Advertisement

Wasserman column

Harvey Wasserman is right about a lot of things in his Jan 22 column but he's wrong on forgetting the south in the presidential campaign. Only by working hard in the south and making a real contest out of it, will the democratic nominee get a national message across that will reverberate through the big electoral vote states. The nominee may not carry any southern states, but by showing that the south is part of the union from the nominee's point of view, he'll generate a huge local effort all across the south, elect democrats in close local and congressional races, cause Bush to have to spend time and resources in the south, but above all that he'll portray to the nation (and to the thousands of black and white voters in old dixie) that they count, they're important. And redneck pickup truck driving farmers (I'm one) will begin to see that voting Democratic is what they want to do.

 ivan swift -- madison county, alabama

We are not safer

Dear Harvey,

I only wish that someone would write a set of responses to those "shut them up" lines used by the conservatives today, and one of them seems to be "you can't deny that the world is safer now that Saddam Hussein is out of power".

I'd truly like to see an article entitled WE ARE NOT SAFER. It should not only show that there was no threat from Iraq in the first place, that the "gathering threat" argument is mere propaganda, and that there were no weapons of mass destruction. It shouldn't just document that our military, which in 2000 was in it's highest and strongest period of readiness in our history, is now stretched too thin for any real new threat, and that we have thousands of relatively untrained reservists working (and dying) in a desert war zone filled with terrorists. It shouldn't even stop with the fact that Iraq has become America's Palestine, a country occupied by a foreign power, filled with angry displaced people living with the perceived (and perhaps accurate) lies that swift progress will be made to return power to the people and the resources of the country will be used for their

Re: Book review ("Red Alert") and new articles

As a senior American who cherishes our traditional "innocent until proven guilty" legal premise, I loathe the Bush administration's insistence upon paranoia as the basis for new, unreasonably restrictive public procedures here at home as well as for their offensive foreign policies.

I long to reclaim the country we had before the current regime took control.   All of us were freer, more hopeful, more genuinely secure, and -most important- more honorable.  

As I understood it, and as we were taught in our public schools, we "Americans" were a people who took pride in striving not for world domination, but for governance by respectable, enforceable laws, dedicated to just and compassionate ethics.  But now, every morning, I wake up and wonder: How much longer will we be forced to endure the arrogance and disgrace of these terror-mongers' trampling on that true American dream?

--Carole A. Kronberg
  Detroit

Red Alert

"The trappings of a state of siege trap us in a state of fear ..."

Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis open up their new collection of essays with the extraordinary speech - "A Prayer for America" - that Dennis Kucinich delivered two years ago, when the wound of 9/11 was fresh and the Bush Administration had just begun to serve notice how it intended to exploit it.

Reading Kucinich's words again, and the 50-plus essays that follow it in "George W. Bush vs. the Superpower of Peace," all of them chronicling events that unfolded after the 2000 election, leaves me reeling anew from the hits we've taken as a nation since W assumed control of the office he lost. The two authors, whose investigative pieces originally appeared in the alternative publications Columbus Alive and the Columbus Free Press, have been around a long time, writing and agitating for peace, economic justice and a sane energy policy, among other things. Their book is unstinting in its critique of the Bush crew, dredging up its covert agenda and creepy

Presidential candidates: compared to what?

Engaged in a continuous PR blitz, presidential campaign strategists always strive to portray their candidate as damn near perfect. Even obvious flaws are apt to be touted as signs of integrity and human depth. Such media spin encourages Americans to confuse being excellent with being preferable.

     Eager to dislodge George W. Bush from the White House, many voters lined up behind John Kerry in late January. It’s true that the junior senator from Massachusetts is probably the best bet to defeat Bush -- and, as president, Kerry would be a very significant improvement over the incumbent. But truth in labeling should impel acknowledgment that Kerry is not a progressive candidate.

