Global
Call for contacting the Governor on February 19!!
Don't let Johnny Byrd be killed in vain! Remind Gov. Taft that we, the people of Ohio, do not believe in the death penalty and we will NOT FORGET that he killed an innocent man. Write, call, email and fax the serial killer, Bob Taft, on February 19, the day he executed John Byrd last year. Give him the message:
"Last year on this day, John Byrd, Jr., an innocent man, was killed in the name of the people of the state of Ohio. As a citizen of Ohio, I do not believe in the death penalty and I did not sanction that execution. I will not forget it and I will never let you forget that on this date you murdered an innocent man."
Also on Feb 19., join anti-death penalty activists at the Riffe Center at noon, State and High Streets where Gov. Taft's office is. Posters of John Byrd will be there to hold. For more information, call 253-2571 or email truth@freepress.org.
Gov. Taft email: Governor.Taft@das.state.oh.us
Governor Bob Taft
30th Floor
77 South High Street
Don't let Johnny Byrd be killed in vain! Remind Gov. Taft that we, the people of Ohio, do not believe in the death penalty and we will NOT FORGET that he killed an innocent man. Write, call, email and fax the serial killer, Bob Taft, on February 19, the day he executed John Byrd last year. Give him the message:
"Last year on this day, John Byrd, Jr., an innocent man, was killed in the name of the people of the state of Ohio. As a citizen of Ohio, I do not believe in the death penalty and I did not sanction that execution. I will not forget it and I will never let you forget that on this date you murdered an innocent man."
Also on Feb 19., join anti-death penalty activists at the Riffe Center at noon, State and High Streets where Gov. Taft's office is. Posters of John Byrd will be there to hold. For more information, call 253-2571 or email truth@freepress.org.
Gov. Taft email: Governor.Taft@das.state.oh.us
Governor Bob Taft
30th Floor
77 South High Street
Jazz owes a lot of its popularity to the
phonograph, going back to the early days, when
Thomas Edison invented the musical box that
brought jazz to people who lived outside of the
areas where jazz musicians played. Through
phonograph records, they could hear the music of
such people as "King" Joe Oliver. He was the
first of the legendary great trumpet players to
come out of New Orleans, the city where most
experts in the field say that jazz originated. Jazz
was played in the whorehouses in that city, and
Louis Armstrong credits Oliver as being one
person from whom he learned his style of playing
trumpet.
The earliest phonographs I remember were the old type; you would wind the machine up in the same manner that one wound a clock or watch, until you could wind no longer. Then you placed the record on the turntable and turned on the switch, and the music would blare out of the megaphones. Most records sounded very tinny, but the volume could be raised or lowered by another switch.
The earliest phonographs I remember were the old type; you would wind the machine up in the same manner that one wound a clock or watch, until you could wind no longer. Then you placed the record on the turntable and turned on the switch, and the music would blare out of the megaphones. Most records sounded very tinny, but the volume could be raised or lowered by another switch.
AUSTIN, Texas -- As our coaches used to say, "OK, people, settle down and listen up." We have been enjoying a lovely little spate of French-bashing here lately. Jonah Goldberg of The National Review, who admits that French-bashing is "shtick" -- as it is to many American comedians -- has popularized the phrase "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" to describe the French. It gets a lot less attractive than that.
George Will saw fit to include in his latest Newsweek column this joke: "How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? No one knows, it's never been tried." That was certainly amusing. One million, four hundred thousand French soldiers were killed during World War I. As a result, there weren't many Frenchmen left to fight in World War II. Nevertheless, 100,000 French soldiers lost their lives trying to stop Hitler.
On behalf of every one of those 100,000 men, I would like to thank Mr. Will for his clever joke. They were out-manned, out-gunned, out-generaled and, above all, out-tanked. They got slaughtered, but they stood and they fought. Ha-ha, how funny. In the few places where they had tanks, they held splendidly.
George Will saw fit to include in his latest Newsweek column this joke: "How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? No one knows, it's never been tried." That was certainly amusing. One million, four hundred thousand French soldiers were killed during World War I. As a result, there weren't many Frenchmen left to fight in World War II. Nevertheless, 100,000 French soldiers lost their lives trying to stop Hitler.
On behalf of every one of those 100,000 men, I would like to thank Mr. Will for his clever joke. They were out-manned, out-gunned, out-generaled and, above all, out-tanked. They got slaughtered, but they stood and they fought. Ha-ha, how funny. In the few places where they had tanks, they held splendidly.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Let's get going, Gentlemen. I don't like what's going on.
VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: Calm down, George. Things are under control.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I don't think so. What's with that damn United Nations? China. France. Germany. Who the hell do they think they are?
KARL ROVE: Don't worry, sir. We've got answers for all of them.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Just nuke 'em, dammit. I want a war. God tells me we have to have a war. And they're standing in the way. The economy's tanking. Gas is going up. And Armageddon is long overdue.
KARL ROVE: Well, I'm not sure Colin's speech really did the trick. Polls here went up, of course. But he kindof laid an egg in the rest of the world.
VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: First things first, Karl. I love how not a single talk show or TV commentator raised the least question about anything Colin said. And, of course, the polls fell right in line, even Oprah's. I was mighty impressed.
VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: Calm down, George. Things are under control.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I don't think so. What's with that damn United Nations? China. France. Germany. Who the hell do they think they are?
KARL ROVE: Don't worry, sir. We've got answers for all of them.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Just nuke 'em, dammit. I want a war. God tells me we have to have a war. And they're standing in the way. The economy's tanking. Gas is going up. And Armageddon is long overdue.
KARL ROVE: Well, I'm not sure Colin's speech really did the trick. Polls here went up, of course. But he kindof laid an egg in the rest of the world.
VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: First things first, Karl. I love how not a single talk show or TV commentator raised the least question about anything Colin said. And, of course, the polls fell right in line, even Oprah's. I was mighty impressed.
The Columbus anti-war demonstrations had an excellent turnout this weekend. Photographs from the February 15th march and rally can be found at cpanews.org/peace/peace.html.
Columbus Rally and March
Columbus County Rally and March
Additionally, the Coshocton County Coalition for Peace and Social Justice held a peace rally and march on Feb.15, 2003. This was the first anti-war demonstration held in Coshocton. Three guest speakers and two coalition speakers addressed the demonstrators, who numbered about 40. The crowd consisted of college students from Muskingum College, local residents young and old, as well as some clergy and other professionals. General speaking topics addressed non-violent opposition to war, the just war theory, misinformation disseminated by the administration to fuel war fever, and the call to activism on peace and social justice issues.
These days, it's a crucial ace up Uncle Sam's sleeve. "Terrorism" is
George W. Bush's magic card.
For 17 months now, the word has worked like a political charm for the Bush administration. Ever since the terrible crime against humanity known as 9/11, the White House has exploited the specter of terrorism to move the GOP's doctrinaire agenda. Boosting the military budget, cutting social programs and shredding civil liberties are well underway.
Like the overwhelming majority of politicians on Capitol Hill, most journalists in Washington are too timid to do anything other than quibble about fine-tuning and get out of the way of rampaging elephants.
The word "terror" has become a linguistic staple in news media. For keeping the fearful pot stirred, it's better than the longer word "terrorism," which refers to an occasional event. The shortened word has an ongoing ring to it. At the end of February's first week, when Attorney General John Ashcroft announced an official hike in the warning code, the cable networks lost no time plastering "Terror Alert: High" signs on TV screens.
For 17 months now, the word has worked like a political charm for the Bush administration. Ever since the terrible crime against humanity known as 9/11, the White House has exploited the specter of terrorism to move the GOP's doctrinaire agenda. Boosting the military budget, cutting social programs and shredding civil liberties are well underway.
Like the overwhelming majority of politicians on Capitol Hill, most journalists in Washington are too timid to do anything other than quibble about fine-tuning and get out of the way of rampaging elephants.
The word "terror" has become a linguistic staple in news media. For keeping the fearful pot stirred, it's better than the longer word "terrorism," which refers to an occasional event. The shortened word has an ongoing ring to it. At the end of February's first week, when Attorney General John Ashcroft announced an official hike in the warning code, the cable networks lost no time plastering "Terror Alert: High" signs on TV screens.
AUSTIN, Texas -- "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." -- Dwight David Eisenhower, April 16, 1953.
The news is not good. Osama bin Laden wants us to invade Iraq. We're at orange on the alert code. The economy is tanking. We're spending $1.08 billion a day on the military.
The president wants a $674 billion tax cut. In the first year, 50 percent of that tax cut would go the richest 1 percent of Americans and three-quarters of it would go to the richest 5 percent. In the years beyond that, the concentration at the top actually gets worse, according to citizens for Tax Justice. To pay for that, he wants to raise the rent on subsidized housing for the poorest people in the country and break up Head Start, sending it down to the states, where governments are frantically cutting everything they can. Money to pay for everything from cleaning up Superfund sites to leaving no child behind is being slashed to pay for this obscene tax cut.
