard. And BELIEVE me, that was a lot of fun.
VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: Karl, you know what a great kidder I am. But I could
never have dreamed up this one. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Governor of California.
SECRETARY RUMSFELD: Old Arnold. He's a one-man weapon of mass destruction. He
reminds me of Saddam before he got fancy and went with the Euro. God, I miss
that guy.
KARL ROVE: Thank you, gentlemen. It was nothing, really. I realized long ago
there was just one guy to get Gray Davis out of there. We couldn't run Arnold
in the general election. That would mean debates and a long campaign and a lot
of media scrutiny. To elect a specimen like Arnold, who is basically a circus
strong man, you need, well, a circus.
Gov. Goodhair Perry says the AWOL senators are holding up "issues of great importance to the people of Texas." That's funny. There has been one and only one item of business on the agenda for both special sessions called by the guv (at a cost of $1.7 million each): the crass rejiggering of congressional distric lines in order to elect more Republicans out of Texas. Using taxpayer money for partisan political purposes, period.
Really Bad Idea of the Week: Attorney General John Ashcroft is now investigating judges. He is requiring prosecutors to report cases where the judge hands down sentences that are less than the federal guidelines suggest. This is part of a concerted effort by both Congress and the Justice Department (part of the executive branch) to pressure judges to follow rigid sentencing guidelines. When last consulted, the Constitution still said there are three co-equal branches of government -- the executive is not assigned to intimidate the judiciary.
The masses need appeased
Appeals and pleas have all run out
The family's running out of sweet money
Money greases the wheels of justice
That's how so many guilty rich slip away
But if you're innocent or poor
There's a higher price you'll have to pay
As the people line up outside the prison
As they wait for the lights to go dim
They say
We got have some closure
Gotta get it anyway we can
Got to find some closure
Got to go kill another man
Life in prison is not good enough
Now we need to see them die
It's been this way since time began
Another eye now for an eye
It doesn't matter that they may be innocent
As long as they are strapped to the bed
As long as they have a vein to shoot up
As long as they end up dead
The death supporters are screaming at the protesters
The facts of the case get lost in the fray
They yell
We got to find some closure
Gotta get it anyway we can
We got to find some closure
Got to go and kill another man
Fighting for all the pay-per-view rights
It's what the people want and need
Our MCC (God's Promise of Granville, OH) is sponsoring two workshops. The first is with presenter and writer Donna Brooks on being single and staying sane . There will be an opportunity to meet all the other singles who come to this! We also will have a "singles' dating service," for the day at our booth! The other workshop is for people already in relationships. Believe it or not, we will learn about the support for, and healing of, our relationships, found in the Bible, both Hebrew and Christian scriptures.
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
BuzzFlash is a little bit tired of the press hedging about whether or not the White House is behind the recall effort and Arnie "The Groper's" candidacy for governor of California. According to Molly Ivins, when BuzzFlash interviewed her, one of Karl Rove's few strategic mistakes against the Democrats was backing former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan in the Republican primary. But, the right wing Republicans in California revolted and supported William Simon.
So the way BuzzFlash sees it is that Rove was planning the recall initiative probably within days after Davis beat Simon last November. They got a multi-millionaire California Grand Hypocrisy Party (GHP) Congressman (are there any other kind?) to pay petition gatherers for a recall less than a few months after the actual election!
As you may know, I was in court yesterday for the start of my anti-war trial. I face a year in jail for participating in an anti-war protest in Cleveland on March 28, 2003. I wanted to give you an update on what happened. For background info, get the current "Free Times" and read my Statement on page 9.
A spirited march and rally took place outside the Justice Center before we went into the court. There was a lot of interest among passersby, with people eagerly taking fliers. Stationed nearby was the crew of plainclothes cops that have been following peace activists for months. I was interviewed by channel 19/43 and WCPN.
As people entered the courtroom, the bailiff immediately announced that no one wearing shorts would be allowed in! Huh? This was just the beginning of an atmosphere of arbitrariness and hostility from the City that would mark this day. It's a good thing for the plainclothes cops that followed us into the courtroom that they weren't wearing shorts.
Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California. Well, sure, I can handle that one. Manna from heaven for political humorists of all stripes. I'm afraid the joke will begin to wear thin, however. I know we all like to make fun of California as the epicenter of nuttiness, but in fact that big, beautiful state is in terrible trouble. A $36 billion deficit is not amusing. Teachers are being fired, programs to help the most helpless -- the oldest, the youngest, the most frail -- are being cut.
How proud I am to stand at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem USA!
Thank you Reverend Butts, Bob, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Sonia Sanchez, Ralph Carter, Hakim, the Coalition of Artists and Activists, and all who worked hard to put this rally together. And thank you for inviting me.
How appropriate that we gather here at this Church, with all its rich history of proud resistance and indignant defiance of a social order that relegated the giants of their day to second class citizenship.
And what an honor for me, to stand among the giants of our day, if only for a moment, and see America's landscape from their gaze.
What this rally means, is that America's vista has now become as ravaged in its pristine hillside villas as it has always been for those of us who muddle behind the cities' shadows.
Our people are dying.
On the streets of America our people are dying.