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Thanks Harvey

Many thanks to Harvey for the "Bush wins Triple Trifecta as worst president ever" article.

"Bush's "No Tree Left Standing" attack on Mother Earth..." in every sense of the words that make up that statement, is the literal truth. We live in Northern New Mexico. Behind our house and all around this part of the State there used to be many stands of beautiful Pinion Pines. Now all that is left is mostly dead Pinion Pines, the result of an ongoing multi-year long attack and onslaught brought on by millions of Pine Bark Beetle's, and these beetle's continue to multiply and spread at an 'unchecked' and 'unchallenged' rate that is no less than catastrophic. These beetle's are literal terrorists and a deadly menacing threat to all species of Pine, including valuable stands of Pine used for timber that is logged.

So, what is the Bush Administration doing about these terrorists? Letting them go unchallenged.

Heads Up: You Must Act Now to Stop an Appalling CAFTA, FTAA Sneak Attack on State Purchasing Policy!

A leaked letter from the Bush Administration to state governors reveals a sneaky attempt now underway to get governors to 'voluntarily' commit their states to comply with draconian constraints on domestic procurement (purchasing) policy included in the recently completed CAFTA and proposed for FTAA. Unbelievably, the leaked documents show that the U.S. Trade Representative's Office is seeking blanket permission from governors to sign states on to the procurement provisions of ALL trade agreements under negotiation - including the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the South African Customs Union and a raft of bilateral deals with Australia, Morocco, Columbia, Thailand and more nations.

Puerto Rico/Please write to our Vieques Political Prisoners

It is very important that people write to the Vieques Political Prisoners:

Ernesto de Jesus Giushard
#21716-069

Heriberto Hernandez Carmona
#22304-069

Jose Perez Gonzalez
#21519-069

Jose Acosta Velez
#23883-069

MDC Guaynabo
P.O. Box 2147
SJ,
PR 00922-2147

On not believing in John Kerry

Rolling toward the Democratic nomination, the Kerry campaign has the enduring benefit of the vast fortune of Mrs. Kerry, the former Teresa Heinz, lovely relict of the Portuguese empire. Mrs. Kerry can use her money to run issue ads. Her interest in environmental issues has been mostly expressed through her Heinz Foundation, whose board until very recently was adorned by that hero of free-market enviros, Ken Lay of Enron.

            The Heinz Foundation put Ken Lay in charge of their global-warming initiative. When Enron went belly up, the Foundation stuck by their man: "Whatever troubles he had at Enron, Ken Lay had a good reputation in the environmental community for being a business man who was environmentally sensitive. When someone does wrong in one part of their life, it doesn't mean they can't do good in another part of their life."

            It's the kind of sublime indifference to the messy realities of politics and life that is now inspiring Democrats to rally behind Kerry, under the vacant banner, Anybody But Bush.

The hypocracy of National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2004

"As Americans, we are led by the power of our conscience and the history of our country to defend and promote the dignity and rights of all people. Each person, however frail or defenseless, has a place and a purpose in this world. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, we celebrate the gift of life and our commitment to building a society of compassion and humanity..."

"NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Sunday, January 18, 2004, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon all Americans to recognize this day with appropriate ceremonies in our homes and places of worship and to reaffirm our commitment to respecting the life and dignity of every human being."

Re: Bush can be beaten

Mr. Wasserman: I started reading your "online" newsletter-rant" (I'm not sure what you call it), last year after you were interviewed on the "Jefferson Exchange" with Jeff Golden, from Ashland, Oregon,  a public radio station.  Nonetheless, thank you! I find a lot of comfort aand encouragement from you. I hope that you might reprise yourself, and make an encore appreance on the exchange before the upcoming election.  I agree that the "Dubya" (or maybe DUD'ya) can be beaten in the fall. Is it really true that the GOP has rigged the "House" so as not to ever lose control again? I think that if there was a real, concerted "movement" to register a whole lot of new democrats from the 50% of the people who do not bother to exercise their franchise, there might be a possible change.  Is this possible? I'm afraid that otherwise, we are left with a hollow, ghost of a republic, and America will then reveal itself to be the"Amerika" of Mr. Orwell, or Cheney, or Citizen Ashcroft, or Minister Rumsfield, or any other modern Fascist/Plutocrat that might stand  before us, waiting for our supplication.

