Saturday, June 21, 2003

Mojowire for 6/21
PART I

ED NOTE:
MUSIC WILL BE - Intro/Hendrix, Star Spangled Banner
S9/ Eat Static, Crash and Burn
Exeunt/WildChild, Renegade Master



J. Good morning, and welcome to The Mojowire... I’m Mojo...

S. And I’m Sean, it’s Saturday, June 21, and here’s the news for the week gone-by...

J. Brought to you by Mojohaus-fine journalism, afflicting the comfortable since 1988. Now headlines, from Mojohaus:

S. First this week, William O’Reilly from Fox News gets run from his morning radio slot in Baghdad by the Bay, and apparently, it’s all because of the devil Internet. That’s right net hippy, if not for your child molsestation, wholesome Americans would be able to listen to the No Brain Zone.

J. Next we take a look at how natural gas prices could auger doom for an economy that the Bush administration desparately wants you to believe is in some sort of skyrocketing love fest. Perhaps it really is time to let what’s left the dinosaur’s rest in peace and get some real energy alternatives.

S. Then, a federal Court upholds Count Ashcroft’s authority to disappear suspects into the dungeons of the Justice Department beyond the scope of the public or judical review. Will the last American please take the Bill of Rights with them when they leave...

J. Then the good Doctor Strychnine brings us the horrific news on the environment --*again*-- and we get a dose of what Christine Tood Whitman’s resignation from the nation’s nature watchdog really means and what the administration’s true intentions for national environmental policy are, as if you needed further convincing.

S. Next, a high ranking Intelligence official flees the White House, with dark tales of lying and decit that corroborate charges that the Administrition spun a web of lies to scare the nation into the Iraqi invasion. Rand Beers and the folks at the pro war New Republic lay out even more evidence.

J. And then we bring this week’s presidential primary round up with reports on Howard Dean cleaning the floor in Wisconsin wih John Kerry and what it means, Dennis Kucinich further chasing the freak vote, and Dick Gephardtr playing follow the leader.

S. So stand by to stand by while we get ready to kick this pig...




J. In recent weeks, the Host of Fox News’ “No Brain Zone” *William* O’Reilly fired off a blast at the evil internet and its denizens of liars, theives and liberals. Apparently a radio station in Baghdad by the Bay replaced William’s morning spleen venting, and it was reported by the Chronicle and picked up by the Web that he was run for being a Scrub and a Rush Clone that coulnd’t get the drive time ratings.

According to the Radio Station, they dropped him to put on Jim Romes’ Sports show. Apparently Rome clones were banging their monkey -- that is calling the program manager-- to get fresh Romey live every monring instead of William.

William maintains they simply moved to another radio station, and that he was bumped to make room for someone with a fresh show is Lies, Lies, Lies!

The reason we bring you this slice of William’s delusional life is to let you know who he holds responsible. Apparently, its the source of all of America’s Darkness, The internet..check out his take here..

Quote: “The Internet has become a sewer of slander and libel, an unpatrolled polluted waterway, where just about anything goes.  For example, the guy who raped and murdered a 10-year old in Massachusetts says he got the idea from the NAMBLA Web site that he accessed from the Boston public library. The ACLU's defending NAMBLA in that civil lawsuit.”

You know, it really buries the needle on the Irony Meter when someone from Fox News complains about media that spouting slander and libel. It’s even better when it’s William O’Reilly, who has offered such sober takes as the Clinton/Greenspan conspiracy to devalue his 401K, and the hordes of man eating sharks spawned by the Endangered Specias Act hunting off the Jersey Shore ready to mack down on America’s youth.

But what really takes the cake is the hubris of accusing the entire Net populuation of being a gang of thugs and child rapers because he gets run out of his radio slot. And isn’t this the oldest thing the GOP bag of magic tricks, to try to freak out Ma and Pa Walton with horror storeis about Child Molesters skulking in the Internet ready to snacth their kids right through the monitor. But wait, William isn’t done yet...

S. Quote: “Talking Points noted with interest the hue and cry that went up from some quarters about the FCC changing the rules and allowing big corporations to own even more media properties.  But big corporations are big targets. 

If they misbehave, they can be sued for big bucks.  These small time hit and run operators on the net, however, can traffic in perversity and falsehoods all day long with impunity.  It's almost impossible to rein them in. So which is the bigger threat to America?  The big companies or the criminals at the computer?  Interesting question...”

Now we come down to it folks. Wouldn’t you just be safer if you offered all the airwaves and the entire internet to Corporations like Fox? Freedom and competition in the media is scary and untidy. Fine, upstanding people like William are soiled when cranks by you Net Hippie. Especially when you are allowed to post whatever you want without being censored by Rupert.

Actually, Willaim, out of your endless trail of ignorant takes, this one might get you into the Pat Buchanan Hall of Dangerous Crank Fame. While it is certainly true that you can find endless cesspools of Freakery on the Internet, you can find cesspools virtually anywhere if you stare hard enough.

And No, it would not be better to whore out the internet to your masters at Fox and his cohorts in the corporate Media.

We at the Mojowire think Americans can be trusted to distinguish between the bad of the Web and the good. And isn’t that choice the freedom that Conservtives cry themslevs hoarse about while trying to scare everyone that liberals are trying to take it away from you? Let’s make no mistake here folks, William O’Reilly is a punk and crank, but we cannot ignore him.

Because he has the megaphone of a nationally broadcast show, only mediums like the Internet can offer an antidote to his ignorance and stupidity. And that’s why William hates you Net Hippies, not because you are the cause of evil and death, but because you might be able to shout as loud as him, and he can’t cut you off.


J. So how’s this for stoopid...we have a national energy policy built around the laughable notion that fossil fuels will last until the end of all time and that anyone who wants to create energy without poisoning the air or water is simply a commie punk bent on destroying the American way of life.

But this is what you, Wireheads, are being asked to believe. This in spite of reports earlier this week that natural gas prices are getting ready to rocket upwards like the trousers of a 14-year-old boy downloading Miss August for the first time.

Part of the reason for this impending price spike is apparently the scarcity of gas with which we humans are about to be faced. And it could put another nail in the coffin of an economy that despite signs of resiliency and robustness is the continued victim of political hacks and speechwriters who pass as domesitic policy advisors in the Bush West Wing.

For instance, we Southern Californians might not think much of it, but natural gas is a major component in the fertalizer that grows much of our food, from the lettuce that we make our salads with to the grain we feed the cows that become our Exterme Atomic Burgers.

Moreover, the price spikes in gas prices that are expected should manage to coincide with the warm weather that will undoubtedly plunge many of our fellow SoCals in to energy crisis induced darkness. And then, darkness again when you pass out from seeing your electricity bill...

This is all due to the fact that the age of the dinosaurs really is coming to an end. Although demand for fossil fuels, in particular natural gas has increased by almost 25 percent in the last year, the ability to produce it has fallen dramatically, mainly because the main production centers in North America have become so overworked.

This has caused a doubling in price in the last year for natural gas from $3.65 per one million BTUs to more than $6 per one million BTUs.

So, you may be asking, what the hell does this have to do with the overall economy? Natural gas prices are, according to many at the Federal Reserve, one of the canaries in the coal mines, not reflected by the pimps on CNBC, much less in the recent stock market bump.

What is happening is that the factories in the midwest that make fertalizers are starting to close and lay people off because they can not afford the gas necessary to make their product. At the same time it is causing a spike in the cost of agricultural production.

S. Ask one of your roommates who took macroeconomics last semester, and they will tell you that in terms of the national economic health, ag production is a bellweather. It is one of those numbers that are used as the foundation for the rest of the national economic model.

And that number is starting to spike in some nasty and impolitic ways.

So we would like to forward the following imodest proposal: Let the freekin’ dinosaurs rest in peace already. It is time to start looking at other, more efficient, more renwable means of energy.

As much as the GOP might like to start recycling immigrants and minorities in high pressure death chambers to turn them in to oil, it doesn’t seem likely that the rest of us will start letting do that any time real soon.

So how about this? We create a national work project, not unlike the Apollo program, to create a combination hydrogen cell, electric energy system that not only can create energy cheaply, but also store it and transmit across a nationallly standardized energy grid.

What about more research into wind, solar and the like. Hell, we are even in favor of more nuclear energy, if only we could trust the national energy entrepreneurs not to be wretched greedheads who would build fission plants held together with spit and sealing wax.

But the bottom line is that the energy industry in this country needs to back the right horse, and that horse does *not* resemble the *T*Rex from Jurrasic Park. It is in the form of wind farms and massive banks of hydrogen fuel cells generating vast amounts of megawattage.

Is it ideology? Is it short sighted greed? is it simple stoopidity that keeps a single energy company or consortium from getting out in front of this technology? We don’t know. But we do know this. If these companies don’t want to become as extinct as the liquified remains of the animals they are burning now, then this is the time to start that investment process.

Because in 20 years when these other companies are starting to come into play, they will realize the long term viability of their technology, and will work it with the politics they learned from a lifetime of watching the oil and gas industry...at which point, the Xixiulub meteor-version of paradigm shift will make the likes of BP, ARCO and Sempra Energy about as relevant as a Discovery Channel special “Walking with Extinct 20th Century Industrial Monoliths...”


J. This week, the Federal appeals court in the District of Columbia handed down another legal victory for Count Von Ashcroft. The issue at hand was a suit that argued that the DOJ is required to diclose the name of the those detained by the DOJ after the September 11th attacks based on the Departments suspician of thier connection to the attacks.

