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Pataki’s veto

We write with an almost overwhelming sense of disgust and anger.

Yesterday, Governor Pataki vetoed the minimum-wage bill. To say this caught us by surprise is an understatement. The political class had confidently and uniformly predicted that he would sign the bill.

But perhaps we shouldn't be shocked.

This is a governor with a history of unbridled hostility to funding schools attended by poor children. This is a governor whose recent budget proposals once again slash benefits for the weak and powerless, even as he curries favor with the powerful. Vetoing the minimum-wage merely expands the range of people who can feel the Pataki lash.

The reasons given in his veto message are laughable and often factually wrong. You can read it on our web site.

Whatever his written statement, the real reason for his veto is politics. Pataki is playing to the national Republicans and the local Conservatives, and what better way to make yourself known as a tough-guy than to really stick it to low-wage workers. Plus he did it on a day

New Terror Warning Again Targets Swing State

As the Libertarian Party of Ohio's Executive Director Robert Butler initially predicted on June 14th, another terror warning has been issued for a swing state crucial to the Bush-Cheney re-eletion . This time it's New Mexico.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge just announced that the State of New Mexico may become a terrorist target, but the information was unsubstantiated and uncollaborated.

It's unfortunate that the current administration continues to issue vague warnings. This only serves to increase the level of anxiety in states crucial to the election of George W. Bush.

In June, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a bomb plot for a Columbus, Ohio shopping mall. The FBI later contradicted Ashcroft by stating no target had been identified.

We again hope that the media reports these warnings for the scare tactics they are.

For the full June 14th comments from Robert Butler, please see below:

Columbus Terror Target No Surprise

Empty Platform, Empty Town

The hype and hysteria reached even the sleepy North Shore of Boston. In the weeks leading up to the summer's seminal event in The Big City, local police chiefs were predicting endless commutes and near-constant gridlock. Many advised locals to "go to New Hampshire for the week and don't look back." Thanks to the comfort of an overwhelming Police (State) presence, the terrorists, tourists, troublemakers and travelers were kept at bay.

Poor Boston. $60 million on security, and 0 income for tolls. By the second day, the secret started to leak that our charming provincial capital had become somehat of a ghost town. Of course, there were dissenters in the streets: Veterans for Peace and the Boston Social Form held their own conventions, and United for Peace and Justice, Black Tea Society, Food Not Bombs and many other groups made their presence known as usual. Of course, many activists--including many of us who tried in vain to yank the Democratic Party out of its pro-war stupor--were also convinced to stay home, or run the gauntlet of the Protest Pen, a court-sanctioned cage for protesters designed to make the effort of free

Greens cite reasons for a new, independent 9/11 probe

More investigation needed: Bush conflicts of interest; who paid for the 9/11 hijackings; the role of US foreign policy; exploitation of 9/11 to justify war on Iraq.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Leaders of the Green Party called the results of the 9/11 Commission a valuable first step in the probe of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., but called for more far-reaching investigation into the failure to discover and prevent the attacks and into the White House's response to the attacks.

"Instead of merely extending the current commission, which Sen. Kerry favors, we need to see a new, independent Commission to continue to the investigation into the 9/11 attacks, with family members of 9/11 victims given a prominent role," said Patrick Driscoll, Green candidate for Congress in California (5th District).

Greens note that, contrary to President Bush's claims that Americans are now safer, the U.S. response to 9/11 has increased the risk of terrorism throughout the world. At home, the response has included curtailment of civil liberties, including the detention of thousands of Americans without being charged with any crime.

Hope is not on the way, but hopefully Bush is on the way out

No, hope does not gallop in like Paul Revere. And it certainly doesn't arrive breathless from a corporate party convention.

Movements for peace and social justice can bring realistic hope -- not with rhetoric but with the tough daily tedious uplifting work of political organizing.

Yes, we'd be better off with John Kerry in the White House instead of the Rove-Cheney-Bush regime. And the only way that's going to happen is if enough people in swing states vote for Kerry on November 2.

But I'm already getting tired of the bulk email messages claiming that Kerry is the embodiment of progressive dreams. Please. We can simultaneously walk, chew gum and be clear about the reality that Kerry embraces a centrist matrix of militarism and corporatism -- and, at the same time, in a world of contradictions, it's extremely important that George W. Bush lose the election on November 2... Let's not make stuff up. And let's not imitate the Democratic Party's hype machine. Just because you think people should hold their nose and vote for Kerry, don't act like there isn't a stench.

Daring To Hope

This week the Democratic Party successfully launched a great ship of hope from Boston harbor. And while the winds of change that would guide it grow mightier, it is by no means certain that it will reach its destination come this November.

