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It's time

President Bush's continued insistence that Al Qaida and Iraq were joined at the hip rings hollow in light of the findings of the 9/11 commission. It also sounds pathetic. But he will not apologize for his deliberate misleading of America and the world into the war of choice that Iraq was. But that is typical of the dry-drunk he is...Don't take responsibility for anything, deny everthing.

So, no matter how hard he wishes it were otherwise, wishing will not change the simple fact that there is no credible evidence linking Al Quaida and Saddam Hussein. He lied to start a war...And that is truly monstrous, Saddam Hussein's crimes not withstanding. He embarked on a war of choice based upon lies. And for that, he must be removed from office. He has violated the Constitution he has sworn to uphold...He has violated international treaties which the US is signatory to...He has violated US and international law in pursuit of a war of aggression. It's impeachment time.

Presidential campaigns and media charades

Political myth-making goes into overdrive every four years. With presidential campaigns fixated mostly on media, an array of nonstop spin takes its toll while illogic often takes hold: When heroes are absent, they're invented. When convenient claims are untrue, they're defended.

Many supporters come to function as enablers -- staying silent or mimicking their candidate's contorted explanations to try to finesse the gaping contradiction. Fast talk substitutes for straight talk. A kind of "covering fire" across media battlefields makes it easier for the candidate to just keep on dissembling.

There are true believers, of course -- people who believe every word that comes out of their own mouths when, for instance, they stand at the podium of the Republican or Democratic convention. Whatever the extent of their sincerity, only superlatives will do as speakers unequivocally praise George W. Bush or John Kerry.

The fact that Bush keeps saying things that aren't true should matter. His repeated statements about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, or supposed links between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein (again explicitly

Not easily discouraged

AUSTIN, Texas -- No sooner do we win a long struggle to clean up politics and restore democracy in this country than we find the whole thing under attack, and we have to go out and re-fight the same battle all over again. Good thing we're not easily discouraged.

        This is what's happening in Arizona, where the successful Clean Elections law is now under attack by the big special interests and national conservatives with ties that run from Tom DeLay (surprise!) to Bush's fund-raising machine.  

        Micah Sifry of Public Campaign reports, "They've raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that doesn't mention anywhere its true intent, to de-fund the Clean Elections system." This charming endeavor is masquerading under the misnomer "No Taxpayer Money for Politicians," a misleading moniker right up there with Bush's "Clear Skies and Healthy Forests" initiatives. What a shame they couldn't figure out a way to call it the Patriot Amendment.

Ohio Muslims react to arrest of terror suspect

(COLUMBUS, OH, 6/15/04) - On Wednesday, June 16, the Ohio office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio) will hold a news conference in reaction to the arrest of Nuradin Abdi, a Columbus Muslim who was indicted Monday on four counts of conspiring to provide support for Al-Qaeda.

The news conference will take place following the conclusion of Nuradin's bond hearing on Wednesday afternoon at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Columbus, Ohio.

WHERE: U.S. Federal Courthouse, 85 Marconi Blvd., Columbus, Ohio WHEN: Following conclusion of bond hearing (Hearing at 1:30 pm)

"Given previous cases involving American Muslims in which evidence proved to be faulty or non-existent, we are concerned about the strength of the charges against Mr. Abdi," said CAIR-Ohio Executive Director Jad Humeidan.

Humeidan cited the cases of Army Chaplain James Yee and Oregon attorney Brandon Mayfield. Both men were cleared of all charges following extensive damage to their reputations.

There are an estimated 150,000 Muslims in Ohio. CAIR, America's largest

Bringing down the Soviet Union

For those with amnesia it was neither Reagan nor rock nor radiation that ended the Marxist regime in Russia. One of the best sellers of 1969 was Will the Soviet Union Survive Untill 1984? by an astute Russian. Due to Reagan, gulag socialism lasted an extra half decade.

Don't you feel better now?

AUSTIN, Texas -- Such comfort. At the close of the G-8 summit, described by President Bush as "very successful" (except we didn't get anything we wanted), the president offered us comfort on the uncomfortable topic of torture: "Look, I'm going to say it one more time. The instructions went out to our people to adhere to the law. That ought to comfort you."

        "We're a nations of laws," he went on. "We adhere to laws. We have laws on the books. You might look at those laws, and that might comfort you."

Protect our national forests

The U.S. House of Representatives will soon have the chance to protect our national forests with two upcoming forests votes.

One vote will protect Alaska's Tongass Rainforest and stop fiscally irresponsible spending by prohibiting taxpayer dollars from being wasted on new logging roads in the Tongass National Forest. For decades, American taxpayers have been forced to subsidize clearcut logging in the Tongass; in a single year, taxpayers spent $36 million on the Tongass logging program and received only about $1 million in revenue.

The second vote, on the Forest Wildlife Conservation amendment, would conserve wildlife and ensure sustainable forest management.

Please take a moment to ask your U.S. Representative to protect our national forests and vote YES on the Tongass amendment and the Forest Wildlife Conservation amendment. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.

To take action, click on this link: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=695&id4=ES

Background

Ronald Reagan's Hip-Hop Legacy

Many writers mourning the death of our 40th president fail to mention that Ronald Reagan's administration brought on a poverty and despair that inflicted an entire generation of minorities and changed the sound and reality of ghetto life from a pursuit of the dream deferred into a descent into the American nightmare. The children of that era are many of the progenitors and purveyors of modern hip-hop, and Reagan's presidency single-handedly changed that music. Ronald Reagan is hip-hop's first president, and while America mourns, rappers are still rapping about the rusted legacy he left behind.

His turn to the political right and its affects on the inner city are best chronicled in what so many have come to call 'gangsta' rap and not in the history books. While hip-hop culture had been a vibrant thing long before Reagan's administration, his policies coalesced the Jamaicans, Black Americans and Latinos under the same struggle and as their lifestyles changed, so did the music that filled their streets. Whether politically conscious or celebratory, the fact is there is no such thing as 'gangsta'

New documents suggest Enron’s Lay, Skilling, Washington lobbyist knew about company’s trading schemes in California

Federal energy regulators have just released more than 400 pages of documents that suggest former Enron chairman Ken Lay and former chief executive Jeff Skilling were aware that Enron's west coast traders may have broken the law by using manipulative trading tactics in California to boost Enron’s profits during the height of that state's power crisis.

Moreover, one of Enron's most powerful Washington, D.C. lobbyists, who met with several members of the Bush administration in the spring of 2001 about Enron's opposition to price controls on electricity sales in California, was told by Tim Belden, the mastermind behind Enron's notorious trading scams, less than a year earlier that Belden and other traders working at the company's West Coast trading desk in Portland, Ore., spent the better part of 2000 and 2001 breaking the rules governing California's power market "when opportunities presented themselves to make money.”

"There's really two--two things that happened--two areas... in terms of things blowing up," Belden told Rick Shapiro, Enron's vice president of regulatory affairs and one of the company's lobbyists, in August 2000.

Rock and Radiation

Mr. Wasserman: Just read your latest, and I couldn't agree with you more; Reagan was a lot of things, but certainly not one of my "best" Presidents. After the berlin wall-fall, PJ O'Rourke (Rolling Stones token conservative) made essentially the same point that yu are making; R & R, LEVI jeans brought about the fall of communism. He made a point that the Soviet people had only one choice for shoes, those made (poorly)in Bulgaria. Western, moern, youth culture brought doen the evil empire. I think the same argument should applied to Cuba; our culture will bring down Fidel.

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