     Enthusiasm for a presidential contender often causes people to go overboard with their praise and lose touch with reality. On the left, a classic example came from the wonderful documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, who declared in a mid-September open letter to Gen. Wesley Clark: “And you oppose war.” It was a preposterous statement about a retired four-star general who has never apologized for his commanding role in a war that inflicted more

Think tank extraviganze

            AUSTIN, Texas -- Philanthropy may not be high on your list of Stuff to Think About -- except maybe to hope that some might be headed your way. But political philanthropy is in fact playing a large role in your life -- indeed, it is shaping the entire nation's life to an extent that deserves to be put on your list of Stuff to Think About.

            The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy is an outfit "committed to making philanthropy more responsive to people with the least wealth and opportunity." You probably thought that's what philanthropy was -- money to help people with the least wealth and opportunity. But to an amazing extent, you would be wrong. A report by the Responsive Philanthropy folks points out that more and more foundations and corporations are instead giving their money to conservative think tanks, which in turn use the money to push the right-wing political agenda.

The State of the Media Union

My fellow American media consumers:

     At a time when news cycles bring us such portentous events as the remarkable wedding of Britney Spears, the advent of Michael Jackson’s actual trial proceedings and the start of the Democratic presidential primaries, it is time to reflect upon the state of the media union.

     The achievements are everywhere to be seen and heard.

     On more than a thousand radio stations owned by the Clear Channel conglomerate, the programming quality is as reliable as a Big Mac.

     In cities and towns across the nation, an array of outspoken radio talk-show hosts can be depended on to run the gamut from the mushy center to the far right.

     Television provides a wide variety of homogenized offerings. With truly impressive (production) values, the major networks embody a consummate multiplicity of sameness, with truncated imagination and consolidated ownership. These days, there’s a captivatingly unadventurous cable channel for virtually every niche market.

     A few naysayers like to disparage our system of mass communications.

The fog of cop-out: Robert McNamara 10, Errol Morris 0

My dear friend and late Nation colleague Andrew Kopkind liked to tell how, skiing in Aspen at the height of the Vietnam War, he came around a bend and saw another skier, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, alone near the edge of a precipice. This was during the period of Rolling Thunder, which ultimately saw three times as many bombs dropped on Vietnam as the Allies dropped on Europe in the Second World War. "I could have reached out with my ski pole," Andy would say wistfully, "and pushed him over."

High Noon in America

    Cast in the Gary Cooper role in this western drama is the American citizen, all of whom just wish to live the simple life. Unfortunately and unforgivingly, that myth is a bust. Yet, we are all living in a time when frontier- justice rules the day.          

    With the first vote cast in the Iowa Caucus, the horserace for the presidency begins in earnest. Honestly, even the most pragmatic citizen realizes that whatever the outcome on Election Day, it will be the result of nothing more than a “Hobson’s” choice, in that we are offered a choice of taking what is offered or nothing at all.          

    Folks, we are not witnessing the re-affirmation of “The Miracle at Philadelphia”. It’s more like being a voyeur to a surreal survival reality American Idol show. I’ve preemptively taken precautions and purchased, and am now donning knee-high boots.          

    Let me give you fair warning my fellow Americans, for this will be the most vile and contentious election to take place in our Constitutional Republic: A no holds-barred-kiss-your-sister-all out brawl.     

    

Harvey Wasserman article, Greetings from St. Louis

Dear Editor:

    I was quite impressed with the article by Harvey Wasserman, The states of Iowa and the union agree: Bush can be beaten of January 22, 2004.  Several of my friends have already received a hyper link to the article.
       In the past I have worked on several Democratic campaigns as a volunteer.  I am currently a church musician in St. Louis, Missouri. I along with many others have been extremely concerned about the direction in which the country has been headed under the administration of George W. Bush.  Thus, the detailed way Mr. Wasserman writes is most appreciated.  

    There are a few questions which have come to my mind.  The first question is:  Does Mr. Wasserman know of any organizations which would be capable of undertaking the kind of vote verification which will be needed in 2004?  I am sure there will be people willing to participate in such a task if it can be set up the right way.  

    Could you possibly pass this note along to Mr. Wasserman?  I would like to know any and all ways I can help usher Mr. Bush from the White House.

Sincerely, Dennis L. Tucker
St. Louis, Missouri

Pages

Subscribe to Freepress.org RSS