John Ashcroft: Coming to a Town Near You?

On August 19th, Attorney General John Ashcroft will begin traveling to over a dozen U.S. cities to “set the record straight” about “mischaracterizations” of powers granted to the Justice Department under the USA Patriot Act. Ashcroft may also advocate for additional powers proposed by the so-called “Patriot Act II.”

ACT NOW! capwiz.com/voice4change/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=3142006

Common Cause has a long history of advocating for civil liberties. We continue to monitor the effects of the Patriot Act and its authorization of government intrusion into lives of average Americans. We believe that portions of Patriot Act violate the fundamental rights guaranteed to you under the Constitution.

Is “Big Brother” Here?

He could be. The USA Patriot Act, passed by Congress shortly after 9/11, grants the government new authority to investigate not just suspected terrorists, but you, your neighbor, and any other United States citizen or resident. For example:

1. The Act expands the government’s ability to look at your personal

Oppose exemptions to the Roadless Rule

Tell the Bush Administration you oppose their plans to exempt the Tongass and Chugach National Forests in Alaska from the Roadless Rule!

Public comment period extended to September 2nd!

This extension appears to be because the agency failed to provide timely response to those who requested more detailed information about plans to take the Tongass and Chugach out of the Roadless Rule.  

www.greenpeaceusa.org/index.fpl/10048/action_id/188.html

The Issue:

The Future Of Media in America Could Be Up To Ohio

Do you want the media to be controlled by a few huge companies?  The future of media could be up to you.  Urge Senators Mike DeWine and George Voinovich to co-sponsor S.1046, a bill to overturn the FCC's new media ownership rules. Senators DeWine and Voinovich are part of a small number of Senators whose support is needed to ensure the passage of this important legislation in the Senate.

The new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules will allow one company to own a daily newspaper, as many as three television stations, and up to eight radio stations in some markets in Ohio.  This benefits the media giants at your expense.

We need your help.

1. Please sign the Ohio petition to encourage Senators DeWine and Voinovich to support the roll back of FCC rules that benefit only big media companies and negatively impact the diversity of voices in our democracy.  Click here: www.commoncause.org/action/petition_fccstate.cfm?state=OH

2. Please forward this message to people in your community and help make

Faith-based drug wars: Bush recruits religious youth groups as ground troops

Bush recruits religious youth groups as ground troops for the 'drug wars' What do advocating "religious hiring rights," a $4 billion workplace retraining bill, and the war on drugs have in common? The short answer: Bring on the faith-based organizations!

Although more than 30 months have passed since President Bush announced the centerpiece of his domestic agenda -- his faith-based initiative -- and no significant broader efforts to fund his initiative has emerged from Congress, the administration continues to move ahead on a number of fronts.

Bush's latest faith-based proposal involves enlisting religious youth groups in the war on drugs. According to the Washington Times, the administration recently printed 75,000 copies of a guidebook to the drug wars called "Pathways to Prevention: Guiding Youth to Wise Decisions." The 100-page pamphlet "seeks to teach youth leaders how to handle questions and concerns about substance abuse." In addition to the publication, there's a new Web site and an e-mail newsletter.

The new anti-drug project is built around three premises which are spelled out in a fact sheet titled "Marijuana and Kids: Faith":

Harvey Wasserman

Harvey Wasserman is an irresponsible journalistic hack at best. His uninformed and malicious viewpoints on the Bush Administration, nuclear power, and apparently the world in general need to be put in check. Could it be that too much indulgence of the psychedelic pharmaceuticals has left him out of touch? If not, it appears that his celebrity has clouded his judgment. The slippery slope fallacy that he attempts to spin in just about every recent article is getting old. There is plenty of separation between reality and the doom and gloom that he spews forth as the inevitable end to all things current. Maybe it is time to let him retire back to Montague Farm. With enough of his hot air, I am sure there would be no shortage of electricity for anything deemed necessary. By the way, that hot air is renewable resource in that when his time has past, the next naysayer can take up where he left off.

Founding  Father of Neocon Philosophy Leo Strauss and Jefferson's Impending Death

Even the national press has sounded the alarm about the "Straussians." The Bush administration, particularly its foreign policy team, has been and is still heavily influenced by neoconservative "intellectuals" who are themselves under the influence of the teachings of Leo Strauss. These include Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz; Abram Shulsky of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, Richard Perle of the Pentagon advisory board, and Elliott Abrams of the National Security Council.

