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EDITORS/PUBLISHERS
Jen Angel &
Jason Kucsma

CONSULTING EDITOR
Joshua Breitbart
POLITICS EDITORS
Madeleine Baran
from your editors
& Amanda Luker
The other name for this "Stop Bush, Start Democracy" issue was the "V^hy we're not holding a Kerry fundraiser"
CULTURE EDITOR
EncZassenhaus REVIEW EDITOR issue. There are plenty of ways to fight against Bush and for democracy without writing checks to the Democrats
Keith McCrea or even voting for them.
ECONOMICS EDITOR
Arthur Stamoulis PROOFREADERS
Elliot Adams, Hal Hixson We certainly hope so. Because some of us don't have checkbooks. And some of us can't vote, no matter how hard
MEDIA EDITOR Scott Puckett,
we try. If you're not a citizen, or if you're serving time, or if you're under eighteen, that path to democracy is closed
Catherine Komp Kristen Schmidt
to you. And then there are those of us whose votes just won't count because of the electoral college or a crooked

PEOPLE EDITOR LAYOUT & DESIGN voting machine, or because the Secretary of the State of Florida crossed our names off of a list.
Keidra Chaney Jason Kucsma

SEX &GENDER EDITOR SUMMER INTERNS So we've chosen to present people who are fighting for democracy as part of everyday life. This issue is dedicated
Brian Bergen-Aurand Mary Cotofan, Angle
Fitzpatrick, Isaac Vayo
to everyone who works for what they believe in — for better working conditions, for reproductive freedom, or for

preserving the planet — rather than electing someone else to do it for them.

WEB DESIGN PRISON MAIL CORRESP

Derek Hogue Sean Jones
In case you've forgotten why this work is so important, Madeleine Baran and Amanda Luker have brought us a

COVER wonderful section of "Bush Briefs" detailing setbacks in reproductive health care, the environment, civil liberties,

Joe Wezorek
gay rights, and education — a kind of "employee review" for the president-select. And did you know that Bush
http://amleft.blogspot.(,om
has been called the "biggest spender in American History?" Norman Ball tells you all about it on page 31. And how

TOOLS could we forget the PATRIOT Act? Jessamyn West shows us how librarians are leading the fight against one part of
Thanks to a generous donation, Clamor is
that insane legislation (p. 64).
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that's got a shot at getting more votes than Bush. Until we have a different voting system, like one of the ones
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BACK ISSUES time, thousands of African-Americans won't be disenfranchised. Democracy. That would be cool.
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 POLITICS
8 Lookin' For Work: W's Shaky Employee Evaluation by various authors

12 Virtual Voting Worldwide by Pranjai Tiwari

Number 28 I September/October 2004
15 Oil-Slick Jim Moves In excerpt from The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

by GregPalast

16 From the Desk of Karl Rove by Eric Lundegaard

MEDIA
18 Thorns in the Paw: Independent Journalist in the Age of Bush

by Leticia Cortez, Dalir Jamail, Lorie Kramer, Vijay Prashad, and Silja J.A. Talvi

22 Lampooning the Buffoon by Richard Ristow

24 Free Speech T.V. Party Tonight! by Jared Jacang Maher

25 Deception Dollars by Adam Hurter

FnnNnMinf;
28 We Used To Call That Imperialism by Alex Modotti

31 The Privileged Few and the Budgeted Many by Norman Ball

33 Someone's Got to Pay the Bills Sarah Zia-Ebrahimi

PLUS: organizers' stories on pages 32-35

CULTURE
38 Billionaires for Bush by Rebecca Fox

42 No, George, No! Anti-Bush Kids's Books by Eric Zassenhaus

44 Hip Hop is Breedin' Revolution. Ya Heard? byAysha Massell

1
SEX & GENDER
48 How Trafficking Became Sexy by YasminNair

— 1 11
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55
More Sex Emails, Please!
52 From My Lai to Abu Ghraib
Women in Power
by

by

by JanisE.Malaby
Benn Ray

Dave Arenas

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PEOPLE
w 58 Laura Flanders: Alone Amongst the Bushies by Todd Steven Burroughs

61 (Inadvertently) Voting for the Ones You Hate the Most by Jetf Nail

64 It's None of Your Damn Business... byJessamyn West

65 The Evens by Ari Paul

LAST PAGE
66 How Many More Have to Die?

REVIEWS
f
15 Exist 1 43 Subterranean Hip Hop ^
54 Bound Gender I 63 Panther Power I

C/l
 1
1

rm
VEGANS: A PERSECUTED PEOPLE?
I was flipping tlirough Issue 26 today, stopping
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loving people as
It was a well written
my non-biological parents?"
and thoughtful article
Please address letters to letters@clamormagazine.org

and
or

'^ct
us at

wrote an article and sent

Times. As with most
Letters

3" 'B^^r^
Box 20128

may be

it

articles
edited for length.

to the

and
OH 43610

^^ printed.

Los Angeles
letters that
M

to read the articles that piqued my interest.

thank you to Jessica DelBaIzo for writing it. are critical of adoption, it was not published.
When came to page 55, and read the first
I I
However I must stick up for myself and my
few sentences, couldn't help but roll my eyes
I
adoptive parents here. They were always hon- Tricia Shore,

and groan, "Here we go again," thought. I

est with me about my adoption, there was nev- Founder, Adoption Truth

constantly find it amazing how difficult

I
er shame or attempts to pass me off as their Van Nuys, CA

it is to get an honest and fair discussion of veg- "real" baby. My birthparents were young col-
anism, even in alternative media (with few no- lege students, my real parents (the adoptive
table exceptions). The first thing that jumped ones) were infertile and had been seeking to ON ADOPTION: DELBALZO'S RIGHT
out at me as I prepared myself for the inevi- adopt for years. Back then at least it was quite I wanted to thank you for having an article in

table "I'm a vegan, BUT...." argument that I've difficult to adopt, perhaps now it has become your magazine that speaks out about the injus-

gotten so bored of hearing, was that the author a huge heartless money making machine. I tices of adoption ("They Won't Be There For

didn't mention compassion for animals as any was set up with my folks and let me tell you, You," Jul/Aug 2004). The author wrote about

of her reasons for being vegan. Her focus was the day they brought me home was one of the the depiction on television and in advertise-

entirely on the environmental impacts of meat- happiest days of their lives. The look of joy on ments how adoption is glamorized. It seems to

eating, and the torture and suffering of animals my parent's face in the photos of my first day be a mere exchange of goods. Actually there is

was not even mentioned. HOME is beautiful. I'm sure it was difficult an exchange even if only the baby is visible.

You see, most vegans are vegan because for my birth mother to make the decision but The mother exchanges her soul for strangers'

they identify with the suffering of animals just I don't hold it against her, in fact I am thank- happiness and ability to live a lie.

like they identify with the suffering of humans. ful. Her decision allowed me to meet two of I was like Ms. DelBaIzo describes in her

When I see an animal suffer, I ask myself, the nicest people in the world. But I guess article, without any support. I wish I could tell

"How is that pain any less than my pain?" Mr. Soli, the counselor from the article, would the world how the lawyer, doctor, and nurses
There is no rational argument that can make write off my strong feelings as nothing more treated me. In 1979 I thought I deserved to be

the claim that animal suffering is less impor- than denial. How insulting. treated in such an inhumane way. The truth of

tant than human suffering - an animal feels the matter is that I had no idea of what was in

pain, both physical and emotional, just as we Melita Curphy store for me. I told the attorney "No" and he had
do - and that is why we refuse to use animal San Antonio, TX me drugged at the hospital for the entire time I

products, not because we're concerned about was there. I do not recall signing the adoption

the environment and then just apply a label on papers and I was only 17. I was alone during
ourselves to make it easier (although most of ON ADOPTION: THANKS FOR SHARING the birth and until the papers were brought in

us are concerned about the environment, the A FAMILIAR PERPSECTIVE to be signed. I wasn't allowed to speak to any-

environmental benefits of our vegan lifestyle is Iam so excited to see Jess DelBalzo's point of one. I have no copies of the papers or of my

secondary to the primary cause of simply not view expressed in your magazine ("They Won't baby's birth certificate. They made it appear as

wanting to hurt fellow beings). Be There For You," Jul/Aug 2004). As a re- though nothing had happened. I have no proof

The Nazis felt like the suffering of the united adoptee who spent over 34 years sepa- that my baby was born or ever existed.

Jews was not as important as the suffering of rated from my family, and as a mother of two Adoption has had a profound affect on

non-Jews, and they felt like the cause of medi- children, due with our third child in early No- her, me, my husband, and my subsequent chil-

cal research was a good cause, so they used vember, I cannot tell you how happy I am that dren.

Jews in medical research and made advances, another mother turns off the television when I recently met my daughter after 24 years

important advances. Did the ends justify the one of those happy adoption stories, usually of separation. I was never allowed to see or hold

means then? sans natural mother, appears on the screen. her. I think my story is very common place.