The 2-1 majority ruled that the Court should show deference to the National Secuirty concerns of the Justice Department in resisting the Freedom of Information Act requests to disclose the names of the detainnees.

“The need for deference in this case is just as strong as in earlier cases, Americans face an enemy just as real as it’s former cold war foes,” says the opinion written by GOP appointee David B Sentelle. So basically, because of the 9/11 attacks, the judiciary should just shut the hell up and go sulk in the corner when Justice decides it wants to lock someone up in the Bastille.

The Lone disesenter in the case, Judge David Tatel, a demorcratic appointee, fired off a nice scud in his disennt. Quote: “by accepting the government’s vague, poorly explained allegations, and by filling in the gaps in the governments case with it’s own assumptions about facts absent from the record, this court has converted deference into acquicescense.”

It seem Judge Tatel is in the possesion of that rare commodity -- an unabriged version of the Bill of Rights that requires the state to disclose the names of anyone arrested, and what they are charged with.

The significance of this decision, which is cetain to go platinum and head up to the Supremes, is not that the District Court has punted on the basis of the Political Question doctrine. What is shocking even to the cynics here at he Wire, is that the Courts have been eager to surrender their vital role to protect the crucial role of judicial review whenever someone is deprived of their liberty.

A.G. Ashcroft would weave a technical argument that immigrants and other such “dangerous” persons are technically not subject to the rigors of Constitutional process. But we would like to remind the AG of the words of Thomas Jefforson in the Declaration “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all Men are created equal”.

In other words, my dear Count Ashcroft, regardless of someones place of birth, the need to protect their rights and their liberties is just as urgent. Isn’t that why we felt it necessary to fight a war of liberation for others so oppressed?

S. At no time has anyone offered up a credible explanation why the Justice Department needs to hold over 700 people incommunicado. Memo to the AG, I think if any of those incarcerated are Al Queda operatives, then Osama bin Laden has figured out you have them.

Hiding their names serves no National Security purpose other than preserving the right of the government to whisk away anyone it deems a threat at any time. I’m sure Dr. Martin Luther King and John Lennon were grateful that the Government did not have this power in past decades, or they would have been held in secret because of the threat they posed.

Remind us why we even have a Federal Judiciary if every off the wall request by the Executive Branch for expanded police powers is granted without question by cowed judges, a colusionary congrress and an apathetic public.

Look, this is very simple. Our country is supposed to be the place where there are no secret police, no hidden tribunals, no politically inspired trials, no disappeared dissidents, no concentration camps and no mass graves...

That’s the sort of country that our founding fathers wanted to avoid, and it’s this vision that has guided almost 250 years of jurisprudence, and created doctrines such as due process and equal protection under the law.

What is so difficult to understand about this? In America, unlike many other places in the world, people can not be whisked off to the Island of Misfit Toys because the current junta doesn’t like how they dance the Tarantella?

And because current efforts are so demonstrably incapable of protecting the security of the state, we here at the wire, along with the legions of Wireheads in the vast radio and internet hinterland, are asking, what the real agenda is here?

More and more people are starting to use the “F” word regarding certain elements within the adminisrtration. And more and more the “Facist” word is being used with more frequency about the overall administration, not merely a “rogue” element or political operatives gone off the reservation.

How else can we describe the utter disrepect with which the dread Vampire Ashcroft is treating our Constitutional rights to be free from government harassment and oppression?

Remember when you go to the polls next year...one party will likely be the party of limited government interference in your life, and it will *not* be the Republican Party...

And now the music is telling me that we have an incoming transmission from the redoubtable Dr. S9…

J. That’s right. It is time once again for our regular contributor Dr. Strychnine, reporting from his super-secret, ultra-dope, mega-cool, extra-jiggy, Mojohaus spy satellite of love high in geosynchronous orbit above Baghdad by the Bay…take it away S9…


S9 . Greetings fellow space travelers, break-abouts, dead-headers and able-bodies. We interrupt your regularly scheduled panic for a brief reminder that the comfort of all our passengers is the highest priority of the flight crew on S9 Station.

Our instruments tell us that the ambient air temperature in the living spaces is rising and the oxygen mixture is running a little leaner than we usually like. Consequently, we have initiated several new protocols to monitor these levels with the objective of developing a plan of action. You can trust us. We're in the *control* room.

You may have noticed that the environmental engineers on the station have been extremely busy lately, and some of them have been more than a little testy. Perhaps, you were alarmed by the sudden resignation of Christine Todd Whitman from her post at the head of the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. Be assured, though, that her decision to spend more time with her family comes as no surprise to the Bush administration.

Yesterday, the E.P.A. leaked internal memoranda to the New York Times showing that the White House censored the draft of a report due out next week that was intended to provide the first comprehensive review of what is and isn't yet known about environmental problems threatening
human health and the environment. According to the Times, the entire section on global warming and climate change will be edited down to just two entirely non-committal paragraphs that say essentially nothing.

And this was the *compromise* language, required to keep the EPA staff from throwing burning tyres around the necks of the savage thugs in the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the OMB-- because the White House *wanted* to replace the entire section with a summary of a report from the American Petroleum Institute that says climate change is caused by crop circles. It has nothing-- nothing whatsoever to do-- with carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide gas emissions from tail-pipes and smokestacks. What are you thinking, man?

Here in the control room on S9 Station, we understand how the greenhouse effect works, and we can read the temperature gauges and run the numbers ourselves. We think the Bush Administration is playing a rather bad game of poker.

When George W. Bush was just a losing candidate for President, he was in favor of limiting power plant and vehicle exhaust emissions, and he was even in favor of establishing an international carbon dioxide credit market-- a key step in the next step after the completion of the Kyoto protocols. Weirdly, these were his positions when Ken Lay of Enron was in his good graces. It was Ken Lay who convinced him of these ideas.

But after he we elected President-- and after the White House stopped returning Kenny Boy's phone calls-- Bush took up with new friends, who are of a decidedly different mind about what is the correct way to deal with climate change.

So it was that last year, the President dismissed an earlier EPA report, as well as a report from the National Academy of Sciences, by waving his hand and saying snottily, "Yeah, I read the report put out by the bureaucracy." Both of those reports truthfully explained the role of greenhouse gases in climate change, but the President's new friends could not abide the truth. The President took a lot of heat for that snubbing of the EPA, and deservedly so.

Sensing that environmental politics are where the President's numbers are the weakest, a GOP pollster named Frank Lutz advised him and all the opponents of regulatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions to "make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate." He went further, "Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly."

As we said, it's a bad game of poker. The President and his wealthy friends in the oil, gas and coal industries are bluffing. These guys can all read the same numbers as everyone else, and they have to know the greenhouse gas writing is on the climate change wall-- it's just a matter of staying in a position to book out maximum bank before the energy economy crashes. So they are bluffing like crazy, and they hope that most of the other players at the table will not bother to count the cards already facing up. Hey, why screw with a good system when it's working for you, right?

The flight crew on S9 Station doesn't mind if you want to gamble your oxygen stake on the zocalo with the freebooters from Zeta Reticuli, but we hope you will play responsibly. You should only put at risk the atmosphere you can afford to lose. Your comfort is our business, and we like having customers to do business with. If you still have a hand in this game-- and if you're within ten light years of Sol, at least, then you almost certainly do-- maybe it's time for you to call the bet.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled panic.

SEE PART II
MojoWire for 06/21/03
PART II


J. Let’s see if this sounds familiar...The Bush Administration’s war on terror and Homeland Security is cooked up by speechwriters and pollsters, West Wing insiders have decided the facts and fit the intelligence to conform to their beliefs and that they couldn’t secure a Turkish whorehouse, much less do anything worthwhile inside it...

Now where do you think such rhetoric would come from? Well, we’ll skip right to the punch line since you have probably guessed it all already... a national security professional who started his service battling the communists in the Reagan administration has walked out on W, saying that this current crop of slow-headed, mouth breathers are about the dumbest thing he has seen in nearly 40 years of government service.

Let’s just let Rand Beer speak for himself for a moment, quote: “The administation wasn’t matching its deeds to its words in the war on terrorism. They’re making us less secure, not more secure. As an insider, I saw the things that weren’t being done. And the longer I sat and watched, the more concerend I because, until I got up and walked out.”

So what is the problem? Mainly, a pathological inability to talk about anything other than the utter fantasy of an Iraqi threat to the United States. According to Beer, the comic-book like focus on Saddam Hussein has robbed the nation of domestic secuirty manpower, brains and money. It created fissures in the United States’ counterterrorism alliances and will end up breeding a whole next generation of Al Qaeda recruits.

His crtique is long and involved. It ranges from mistakes in Afganistan, such as dropping the ball on securing the country, to underfunding local police, fire and paramedics and the U.S. Coast Guard, who are the first line of defense against future terror attacks.

Quote: “It’s a very closed, small, controlled group. This is an administration that determines what it thinks and then sets about to prove it. There’s almost a religious kind of certainty. There’s no curiosity about opposing points of view. It’s very scary. There’s a kind of ghost agenda.”

But his harshest criticism has been for the Bush Adminsitration’s lack of respect for international insititutions, coupled with an almost religious belief that leaders of those same institutions, particularly in Europe would simpld over for anything we tell them to do.

