Federal cigarette tax hike proposed

Dear Editor,

Have you ever wondered why Big and Brutal Tobacco companies are so aggressive to own and control people with influence by bartering tickets, trips, and tips to them for their silence and support? How could you take a free trip to Aruba knowing you had sold out the health of humanity?

Reported in The Virginia Business in June of 2003, “Philip Morris’ relocation means that scores of highly paid mid- and high-level managers, with salaries averaging about $130,000 a year, will be looking for houses, schools and amenities. ( Ref: http://www.virginiaclassifieds.com/biz/virginiabusiness/magazine/yr2003/... )

Paying $130k would attract the beautiful and brilliant even today.

CNN and 4 Dems opt to skew debate

CNN allowed the eight Democratic presidential campaigns to vote: Should CNN continue to place its preferred candidates together in the center of the stage in order to keep the candidates it ignores off camera at the edges, or should it follow the model PBS used last week and choose candidate positions on the stage by random drawing? Dodd, Gravel, and Kucinich were joined by Hillary Clinton in opting for the random drawing. Edwards and Obama were joined by Richardson and Biden in opting to stick Edwards, Clinton, and Obama in the middle. The vote was four to four. What to do? Appeal to the public? You're kidding, right? CNN cast the deciding vote itself and will stick with the podium positioning that suits its stance of choosing our elected officials for us.

The PBS debate at Howard University last week chose candidate positions on the stage by random drawing and sent a video of the random drawing to each campaign. It also gave the candidates equal time and respect, and asked them all about the same topics. Not exactly rocket science, but a pretty stunning breakthrough for a presidential campaign debate. You can watch it

A bloody media mirror

Many of America’s most prominent journalists want us to forget what they were saying and writing more than four years ago to boost the invasion of Iraq. Now, they tiptoe around their own roles in hyping the war and banishing dissent to the media margins.

The media watch group FAIR (where I’m an associate) has performed a public service in the latest edition of its magazine Extra. The organization’s activism director, Peter Hart, drew on FAIR’s extensive research to assemble a sample of notable quotations from media cheerleading for the Iraq invasion.

One of the earliest quotes to merit special attention came from ace New York Times reporter -- and chronic Pentagon promoter -- Michael Gordon. In a CNN appearance on March 25, 2003, just a few days into the invasion, Gordon gave his easy blessing to the invaders’ bombing of Iraqi TV.

Gordon cited “what I’ve seen of Iraqi television, with Saddam Hussein presenting propaganda to his people and showing off the Apache helicopter and claiming a farmer shot it down and trying to persuade his own public that he was really in charge, when we’re trying to

The story of "W"

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Commuting Scooter

George Mason (1725-1792), the father of the Bill of Rights (1791-2002), argued at the Constitutional Convention in favor of providing the House of Representatives the power of impeachment by pointing out that the President might use his pardoning power to "pardon crimes which were advised by himself" or, before indictment or conviction, "to stop inquiry and prevent detection."

James Madison (1751-1836), the father of the U.S. Constitution (1788-2007), added that "if the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty."

Of course, Bush has long been connected in a suspicious manner to Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, and others. Madison would probably have called for Bush's impeachment when Bush first refused to investigate or hold anyone accountable for leaking Valerie Plame's identity, or rather when Bush lied us into the war in the first place, or when he confessed to illegal spying, or when he detained people without charge and tortured them, or when

Four little words

There are four words more dear to the soul of a Republican than any other. They express his or her deepest beliefs, their hopes for the future and their pride in past achievements. They are in fact the spiritual underpinning of the modern Republican party. But those words are not, “In God We Trust”. No, the core belief of the GOP is openly and proudly, “The Fix is In.”

Bush has commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby to no prison time and a fine that will underwritten by Scooter’s buds, who will hasten to write checks and relieve him of any liability for his criminality. But Libby is not the problem. The problem is a president who has openly, repeatedly, and sneeringly placed himself above the law for six years. And the even bigger problem is an electorate that has allowed George W. Bush to shred everything this country once stood for, the rule of law, the Constitution of the United States and anything even remotely resembling a civil right. As Harry Truman once said of the national Republican Party of his era, how many times do you need to get hit over the head before you figure out who’

Fourteen congress members for impeachment

The official list of cosponsors of H Res 333 to impeach Dick Cheney cannot be updated until July 10 when Congress gets back to Washington.  But Congress Members can contact Dennis Kucinich's office in the meantime and sign on.  And citizens can encourage them to do so.  In fact, this is the week in which you should visit your Congress Member's district office and demand that he or she sign onto Kucinich's articles of impeachment or introduce their own.  And they should not just sign on, but make a public statement in support.  Here's everything you need to know: http://impeachcheney.org

The official count of cosponsors, including Kucinich, is at 10.  But Rep. Jim McDermott spoke on the floor of the House last week and committed to signing on.  That makes 11.  Congressmen Bob Filner and Jim Moran now also say that they are signing on.  That's 13.  And Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. has spoken out in support of impeachment.  He is clearly either signing on or introducing his own articles of impeachment or both.  That makes probably 14. 

Gorilla suit

For all the noise and carnage of war — especially this unnecessary war, which seems to possess a life of its own as it barrels forward uninterrupted on two fronts — our language of condemnation remains remarkably polite.

Thus a new CBS news poll shows that Americans are “increasingly dissatisfied” with the Iraq operation, with 77 percent telling pollsters they think it’s “going very badly” — as though the public were turning thumbs down on a reality TV show. Our formerly bellicose media now seem to be doing their best to reduce the national mood to a whisper. Shhh! We don’t want to hurt the president’s feelings, do we?

Meanwhile, the headlines scream “Incoming!”

About the same time that a thundering yet strangely irrelevant majority of Americans were telling CBS they want this war to stop, the U.S. military and NATO were churning up evil publicity in both Iraq and Afghanistan — and in the process ensuring that the war on terror will not run out of enemies — simply by waging the war they have waged from the start.

What's keeping you here, punk?

Another Fourth on the North Fork.  Time to pick the new Strawberry Queen, shine the fire trucks, put out the collection jar for the un-insured and beat up the bald guy from out of town.

I think it's only game to allow my critics their say on my home page.

This editorial is re-printed in my local penny-saver...

[Regarding] gonzo "journalist" - and I use that term lightly - Greg Palast.

Mr. Palast, as you may recall, is the former summer resident who reached The New York Times' non-fiction best-seller list with not one but two books, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" and "Armed Madhouse," which was published earlier this year.

And I quote (from "Armed Madhouse"):

- '[The North Fork], if you look at a map, is situated at the ass end of nowhere.  We are known hereabouts for our Strawberry Festival and fire truck parade.  According to the census, this tiny place is made up almost entirely of inbred farmers, real estate speculators and volunteer firemen.'

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