I don't think so, nor do I think the ends Like DelBaIzo, I am teaching my children that Hopefully, with more articles like this, more

justify the means now. taking other people's children via adoption is people will be educated and one day babies
wrong. I am also teaching them that children won't be raped from their mommies womb.
Sincerely, should stay with their natural mothers, the

Brian m Chicagoland place that is best for them. Pamela Patterson Dupr6
What a shame that Americans' desire for a Lake Charles, LA
child in every house has become so insatiable

ON ADOPTION: DON'T SPEAK FOR ME that sitcoms now separate children from their

Reading "They Won't Be There For You" mothers so that the mam characters can pre-

(Jul/Aug 2004) raised some questions m my tend to be parents. For this reason, I turned off

mind. Questions like "Well, gee I'm adopted, the last episode of "Sex and the City" before it

should I begin to worry and see it as this hor- ended and I did not watch the last episode of
1 "Friends." A "Friends" commercial that saw
rible trauma or just keep on thinking my hfe I

IS pretty good and be very grateful to have two on New Year's Eve sickened me so much that I

^
HHSSfiiBBi Don't you hate it when you're trying
The revolution won't be televised, but you can Radio! Radio! The Vinyl Hours with DJ Tina to talk to someone and they just keep
read about it. Books for a better world, by Mike Bold from 7 to 9pm (pst) every Monday on KUCR staring at your bookshelf?
Palacek, former federal prisoner, congressional 88.3fm (riverside, ca), or go to <http://www.kucr.

candidate, newspaper reporter. Please visit: org>www. kucr.org to hear a live-stream version.
iowapeace.com. Send demos to: KUCR Radio c/o Tina Bold,
University of Ca. Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
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but where are you now? We want to publish your or graduate thesis that have been written by
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LOOKIN' FOR WORK
1 1 things Bush might want to leave off his resume next year.
Iraq and the War on Terror Currently, religious groups can receive fed- also include a Radio Frequency Identification
eral funding if they abide by the same rules chip, which would broadcast personal infor-

Perhaps all wars are based on lies and mis- — including civil rights laws — that apply mation to anyone nearby with the ability to

understanding, but few have been more bla- to everybody else. However, Bush is pushing receive it. As the U.K.'s The Register notes,

tantly so than this one. legislation that would allow religious organi- such chips could inadvertently put people at

Bush's reasons for war have been proven zations that discriminate in their hiring prac- risk by drawing attention to them as Ameri-
false, as no weapons of mass destruction were tices to receive federal grant money. cans or Europeans.

found in Iraq and any connection between If the legislation goes through Congress, Closer to home, three New York artists,

Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda was dismissed religious groups could hire and fire employ- Steve Kurts, Beatriz da Costa and, Steve

by the 9 11 commission. Colin Powell testi- ees based on church affiliation or sexual ori- Barnes have been subpoenaed under the Pa-
fied before the U.N. Security Council about entation and receive millions of dollars in triot Act for an art project misunderstood as

the need for preemptive war in Iraq using in- federal money at the same time. The ACLU a biological weapons lab; New York City has

formation plagiarized from a graduate student sued the Salvation Army for this very thing in lifted restrictions, known as the Handschu
thesis. February 2004. If Bush's legislation were im- agreement, on spying on activists; and the
Continued U.S. involvement means ever- posed, the Salvation Army's conduct would Secret Service intends to shut down the entire
increasing casualties, and withdrawal has be completely legal. New York City subway when Bush accepts
very real possibilities of erupting into a civil Perhaps the eeriest display of Bush's reli- the Republican nomination this fall.

war between Shiite and Sunni factions, per- gious vision is found in his speeches concern- Don't travel. Don't protest. Stay at home.
haps even sparking much larger regional con- ing the "war on terror," which are often laced Shop if you're afraid.
with Manichaean overtones that divide reality - Sarah Groff-Palermo
flict in the Middle East.
According toAntiwar.com, military reports into two categories — absolute good and ab-
indicate that the Iraqi war and post-war oc- solute evil.

cupation has killed 887 American troops and According to Bush, who named Christ as Education \

injured 5,104 as of mid July. It's estimated his favorite political philosopher, the United
that between 4,900 to 6,400 Iraqi military States has been called to conquer this evil. In 2000, Bush flaunted the "Texas Miracle,"

personnel and 1 1,000 to 13,000 Iraqi civilians Referring to the successes of America's war claiming that Texas schools had lowered
have been killed since the war began. These on terror in a September 2002 speech, Bush dropout rates and narrowed achievement gaps
numbers don't include those deeply trauma- paraphrased the Gospel of John, "And the on tests. Then we found out schools, across

tized by serving in such a dangerous war or light has shone in the darkness, and the dark- Houston were fudging numbers. One school
tortured and shamed in wartime prisons like ness will not overcome it." reported a 0.3 percent dropout rate, when
Abu Ghraib. - Mark Osmond closer to half the student body never received
According to Congressional appropria- diplomas. Bush appointed Rod Paige, super-

tions, the Iraq war and occupation will cost intendent in Houston during the cover-up,

the United States from $135 to $166 billion. Civil Liberties i Secretary of Education.
But only a fraction of this money is going to In January 2002, Bush signed the No Child
active military. In fact, a couple months into Civil liberties will likely be a huge part of Left Behind Act, setting standards for K-12
the war Bush cut "imminent danger" pay Bush's legacy. The Patriot Act, passed just six schools nationally by requiring all subgroups
given to Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force weeks after Sept. 1 1, allows police to check — racial, ethnic, economic — in every school
personnel combat zones from S225 to $1 50
in out what you read and search your house to reach proficiency in core areas. But NCLB
a month. Meanwhile, the administration gave without telling you, redefines protest as "do- offers no additional funding to meet these re-

away several billion dollars worth of public mestic terrorism," and permits the FBI to do quirements and allows states to set their own
fiinds to Halliburton in the famous no-bid away with probable cause. The once-defeated proficiency standards. Under-performing and
contract to rebuild Iraq. Patriot II (the Domestic Security Enhance- non-compliant schools lose federal funds, en-
- Ben Bush and Mark Osmond ment Act) is currently being tacked piecemeal couraging the widespread practice of "teach-
onto other bills in Congress. ing the test." In an effort to protect federal
To the wider world, the government's ap- funding, Texas and Michigan have lowered
Separation of Church and State parent willingness to hold both visitors and their standards.

citizens as enemy combatants has given the Opponents of NCLB include teachers,

Bush's first executive order as president cre- United States a black eye, while the US-VIS- administrators, students, parents, and legis-
ated the Office of Faith-Based and Commu- IT program's appetite for tourists' fingerprints latures. Bush has turned a deaf ear to the op-
nity Initiatives. The ultimate goal of the of- promises to reduce the flow of visitors when position, and Paige has referred to opponents
fice is to make federal funding available to it goes into effect at the end of 2005. By the as a "coalition of the whining," and identi-

religious groups that provide social services. end of next year, American passports could fied the National Education Association, the
o
o
«
POL'T'C-S
nation's largest organization of teachers, as a budget calls for almost $2 billion in cuts for to provide them with a health plan or a pen-
"terrorist organization." environmental protection. sion. Bush also opposes raising the minimum
Further, as reductions in college and univer- - Josh Frank wage. Bush has provided companies with tax
sity budgets have made 35 percent increases breaks for investment in technology while
in tuition the norm, low-income students find opposing tax breaks for hiring new workers.
it harder to pay for college. Yet Bush's 2005 Jobs & Health Care Instead, he is asking for more cuts for the
budget proposal refuses to raise the maxi- wealthy, and asking congress to make them
mum Pell Grant award, slashes nearly SI 00 Under the Bush administration, the economy permanent.
million from the Federal Perkins Loan Pro- has certainly taken a turn for the worst. What - Alison Parker
gram, and calls for the elimination of LEAP, exactly is the damage, you ask? For starters,

a need=based education grant program. the nation has lost 1.7 million jobs over the
- William Wrohlewski past two years after adding 5 million jobs in LGBTQ Community \

1 999 and 2000. According to the U.S. Depart-

ment of Labor, there are at least 2.5 job seek- One of Bush's first actions as president was
Environment ers for every job opening. Unemployment to appoint an openly gay director of the
is at an eight-year high and growing — ten National AIDS Policy Office. Elected as a
Bush's Energy Policy Act of 2003 calls for million unemployed workers want jobs but centrist. Bush's middle-road stance on LG-
cutbacks in renewable energy funding and cannot find them. More than 4 million work BTQ issues quickly migrated to the right.
an increase in fossil fuel consumption. Vice only part-time because they cannot get full- In June, Bush refused to observe Clinton's
President Dick Cheney and his Energy Task time jobs. The country is experiencing the federally designated Gay and Lesbian Pride
Force met with 39 oil lobbyists and execu- worst bout of unemployment since the Great Month, citing his belief that people's sexual
tives while writing the legislation. Depression. orientation should not be politicized. At-
President Bush then overturned a Clin- At the same time, workers who still have torney General John Ashcroft subsequently
ton-era federal ruling that had banned hilltop health insurance are paying substantially attempted to shut down the Department of
strip mining. Next, the Bush administration more for it. Workers' premium payments Justice employee gay pride observance ev-
pandered to corporate timber barons and au- rose 27 percent for single coverage and 16 ery year since, marking the first time any
thored a new forest plan, called "The Healthy percent for family coverage in 2002 and are federal agency has banned a gay pride cel-

Forests Initiative," mirrored after Clinton-era continuing to increase. According to the Cen- ebration since they began celebrating it in

legislation and language Democratic Senator sus Bureau, the number of uninsured rose to the mid '90s.
Tom Daschle slipped into another environ- over 43.6 million in 2001. Many employers An entourage of "firsts" follows the tracks
mental bill in the summer of 2002. Daschle's are discontinuing current health care and re- of the Bush administration. When gay mar-
legal jargon, backed by the Sierra Club and tirement benefits to their employees. Most riage burst onto the national agenda earlier
other "green" titans, allowed logging on Americans without insurance — 80 percent this year. Bush rallied for an amendment to

American Indian holy land in South Dakota. — are in working families. ban gay marriages, which would
Bush's own forest plan, supported by the Frighteningly, Bush has no new constitutionally limit the

majority of Democrats in the Senate, autho- jobs programs in his budget. rights of American citi-

rized over S760 million dollars allegedly to His budget provides no zens for the first time
prevent wild fires —
by cutting down over new incentives for em- since prohibition in
2.5 million acres of federal forestland by ployers to pay their the 1920s. Queers
2012. workers a living who remembered
Shortly following the hearing the Bush
forest debacle. Bush oi 2000 say. "The
began pushing his state can do what
"Clean Skies" ini- they w ant" with
tiative, which calls respect to gay
for increasing the marriage are left

amount of harsh wondering what

chemicals al- happened to that

lowed to be le- autonomy. In the

gally released polari/ed election

by industrial year climate. Bush,

The
polluters. abandoned by many
legislation centrists, is now situat-

also aims to ing his base in the religious

cut what the right.