S. But upon leaving governmen service, what does Beers do? Go write his book? Go on the lecture circuit? Become a “private contractor?” No, no, no... he goes to work as presidential candidate John Kerry’s National Security Advisor for his campaign.

According to Beers, he believes Kerry is the guy with the most realistic grasp of the world situation and being a veteran as well -- unlike most of the current senior staff at the White House -- he understands the use of force and security on a level that not many others in the current administration can.

Now if this sounds like more of the “well-we-told-you-so” from the Mojowire, then you are partly right. You will excuse us if we are preaching to the choir in part. But if you are in the choir, feel free to sing along.

Because at the end of the day we are really reaching out to the tequila and coke hung-over Republicans here in Orange County who don’t want to believe that their adminsitration is peopled with complete morons and jack-booted Nazis.

Well, it would be one thing if it was just us saying so, but the fact remains that more and more people are jumping off the Bush train, and they are not waiting for the wreckage to slide to halt, much less hope beyond hope that they should make it safely into the station.

This is only the latest example. You know if it was just a gang of left wing cranks who hate everything and give credibility only to people in goatees and black turtlenecks sipping cappucino while they wear holes in their Tibetan worry beads, then that would be one thing.

But guys like Beers are old-school cold warriors, guys who cut their teeth defeating the Red Menace and what came after it. Paranoia and realism about national security is a way of life with guys like Beers.

And he, along with many others have given the Bush Administration a thumbs down in their performance since 9-11. As for us, we are going to be watching this guy like a hawk and the minute he hops a plane to the Southern Hemisphere, we will not be far behind...


J. We begin this week’s presidential campaign roundup with look at the Wisconsin straw poll at the state’s Democratic Convention, and what it means in the world of real politic. For those keeping score at home, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean beat both Dennis Kucinich and John Kerry like the family mule in the unofficial voting among Democratic party faithful last week in cheese-head country.

And be reminded Mojowire faithful that we are Dean supporters here. Now the interesting aspect is not that necessarily that Dean won, but that he had any competition whatsoever, and that the he was going up against the varsity, as embodied by Kerry.

John Kerry was second to Dean in the delegate count (126 to 33). Kerry also was second to Dean in the guest count (77 to 17). Dean's combined total of 203 topped Kerry's combined total of 50.

This year, the Democratic National Committee actively discouraged attendees from voting via mailings and handouts to activists. The DNC contends that straw polls sap energy and resources from campaigns.

What does this say about the early dynamic of the race? It was interesting to note that many professional watchers and pols often dismiss these kinds of straw polls as meaningless. And yet, for all that, John Kerry, a big name front runner still saw fit to go.

Moreover, although he decided to go, he apparently didn’t have the commitment to go in there and blow away the competiion. There is a school of political wisdom that states that a candidate should never show up to something like a Wisconsin straw poll without intending to stomp upon the terra and leave with your opponents heads hanging from your horse. Especially when you are a tier-one candidate like Kerry, who’s every move is being scrutinzed.

But even more interesting to us is the fact that the DNC apparently tried to scram this thing in an some sort of attempt to keep the party faithful from getting their Dean-on. And their abject failure means that the Doctor’s juggernaut may really be beginning to pick up serious steam.

Quote: “Despite the monkeypox-like hysteria created by the DNC, nearly a third of the total attendees participated in the straw poll,” said Vaughn Ververs, Hotline.com’s editor. “The results were representative of the feeling among the delegates. Had all the attendees voted, the overall results likely would not have been different.”

The Doctor is clearly about to get a seat at the adult’s table. With each passing day, it becomes clear that the DNC cannot write him off as an aberration or spoiler. God forbid he should start to raise some real money.

S. Next... recently we brought you the news that Dennis Kucinich was going to be the “medical” marijuana candidate and his manly wielding of the chair leg of truth when it comes to the Bush War sales job. Well, this week “Special K” seems to have taken a further step towards the freak vote by securing the all-important Ben and Jerry’s endorsement.

Ben Cohen -- the “Ben” in the Ben and Jerry’s -- told the Associated Press last week that as a progressive, he felt that Kucinich was the candidate who most closely reflected his values.

Quote: “While others discuss incremental change, only Dennis Kucinich advocates changing the way our government is run in order to reflect the values of America's people,” Cohen said.

Cohen added that his endorsement was an individual decision and does not “imply that there will soon be an ice cream flavor named Kucinich Kreme.” Even so, it would appear that the Hippy-Love vote is being sewn up by Special K.

Some see these signs of life from the Special K camp as signs that Dean will have at least one viable challenger for the roll of credible progressive in the campaign.

Finally in this morning’s roundup, Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt played a little follow the leader thiw week unleashing Kerry’s national energy plan on his campaign.

Literally, massive investment in alternative energy, especially wind, solar and fuel cell technology; energy independence within the next 20 to 30 years; stop sending our money to the middle east; cleaner technology is better for the environment.

We had to look twice to make sure we weren’t accidentally re-reading the Kerry energy plan.

It really is kind of sad when one of the two or three guys who is *guaranteed* to be there this time next year thanks to the institutional support of the party can’t seem to generate an original thought, or who’s campaign is so utterly devoid of moral purpose.

Is Gephardt really in this thing? Is there really a Dick Gephardt campaign out there, or is it just a web site and some occasional public speeches? What is the deal with this guy? Is the best the party can do?

And the truly outstanding part is that then the ossified party elite get all bent out of shape when the rank and file voters start to look to a guy like Special K, Doctor Dean or Sen. John “The Smiler” Edwards when it becomes clear that the only thing the truly entrenched institutional candidates are good for is waiting for their bones to turn into oil like the rest of the dinosaurs.

J. So our patriotic thought for the day: Habeus Corpus means the Terrorists win... or as John Ashcroft says... “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein NewsChannel!”



S. And that’s all for this week, tune in again soon for another exciting installment, unless, of course, we are declared enemies of the state.

And remember, you can now email the Mojowire at Mojohaus@hotmail.com, that’s M-O-J-O-H-A-U-S@hotmail.com.

J. This has been the Mojowire, brought to you by Mojohaus...Mojohaus-fine journalism, afflicting the comfortable since 1988, and produced by our super funky fly producer Mike Payne and the Darkling Eclectica, here on KUCI, 88.9...

Friday, June 20, 2003

MojoWire for 06/21/03
PART II


J. Let’s see if this sounds familiar...The Bush Administration’s war on terror and Homeland Security is cooked up by speechwriters and pollsters, West Wing insiders have decided the facts and fit the intelligence to conform to their beliefs and that they couldn’t secure a Turkish whorehouse, much less do anything worthwhile inside it...

Now where do you think such rhetoric would come from? Well, we’ll skip right to the punch line since you have probably guessed it all already... a national security professional who started his service battling the communists in the Reagan administration has walked out on W, saying that this current crop of slow-headed, mouth breathers are about the dumbest thing he has seen in nearly 40 years of government service.

Let’s just let Rand Beer speak for himself for a moment, quote: “The administation wasn’t matching its deeds to its words in the war on terrorism. They’re making us less secure, not more secure. As an insider, I saw the things that weren’t being done. And the longer I sat and watched, the more concerend I because, until I got up and walked out.”

So what is the problem? Mainly, a pathological inability to talk about anything other than the utter fantasy of an Iraqi threat to the United States. According to Beer, the comic-book like focus on Saddam Hussein has robbed the nation of domestic secuirty manpower, brains and money. It created fissures in the United States’ counterterrorism alliances and will end up breeding a whole next generation of Al Qaeda recruits.

His crtique is long and involved. It ranges from mistakes in Afganistan, such as dropping the ball on securing the country, to underfunding local police, fire and paramedics and the U.S. Coast Guard, who are the first line of defense against future terror attacks.

Quote: “It’s a very closed, small, controlled group. This is an administration that determines what it thinks and then sets about to prove it. There’s almost a religious kind of certainty. There’s no curiosity about opposing points of view. It’s very scary. There’s a kind of ghost agenda.”

But his harshest criticism has been for the Bush Adminsitration’s lack of respect for international insititutions, coupled with an almost religious belief that leaders of those same institutions, particularly in Europe would simpld over for anything we tell them to do.

S. But upon leaving governmen service, what does Beers do? Go write his book? Go on the lecture circuit? Become a “private contractor?” No, no, no... he goes to work as presidential candidate John Kerry’s National Security Advisor for his campaign.

According to Beers, he believes Kerry is the guy with the most realistic grasp of the world situation and being a veteran as well -- unlike most of the current senior staff at the White House -- he understands the use of force and security on a level that not many others in the current administration can.

Now if this sounds like more of the “well-we-told-you-so” from the Mojowire, then you are partly right. You will excuse us if we are preaching to the choir in part. But if you are in the choir, feel free to sing along.

Because at the end of the day we are really reaching out to the tequila and coke hung-over Republicans here in Orange County who don’t want to believe that their adminsitration is peopled with complete morons and jack-booted Nazis.

Well, it would be one thing if it was just us saying so, but the fact remains that more and more people are jumping off the Bush train, and they are not waiting for the wreckage to slide to halt, much less hope beyond hope that they should make it safely into the station.

This is only the latest example. You know if it was just a gang of left wing cranks who hate everything and give credibility only to people in goatees and black turtlenecks sipping cappucino while they wear holes in their Tibetan worry beads, then that would be one thing.