As the election draws nearer, the many millions of us aboard this great ship should expect to be told and told again by the powers that be to be frightened of our voyage. They will dare us to imagine what terrors lie in wait within the seas of change. They will manufacture a dense fog of fear, and then claim only they can protect us from the unspeakable dangers that only they can see within it.

Over the next few weeks and months, the powers that be will seek to reinstate the primacy of fear, and transform our hope into despair. Lest we remain hopeful, color-coded threat charts and warnings of imminent unknowable events will be broadcast again and again to remind us to become fearful. With increasing urgency, we will be directed to proceed in an orderly fashion, duct tape and plastic sheeting in hand, to our muster stations so to abandon our great ship of hope for their shores of safety.

The ice cream man's Farenheit 9/11

50 Ways You Can Show George the Door in 2004
By Ben Cohen and Jason Salzman
Pages: 196; Price: $9.95
Publisher: Westview Press (Perseus Books Group)
ISBN: 0-8133-4282-1

Ice Cream man Ben Cohen has his own "Farenheit 9/11." It's a book, not a movie, and has no footage of George W. Bush reading "My Pet Goat" while the World Trace Center burns.

But as it joins the flood of anti-Bush books, it takes a uniquely funny, compelling must-read niche for the hordes of us desperate to see King George of the "Haves and Have mores" exit the presidency, and always looking for new ways to help.

Among the 50 ways the irascible icon of super-premium ice cream recommends are turning your dog into a political organizer. Giving your "pet for regime change" a name like Big Oil allows you to shout the slogan when you're calling for obedience. The animal can also be adorned with "Bite Bush" and other subtle slogans on buttons or bumper stickers.

Cohen and co-author Jason Salzman, a former Greenpeace media mogul, also

Maybe empire is not as bad-if Kerry is the one doing it

Well, I haven't been checking my mail much lately, and it sure isn't because of the Democratic Convention. I would rather jump off a two-story building into a open train car filled with razorblades. Anyhow, I have a few minutes and some troubling thoughts occurred to me. I thought maybe someone would comment on them.

All those progressives the last time who ripped up Gore, who said he was about as bad as Bush, where are they? Harvey Wasserman, Bob Fitrakis, Jim Hightower, Michael Moore, Howard Zinn, Chomsky, etc, etc, etc.

Even the Columbus Free Press is noticeably absent from criticizing Kerry. Case in point: The Summer issue of the 2000 Free Press contained several articles supporting Nader or criticizing Bush and Gore. The Autumn issue of 2000 had Nader on the cover and contained article after article in support of Nader.

Contrast that with the July-August edition of the Free Press, 2004. The Norman Solomon of the Autumn 2000 Free Press was anti-Gore, pro-Nader, in an article entitled "Paying Homage to the two-party system." In the July-August 2004 edition of the Free Press, Solomon criticizes Nader for

Police and Abortion

I DONT UNDERSTAND HOW IF WE IN COLUMBUS GOT A POLICE SHORTAGE WHY THERE WOULD BE OVER 100 POLICE ON BIKES IN CARS ON HORSES UNDERCOVER AND EVERYTHING ELSE AT CITY HALL THE OTHER DAY JUST FOR SOME ANTI ABORTION EVENT.

I MEAN THINK ABOUT IT IVE NEVER HEARD OF ABORTION RIGHTS PEOPLE PRO CHOICE BOMBING CLINICS OR ACTING LIKE TERRORISTS. THE ONLY ONES I EVER KNEW TO BOMB CLINICS HARASS PEOPLE ARE PRO LIFERS. IM NOT SAYING THAT ABORTION ISNT WRONG ON SOME LEVEL BUT I MEAN IT LOOKS LIKE THEY HAVE ALL THE POLICE THERE TO PROTECT PEOPLE AGAINST ABORTION FROM THOSE THAT SUPPORT IT. THOSE POLICE WAS JUST DOWN THERE WASTING TIME TALKING LAUGHING USING CAMERAS AND NOTHING ELSE.

I MEAN I JUST DONT UNDERSTAND HOW YOU NEED ALL THAT MANPOWER TO PROTECT THOSE THAT ARE USUALLY BOMB CLINICS AND SUPPORT DEATH PENALTY AND WAR FROM PEOPLE THAT ARE USUALLY PEACEFUL. THATS A WASTE OF OFFICERS. SO I SAY NO WE DONT NEED MORE OFFICERS THEY JUST NEED TO BE USED PROPERLY. THATS WHAT I GOT TO SAY.

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