government To solidify his fundamental ba.se

calls "carbon in the electorate. George Bush appointed

intensity," Lou Sheldon as his "failh-bascd ad\isor."
which is a mea- Not familiar w ith the name? Accordmg to

sure of carbon pol- /;/ These Times. Sheldon publicly boasted.

lution, by measuring "Gays and lesbians li\e per\erted. twisted
Q. environmental destruclit)n lives that feed upon the unsuspecting and

by calculatmg economic losses the innocent." Surrounding himself with

to major industries, instead of looking at sci- homophobic advisors like Sheldon and
entific data The proposed Republican 2005 John .\shcroft. Bush has spun 180 dc-
grees by politicizing gender orientation only also changed. The old duties of the INS are subsidized army of workers that the welfare
four years after asserting his neutrality. now being handled by the Department of system now feeds corporate America, while
- Steven Kelly Homeland Security, a clear signal that im- endangering children's lives by taking away
migration is now treated as a threat to the their childcare and putting their parent or

nation's safety. caregiver on a bus to go earn their welfare

Reproductive Rights Crossing into the United States has also check working in a mall.

become more difficult. Under the Bush ad- - Jim Straub

Bush's views on reproductive rights were ministration, borders between the United
never clearer than on the 29th anniversary States and Mexico have been saturated with
of Roe V. Wade, which he declared "National high-tech security devices including ground Crime
Sanctity of Human Life Day." One of his first sensors and infrared night scope cameras.
acts in office was to reinstate the global gag In January, Bush proposed the Temporary Although Bush has personal knowledge of
rule, blocking U.S. Agency for International Worker Program, allowing undocumented the criminal justice system, he has not spent
Development funds from going to any over- workers to legally join a temporary labor much time focusing on domestic crime dur-
seas family planning organizations that men- program for a limited period of time. Em- ing his first term.
tion abortion as an option. In August 2003, ployers have to first show that they cannot Bush cut fiinding for state and local law en-
Bush extended the gag rule to programs fund- find U.S. workers to fill the jobs. Both con- forcement, forcing many police departments
ed by the State Department as well. servatives and leftists criticized the plan — to scale back their effbrts. Meanwhile, seri-

For the 2002 budget. Bush suggested elim- conservatives because it legalizes the status ous crimes rose by 2.3 percent, the first in-

inating contraceptive coverage for federal of some immigrants, and leftists because it crease in a decade. Murders are up 4 percent
employees, though his suggestion was not seems more geared to providing workers for and motor vehicle thefts are up 7.4 percent.
followed. Then in October 2002, the Bush the employer than providing equal rights for Not surprisingly. Bush consistently op-
administration made fetuses but — not preg- immigrants. poses safety devices on all new guns as well
nant women — eligible for health coverage And last year. Congress signed the Natu- as mandatory gun safety courses and licenses
under the State Children's Health Insurance ralization and Family Protection for Military before a gun purchase. He supports the death
Program. The same month, the administra- Members Act, which promises speedy citi- penalty and strongly opposes a national re-
tion told the Advisory Committee on Human zenship — if you join the military. view, like the statewide survey conducted in
Research Protection to start considering the - Malt Morello Illinois, to determine if the death penalty is

safety of embryos as well as living human re- racially or otherwise biased.

search volunteers. In 2001, Bush-appointee Attorney General

In October 2003, Salon.com reported that Welfare John Ashcroft issued new guidelines for seek-
sex-education organizations critical of the ing the death penalty. Now U.S. attorneys are
Bush administration's "abstinence only" phi- Bush's welfare cutbacks stem from a bipar- instructed to consider whether the "appropri-
losophy have been subject to repeated gov- tisan consensus between the Republicans ate punishment upon conviction" for an of-
ernment audits — as many as three investiga- and Democrats in favor of cutting the social fense is available within the state. If a defen-
tions in one year. On Nov. 5, Bush signed the safety net and aggressively promoting the in- dant cannot receive a death sentence under
Partial Birth Abortion Ban and handed the job terests of corporate America. In 1996, Clinton state laws, the federal government can seek
of enforcement to the Department of Justice's signed a welfare reform bill that drastically jurisdiction to prosecute a crime as a capital
civil rights division. slashed federal funds for welfare and made case.
On April 1, 2004, Bush signed the Unborn many remaining funds into block grants to On the international scene, the Bush admin-
Victims of Violence Act, granting legal per- individual states (who were encouraged to istration continues to push for an exemption
son-hood to a fetus or embryo that is killed make further cuts). from the International Criminal Court while
or injured in a federal crime. Women's rights Under the welfare-to-workfare model, as- internal memos leaked by The Washington
advocates also say it was Bush administration sistance recipients work 30
were forced to Post indicate that Bush administration offi-

pressure that led to the Federal Drug Admin- hours a week, providing non-union, low-wage cials willfully violated the Geneva Conven-
istration's recent refusal to let people obtain labor for private corporations, with much of tion and openly discussed torture methods.
the morning-after pill without a prescription. the cost picked up by the government. At the bottom of one document that approved
- Katherine Glover Bush has not imposed new cruelties as subjecting detainees to prolonged periods
much as he has super-sized Clinton's (al- of standing as part of the interrogation pro-
though to appease his fundamentalist base, cess. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
Immigration he has added some distinctively Republican scrawled, "However, I stand for 8-10 hours a
twists like compulsory abstinence education day. Why is standing limited to four hours?"
Since September 1 1 . being an immigrant in programs for poor people). For instance, he - Madeleine Baran
the United States has gotten progressively advocates cutting federal money for wel-
more difficult. fare even further and turning the Children's
Crackdowns based on minor student visa Health Insurance Plan and Section 8 Housing
violations, old criminal convictions, and even into state block grants.
failing to report a new address immediately Without providing new money for job Help ensure clamor's future as an
have led to thousands of deportations. Some training (and while submitting a budget amplifier of independent voices.
immigrants have been deported back to their that would cut child care for 230,000 poor
original country without even getting to say children over the next five years). Bush in- 1^ SUBSCRIBE NOW 1^
goodbye to family members. Most are held creased mandatory workfare to 40 hours a online at
without bail until a hearing determines their week, and demanded that states bring ever
www.clamormagazine.org
outcome. more welfare recipients into the workfare
$18 for 6 issues
The structure of immigration policing has plan. This would enlarge the cheap, state- o
o
4^
 New Web Sites Will Allow the World to "Vote" in November

Imagine if Iraqis had tiic chance this November to say, "We dont like what George Bush has
done to this country. Let's vote him out of office." If Haitians. Colombians. Afghans. Pales-
tinians, and working people from all over the world had the chance to cast a ballot and get rid

of administrations that had disenfranchised them, what would the world look like?
Although it sounds like the plot of a feel-good Utopian novel, some activists outside the
United States have been experimenting w ith that very idea — creating web sites that w ill allow
the entire world (or at least everyone w ith access to the Internet) to "vote" in the upcoming U.S.
presidential election.

Their interesting initiatives are. of course, symbolic, aiming to make a statement rather
than actually extend franchise rights to the world's population. But they share a common analy-

sis that the U.S. government should somehow be accountable to the people around the world
who are affected by its policies.

The organizers also hope that they can influence the political debate in the months leading
up to the election and build links between U.S. citizens and the rest of the world.
Satya Sagar. a journalist and writer in Thailand who has written about the issue of inter-

national voting, told mc in an email that the most fundamental tenets of democracy make some
kind of international accountability necessary in the current political climate.

"For quite some time now. w ho . . . becomes the US president has had a serious impact on

the rest of the globe in political, economic, and even cultural lemis." he said. ".And if the U.S.

elections have such a deep impact on m\ life. I ha\e the basic democratic right to cast ai lea.sl

a simple vote in the process."

by Pranjal Tiwari Holland-based acli\ ist Wiebe de Jager is the creator of The World Votes, an international

illustrati Amy DeVoogd Internet voting web site. He seemed to share Sagar's outlook. "Formally, democracy is bound
www.devoogd.com lo national borders." he said \ia email. "With The World Votes, we wanted to exceed the

N
borders of the nation state. Since U.S. foreign in any country is invited to send a letter, with World Peace Society. All three initiatives see

policies affect people from all over the world, letters from outside the U.S. titled "Dear communication as the bottom line.

we thought that it is relevant to let the world America" and letters from Americans titled "A real [world] vote is not necessary,"

have a say in the U.S. presidential election." "Dear World." The web site has received Symons said. "Americans for the next 100
To this end. The World Votes is holding letters from Canada, Mexico, Germany, the years will elect their own president ... [but]

a "shadow election" at the same time as the U.K., France, Australia, China, Austria, and we feel that more and more people from
U.S. presidential election. People from any- Nigeria, along with several letters from the around the world need to realize that we are

where in the world can register on the web U.S. all a part of one world, that each of us need
site by entering their email address and na- In his letter, Abimbola Oyesanya from to realize our responsibilities not only to our
tionality. Shortly before the actual November Nigeria wonders, "Where would I begin on country but also to the world."
elections, the web site will send out an invita- the Presidency of George Bush? For me it is De Jager agreed. "The most important
tion to registrants to vote in its own poll, the an act of irresponsibility by citizens of U.S. to aspect is that the initiative generates interest-

results of which will be "symbolically offered vote a person of this character into the White ing debates between citizens worldwide, and
to U.S. citizens." de Jager said. House. From domestic and foreign issues that that is, in our opinion, the most important re-
So far, the response has been encourag- affect us all, this guy has turned the whole sult." he said. "1 think the Americans should
ing. The web site currently has 8,000 sub- world upside down. It is unfortunate that the see The World Votes as a unique opportunity

scribers. whole world cannot vote, [but] Bush's nega- to see what world citizens think of U.S. for-