But guys like Beers are old-school cold warriors, guys who cut their teeth defeating the Red Menace and what came after it. Paranoia and realism about national security is a way of life with guys like Beers.

And he, along with many others have given the Bush Administration a thumbs down in their performance since 9-11. As for us, we are going to be watching this guy like a hawk and the minute he hops a plane to the Southern Hemisphere, we will not be far behind...


J. We begin this week’s presidential campaign roundup with look at the Wisconsin straw poll at the state’s Democratic Convention, and what it means in the world of real politic. For those keeping score at home, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean beat both Dennis Kucinich and John Kerry like the family mule in the unofficial voting among Democratic party faithful last week in cheese-head country.

And be reminded Mojowire faithful that we are Dean supporters here. Now the interesting aspect is not that necessarily that Dean won, but that he had any competition whatsoever, and that the he was going up against the varsity, as embodied by Kerry.

John Kerry was second to Dean in the delegate count (126 to 33). Kerry also was second to Dean in the guest count (77 to 17). Dean's combined total of 203 topped Kerry's combined total of 50.

This year, the Democratic National Committee actively discouraged attendees from voting via mailings and handouts to activists. The DNC contends that straw polls sap energy and resources from campaigns.

What does this say about the early dynamic of the race? It was interesting to note that many professional watchers and pols often dismiss these kinds of straw polls as meaningless. And yet, for all that, John Kerry, a big name front runner still saw fit to go.

Moreover, although he decided to go, he apparently didn’t have the commitment to go in there and blow away the competiion. There is a school of political wisdom that states that a candidate should never show up to something like a Wisconsin straw poll without intending to stomp upon the terra and leave with your opponents heads hanging from your horse. Especially when you are a tier-one candidate like Kerry, who’s every move is being scrutinzed.

But even more interesting to us is the fact that the DNC apparently tried to scram this thing in an some sort of attempt to keep the party faithful from getting their Dean-on. And their abject failure means that the Doctor’s juggernaut may really be beginning to pick up serious steam.

Quote: “Despite the monkeypox-like hysteria created by the DNC, nearly a third of the total attendees participated in the straw poll,” said Vaughn Ververs, Hotline.com’s editor. “The results were representative of the feeling among the delegates. Had all the attendees voted, the overall results likely would not have been different.”

The Doctor is clearly about to get a seat at the adult’s table. With each passing day, it becomes clear that the DNC cannot write him off as an aberration or spoiler. God forbid he should start to raise some real money.

S. Next... recently we brought you the news that Dennis Kucinich was going to be the “medical” marijuana candidate and his manly wielding of the chair leg of truth when it comes to the Bush War sales job. Well, this week “Special K” seems to have taken a further step towards the freak vote by securing the all-important Ben and Jerry’s endorsement.

Ben Cohen -- the “Ben” in the Ben and Jerry’s -- told the Associated Press last week that as a progressive, he felt that Kucinich was the candidate who most closely reflected his values.

Quote: “While others discuss incremental change, only Dennis Kucinich advocates changing the way our government is run in order to reflect the values of America's people,” Cohen said.

Cohen added that his endorsement was an individual decision and does not “imply that there will soon be an ice cream flavor named Kucinich Kreme.” Even so, it would appear that the Hippy-Love vote is being sewn up by Special K.

Some see these signs of life from the Special K camp as signs that Dean will have at least one viable challenger for the roll of credible progressive in the campaign.

Finally in this morning’s roundup, Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt played a little follow the leader thiw week unleashing Kerry’s national energy plan on his campaign.

Literally, massive investment in alternative energy, especially wind, solar and fuel cell technology; energy independence within the next 20 to 30 years; stop sending our money to the middle east; cleaner technology is better for the environment.

We had to look twice to make sure we weren’t accidentally re-reading the Kerry energy plan.

It really is kind of sad when one of the two or three guys who is *guaranteed* to be there this time next year thanks to the institutional support of the party can’t seem to generate an original thought, or who’s campaign is so utterly devoid of moral purpose.

Is Gephardt really in this thing? Is there really a Dick Gephardt campaign out there, or is it just a web site and some occasional public speeches? What is the deal with this guy? Is the best the party can do?

And the truly outstanding part is that then the ossified party elite get all bent out of shape when the rank and file voters start to look to a guy like Special K, Doctor Dean or Sen. John “The Smiler” Edwards when it becomes clear that the only thing the truly entrenched institutional candidates are good for is waiting for their bones to turn into oil like the rest of the dinosaurs.

J. So our patriotic thought for the day: Habeus Corpus means the Terrorists win... or as John Ashcroft says... “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein NewsChannel!”



S. And that’s all for this week, tune in again soon for another exciting installment, unless, of course, we are declared enemies of the state.

And remember, you can now email the Mojowire at Mojohaus@hotmail.com, that’s M-O-J-O-H-A-U-S@hotmail.com.

J. This has been the Mojowire, brought to you by Mojohaus...Mojohaus-fine journalism, afflicting the comfortable since 1988, and produced by our super funky fly producer Mike Payne and the Darkling Eclectica, here on KUCI, 88.9...

Saturday, June 14, 2003

Mojowire for 6/14
ED NOTE:
MUSIC WILL BE -Intro/Hendrix, Star Spangled Banner
S9/ Eat Static, Crash and Burn
Exeunt/WildChild, Renegade Master



J. Good morning, and welcome to The Mojowire... I’m Mojo...

S. And I’m Sean, it’s Saturday, June14, and here’s the news for the week gone-by...

J. Brought to you by Mojohaus-fine journalism, afflicting the comfortable since 1988. Now headlines, from Mojohaus:

S. It is one thing for administration officials to disregard those from outside their circles when it came to the hunt for the dreaded Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction, but it is quite another when their own gang was telling them that the whole “imminent threat” reason for war in Iraq was sheer fantasy, then ignore them and still send hundreds of young Americans to their deaths. Even worse, they now want to pretend that they never knew. Is it time for the Special Prosecutor yet?

J. Pop quiz: Since when does the house majority leader make a major policy break with a popular sitting President of his own party? Answer: When it’s a poisonous little thug like Tom Delay. Last week, the Texas Fasci...errr Republican... told W to blow it out his ear when it came to tax breaks for the poor. We engage in a little Monday morning quarterbacking and ask the question: are the President’s coattails becoming a bit tattered?

S. This week, Strychnine brings us the joyous news of how you -- that’s right *you* -- can serve your nation in the glorious struggle against the evil doers, and not in some symbolic namby-pamby buy-war-bonds, save-kitchen-fat-for-glycerin, refusing-to-eat-french-fries way... No, you too can pick up a weapon and stand a post and show those dirty, long haired hippy so-and-sos what a real American does when confronted with evil. (Well, actually they vote progressive, but that’s another rant.)

J. Now let me get this straight...on the one hand our Justice Department wants all world governments to bend to our every whim when it comes to extraditing anyone we call a terrorist, as well as providing our resources to some of the most arguably criminal regimes on earth as long as they do our bidding. But then Rummy threw a shoe (again) last week because the rest of the world wants Americans to be held to the same standards we demand of everyone else.

S. Finally this morning, we give our weekly update on the Presidential Primary season. Things heated up a bit this week, with the first big media buy of the season going to our boy former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, meanwhile Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich brought the serious anti-war rhetoric to Congress this week and gernerated some ink for his incipient campaign, and John Kerry is set to unveil a energy plan soon and we have a quick preview.

J. So stand by to stand by and let’s kick this pig...




J. First this morning...For weeks now, we have been casting aspersions on the whole Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction issue. From the ruminations of Team Blix on the nature of poorly forged documents purporting to show an Iraqi nuclear weapons program to unsubstantiated reports from Iraqi dissidents of vast quantities of VX nerve gas and warriorized anthrax.

Unfortunately, we were hardly being original in our critical takes and skepticism. It turns out that the people with the Central and Defense Intelligence agencies, contrary to how their reports were spun to the masses, were telling the Bush Administration as early as last Sept. the very same things.

Reprehensible does not even begin to describe it. These people ordered hundreds of young American men and women to their deaths, accompanied by the deaths of God only knows how many thousands of Iraqis because Saddam Hussein and the Legion of Doom were being pimped as some sort of pro-wrestling villain, bent on world domination by the administration’s tools at Fox News and the Weekly Standard.

And what were we telling them at that time? If you go, pray to God you find those weapons, because if you don’t it’s your butt. Literally.

Well, its been what, how many days since hostilities have ceased? 20, 30, 40? Where are they guys? And now it appears they *knew* the evidence of weapons they used to justify this adventure was utterly bogus. So it appears that it is time to dust off those house and senate committee subpoenas and warm up the old rhetorical question: “What did you know and when did you know it.”

And of course, we can already hear the answers: “I’m sorry Senator, I can’t recall.”

Let’s bring it right up front here: this from a report by the Defense Intelligence Agency last Sept., recently leaked to Bloomberg News “There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons, or whether Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities.”

Meanwhile, Rumsfeld was told Congress on Sept. 19 of last year, after this report was released, that Iraq has “amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons, including VX, sarin and mustard gas.'”

Sec. Rumsfeld, that’s lying to Congress. And if you will be reminded of what happens to people who lie to Congress.

S. One of the funnier-slash-sadder aspects of this little charade has been the backpedaling of the Administration, especially Rummy, Connie Rice, the president’s National Security Advisor and Sec. of State Colin Powell, whom we still believe may have been an unwitting dupe in some of this.