An open letter from Ramsey Clark to the U.N. and George W. Bush

Dear Secretary General Annan,

U.S. President George W. Bush again confirmed his intention to continue waging wars of aggression in his State of the Union message on January 20, 2004.

He began his address: " As we gather tonight, hundreds of thousands of American service men and women are deployed across the world in the war on terror. By bringing hope to the oppressed, and delivering justice to the violent, they are making America more secure."

He proclaimed: " Our greatest responsibility is the active defense of the American people... America is on the offensive against the terrorists..."

Continuing, he said: " ...our coalition is leading aggressive raids against the surviving members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.... Men who ran away from our troops in battle are now dispersed and attack from the shadows."

In Iraq, he reported: " Of the top 55 officials of the former regime, we have captured or killed 45. Our forces are on the offensive, leading over 1,600 patrols a day, and conducting an average of 180 raids a week...."

Re: Janet Jackson and Morality

Dear Free Press,

Not only that, there are roughly the same number of women's breasts on this planet as people. How can it be obscene to see something that half the human race actually have two of, and the other half were intimately acquainted with for the first part of their life, and at least wanted to be for the rest of it? And as for the "what about the children?" argument: the younger you are, the MORE wholesome and legitimate a relationship you have with a woman's breast!

It just goes to show what insane priorities we have as a culture. This was at a football game, where grown men bash their bodies against each other with enough force to dislocate shoulders, break bones, and ruin knees for life; happens all the time. No one objects to movies where psychotic murderers and occult horrors and slime-dripping aliens torture innocent people, disembowel them, eat their faces, and lay eggs in their remains. We see heads explode, alien offspring erupt from body cavities, and mortar fire spread body parts to the four winds.

But a one-second glimpse of a woman's breast has the country in an

Re: Solution To The Palestinian/Israeli Conflict

Dear Free Press,

Although I agree with the underlying sentiment of Patrick's letter, I don't think it's feasible. If the U.N. was going to isolate by force every country that has a conflict with it's neighbors or an internal group, the planet would be riddled with isolated nations, which seems to me to be a strange activity for a group called The United Nations.

Actually, it wouldn't, because the U.N. has neither the power nor the mandate to do so.

However, I do agree that pressure must be put on both parties to adhere to U.N. resolutions, not simply to condemn the Palestinians but frown on the Israelis. And I agree that third-party intervention or arbitration is probably the best chance for success, since both cultures have such a "you give in first" attitude historically. I also think that the U.N. should make it clear that they favor the Rabin approach (and those who tried to follow suit) to peace between these peoples, NOT the Sharon approach, which is a recipe for unending hostility.

I will argue one other point, though: Patrick's use of the phrase "the

Bush wins Triple Trifecta as worst president ever

"The worst president in our lifetime" is how many Americans view George W. Bush.

But Bush is not merely the worst president in recent memory.  He's the worst in all US history.  And he's won the distinction not on a weakness or two, but in at least nine separate categories, giving him a triple trifecta.   

It's a record unmatched by any previous president.  

Let's count the ways:  

TRIFECTA ONE:  Economy, Environment, Education  

Economy:
Until now, Herbert Hoover has been the president most closely associated with economic disaster.  He presided over the 1929 stock crash, and choked while the economy collapsed around him. 

Bush did not preside over the 2000 Nasdaq crash.  But he's turned the biggest federal surplus into history's biggest deficit, which a nervous global banking community sees as a potential weapon of mass fiscal destruction.  Bush has lost more jobs than Hoover.  A top Bush advisor has called outsourcing "just a new way of doing international trade." 

Bush has achieved the economic trifecta by simultaneously collapsing the

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