The World Peace Society of Australia is tive and inhuman policies have impacted all eign policy."
organizing a similar site, called "A U.S. Elec- world populations." So, in between Fox's saturation cover-
tion for the Rest of the World." Sunirmalya Martin Eisner from Germany asks age of the November two-horse circus, watch
Symons, one of the group's organizers, said people in the U.S. to "step into the shoes of out for the results of the Internet's various
that his group's decision to hold an election the people in South America, Vietnam, or virtual elections. Or better yet, register on
was sparked by a belief that the people of the even the Middle East
world, including the American people, were who are not necessar-
It is unfortunate that the
not represented by the actions of the current ily bom as enemies of

U.S. government. the U.S.A. Instead they whole world cannot vote, [but]
The Australia-based election is also are truly afraid of the

open to people from around the world, and U.S.A. because they Bush's negative and inhuman
6,000 people from 85 countries had voted as have experienced hovs
of June 2. Current polls show Ralph Nader their families were per- policies have impacted all
sweeping the vote with 54 percent, followed secuted, how their hu-

by John Kerry and Dennis Kucinich with man rights were denied, world populations.
George W. Bush trailing at just over 4 per- how they were kept
cent. Voters can cast their ballot for one of in poverty, etc. ... Ask
the actual candidates in the race, but there is yourself: would you trust such a country?" the web sites, cast a vote, and — more im-
also an Alternative U.S. Election with choices Dietz got the idea for Voices '04 from portantly — communicate with the people of

such as Oprah Winfrey, Michael Moore, and the C. Wright Mills novel Listen Yankee, the world. Because, perhaps ironically, the

the Dixie Chicks. composed of fictitious letters from Cubans point these web sites seem to make is that de-

"We thought if we could get a message to Americans during the Cuban Revolution. mocracy cannot be limited to the casting of
to the American people about how strongly "I decided to combine the personal quality a vote every four years. In the course of our

the rest of the world felt about George W. of letter-writing with the massive scale of discussion, de Jager reminded me of Abbie
Bush, they might look again at their presi- worldwide protest," he said. Hoffman's perceptive point that "Democracy
dent," Symons explained via email. Dietz added that, although it sounds is not something you believe in or a place to

Another site. Voices '04, was created af- cliche, he hopes the web site will establish hang your hat. It's something you do." "A-

ter the massive anti-war protests of February open lines of communication between ordi-
2003 out of anger over U.S. foreign policy. nary people in the U.S. and other parts of the
World Peace Society of Australia's
U.S. Election for the Rest of the World:
"The last four years, not to mention the world. "If you think about it, all efforts to ex-
http://worldpeace.org.au'virtualElection.asp
last century, have demonstrated that U.S. pand suffrage or the scope of news coverage
policies affect the entire world in a significant have begun as attempts to re-define the means
The World Votes: www.thcworldvotes.org
way," said the web site's founder, Peter Di- of communication," he said. "The structures
etz. of power, and the status quo politics of any
Voices Without Votes: www.voices04.org
"We feel that it is a natural response to period, are direct responses to who is able to
the current situation to cover U.S. politics communicate to who, and to what end." He
Pranjal Tiwari writes non-fiction to escape
without regard to the international border that added that the popularity of these voting web
fi-om reality. He would like to hear from you
separates the U.S. from the rest of the world," sites indicates that "communication must be
at pranjaljiwari@yahoo.com hut could not
he added. global first and national second."
part with that ring for less than forty thou-
Dietz opted for a diflFerent approach than Though its methods are different, the
sand ofvour earth dollars.
the virtual election format. Voices '04 com- overall aim of Voices Without Votes is simi-
piles letters from around the world. Anyone lar to The World Votes and the efforts of the
o
o
W
 avoid The New York Tunes but lately, it's become a compul-

Oil-Slick Jim Moves In I

sion, though only for the new daily column
the Dead." Today's listing: "DERVISHI,
titled,

Ervin. 21, Pfc, Army.

"Names of

Fort Worth."

I'm not one of those cynical people who thought Bush sent us
into to Iraq for the oil. To me, Saddam Hussein was always a Kurd-
killing cockroach with a Hitlerian mustache. 1 never liked the guy
— not even when he worked for George Bush Sr.

It's worth going over the work the Butcher of Baghdad did for

his Texas patrons when he was their butcher:

1979: Seizes power with U.S. approval; moves allegiance from So-
viets to U.S. in Cold War.

1980: Invades Iran, then the "Unicycle of Evil," with U.S. encour-
agement and arms. (In fairness, credit here goes to Nobel Peace
Laureate, James Carter.)

1982: Bush-Reagan regime removes Saddam "s regime from offi-

cial U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

An Excerpt from the Updated Edition of

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy 1983: Saddam hosts Donald Rumsfeld in Baghdad. Agrees to "go

by Greg Palast steady" with U.S. corporate suppliers.

introduction by Madeleine Baran

1984: U.S. Commerce Department issues license for export of af-

latoxin to Iraq useable in biological weapons.

If the editors in America's newsrooms really valued investiga-
tive reporting, they would be bending over backwards trying to
1988: Kurds in Halabja, Iraq, gassed.
recruit the reporter who broke meticulously researched stories
about how President Bush stole the 2000 election, how Bush
1987-88: U.S. warships destroy Iranian oil platforms in Gulf and
stopped the FBI investigation into Saudi Arabia's funding of ter-
break Iranian blockade of Iraq shipping lanes, tipping war advan-
rorist groups, and how voters continue to be disenfranchised in
tage back to Saddam.
Florida and elsewhere. Instead, Greg Palast, who has been called
the world's greatest investigative reporter, had to move to Eng-
1990: Invades Kuwait with U.S. permission.
land to find recognition. He reports regularly for BBC's News-
nighl, and has also written for The Washington Post, Harper's,
U.S. permission? On July 25. 1990. the dashing dictator met in
and The Nation.
Baghdad with U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie. When Saddam
"I am the definition of mainstream in Europe," he said in a
asked Glaspie if the United Slates would object to an attack on Ku-
recent interview with Clamor. "And here I'm some kind of cult
wait over the small emirate's theft of Iraqi oil. America's Ambas-
figure."
sador told him. "We have no opinion... Secretary [of State James]
Few things seem to frustrate Palast more than poor report-
Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction that Kuwait ...

ing. His tone turns to disgust and anger when he talks about a
is not associated with America." Saddam taped her.
note he received from a CNN reporter concerning his investiga-
Glaspie, in 1991 Congressional testimony, did not deny the
tion of voter disenfranchisement in Florida. The note said. "I've
authenticity of the recording which diplomats worldwide took as a
been hear in the Justice Department for years and no one has
Bush Sr's OK to an Iraqi invasion.
taken action against the otlicials in Florida. If there was some-
So where is Secretary Baker today' On the lam. hiding in de-
thing wrong, they would have taken action."
served shame'.' Doing penance by nursing the victims of Gulf War
"That's the problem," Palast said. "American reporters are
Syndrome? No. Mr. Baker is a successful lawyer, founder of Baker
embedded not just in Iraq, but in the White House, the Justice
Bolts of Houston, Riyadh. Kazakhstan. Among his glinting client
Department. They're not reporting anymore. They're repeating."
roster. Fxxon-Mobil oil and the defense minister of Saudi Arabia.
An updated edition of Palast 's The Best Deinoeracy Money
Baker's firm is protecting the Saudi royal from a lawsuit by the
Can Buy hit stores in April. The book details everything from
families of the \ictims of September 1 1 over evidence suggesting
the election fraud in Florida to the disturbing story of how the
that Saudi money ended up in the pockets of the terrorists.
government approved bovine-growth hormones to the reasons
And Baker has just opened a new office ... at 600 Pennsyl-
o
o behind Fnron's demi.se.
1

IM vania Avenue. This is White House first: the first time a lobbyist
Palast hopes the new edition will help defeat Bush in the
for the oil industr) will ha\e a desk right next to the President's.
November election. "The idea is to gel people doing two things."
Baker's job. to "restructure" Iraq's debt. How lucky for his cli-
he said. "One is to get them ripped up and angry, and second is to
ents in Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom claims $30.7 billion due from
o give them the infonnalion so they'll have bullets for their guns."
E
 Iresist.exist.per
Iraq. Apparently this includes their S7 billion send to

Saddam to fund his bomb [see Chapter 2].

If you remember, Henry Kissinger ran away

from appointment to the September 1 1 Commission
with his consulting firm mcked between his legs after

the U.S. Senate demanded he reveal his client list. In

the case of Jim Baker, our elected Congress will had

no chance to ask him who is paying his firm nor even
require him to get off conflicting payrolls.

To get around the wee issue of conflicts galore,

the White House crafted a neat little subterfuge. The

official press release says the President has not ap- Exist
pointed Mr. Baker. Rather Mr. Bush is "responding to Director Esther Bell

a request from the Iraqi Governing Council." That is. Starring NIc Mevoli and Ben Bartlettt

Bush is acting on the authority of the puppet govern- www.existfilm.com

ment he imposed on Iraqis at gunpoint.

Why is our President so concerned with the Top pulls his hood over his head and pedals down another Philadelphia side
wishes of Mr. Baker's clientele? What does Bush owe street. Maybe the next person will help him find Jake. Maybe the next encoun-
Baker? It was Baker, as consigliere to the Bush fami- ter will give him a clue. Instead, Top's frustration grows as every lead becomes
ly, who came up with the strategy of maneuvering the someone else who cannot help him. The organizer is preparing a direct action;

2000 Florida vote count into a Supreme Court packed the filmmaker is cloistered in his basement trying to create a message everyone
with politicos. can understand; the gallery owner is overwhelmed by her impending prisoner art

Over the years, Jim Baker has taken responsi- opening. Still, with each meeting Top struggles to explain himself and to help oth-

bility for putting bread on the Bush family table. As ers see what's at risk. If only he could find the courage and words to spell it out.