First they dismissed the reports, then they said that WMD were not the major justification for the war, and when that clearly didn’t fly, now they are blaming the CIA and DIA for not forwarding the information to them in a timely fashion.

This has been either the most mendacious act on the part of an Administration since evil gnomes blew up the Maine in Havana Harbor, or one of the most monumental screwups in American foreign policy history.

Let’s put politics aside for a moment. First, the contention is that everybody in the intelligence services knew that the West African memo detailing an Iraqi uranium buying binge was a forgery and that what happened was that someone forgot to CC the Vice President in an email. In times past, the failure to accurately describe the threat status of a foreign nuclear power could have turned the earth into a smoldering cinder and radioactive ashes.

And this is also after the administration swore on the King James Bible that they would fix every single defect in the flow of intel from analysts to decision makers. They based the largest governmental reorganization in our history just to solve that very problem.

If you subscribe to that theory, then this administration is the most incompetent gang of slope-headed morons in the modern age.

The situation would appear to be one where the insiders on the President’s starting team, that’s Rummy, Rice, Powell and a few select others like Paul Wolfowitz wanted this war so much, that they convinced themselves of the reality of the weapons and then rationalized the use of information they knew to be bad or false, to sell this lemon, thinking it would all work out in the end.

Either that, or they knew that their only recourse to sell a war that no one wanted was to spin up a completely fabricated threat, in order to justify the invasion. The problem with this theory is that they did such a terrible job at it.

The child-geniuses and idiot savants bunkered down in Mojohaus craft services could have cooked up a better mythology than this, and we would have assured that the “weapons” would have been there, when we got there, instead of just clicking our heels together three times and opening our eyes, unshakable in our faith that a magic pile of death machines would mystically appear before us.

And now, the best they can come with is to cast the blame on the people who told them they were wrong in the first place. We at Mojohaus have very little patience for the blame the spooks at Arlington Hall and Langley for this one.

And let’s make no mistake folks, if this is, as we skeptics at the Mojohaus suspect it might be, that this administration deceived the American public intentionally, then it’s time to announce the sequel, Ken Starr II, Attack of the Clone. It might be time to haul the Vice President of the United States into the Well of the Senate and have senators crawl up into his colon with a microscope and subpoena power.


J. And while were on the subject of sycophants and toadies, this brings us to our analysis of why Rep. Tom Delay of planet Texas, the White House’s chief knee-breaker in the House of Representatives, decided to tell the President in no uncertain terms that when it comes to tax breaks for the poor, then W can just go pound sand.

Now before we attempt to answer why, it is important to review the real relationship here. When W wants something from Congress, Chief of Staff Andy Card’s first two calls are to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Majority Leader Darth Delay.

Moreover, when it comes time to raise money, Tom Delay is one of the elite go to guys on the court for *guaranteed* phat stax of mad bank. This means that the President has to show a modicum of deference to Delay, and in completing the circle of life in this unholy symbiosis, Delay’s own power is in turn backed by the support of the President.

So it was a little surprising when Delay told the President -- and Senator Frist for that fact -- what they could with their tax credit extension to the poor. This is not the sort of high profile policy issue where Republicans usually start knifing each other in the back.

We here at the wire have three essential theories on this and why each might prove to be important.

First, the theory is that it is all a set up. That it is staged political theater and that Delay and W are staging a little tiff in order for the President to make himself look more moderate fending off the vicious flesh eating rodent that is Tom Delay and his never ceasing campaign to put the poor back in workhouses and farm camps.

This theory has two parts that recommend it. One, the President is really starting to look like a doofus for how the tax cut thing went down and now he needs to look like his “compassionate conservatism” is actually worth something. Secondly, Tom Delay has no need to look like a hero, while at the same time can still push the President’s *real* tax cut agenda without the President getting his hands dirty in the bargain.

Which brings us to theoric the second: That Delay is enough an ideological zealot and drunk enough with power, that he honestly believes that he is running the show. He has convinced himself that the President is merely his own personal stooge and that he will now get his way all the time no matter what.

There has been more than enough documented history of Tom Delay acting like this to make it plausible. For instance, anyone (not technically in the chain of command, by the way) who believes it appropriate to order the nation’s Homeland Security apparatus to track down political opponents is someone who probably should not be in a position of power in a Republic in the first place.

And his ideology? Conservative doesn’t begin to describe it. As one of the central figures in the Clinton Impeachment, he is once reported to have said that he pursued Clinton because the nation’s horn-dog in chief did not share Delay’s ideas about using the U.S. government to promote a “biblical worldview.” This is the same guy who refers to the EPA as “The Gestapo.”

S. Which brings us to our third, and statistically most likely scenario. In the past couple of weeks, the high gloss sheen has started to fade off our glorious freedom fighters’ victory over the forces of evil, and the President’s approval rating has plummeted lower than Axel Rose sipping a triple sec-tequila and quualude milkshake while listening to Morrisey as he reclines in the intensified gravity of the planet Jupiter.

This might lead some career pols, like Delay, a man not known for his far reaching political sight, to jump like a frog on a hot plate to rudimentary stimulus. Or more succinctly, he, and many others like him might just be wondering if the President’s coattails are as sturdy as they were six months ago.

This combination of factors would certainly lead a Delay-like creature to want to do something to inoculate himself, immediately. At the end of the day, this would be a combination of something he believes in to begin with, while staking out a position where he can paint himself as “More-Republican-Than-Thou” when it comes time to start counting noses after the President’s political train wreck slides to a halt.

Bottom line, the lucky duckies, many of whom have been chasing down the Phantom Menace in Iraq won’t get any kind of tax relief in this coming year thanks to Tom Delay. So no matter how you parse Tom Delay’s motivations, the bottom line is that all this guy does is pimp for the wealthy and his ideological masters and everybody else can just go suck the pipe.

This is a vivid illustration of what these people really believe. If your wealthy God loves you, if your poor God hates you. These people don’t want to take us back to the 19th Century, they want to take us back to the 15th Century, when the politics of Europe were soaked in the blood of those who fought wars over minor theological differences.

Those who don’t remember history are doomed to choke on it, and our favorite poisonous little thug is trying to muscle everyone else out of the way to be first at the buffet line.

And now the music is telling me that we have an incoming transmission from the redoubtable Dr. S9…

J. That’s right. It is time once again for our regular contributor Dr. Strychnine, reporting from his super-secret, ultra-dope, mega-cool, extra-jiggy, Mojohaus spy satellite of love high in geosynchronous orbit above Baghdad by the Bay…take it away S9…


S9 Greetings, fellow spacers, breakabouts, deadheaders and ablebodies. This is your morning reveille. It is 15:45 hours UTC, and you are *late* *for* *watch*. Drop yer chocks and grab yer socks; now is the time for all good men, and all that-- your country is calling for a few good boys and girls, and... Uncle Sam Wants *You*!

Remember back in mid-February? When millions of long-hair hippee freakbots marched in cities all across America, Europe and the rest of the world in protest against the U.S. build-up for preventive war on Iraq? Remember how you worried that such public displays of sympathy for the Iraqi regime would prompt the Butcher of Baghdad to think he might yet prevail by continuing to stall the UNMOVIC weapons inspections? Remember how you were offended by all those dirty
shoeless peaceniks, and their angry slogans that bashed the U.S. military and how they clearly did *not* support the troops?

More to the point-- do you remember how you wished that you could go to Iraq yourself and stand alongside our glorious fighting men and women, and help them achieve victory over the tyrant of Iraq and assist in the liberation of the Iraqi patrimony? Well, NOW'S YOUR CHANCE!

That's right. According to an article in Monday's edition of USA Today, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard are beginning to have trouble meeting their recruiting targets. As of April 30, the Guard was short by 20% of their target for enlisting new soldiers. The Reserve is doing better: they're short by only about 3.5%, but the problem isn't with the full-time career groundpounders. The problem is recruiting the part-timers.

Rummy's new lean, mean, red-white-and-blue, fighting machine relies *heavily* on a large volunteer force of part-timers to provide logistical and even combat support to the main active duty forces. So, if you've been looking for a way to show your support for the troops and take pride in America's effort to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction, there is really no better way for you to do that than to march right down to your local recruiting station and sign up.

An awful lot of National Guard troopers have been mobilized in the global war on terrorism and Operation Enduring Freedom. More than 15,000 guardsmen have had their active duty extended for a second consecutive year, which hasn't happened since the Viet Nam conflict. Some units have been on active duty practically since September 11, 2001.

Much is required from the service of reservists. Military police and civil affairs units are right this minute on patrol and doing other duty in Iraq, helping the peace-loving people liberated from the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein rebuild their nation. And they clearly need your help.

Since the President jacked the Abraham Lincoln off the coast of San Diego to congratulate the armed forces for ending the "major combat operations" phase of Enduring Freedom, at least 47 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq. That's almost a quarter of all coalition deaths since the beginning of the War, and CENTCOM commanders say there will be more fighting ahead. Troopers all over Iraq are coming under daily attack, and America is losing almost one soldier a day at the current rate.

As the fighting continues to escalate-- just yesterday, almost 100 Iraqi fighters were killed in two separate incidents north of Baghdad, and Paul Bremer reports that remnants of the Iraqi regime loyal to Saddam are sabotaging oil pipelines, electric transmission networks and other critical infrastructure in the country-- your support for the troops is crucial to America's strategy for winning the war against terror and preventing the world's worst regimes from threatening us with the world's worst weapons.