Strauss, a refugee from Nazi Germany, came to America in the late 1930s and was particularly interested in political philosophy and the study of tyranny. He taught at the University of Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s during the Cold War, when capitalism went on a global manic binge and liberalism died a silent death with its conversion to "liberal" capitalism (an oxymoran) and away from socialism (Death of the American Politic, BushWatch, August, 2003).

If Famous Journalists Became Honest Rappers

The “Bulworth” movie -- with Warren Beatty playing a senator who begins to speak disturbing truths in the form of rap lyrics -- caused quite a stir when it came out five years ago. At the time, I wondered aloud in a column about what might happen if leading journalists followed that fictional example.

     I’m biased, but it seems to me that some of my lyrics have stood the test of time. For instance:

     DAN RATHER: “I like to tell the public how it pains me so -- to be more superficial and keep racking up the dough.”

     COKIE ROBERTS: “Born and bred in the pundit patch, I utter easy notions with great dispatch. Every spectrum has a center, every player has a price. If you want to stick my neck out, I have to say no dice.”

     BRIT HUME: “I love to tell you all the news on Fox TV. My boss man Rupert Murdoch is cool as he can be. He pays me piles of money for tilting to the right. And if you sound progressive, you’ll really get a fight.”

     MARK SHIELDS, AL HUNT, ROBERT NOVAK and MARGARET CARLSON: “We’re on the show each week, but the jokes are not so funny. CNN dubbed us ‘The

Weathervanes for the wrong direction

AUSTIN, Texas -- When in the midst of a Blame Typhoon, with charges and counter-charges being hurled in all directions, I find it most useful to consult those two polar stars of utter wrongheadedness, Tom DeLay and The Wall Street Journal's editorial page.

            Both good for a chuckle, and both perfect weathervanes for the wrong direction. When in doubt, Disagree with DeLay, And you'll be OK.

            The Journal, in addition to meretricious arguments, vast leaps over relevant stretches of fact and history, and an awesome ability to bend any reality to its preconceived ideological ends, also offers that touch of (SET ITAL) je ne sais quoi, (END ITAL) that ludicrous dogmatism that never fails to charm.

            A column about energy politics by George Mellon in Tuesday's Journal contained just the right mix of irrelevant argument (he's very upset that a bunch of nervous nellies want to shut down the Indian Point nuclear plant, as though this had anything to do with the frail, undercapitalized transmission grid that caused the blackout last week), expedient forgetfulness (uh, actually, OPEC had quite a bit to do

Help prevent identity theft

I want to update you on our work to prevent identity theft, ensure credit report accuracy, and protect consumer privacy. In July, despite our best efforts and thousands of e-mails from supporters like you, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee overwhelmingly approved legislation (HR 2622) that would permanently bar states from enacting most state privacy laws that are stronger than federal law through a process known as preemption. Although this legislation includes modest improvements to federal identity theft protections, its permanent bar on state authority is unacceptable.

Now, however, the stakes are even higher. In August, after a hard-fought 4 year campaign, CALPIRG and other groups, including AARP and Consumers Union, successfully passed the nation's strongest financial privacy law through the California legislature, despite a multi-million dollar bank industry campaign against it.

But unless the Senate amends the House bill, most of California's new financial privacy law could be thrown out in court.

Current indie films tops in my view

1) "The Cuckoo," a humanist, pacifist, feminist, indigenist film about a Soviet soldier, his Finnish enemy, and a Lapp woman who takes them both in, when they have each escaped sentences of execution by their respective armies. None of them speaks a language either of the others can understand. There is no preaching by any of them about anything. But when a Russian writer or director wants to be humanist, no one of any other nationality can hold a candle to him.

    2) "Camp," not a documentary but filmed in an actual summer camp for would-be theater and other performers in their teens and younger. As performers they are so extraordinary that I think the casting directors (plural) deserve Oscars. But the film is about adolescents. There isn't a single false touch.

    3) "Whale Rider," Maori actors depicting their culture. A lead character is as confident that nothing has changed in 2,000 years as the Israeli settlers I'd seen the previous week at the SF Jewish Film Festival, so it takes a miracle to provide a happy ending, which is about as realistic as if Jonah's whale landed on the beach in Tel Aviv

Pages

Subscribe to Freepress.org RSS