Senior Counsel to Carlyle, the arms-dealing invest- If only they knew how to help.

ment group. Baker arranged for the firm to hire both This is a sequence from Exist, the second film from writer and direc-
President Bush 41 after he was booted from the White tor Esther Bell, founder of the Unamerican Film Festival. The film made its

House and President Bush 43 while his daddy was North American premiere at this summer's Allied Media Conference in Bowling

still in office. Green, Ohio. The follow up to Bell's award-winning, semi-autobiographical Godass
We know why Jim Baker is in the White House. (2001), Exist is currently making a festival tour.

But what was Private Dervishi doing in harm's way Exist is the character-centered story of a group of squatter/activists, told

in Iraq? Saddam was already in the slammer and Iraq from the inside out. The main characters are played by activists (Bell calls them
"liberated" nearly a year. "actorvists.") who bring a complex sensibility and realism to the film. Through

Th? answer came to me in a confidential docu- Top's search, we discover not a world of flat types who are too self-absorbed to

ment that oozed out of Foggy Bottom, one hundred help anyone else, but people who simply do not know all the answers. We find

pages from the State Departments secret "Iraq Strate- them working on important projects that sometimes bring them together,but too

gy." It's all about the "post-conflict" economy of Iraq often leave them isolated. When one character says, "You can't help me. And
written well /)e/b/-c American was told we would have I can't help you," he is not defeated, but yearning for a day when the opposite
a conflict there. might be true. This skeptical optimism is at the center of the film.

There's nothing in the "Iraq Strategy'' about de- In a recent article from Kitchen S/n/c discussing Hollywood movies about ac-

mocracy or voting. But there's plenty of detail about tivists, Jen Burke Anderson writes, "What I don't recognize is a world where every
creating a free-market Disneyland in Mesopotamia, progressive is a no-fun prig, and every no-fun prig is a progressive. Conventional

with "all" state assets — and that's just about every- wisdom has long been that Hollywood is unapologetically liberal. But if that's

thing in that nation — to be sold off to corporate pow- so, where in the movies are the progressives I know — funny, sexy, smart, open-

ers. The Bush team secret program ordered "asset minded and most of all, nice?"

sales, concessions, leases and management contracts, They're in Exist. Here, the characters are not idealized heroes working in Uto-

especially those in the oil and supporting indus- pia. They are suspicious, stubborn, selfish, jealous, compassionate, driven, intel-
"
tries. ligent, funny, sexy, and, in the end, willing to make sacrifices for long-term goals.

The "Strategy" lays out a detailed 270-day This is the activist community I know — not always straight edged or above the

schedule for the asset grab. And that's why PFC Der- fray, but aware of the power and wonder of collaboration, community, and love. This
vishi was kept there: to prevent or forestall elections. complex articulation of one activist community is the vitality behind Exist.

Because no democratically elected government of Iraq This film is a collaborative production that not only confronts Hollywood
could ever sell off its oil. Democracy would have to images of activists but also the standard hierarchies involved in mainstream film-

wait, at the point of a gun, for the "assets sales, con- making. From casting to workshoping the story, the film was composed through
cessions, leases" to Bush's corporate buck-buddies. cooperation and improvisation. This approach comes across in moments of non-
There you have it. The secret "Strategy" tells us linear narrative, sirens and police radio calls that haunt the soundtrack, play with
that, if Bush didn't go into Iraq for the oil, he sure as focus and color, and documentary segments woven into a story about people that
hell ain 't leaving without it. "ir is more than the sum of its parts.

-Brian Bergen-Aurand

en
 From the Desk ofterD Um^
March 12, 1998
To: Sandy Grushow, President, Fox Television Network

Dear Mr. Grushow:

I've recently been informed that Fox Television is planning several "unscripted reality TV series" for the new millennium. Something

called "Joe Millionaire." where a dozen gold-diggers are duped into believing a tall, handsome man is rich. I've also heard a sequel

IS in the works, in which a dozen European gold-diggers are duped into believing a shorter, less-handsome man is rich.

My advice to you? Stop thinking small.

In this spirit, let me propose the following unscripted reality TV series: "My Stupid, Obnoxious, Right Wing President."

Proposal:

Here's the idea. After decades of politics-as-usual, hilarity ensues when the ne'er-do-well son of a former president is "elected" the
43'^ President of the United States.

Despite a controversial election in which he doesn't even win the popular vote (I believe we can use his brother — actually

named Jeb! — to help with this controversy), the "President of the United States" proceeds to act as if he won by a landslide.
Think of everything you don't want in a leader and double it, triple it, multiply it by ten.

We've had peace now for several years, so our guy will start a war in a volatile area. Better, all of his pretexts for war will

prove false: "They attacked us" when they didn't. "They're about to attack us" when they're not. We might even throw in the old

saw about making the world safe for democracy. Trust me, it'll be a hoot.

And that huge budget surplus that's being projected? In the trillions of dollars? He'll turn it into a gigantic deficit by — get

this — cutting taxes for the wealthiest people in the country! Wow. Won't that be a kick? And since the only thing funnier than a

guy getting hit in the balls is a guy getting hit in the balls twice, we'll have "the President" cut taxes for the rich twice. Maybe even
three times! The middle class — or what's left of them — will be stunned. It'll be great!
And that's just the start.

Want a healthy environment? Our guy will aid polluters and logging companies.
Want an impartial federal judiciary? Our guy will appoint racists.

Jobs? Gone.

Separation of church and state? He won't believe in it. (At some point, he might even say he believes he's been "appointed by
God' just to scare the pants off everyone. A real "Martin Sheen in 'The Dead Zone"' kind of thing.)

International cooperation and diplomacy? He'll unilaterally back out of international treaties and drop his drawers before the

U.N. (Probably metaphorically — we haven't decided yet.)

Best of all, he won't sound presidential at all. No. He'll sound like a complete idiot. Think Yogi Berra crossed with Jim Varney.

Here's some sentences we've been toying with: "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure" and "We're going to have the

best educated American people in the world," and, my personal favorite, "Poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you

happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill." (Okay, maybe not that dumb, but you get the idea.)

Just imagine the stunned faces of the American people as this complete idiot "runs the country into the ground."

People in on the joke: Fox Television; "Jeb"; The United States Supreme Court; Ralph Nader, activist; The Wall Street Journal

editorial page; The Gallup Organization; The Washington Post e6i\oua\ page; Colin Powell, retired general; Dennis Miller, comedian;
Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Great Britain; Judith Miller, New York Times reporter; Ahmad Chalabi, Iraqi patriot

The joke on those in on the joke: Those unscripted reality shows should have a second "catch" (I've heard yours is that if Joe's girl

agrees to marry him, he really will become a millionaire). Here's ours:

If, despite all these disastrous policies, "the President " manages to get re-elected in 2004, then everything counts.
Everything. All of it. Can you imagine Colin Powell's face when he finds out? Or Tony Blair's' It'll be brilliant.

And if he doesn't get re-elected? Well, that's when we do our "reveal " and let everyone in on the joke, and we all laugh
and breathe a big, big sigh of relief. Except for those who are already dead, of course. Or incarcerated. Or unemployed Bitter.

Distraught. Isolated. Hopeless. But even they might enjoy it when they see it all again on FOX TV. Thursday nights at 8 p.m
Sir, this IS what I mean by thinking big. If we can pull it off, "My Stupid, Obnoxious, Right Wing President" could become the
biggest joke in the history of the world.

Sincerely,

^-*^
Karl Rove
 Powerdown The Party's Over Behind the War Trouble Makers
Options and Actions for Oil, War and the Fate of on Terror Teaparty
a Post-Carbon World Industrial Societies Western Secret Strategy and A Manual for Effective

Richard Heinberg the Struggle for Iraq Citizen Action

Richard Heinberg
$16.95 $17.95 Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed Charles Dobson
A stark look at prospects for a Without what would you do?
oil, $16.95 $16.95
truly sustainable culture as the How would you travel? How Reveals the shocking hypocrisy A wholesome manual for raising
industrial era winds down. would you eat? What would and hidden agenda behind the helm
everyday life look like? invasion of Iraq.

available at your local bookstore or

direct at www.newsociety.com
New Society Publishers
1-800-567-6772 Books To Build A New Society

A Poet's Challenge to the Unelected President

FISTOLO In Memoriam was originally inspired by a pei^on full of hope,
^^^RftgjiiL 4- _
and goodness, Tatiana Prosvimina, a student who died
I curiosity,

caFerifoaLesQTje
jfl^Bj at the age of seventeen. The later poems ofthe collection were
k M. written in response to the reckless and immoral celebration of
LaBeL/DistRfBcitfon
* Kvil l{()iMtt [V "InSonj-cV
liiirral(>-l)iis<Ml ,'U'()ll^ti(' punk
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nK-k.
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^^_M.^^^^^^K22
k the militarism of the

instead it
Bush Administration.
attacks the world needed vision, humanity, and sophistication;
got blind, simple-mind ed warmongering.
After the 9-11

The Bush
TKP, S» Administration's selfish commitment to war and wealth has
* Mis(hi('ri{iv\v"M;i-k('-iijir' * been barbaric, obscene, and monstrous.

*
(iv|>si('s, Iii)Imn'>. pjrjitcs,

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liris NViiiiiaiiii "Aiiicricfui S<)iif>s

of II()|M>& Distress"
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ilniiik.inK "ilcliCN.

ii|)aiiist tlic «ar iiiarliiiic.