What's that? You're too busy? You have other priorities in your life right now? You have a bad back? All the positions seem to be filled by minorities, and it doesn't look like there's room for patriotic folks like yourself? Military service is just not what you're about at this point? Can't afford to take time off from your job for a weekend a month?

No problem. Welcome to the anti-war movement, brother. Fill out these forms, and stand in that line over there. After a few simple questions, you'll be issued your 'No War!' bumper-sticker, your
open-toed sandals and your tie-dyed T-shirt. We'll have you shaped up and shipped out in no time. And no, you don't have to get a tattoo unless you want one.


J. Last week we broke it down for you regarding the horror that is the plan to weaken oversight of extradition and international law enforcement cooperation. To recap briefly: The Patriot Act II, or the John Ashcroft Manhood Enhancement Act, would allow the U.S. to extradite alleged criminals and terrorists with very little review by our elected officials -- such as they are.

This could lead to U.S. agents acting as proxy secret police for some of the most hideous regimes on earth. The act would also give greater latitude for the U.S. to work overseas and we are already starting to take the initiative in working overseas without the knowledge or permission of hosting governments, all in the name of the war on terror.

You would think that in that sort of environment that the administration would be anxious for stronger international bodies to bring the guilty to justice. Well, normally they might be but for one small little problem: You see those folks, many of whom are cheese eating surrender monkeys from old Europe, rudely insist that Americans be held accountable for their actions on the international stage of jurisprudence.

The first sign of intransigence came this week when many of the usual suspects, such as Vice President “Dick” -- may I call you “Dick” Mr. Vice President? -- Cheney and others complained loudly and bitterly when the UN considered not extending immunity for US citizens charged with war crimes in the International Criminal Courts.

Word around the water cooler was that the U.S. would shut down international peacekeeping missions, if the American GIs staffing those missions were held to internationally accepted and practiced standards of conduct.

The ICC came into being in 2002 with what was called the Rome Statute. However, several nations did not ratify the statute, including the United States, and now they are claiming that because they didn’t want to be part of it, then Americans should not be bound by it. That of course is insane. That’s like saying that because I never personally signed off on any of our nation’s laws, then I am not bound by them. Whoo Hoo! Party Time!

Then Rummy got into the act late last week when he threw a shoe (again) regarding Belgium’s laws that allow the people to file suit in their country against non-citizens for abuses of civil and human rights.

According to Rummy, if Americans are going to be held accountable for war crimes, then maybe Brussels just doesn’t get to be NATO headquarters anymore...so there! You know, is it us, or does Rummy have all the grace and deportment of an eight-year-old thug with a gland problem.

This guy is treating foreign relations and international rule of law with all the sensibilities of an elementary school recess.

S. Our real problem with this is the continual moralizing and chest pounding on the part of the administration and their minions regarding international cooperation in the war on terror and bringing terrorists to justice, where ever they may reside. Remember, 9-11 changed everything, the old rules can’t apply anymore.

And when you look at it, strengthening international law enforcement makes a lot of sense if you want to fight stateless terror organizations that don’t correspond to traditional notions of how nation states mix it up in the ring.

But then again, maybe 9-11 didn’t change that much after all. For instance, almost immediately, moves to tighten international banking security and regulations were bitterly opposed, especially by American companies who have an iconoclastic view on the evils of any regulation whatsoever and of course, this administration will roll right over for them, in spite of the fact that we know that loopholes in those laws allow terror organizations to fund themselves.

These sorts of examples really damage our credibility in the world. Our credibility is all we as a nation have to trade on, it is the key to our ability to lead, to market, to fight, to make peace and right now, the United States’ credibility is hovering somewhere between used car salesman and Enron stock trader.

How can we ask the world with a straight face, to take our lead, do our bidding and create the international protocols necessary to fight the world’s most dire supervillains, only to turn around and tell them we are too good -- or perhaps too bad as the case may be -- to be held to account by their puny laws.

Moreover, how long can we expect the world to continue to do what we say in the face of that kind of arrogance and double dealing. You ask people around the world and they will tell you that the perception of the United States has changed. Once it was the land people associated with fairness and justice, even if our politicians went a little strange sometimes. Our nation’s reputation for plain dealing and honesty is being quickly evaporated under the harsh glare of the TV lights any time Rummy or the Count Ashcroft emerge from the Deep-13 bunkers to speak.

A lot of this speaks to the basic ideology of this administration, a group of people that has absolutely no use for international institutions unless they are shilling for the U.S. all day every day. Megalomania doesn’t begin to do them justice. Moral and philosophical problems aside there are the numerous practical problems with trying to be both isolationist and international control freaks all at the same time, many of which we are going to start feeling in our economy soon.

And at the same time, the stories coming out of the military of U.S. service members being complicit in war crimes continue to circulate, as Strychnine so elegantly brought to light a couple of weeks ago.. We are not particularly confident regarding this Defense Department’s political willingness to try war crimes.



J. This week in our Presidential roundup, the Democrat attack elf Dennis Kucinich introduces the chair leg of truth in the House, Governor Dean seizes the initiative in Iowa, and Senator Kerry reportedly will introduce an energy plan for energy independence that (shock, awe) focuses on energy alternatives rather than enriching oil companies.

First, the Kerry plan. According to the Kerry camp: The Democratic presidential candidate said he would set a goal of energy independence within a decade by helping to subsidize the development of more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, raising fuel-efficiency standards and investing royalties from drilling rights into research and development of alternative energy sources.

Among his goals, he said, would be for the country to produce 20 percent of its electricity from alternative energy sources by 2020.

Imagine, an energy policy that is focused on reducing the dependence on dangerous and dwindling fossil fuels, and moves the country forward to an energy future where we are not required to dump poison in our air and water? Pretty wacky, huh?

The Kerry plan could offer a new dimension of attack on the Bush Administration, whose idea of an energy policy is to drill for a pittance of oil in a pristine wilderness. We await the new energy policy from Team Bush where Americans are reclaimed for their water and forced to wear stillsuits in the dreadful desert created by their addiction to pollution.

Next., Presidential Candidate and Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced a Resolution of Inquiry to force the Administration to come correct on what intelligence they had to support their prophecies of WMD Doom.

“The Administration urged action against an imminent threat. So Congress voted, only weeks before the 2002 election. Some Democrats voted for it thinking there would be an opportunity to refocus on domestic issues. Instead national security and Iraq's so-called imminent threat became the divisive issue in the election. The question became: who as patriotic and who wasn't.

S. He continued: “Now it is becoming apparent that there were no massive stockpiles of WMD in Iraq. There was no imminent threat. The Administration capitalized on the fears of Americans. They misrepresented the nature of the Iraqi threat. They misled Congress. They misled the American people. By pushing for a quick vote before the election they changed the election and manipulated the outcome of the 2002 election. The Resolution of Inquiry will establish the truth once and for all.”

Now, the odds at this point of a Republican House passing this bill is low to say the least. But it does offer a glimpse of the growing pressure in Congress on the Administration to address the rising criticism regarding their rationale for War.

A long shot candidate like Kucinich can help move the debate forward from his secret base on the outer rim of the fight for the nomination, keeping it in the news and on the radar of Congress. Now if we could only get him to stop singing the National Anthem...

Next, Governor Howard Dean is planning on an interesting new strategy in Iowa. Despite the early date, the Dean campaign has bought a series of ads that will run through July 2, targeting those key Iowa Democrats.

According to the Associated Press, “The ad features the former Vermont governor looking into the camera while he delivers an abridged version of his stump speech, including criticism of President Bush's foreign policies, a brief description of his health care plan and his assessment that the Democratic Party has abandoned its traditional values.”

Now, Governor Dean is not currently polling above 5% in the latest polls. The strategy seems designed to do a few things. First, generate some name recognition and excitement for Governor Dean in Iowa.

Some momentum from Iowa could help him considerably going into a tight race in the New Hampshire primary with Senator Kerrry. Also, it is an attempt to raise the Governors profile to generate campaign contributions. We will keep you posted on how effective these ads are in these goals.

J. So our patriotic thought for the day: The international rule of law means the Terrorists win... or as John Ashcroft says... “You will all taste my loving wrath...robots, SEIZE THEM!”



S. And that’s all for this week, tune in again soon for another exciting installment, unless, of course, we are declared enemies of the state.

And remember, you can now email the Mojowire at Mojohaus@hotmail.com, that’s M-O-J-O-H-A-U-S@hotmail.com.

J. This has been the Mojowire, brought to you by Mojohaus...Mojohaus-fine journalism, afflicting the comfortable since 1988, and produced by our super funky fly producer Mike Payne and the Darkling Eclectica, here on KUCI, 88.9...

Saturday, June 07, 2003

Mojowire for 6/07
PART I

ED NOTE:
MUSIC WILL BE -Intro/Hendrix, Star Spangled Banner
S9/ Eat Static, Crash and Burn
Exeunt/WildChild, Renegade Master



J. Good morning, and welcome to The Mojowire... I’m Mojo...

S. And I’m Sean, it’s Saturday, June 7, and here’s the news for the week gone-by...

J. Brought to you by Mojohaus-fine journalism, afflicting the comfortable since 1988. Now headlines, from Mojohaus:

J. Even with the Justice Department’s Inspector General telling him he’s a racist bloodsucking freak, Count Ashcroft appeared in a flash of fire and sulfurous smoke in front of a Congressional panel last week *demanding* that he be given even more power to jail anyone he feels like in the name of national security, without any accounting of himself to anyone, and claiming that he had every right to lock up as many “fer’ners” as he wanted, before being driven back into his coffin when someone inadvertently opened a window shade flooding the room with sunlight.