The news is not good. Osama bin Laden wants us to invade Iraq. We're at orange on the alert code. The economy is tanking. We're spending $1.08 billion a day on the military.
The president wants a $674 billion tax cut. In the first year, 50 percent of that tax cut would go the richest 1 percent of Americans and three-quarters of it would go to the richest 5 percent. In the years beyond that, the concentration at the top actually gets worse, according to citizens for Tax Justice. To pay for that, he wants to raise the rent on subsidized housing for the poorest people in the country and break up Head Start, sending it down to the states, where governments are frantically cutting everything they can. Money to pay for everything from cleaning up Superfund sites to leaving no child behind is being slashed to pay for this obscene tax cut.
Events do rush by us in a blur, I know, but let's not abandon Secretary of State Colin Powell's Feb. 5 speech to the United Nations in the graveyard of history without one last backward glance. It was, after all, billed by the president as a conclusive intelligence briefing on exactly how Saddam Hussein has been concealing his weapons of mass destruction and how he's hand-in-glove with Al Qaeda.
Now, when the commander-in-chief states publicly that his secretary of state will deliver the goods, we can be safe in assuming that he's been assured that yes, the U.S. intelligence "community" has indeed got the goods. But barely more than a week after Powell's speech it now looks as though its major claims were at best speculative, and at worst outright distortions, some of them derided in advance by U.N. Chief Inspector Hans Blix.
Now, when the commander-in-chief states publicly that his secretary of state will deliver the goods, we can be safe in assuming that he's been assured that yes, the U.S. intelligence "community" has indeed got the goods. But barely more than a week after Powell's speech it now looks as though its major claims were at best speculative, and at worst outright distortions, some of them derided in advance by U.N. Chief Inspector Hans Blix.
AUSTIN, Texas -- And another thing CEOs should probably avoid ... Sprint Corp. has just fired its two top executives for (I love this part) a conflict of interest. It seems these worthy gentlemen felt perfectly entitled to pay zero taxes on more than $100 million in stock-option gains. Isn't that special? But that's not why they were fired.
They were fired because Sprint's accounting firm Ernst & Young set up these lucrative tax shelters. After the IRS disallowed the shelters, the execs were at war with their own company's auditors. Not nice.
It gets better. In return for giving the two execs what turned out to be very bad advice, Ernst & Young got $6 million -- paid by Sprint. Now the execs owe the taxes and penalties, but they no longer have the money, since Sprint's stock price hit the skids in the general implosion of telecommunications. Plus, they are no longer employed
Pretty big mess, and it's happening all over.
They were fired because Sprint's accounting firm Ernst & Young set up these lucrative tax shelters. After the IRS disallowed the shelters, the execs were at war with their own company's auditors. Not nice.
It gets better. In return for giving the two execs what turned out to be very bad advice, Ernst & Young got $6 million -- paid by Sprint. Now the execs owe the taxes and penalties, but they no longer have the money, since Sprint's stock price hit the skids in the general implosion of telecommunications. Plus, they are no longer employed
Pretty big mess, and it's happening all over.
Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):
Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge
President George W. Bush
Below is the sample letter:
What's At Stake:
President Bush's "clean" car policies will unfortunately do very little to curb our nation's voracious oil appetite, pollution and global warming. His proposed new hydrogen-powered "Freedom Car" will spend billions of taxpayer dollars on speculative technology over real policy action, while his proposed budget includes new tax breaks for gas guzzling SUVs. Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation has proposed new fuel economy standards for SUVs that are far weaker than technically possible and that are needed. Take action! Send a message to President Bush and the Department of Transportation supporting stronger measures to curb oil consumption and help stop global warming.
Campaign Expiration Date: February 28, 2003
Subject: Fuel Economy Standards for Light Trucks - docket 11419
Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],
Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge
President George W. Bush
Below is the sample letter:
What's At Stake:
President Bush's "clean" car policies will unfortunately do very little to curb our nation's voracious oil appetite, pollution and global warming. His proposed new hydrogen-powered "Freedom Car" will spend billions of taxpayer dollars on speculative technology over real policy action, while his proposed budget includes new tax breaks for gas guzzling SUVs. Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation has proposed new fuel economy standards for SUVs that are far weaker than technically possible and that are needed. Take action! Send a message to President Bush and the Department of Transportation supporting stronger measures to curb oil consumption and help stop global warming.
Campaign Expiration Date: February 28, 2003
Subject: Fuel Economy Standards for Light Trucks - docket 11419
Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],