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iT^ Jjn <Jv\E,moxianL 1
The Administration's
terror is an antediluvian
declaration

the world's problems of sectarian conflict, organized crime,

overpopulation, poverty, hunger, despair, increasingly virulent
diseases, environmental
of global
approach to finding ways to address

depredation, reckless depletion of

war on

•'

VU.. ?,^..m, iK^n^n i. IW1 :^^Xn . imi global resources, and degradation of traditional cultures by the
* *
Tli('()i|)li;iiis''H;iis(''rii(' Voufir West's culture of consumption, amusement, and spectacle.
V ratX. rvqU
Krik IVti'rscii of Mischief Hh'm's old punk IkiihI,
plus four new
That so many Americans voted against George Bush
/iitMistic -onfjs. Jl-soim ili-^o^niplit. 1
CI). »n
I indicates that many millions of Americans are still inspired
* * by a romantic idealism and spirituality rooted not in blind
Dan-cii "l)('i<i(l(>" KraiiHT "IJockiii'
In Memoriam nationalism but in the love of family and community and in a
Til The A})<)(aly])S('"
\Vliisl((\-sHillin'. fcKil-sloiiipiii'. nilililc-niiisin' :iiijin
ISBN 1-4033-2708-4 reverence for nature— God's handiwork. This is a spirituality
lii>-l>liii«..

S<l can be ordered at local

( I ).
of love, not hate, a spirituality of the sacred moment, not of
.^.IrSO <7Z^47^f <7 2r2^ bookstores and Amazon.com
an eager anticipation of Armageddon, a spirituality of sharing,
KolHt't ilhlkrl'j'ik I'rtrlvi'll s|>lil I.IM 1) S<)
or downloaded (S3. 95) at
not of greed, a spirituality that comes from living wisely, not
.Miitiin "iliijiof Oats" ( l)S!( lstbooks.com.
'l'li('(;iii Kii'kci's "Moiinraiii I >iicli-s" ( l)S!l simplemindedly.
.'.r)( liildnn liK-. iXC l)S-.>(»
It will be task of Tatiana's generation to restore spiritual
Slii(k\ (.ii;ini«il/sl < l(S(i
< liiis Ni'iiiiMriii I'liiM I iiiliil '<" S I
health to an American way of life thathas become obscenely
AW putt pott paid V S payabli to 'Fittelo Unordi.'
in tki wasteful and destructive of habitat, human and natural, of
Canada and MixUo add SI World add $2.
families and communities, and of individuals. It will be this
P.O. Box 28.% younger generation that will reestablish America's moral
)|Kr I)arl)y, Pa 19082 authority in the worid and make America a force of good for
wwAV.Hslolo.com all human beings.
 •We'v*

SljcycUfJJorkSimrs
1

jcolasLampert'

Thorns
We know what happened in the
in the
corporate media over the last
Paw
four years: grossly
inaccurate journalism, censorship and dismissals, directives on what not to report,
the dawn of embedded reporting both abroad and at home, fervently patriotic news
anchors, and more media consolidation. But these trends, however disturbing, have
had a profound effect on independent media, increasing both the numbers of people
creating alternatives and those who want to Clamor asked a sampling of
consume it.

independent media-makers to talk about significant aspects of their work during the
Bush Regime: what they've reported on, what's been left out, what mark their work
has made. As these accounts indicate, there's a lot of excitement about independent

4 media right now and what it's accomplishing. There's a vigorous energy in the air and
a powerful sense of compulsion, which will only grow into the years ahead.
o
E
S
 Iraq
islS^i^^"^
•
Pirates that
indicates
lence
;^eaponsprogran>,.-

members"
that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda

auciani Hussein recently sought

significant /
itities of uranium from Afrira ••
'

concerned
thaV /ro

"Missions

clockwise from top-left: Leticia Cortez, Vijay Prashad, Lorie Kramer, Andrew Stelzer, Silja J. A. Talvi, and Dahr Jamail

Andrew Stelzer on Iraq, the attacks on women's rights, the ne- Chicago and in the world is so proud ofyou.
Free Speech Radio News glect of workers" rights, and the government's Peace.
www. fsm.org lucrative partnerships with corporate giants.
Portland, OR The list goes on and on. The people were Please keep this going; Pass it around the
angry but not violent. Apparently the police world, we must stop this crazed .spoiled child
August 2 1 , 2002. Not a year had passed since didn't feel the vibe. They declared a "state of called Bush. He is destroying the american
the twin towers thing. Dissent was still large- emergency" and decided to unleash the pep- way of life.
ly seen as unacceptable and un-American in per spray and the rubber bullets on a crowd -Sad Amerian
that time of fear (can you remember way back that hadn't broken any rules. One officer de-
to those days?) cided that even though I had been standing in Keep talking y 'all. The internet is still up, re-
I can tell you one thing; I was glad to the same spot, behind a barricade a few feet ally the only tool that might get us thru this
be living in Portland that year There was a from him for 20 minutes with a press pass on, shit. Portland rocks! 1 love your city! Cheers
large, visible community that wasn't fooled. I needed a good spritz of pepper spray right in from Texas, Brian.
When "President" Bush came to town to the eyes. They decided the saine thing for a
raise money for Republican Senator Gordon father and his one and three-year-old children. I 'm afraid this is just the beginning. I 'm old
Smith's campaign, about 1500 of them hit the As the news spread over indymedia.org, mes- enough to remember the anti-Vietnam War
streets, for so many reasons. I was reporting sages began pouring in from all over: protests, most of which, just like this one,
for KBOO community radio. The people I in- were peaceful and ended in police violence. It

terviewed were upset about the loss of civil As I sit here with tears streaming down my seems as though it's 1968, and George Bush
liberties, the FTAA, the destruction of the en- face I wish that I could go there to join my is Richard Nixon. Keep on.
vironment, the sanctions and impending war fellow brothers and sisters. Everyone in -TR of St. Paul, Mn.
o
o
moi]
fVe live in the age of the Internet. The world reason this answer is so general is because we dia continues to report the bungled speeches

is watching. have to see the damage done in four years by of Mr. Bush during the lead up to the June 30
this administration in its context. From their "handover."
The next day, the people and their lawyers de- "election" to the prison abuse scandal in Iraq, As in the U.S., there is a great disparity

cided to sue the city and the police. I could more and more horrors come out that this ad- in Iraq between what is really occurring on
have been part of the lawsuit, but decided ministration has conjured from an Orwellian the ground and what the Western corporate

to stick with my role as "media." However, nightmare. media chooses to report.

I submitted my account of the event as evi- Beginning with the irresponsible, exorbi- Even with stories of torture dominat-
dence. I reported the story on Free Speech tant tax-cuts and the massive deficit they cre- ing television screens throughout much of
Radio News. The world was not only watch- ated. Bush's appointments of judges when the May, the mainstream stations seem to be
ing but listening. Senate was not in session, the wars, privatiza- conveniently overlooking the price Iraqis are
Over the next few months, the entire tion of the military, and the mess that is Iraq... paying for the lack of rebuilding: Flickering
planet decided enough was enough. There are plenty of examples of crimes against electricity as summer temperatures reach up
humanity perpetuated by this administration. to 1 40 degrees, an unemployment rate of 60
History must be recorded from the angle of percent, gasoline shortages, and a security

Leticia Cortez the other. I have tried to reflect this in (]Ha.sta situation so horrendous that many women are

Editor and co-founder of ^Hasta Cudndo? Cudndo? in the topics we have covered. In the unable to lea\ e their homes for fear of being
hastacuando@postmark.net last four years there has been a steep decline kidnapped, raped, or both.
Chicago, IL in the quality of life for everyone. This admin- An informed citizenry forms the basis of

istration is very dangerous and it's obvious a democracy. Not only are U.S. citizens be-

(Hasta Cudndo? grew out of our belief that that the planet can ill afford four more years ing deprived of access to information about

a publication needed to exist including youth of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcrofl, Rice, the true nature of the critical situation in Iraq,

and minorities in the political community Wolfowitz, Libby, Thompson, etc. they are being outright lied to by most of the
to address issues pertinent to them and their corporate media outlets.
community. This is also why it's a bilingual Thus, independent media holds the re-

publication. From the beginning, ^HC'^s pur- Dahr Jamail sponsibility of telling the stories which the

pose was to inform and work for change. The The NewStandard News Bush Administration cannot afford to ha\e

things that were going on in the fall of 1999 www.newstandardnews.com people hear.
shaped the first issue. Locally, gentrification Baghdad, Iraq
was hitting the neighborhood; Mayor Daley
and the City Council were passing anti-youth While the Bush Administration scuttles to Silja J.A. Talvi

ordinances. Nationally, the WTO protest in manipulate the news coming out of occupied Lip. In These Times, The Nation, and many
Seattle was going on. Iraq with the U.S. election quickly approach- others

Then came the 2000 election, followed ing, the need for independent journalism here www.well.com -sisu
by the attendant thievery and ensuing massa- is more vital than ever before. Seattle, WA
cre of our economy, health, environment, and While the corporate media has been
educational system. The most important topic forced to acknowledge stories like the tortur- The political climate in the U.S.. particularly

I have covered during the last four years has ing inside Abu Ghraib prison, many of the since 9 1 1 . has been particularly hard on those
been the Bush Administration. outlets continue to apply the spin of "a few of us pursuing investigative and social issues,

Bush has disgraced the cover at least bad apples" to a systemic problem that has reporting about topics not related to Iraq, ter-

four times since the election. We included a been ongoing throughout U.S. detention fa- rorism, or electoral coverage.

spread of the Bush Cabinet with bios in the cilities in Iraq since the beginning of the oc- My "beat" has always revolved around
issue that followed the election. In the last is- cupation. criminal justice, drug war. and prisons issues,
sue Bush is the symbol of death dressed in his This is only the most recent example of a and its been honestly disheartening to see the

flight suit (the one he wore when he declared phenomenon which drew me to Iraq last No- almost complete lack of interest on the part
the war with Iraq had ended) and helmet in vember. I feel now as I did then; in general of editors in assigning these kinds of stories
hand. For the next issue we are focusing on the corporate media is failing to report the domestically since 9 11. It's as if 2.1 million

this year's election. reality of what is occurring on the ground in prisoners dropped off the map. except for

It is hard to isolate the most important Iraq. the occasional ston. based on statistics or on
story one has covered submerged in this cli- Because of this, there may never ha\e some gross scandal resulting in a lawsuit.