S. A new phrase has recently slipped into the American regulatory lexicon: National Sacrifice Zone. This is the phrase that is being used to describe what happens to places like Appalachia where coal miners are literally blowing up mountain tops to get at coal. This is all just part of W’s War on the Environment, and this week we take a detailed look at the recent butcher's bill, everything from legislation increasing coal-fired mercury emissions, to water pollution prosecution refusals to former EPA Director Christine Todd Whitman getting run out of town.

J. Energy officials finally came correct this week on exactly what they expected their Republican campaign contributions to buy for their companies. Officers with Westar Energy specfically stated that for their $50,000-plus in donations to four key Republicans in the House that they would get a “seat at the table” in writing national energy policy, in essence going long in the commodities market on legislation futures.

S. This week, Dr. Strychnine shows us in no uncertain terms why Iran will *not* be the push over that Iraq was. Our spacefaring companion brings *da*funk* on why, in all likelyhood, Americans are not up to the commitment necessary for that kind of adventurism, in spite of the delusional thinking back in the NSC bunker at Deep 13.

J. Next, in a show of actual bipartisan cooperation, the Senate managed to pull off a couple important pieces of legislation this week. One, a restoration of tax-cuts for poor families with children and two, a medicare prescription drug benefit. However, there is no telling whether they will survive the White House or their poisonous little thug in the House of Representatives, Tom Delay.

S. Finally this morning, we give our weekly update on the Presidential Primary season. Things have been fairly quiet this recently, however...A conference of Democratic Party faithful last week highlights the split between the progressive and establishment wings of the party.

J. So stand by to stand by and let’s kick this pig...




J. First this morning...Okay, exactly what sort of bloodsucking freak, too unnatural for the Private Sector, do you have to be to walk up to a Congressional committee, fresh from having your own inspector general call you out as the manager of a ruthless gang of despots, only to start *demanding* more and greater power to further destroy American liberties.

Well, in all particulars, the dread Count Ashcroft, the Justice Department’s own combination of the Anne Rice’s Vampire Lestat and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Inspector LeStrange, apparently has what it takes. First the specifics:

Last week, an internal Justice Department report brought some serious heat for the mistreatment of nearly 800 people tossed into INS detention holes and other federal lockdowns in the wake of 9/11, some of them for months before either being released or charged with other immigration law violations.

The report detailed cases of physical and verbal abuse, violations of 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th and 14th amendment due process and equal protection rights and an ossified and callous approach to either clearing or charging those being detained on the part of the senior FBI and Justice Department management, over the vehement objections of many junior agents and attorneys.

The report details that these detainees were denied nearly every right we have come to regard as sacred in our judicial system, from the right of counsel, to know what you are being charged with, to be safe from torture or abuse, to have a speedy and public trial...the list goes on and on.

Now, a living human being with real blood (or at least their own blood) flowing through their veins, would have gone up the hill and said “things were tough and confused in the wake of 9/11, we made mistakes in dealing with this, and we promise to fix this situation and never do it again.”

But one might have guessed what was to come from the one glaring fault of the report. It does not come out and condemn the practice of rounding up large numbers of people and placing them in concentration camps. It merely says that next time, be more efficient about it.

Quote: “We believe these recommendations, if fully implemented, will help improve the department's handling of detainees in other situations, both larger scale and smaller scale, that may arise in the future...”

The Vampire Ashcroft’s take on all this? Quote: “We could not afford ... to let those individuals be back in the public so they could merge back into the American culture.”Itself a curious turn of phrase that perhaps bears closer scrutiny at another time.

Then even as law makers from both sides of the aisle were trying to drive a stake into this guy for his unapologetic facism, he starts demanding that not only the Patriot Act provisions set to expire in 2005 be made permanent, but that further, stronger measures be enacted.

Abuses of the liberties that animate the American character were exactly what Republican lawmakers *swore* to us on a stack of Bibles with holy wafers in their mounts would never happen with a person like John Ascroft at the helm at Justice.

Again and again, Ashcroft kept giving his greasy reassurances that abuses would be looked into and prevented in the future. Well, we’re sorry Mr. Vampire General, but we don’t believe it. Quite frankly, the truth is not in you!

S. If you will be remembered of it, Wireheads, we reported on this a couple of months ago, the so-called Patriot Act II which we have dubbed the "Ashcroft Manhood enhancement Act, the contempt for a transparent and accountable judicial process is clear. We would like to point your attention to a few items highlighted by the American Civil Liberties Union in their anaylisis of the draft that has been cirulated on the Internet.

First, when foreign governments, particularly foreign governments like those of freakish Wannbe Joe Stalins like Saddam Hussien, want to extradite someone, we required that the Senate approve a "Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty".

This way, your elected representives get a hard look at that particular nation, and if we should be allowing them to use our judicial processes to extradite their citizens. The Enhancment Act would allow "extradition without a treaty or in excess of limits imposed by existing treaties, and so are foreign-directed searches and wiretaps " according the ACLU anaylsis.

That's right folks, not only could polticial and human rights dissidents be extradited by us without any sort of treaty, and thus review by your representatives, we could be doing the spying for these governments.

Considering some of the criminal scumbags we have had tight relationships with -- The Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussien, Pinochet of Chile, Somoza, Mugabe -- we could end up doing the dirty work of the most bloody and violent regimes on earth. All in secret of course, you don't want to be bothered with the boring and dull news of which human rights activist got whisked away to torture and death; that could interrupt American Idol for Christ's sake.

You might want to hit the liquor cabinent about now, there's more. The act also creates broad powers to act against groups that "breaks the law with the intent of influencing the government". Concievably this could mean that groups ranging from Operation Rescue to Civil Rights groups that use non violent law breaking techniques could be labled "Terrorist Organizations," rendering your 1st Amendment rights of Free Speech and Assembly not worth a pig in a poke. Have you downed that drink yet?

The ACLU further suggests, based on the enforcement powers asked for in this section, that Federal Governement could then use survielence authority prevously reserved for foreign spies, assett forfeiture laws usually applied to drug dealers, and even strip you of your citizenship. Yes, exercise your Free Speech and get spaced out the airlock by John Ashcrofts "Left Behind" Legions. You might want to throw away the shot glass and just down the whole bottle at this point.

There's a lot more, but even we are approaching our John Ashcroft Redline. This bill is so awful an idea that we're not even sure the Republican Party will be able to choke it down. Allowing dictators access to our judical process to whack dissidents? Giving the White House the power to squash protest groups and then ship them off to Van Diemens Land? Did they hold the Funeral for the Bill of Rights, and we just missed the service? And no one, *absolutely*no*one* has bothered to make even the remotest connection to these powers and the actual threat posed by Al Queda.

If John Ashcroft cannot achive a reasonable level of security with the gruesome power grab of Patriot Act I, then he is Attorney General Equivelant of Barney Fife, and he should be run out of town like the village idiot, and replaced with someone who doesn't need the dictatorial powers of Adolf Hitler to do his job.


J. And while we’re on the subject of making war on American values, the news on our natural resources is not so good. National Sacrifice Zone...just let that one slosh around in your nasal cavities for a moment. National Sacrifice Zone. We’re not sure where it came from, but it appears to be popping up more and more in reports on the Bush Administration’s environmental policy.

A good example of an NSZ is when coal mining companies stuff the top of a mountain full of explosives and then blow it up in a practice called mountain capping. These areas of Appalachia are starting to resemble the moon. A new report by the EPA has estimated that West Virginia alone has lost more than 7 percent of its forests and more than 720 miles of streams and rivers, enough to stretch from here to San Francisco and back.

And of course, one of the lovely byproducts of creating energy with the rock that burns is of course, mecury emissions in the air from these plants spewing nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide. But that’s okay, the Bush Administration and their sick little monkies on the hill have thought about that problem, too. If more coal means more mercury emissions, then we’ll just have to raise the limits on allowable mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.

This is the aim of some legislation currently wending its way through the halls of power, even as the Bush Administration is considering laxer rules allowing mountain capping coal miners to foul more of the land, by dumping their mine tailings and waste into forests and streams, killing wide swaths of everything near them.

To be fair, this is not strictly a Bush issue. In recent years, according to the L.A. Times, grass-roots groups have sued the government over the practice. As part of settlements, these groups expected the government to thoroughly study the environmental damage and propose tough measures to prevent more damage.

“We anticipated those studies would show harm and they did,” said Joe Lovett, one of the lawyers in the case. “What is remarkable is that those studies were used to loosen the reins on mountaintop removal mining rather than tighten them.”

S. We wish we could say we were surprised by this, but this is only the beginning. Another internal report from EPA shows that even if the emissions standards stay the same, it is likely that no one will ever do anything about prosecuting those who violate the standards.

According to a report in the Washington Post last week, about a quarter of the nation's largest industrial plants and water treatment facilities are in serious violation of pollution standards at any one time, yet no one is cracking on these guys. The study, completed in February by the EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance, found that half the serious offenders exceeded pollution limits for toxic substances by more than 100 percent.