mate lor the last four years. However, the been a time where the need for investigative But the truth is that the "other w ar" — the
political plague of this administration and the independent journalism has been so great. In one being tbught on our soil b\ governmental

repercussions of their agenda at every le\cl Iraq, citi/ens and soldiers both are continuing and right-w ing forces against poor communi-
o
o
have been the main motive of my writing. The to die on a daily basis w liile the eoqwrate me- ties and communities of color continues

My "beat" has always revolved around criminal justice, drug war, and prisons issues, and it's been honestly
disheartening to see the almost complete lack of interest on the part of editors in assigning these kinds of
o
E stories domestically since 9/11. It's as if 2.1 million prisoners dropped off the map, except for the occasional
,S
u
o story based on statistics, or on some gross scandal resulting in a lawsuit. -Siija j.a. Taivi
 An informed citizenry forms the basis of a democracy. Not only are U.S. citizens being deprived
of access to information about the true nature of the critical situation in Iraq, they are being

outright lied to by most of the corporate media outlets. -Dahrjamaii

unabated. The similarities can't be ignored: disdained. The propagandists showed history Herbal Healer Academy in Mountain Home
Billions of dollars poured into an ineffective the back door. Arkansas since 1988. HHA sells natural

strategy that backfires at every turn; casualties As a professional historian, I began to health care supplements and offers home
and harshly treated prisoners of war; growing write in the anti-corporate Left Euro-Ameri- study courses in "alternative" healing. Thou-
discontent, disgust, and anger among target can media about the history of communism sands of customers worldwide have written
populations. But it's difficult to get anyone in the Arab and African lands and on how the HHA testimonials fi-om over the years. The
in the press (and to be honest, this includes Left had been decimated there. state of Arkansas has collected hundreds of
much of the progressive, independent press) We must acknowledge how the Afghan, thousands of dollars in sales tax from her
to care a great deal. I value independent press Iraqi, Saudi, and Sudanese Left had grown company as well.

above almost everything else, but it's been and flourished, how it had made political and Despite her credentials and longevity of
disheartening to hear editors say, over and cultural space for itself in regions where Islam practice in the state, no customer complaints,
over again, that there's less (or no) space for was the main religion. For us raised in Asia, and no evidence of any harm done to anyone,
these kinds of things when we're fighting a there remains little contradiction between the Attorney General of Arkansas filed suit

war abroad and Election 2004 is around the Islam and Communism, since we remem- against her and two local massage therapists

comer We simply can't ignore what's hap- bered that the world's largest concentration in 2002 to try to close them down. The suit

pening here — it's all interconnected. of Muslims nurtured the Communist Party of stated that she represented "a substantial dan-

The scandal of prisoner abuse at Abu Indonesia (PK.I). The Iraqi Communist Party ger to the health, welfare, and safety of the
Ghraib has, ironically, provided a renewed in- holds the honor of ejecting the British-in- public." The suit dragged on, through two at-

terest in prisoner issues. It took the brutality stalled monarchy (1958), and the Afghan torneys general, into the spring of 2003. The
of soldiers overseas for people to realize this Communists took the monarchs by the hand American Medical Association went so far as

kind of stuff has been going on here all along. to Constitutionalism and to feminism. to make a public statement in support of the

(Moreover, many of the people involved in that I also wrote at length about how the CIA lawsuit against her and HHA.
scandal came from U.S. prison backgrounds.) joined with local potentates to assassinate this McCain finally brought her case to the
In the meantime, the prisoners aren't go- Left. In Indonesia alone the CIA egged on people and independent media. I posted the
ing anywhere. We're adding more and more the military to murder 300,000 communists info on the Houston Indy Media website and
to the system every year — including scores and national liberation fighters after the 1965 alerted the Arkansas Indy Media and other
of young adults and women with children coup against Sukarno. Further, the CIA and alternative news websites. The Arkansas
— with devastating results. As members of the Saudis began to fund the revival of a radi- Indy Media folks said the story got the most
the independent press, it's our responsibility cal Islam from the early 1960s as a counter to response of any they had ever done. Within
to look at the hard and ugly truths. And the the growth of the Left in the oil lands. hours of the postings the government offi-

U.S. prison system is, unequivocally, one of 1 contributed these stories because I be- cials in Arkansas had a rude awakening. The
the ugliest manifestations and indicators of a lieve that we have to account for the creation response was so overwhelming that the Gov-
society gone awry. of the political desert in much of the former ernor of Arkansas became "livid," accord-

Third World. It did not happen because the ing to her lawyer. State fax machines were
darker and bruised nations are bereft of rea- unplugged and the state's email servers were
Vijay Prashad son. Quite the contrary. When reason lived in shut down. Responses came from as far away
Znet, Frontline, Counterpunch, Little India these lands, it had to be killed. But reason has as France and Sweden.
Hartford, CT a cunning way of making its return. A settlement was quickly reached. Mc-
Cain had to stop using the term "Dr" on all

Who can imagine today that Sudan and Iraq her literature and website, but she remains
had the largest communist parties in Africa Lorie Kramer in business today, continuing to care for the
and in the Arab world? If wc think of Com- Houston Independent Media Center people she has served for so many years.
munism, we think of the Soviets, Eastern www.houston.indymedia.org Despite intense pressure from state gov-
Europeans, or the party militants within the Houston, TX ernment and the AMA, the defendants in the
First World who struggled against the odds to lawsuit and the rights of the citizens of Ar-
bring socialism to working-class culture. If In these times of ever increasing control of in- kansas and others served by HHA prevailed
there are communists of color, they are gen- formation, does independent media have the because of the action taken by readers of in-

erally treated by popular memory or by anti- power to influence government and agencies dependent media.
communist writers as aberrations or stooges. of the government on behalf of the people? In my years working with "alternative
When 9/11 hijacked our lives, the U.S. If you ask Marijah McCain of Arkansas, I'm news sources" this was the most dramatic
war machine went on the path to overthrow sure you'd get a resounding YES! example of the might of independent media
the regimes that ruled in Afghanistan, Iraq, McCain is an American Naturopathic that I have experienced. I am convinced that

Iran, and Sudan. We heard that these are Medical Board Certified and Accredited utilizing independent media can be a power-
anti-modernist zones where women are rou- ( ANMCAB) naturopath with over 20 years of ful tool to effect change when the rights and
tinely oppressed and everything rational is personal experience who. has operated the interests of the people are threatened. "i!r
O
O
for more information about these journalists, please visit www.clamomagazine.org QJ
 Lampooning the Buffoon
fun on the internet
woro Richard Ristow xtn
iiius ... upsoorg at
m.

w s expense

1999, Zack Exley received a cease-and-desist letter from thought Bush's new White House would be a "super-meaty project."
In
George W. Bush's lawyer. Owner of the Gwbush.com domain, All he needed was a name, and the whitehouse.org web domain just
Exley routinely posted satire about the then-Texas governor's par- happened to be free.

tying past, offering doctored photographs suggesting cocaine abuse Wooden's parody is a mirror distortion of the real White House's
and a love of hard liquor. This angered the Bush campaign, includ- web site. Whitehouse.org is complete with clickable links to things

ing Bush himself, who, when asked about Exley, remarked dur- like the Department of Faith, Homeland Security, and Fraternal Af-
ing a televised news conference, "There ought fairs. Articles posted at the DoF link directly to Lando\er-
to be limits to freedom." Bush and his baptist.org, a religious parody site operated by
campaign team filed a complaint - .
V
^Sv vC*>v

t ^>\.,» Wooden's Chickenhead Productions. Land-

with the Federal * - •
overbaptist.org routinely oflers innova-

Elections Commis- tions in creation science:

sion and in doing so mappings of the sinful

brought a wave of regions of the tongue

new traffic to the site and 60-second sermons.
Eventually, the FEC Homeland Security of-

dropped the com- fers strange programs

plaint. like Operation Manda-
Since then, Ex- tory Patriotic Tattoo

ley has worked for and the Terrorist

MoveOn, Howard Reading List. Back

Dean, and John at Whitehouse.org.
Kerry. Gwbush. the main page also

com has been otTers Onionesque

put on hiatus, «*j^i press releases, in-

while its webmas- ^BJ eluding: "President's

ter focuses on try- Armed Forces Radio

ing to defeat Bush Address to Ameri-
and elect John ca's Troops on the
Kerry. But doz- Glorious Occasion
ens of other sites of their Retroactive
have emerged in Induction into Eter-

its place, the humor nal Martial Slavery"

fueling three distinct and "Transcript of Pres-
approaches: political ident's Friendly Call to

parodies, anti-Bush Ron Reagan. Jr.. Remind-

cartoons, and Presiden- ^ ing Him What Can Happen

tial quotes. The following to Al/hcimer's-Predisposcd

are a few of the most memo- Girly-Men Who Don't Keep Their
rable and creative. Fucking Traps Shut."
hventually. the site caught
o
o \\ hitehouse.orji Ixicy's attention, who asked
and Cie()r}»e» bush.org Wooden to take o\cr Gw-
bush. com. Concentrating
Shortly after Bush was "appoint on Georgewbush.org.
(
cd" by the Supreme "oiirt which is closest