On the blue-moon occasion when someone does get taken out behind the woodpile for poisoning their fellow Americans, fewer than half resulted in fines, which averaged about $6,000.

The study showed that some companies and municipalities have illegally discharged toxic chemicals or biological waste into waterways for years without government sanctions. Such discharges can cripple fisheries, taint fishing holes and increase the risks of illnesses ranging from skin rash to lead and mercury poisoning.

And in places like California, we don’t even know what the real extent of the problem is, because for the past 20 years, California has just ignored EPA reporting requirements, filing an estimated 40 percent of all monitoring data needed by the agency.

If this was the state of things under the likes of Bill Clinton, does anyone seriously think its going to be any better under the Reign of W? Suddenly, Christine Todd Whitman getting run out of town starts to make a little more sense, with official agency reports like these in the making.

She was never going to be allowed to make the changes that the mid-level career staffers at the EPA have been agitating for, as embodied in these recent reports, much less be appointed to a cabinet post -- you *do* remember that Bush *promised* that he would make the EPA a cabinet level agency, thus demonstrating his commitment to the environment. Yeah, we really thought that was going to happen...

Remember, at the end of the day, the green in the forest, will always take a back seat to the green in the wallets of the biggest campaign contributors, and esepcially in this administration, which in this adminsitration is really in energy, natural resources and agribusiness. Together these vultures injected more than $5.4 million into the Bush 2000 campaign, according to The Center for Responsive Politics -- and they promise to raise even more this time around.


J. Along that same vein, lets take a gander at exactly what your money is supposed to buy you, when you invest in government.

This from the Washington Post (see, my fellow liberals, this stuff is getting reported): “Executives of a Kansas-based energy company believed that $56,500 in donations to political groups linked to four key Republican lawmakers last year would prompt Congress to exempt their firm from a problematic federal regulation, according to documents disclosed as part of an [alleged] federal investigation of the company.

One executive of Westar Energy Inc. told colleagues in an e-mail that "we have a plan for participation to get a seat at the table" of a House-Senate conference committee on the Bush administration's energy plan. The cost, he wrote, would be $56,500 to campaign committees, including some associated with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.), Rep. Joe Barton (Tex.), Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (La.) and Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.).

Yeah...and I know there are a lot of you out there about to get your Claude Raines on and start with the “we’re shocked, just shocked that gambling takes place here...” But seriously, the up front way this thing is detailed, they might just be buying another piece of stock or futures commodities.

Listen for yourself, On May 20, 2002, Westar Vice President Douglas Lawrence sent an e-mail to Douglas T. Lake, an executive vice president. It said in part, quote: "We are working on getting our grandfather provision on PUHCA repealed and into the Senate version of the energy bill. It requires working with the Conference committee . . . . We have a plan for participation to get a seat at the table, which has been approved by David, the total of the package will be $31,500 in hard money (individual), and $25,000 in soft money (corporate)."

"David" is an apparent reference to David Wittig, then Westar's chief executive. PUHCA is the Public Utility Holding Company Act. Hard and soft money are forms of campaign donations.

"Right now, we have $11,500 in immediate needs for a group of candidates associated with Tom DeLay, Billy Tauzin, Joe Barton and Senator Richard Shelby," the e-mail said. It said DeLay's “agreement is necessary before the House Conferees can push the language we have in place in the House bill." Tauzin and Barton "are key House Conferees on our legislation. They have made this request" for contributions to other Republican candidates "in lieu of contributions made to their own campaigns.”

S. To be fair, Westar officials involved in this deal have either been fired or have resigned and the company is conducting an internal investigation. What we want to know is why aren’t John Ashcroft and the Untouchables busting down the doors at Westar? Hell, the last time we checked, attempting to bribe officials for conisderation of legislative matters was a felony.

And is there also any surprise that every time an unsavory rock is kicked over in that wretched colony on the Potomac, our favorite poisonous little thug’s name comes up -- Tom Delay. Seriously, is there any sleaze happening in that place that he doesn’t have a personal hand in?

As for the rest of them, there were the garden variety denials, but this points to an another issue altogether. In past year, Delay and the rest of his blasphemous ilk have been making no bones about telling industry what side their bread is buttered on when it comes to a lax regulatory environment.

DeLay spokesman Stuart Roy said yesterday that DeLay met with Westar representatives last year. However, Roy said, “We have no control over any fantasies they might have about what they might get for a campaign contribution.”

Sorry Tom, but you made your career on twisting arms for money. We would make the obvious comparison to the Godfather, but you aren’t fit to light Vito Corelone’s cigar. You are a punk and your clients are punks, and if we had a real justice department in this country right now, punks would see the judge on Monday morning!

And now the music is telling me that we have an incoming transmission from the redoubtable Dr. S9…

J. That’s right. It is time once again for our regular contributor Dr. Strychnine, reporting from his super-secret, ultra-dope, mega-cool, extra-jiggy, Mojohaus spy satellite of love high in geosynchronous orbit above Bagdad by the Bay…take it away S9…


S9 Greetings, once again, fellow spacers and breakabouts. Apologies may be in order for last week's outburst, but don't hold your breath waiting for them in this week's message. The individuals responsible for maintaining the pharmacological menu in the flightdeck are calmer
and more rational this week, but they are still not useful for much beyond watching brightly colored things swim around in a virtual fishtank. Maybe next week.

If you look out the portals on the starboard side of the spacecraft, and you look very carefully, you may be able to see the outlines of another military confrontation forming in the Persian Gulf. This time the happy couple looks to be the United States and its Iraqi proxy forces versus the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This is the grudge match that may have been gamed in the so-called Millennium Challenge in the summer of 2002, in which the commander of the Red Team-- fictionally in charge of the military assets of an unnamed Persian Gulf country-- managed to deliver the Blue Team a virtual ass-whooping using inventive low-tech methods. Most people assumed at the time that the Millennium Challenge was a game for the War On Iraq, but I've had my doubts. The reports I read suggested that the assets in the hands of the Red Team for that game were *not* the assets that Iraq was known to possess at the time. I suspect they were gaming for a War On Iran.

So, intelligent space travelers will want to know: how much tougher can the Iranians possibly be than the Iraqis were in March. A good question, but since the Iraqis were quite possibly the easiest marks on the planet in March 2003, it's hard to see how the Iranians could be any easier.

Let's start with some basic numbers from the CIA World Factbook, which is one of the better almanacs for this sort of stuff on the Web. Iraq is 437,000 square kilometers, about twice the size of Idaho. Iran is 1.6M square kilometers, about the size of Alaska. Iraq has about 58 km of coastline. Iran has 2400 km of coastline, and borders the Caspian Sea. Terrain in Iraq is mostly desert, flat plains and some marshland and mountains. Terrain in Iran is mostly rugged mountains. Population in Iraq: 24 million, with 3.3 million fit for military service. Population in Iran: 66 million, with 11.2 million men fit for military service. Iraqi GDP per-capita is $2500. Iranian GDP per-capita is $7000.

Yeah, well so Iran is a bigger target. The bigger they are, the harder they-- well, you know. So what kind of toys do they have in the garage? Mostly what they can buy from the Chinese and the North
Koreans. Oh, and the French, the Germans, the Israelis (yeah, explain that one for me) and-- whatever they still have left from selling American hostages back to the Reagan administration, i.e. hundreds of lovely TOW missiles. They have a wide variety of homegrown artillery rockets, and they have a lot of helicopters (somewhere between three hundred and seven hundred), but not a significant force of fighter/bomber aircraft.

The Iraqi army, such as it was, was organized as two or three armored divisions, three mechanized divisions, and 11 infantry divisions. Most of whom didn't show up for the fight. What Iraqi armor did show up was riddled with depleted uranium relatively easily, and the leg infantry that stayed in uniform fell like grass. The Iranian army, not having been starved by sanctions for a decade, is larger and better equipped.
For one thing, they have been able to buy the lighter fighting vehicles and transport helicopters you need for fighting in mountainous terrain. They have several hundred medium tanks, of British, American and Soviet manufacture.

Will Iran be a pushover for the U.S. military? Yes, if the Americans decide they are actually serious about fighting a war of conquest there. If push comes to shove, the Americans can glass the entire
country from the safety of their maintenance wharves on the Atlantic coast. What the U.S. will not be able to do is to take Iran the way it took Iraq.

Make no mistake, taking Iran will require a bigger commitment from the American civilians than the dedication required to watch a month of televised sports during March madness-- which is basically what taking Iraq required.

Americans will have to be willing to sustain about three or four times the number of casualties, because they'll have to field about three or four times the number of troops. That kind of staffing requirement just can't be filled with current active duty and overworked reservists. Especially when you consider that taking Iran would mean an American occupational force, stretching from Syria all the way to Pakistan, covering a hostile land that is currently home to almost a hundred million hostile people. We're talking about seriously reorganizing the economy around winning the war, something we have so far been completely unwilling to do.

In Iran today, the Islamic clerics are wondering if the Americans are really crazy enough to pull the trigger on a military confrontation. From listening to the noises coming out of the Pentagon Republican Guard and the White House Ministry of Truth, it's easy to believe that the administration is crazy enough to think a war in Iran is a doable thing. It's a whole other matter whether the American people will think it's such a good idea when they come to grips with what it will cost.

But then, there is some question whether what the American people think matters much, as long as most of them have a diverting television program to watch. And the chamber of commerce has been uncomfortably quiet of late. Now might be a good time to put some thought into the
matter.

SEE PART II