John Wooden to the real

N
N
 Clamor's Top-Ten
campaign URL, Wooden and his writers are focusing on Bush's re- Dubyaspeak.com
Stop-Bush Slogans:
election poHtics. HighHghts include faux press releases, a PDF cam-
paign poster personalizer, and an action center allowing visitors to Humor about W. Bush
What's going to happen to all of the
email absurdly vitriolic letters to media outlets. A sample salutation: doesn't always need
anti-Bush merchandise after he's dese-
"Dear ACLU-Fellating So-Called Journalist." to be implied. Indeed,
lected in 04? You may find some sweet
Satire often makes enemies, and the site has been targeted. "The truth can be stranger
deals on shirts, wall clocks, and bibs
Bushies didn't learn from the Gwbush.com experience at all," Wood- than fiction. And in the
(yes, anti-Bush bibs). Or you could stow
en says. "They came after Whitehouse.org in early 2003, too. ft took case of the 43"* Presi-
your wares away for a few decades and
the ACLU to scare them away." dent, plain old speech
watch them appreciate, at least as a
beats anything come-
valuable remnant of this insane time in
Toostupidtobepresident.coiti dians could dream up.
history. Whatever you do, there's plenty
With this in mind, Jus-
to choose from.
One can't mistake David Counts's flash animations for Bush's re- tin Thome has been ar-

election material. "All the stuff 1 do is original and, 1 hope, funny," chiving the president's
Dick Cheney Before Cheney Dicks You
Counts states. "One of the justifications for hassling other Bush sites mangling of the Eng-
No BUIISHit in 2004
has been their unauthorized use of protected images, but I get around lish language . Bush
Real Conservatives Don't Start Wars
that by drawing everything." has a talent for stream-
Counts's work resembles editorial cartoons — facial features of-conscious sentence
More Trees, Less Bush
Don't Blame Me, My Vote Didn't Count
are over-accentuated, and a picture's context has a greater mean- structure, malaprops,
George W. Bush, You're Fired!
ing. For example, in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," a man in mispronunciations, and
Bush bin-Lyin'
a suit tries to brief George W. on the threat of Osama bin Laden backhanded compli-
Are we Kinder and Gentler Yet?
attacking, but Bush, sawing wood in full cowboy regalia, doesn't ments. Much of what
How Many Miles Per Iraqi?
hear him above the racket of a noisy, Fisher Price chainsaw. In the site chronicles will
Impeach the Punk-Ass Dictator
"Monkey Primate and the Oily Grail," Counts borrows from Monty leave visitors simply
Python and the Holy Grail to tell stories about selling the world on shaking their heads.
the "imminent" nuclear threat and vilifying anti-war celebrities. In For example, when
"Term-Eliminator 3: Rise of the Digital Voting Machines," Count talking about Senator Frist's wife. Bush said: "He married a Texas

uses the Simpsons' Mr. Bums and Arnold Schwarzenegger as dark girl, I want you to know. Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just

(and idiotic) characters who draw laughs, but also raise awareness like me."
about the flawed and potentially disastrous Diebold electronic vot- Bush's gaffes are available in bookstores, but Thome has a dif-
ing machines. Mr. Bums plays Diebold President Walden O'Dell, ferent mission. "The books that are out there are all about laughs, and
who last year promised to deliver his home state of Ohio to President have quotes that don't require much thought to enjoy. DubyaSpeak
Bush. has gone to the length of creating the largest, most far-ranging collec-
Fc«- Counts, this type of parody is routine. "Familiar metaphors tion of Dubya gaffes." Thome has put together a comprehensive col-
are the stock and trade of political cartoonists," he states. "They lection. Quotes are categorized into nearly two dozen different areas,

eliminate the need for a lot of the set-up, they depict circumstances such as Repeat Offender, which takes note of Dubya's penchant for
about which people already have an opinion or feeling, and they can repeating a particular set of daft phrases and concepts over and over
suggest things beyond what's depicted. Inference is a powerful tool again. Others include Dubya the Theologian, Dubya at War, Dubya on
in communication generally and in humor particularly." Himself, and Fresh Dubya.

Generate your own anti-campaign poster at georgewbush.org!

The future of bush parody

CLAMOR MAGAZINE Whether it's campaign parody, flash animations,

or strange Presidential quotes, political humor on the

PROUDLY DENOUNCES Internet has evolved a lot since

com angered many with one of the

Exley and gwbush.
first parody sites

in 1999. Five years later, the expansion of informa-

tion technology, political discourse, even political

satire has become more democratic, accessible, and

niRT] interesting. Enjoy these

November, web-based
the same ring, ix
sites while you can.
political satire
Come
might not have

CHENEY 04 Rich Ristow recently completed a masters offine arts

creative writing at

to
UNC- Wilmington. A prior contributor
Clamor, he has published poetry
variety' of places. He
and non-fiction in a

has a short story in newly released

in

www.GeorgeWBusli.org For Here or To Go:

County Press).
Life in the Service Industiy (Garret

o
o
Paid lor by RE-SBiCT BUSH. Inc.
N
 there's gonna be a

The revolution
will be televised
... but it won't
be cheap.

by Jared Jacang Maher

Essentially my job, I am told, is to push a 1999 was one of the main organizers of the tions and ambitions of FSTV resemble that of
button. Specifically it's to hit an "enter" original Independent Media Center that dis- a 24-hour cable news channel — minus the

key that switches the broadcast from the Free seminated news from the tear gas-choked budget of course.
Speech TV pledge drive being filmed live in streets of Seattle's seminal WTO protest. "Tele%ision is a high-cost media," ex-

the room behind me to the first installment Such backgrounds are not unusual in these plains FSTV president John Schwartz who
of a taped Noam Chomsky lecture. A button halls. FSTV's home base of Boulder, Colo- founded the station in 1995 through an amal-
— okay, no problem. But as I've learned in rado is known less as a TV producer's Mecca gamation of other public TV resources. FSTV
the world of progressive television, things are then it is as a liberal soapbox for the interior has a budget of roughly two million dollars
always a lot harder then they seem. West. This supplies FSTV with a staff that is a year, he says, an amount that most stations

I watch the time-code flutter in millisec- more likely to have experience in direct ac- bum through in a single hour producing Sur-
onds and realize that my seemingly brainless tion protest then broadcast journalism. In vivor or Punk'ci. But two million is a gar-

task is surprisingly critical. Off by even just a fact, FSTV's news director Shannon Service gantuan sum for any comparable non-profit
few moments, it could be the one small dread- was a founding member of the Direct Action magazine, website, or e\ en radio station. "So
ed screw-up that snowballs into a crisis for Network and a Ruckus Society Trainer who something that is really inexpensive in TV
the whole five-hour broadcast. The specter of somehow found herself sitting in the anchor's terms," Schwartz says, "is still really expen-

a crisis — like, for instance, the satellite feed chair. sive."

suddenly conking out, or, perhaps, a Michael Galatas starts off with the standard plea Nomial cable networks make their in-

Moore plug not playing on cue — is nearly for viewer support but then lays into the come through what's called a "dual-revenue
written into the script for such productions. distinct FSTV screed against the Bush Ad- stream" which means that they earn money
Nevertheless, what FSTV lacks in refined ministration, the war machine, and the limp from both the cable operators (who get their

technical know-how and glossy presentation, journalism of "corporate television media." money through cable subscriptions) and from
it makes up for in passion and a conviction Halim does a run-through of the premiums ad revenue. FSTV earns money from neither,

that the next big battle for independent me- that donors will get in return for their sup- notes Schwartz. And so. like many anti-profit

dia can and must be in the tightly-controlled port, including subscriptions to The Nation organizations. FSTV must always eye the
realm of cable television. That is, if wc can and World Socialist Review, and books by bottom line. Certain comers are cut. People
get through this next pledge-drive. Howard Zinn and Jim Hightower. If it wasn't work for free, or if you are one of the station's

My finger hovers precipitously over the clear to viewers before, it should be by now: 15 full-time employees, almost for free.

rectangular Enter key. My eyes focus on it a PBS pledge-drive this is not. Unlike commercial television. FSTV
sharply. This is what it must feel like for the "It's important that you call now." Gala- must maintain itself off of foundation grants
guy ill-fated enough to have his finger on "the tas says into the camera. "You won't see this and also through viewer donations, which
button." Such a little act, with such greater type of content anywhere else." have grown from ten percent in past years

consequence. One twitch and I could cause As a non-profit. FSTV functions on the to a quarter of the total revenue in 2003. To
o
o management
the whole show to explode . . . figuratively, I operational budget of a local public channel, meet these projected earnings,
mean. Hold steady, man. run mainly by media activists, interns and has upped the number of pledge drives to
There's 30 seconds left in the break and volunteers like me. But because it's beamed three a year. Five days into the ten-day spring

the camera cuts from host Kmaan lialim (by into over 17 million homes nation-wide pledge drive, and about $120,000 in pledges

day FSTV's contract administrator) to pan in through both the Dish satellite network and have already been pulled in, roughly half of
on production manager Fric (iaiatas, who in 108 community access stations, the expecta- FST\''s uoal This sum mav seem like an un-

N
godly amount for most activist organizations, many of which run on yearly budgets DECEPTION DOLLARS
under SI 00,000.. In the world of commercial television, however, this is piddle sticks

compaired to the big bucks earned through ad revenue. They may be the most popular piece of political

The cost that a network can make from a single commercial depends on the show, agitation propaganda in history, with around three
the time of day and the time of year. For example, a 30-second spot in the 2004 Super million in circulation. Their message, that elements

Bowl on CBS cost advertisers around $2.3 million dollars, while half a minute during in the U.S. government are guilty for the crimes of

NBC's highly-rated "E.R." runs about S600.000. But perhaps a more accurate contrast 9/11, is horrifying and controversial, yet they make
most people laugh.
with FSTV would be another cable news network like CNN.
"Deception Dollars" are a product of the conri-
Last year, when Adbusters Media Foundation purchased a thirty-second spot on
bined efforts of visual artist Blaine Machan and po-
CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports to air their infamous "uncommericals," it cost S8,170, says
litical activist Carol Brouillet of the 9/1 1 Truth Alli-
Adbusters' campaign manager Tim Walker. CNN didn't respond to inquiries about how ance. Machan and Brouillet have produced six edi-
much they gross during a 30-minute show, so we'll have to figure out ourselves. Ait
tions of the funny money, the look evolving but the
typical time slot generally includes 23 minutes of programming and seven minutes of premise remaining: to expose the dark forces that
commercials (though some half-hour blocks have as much as 12 minutes of commer- allegedly facilitated 9/11 as a "special operation"
cials.) CNN, then, can earn as much as $40,850 during a single commercial break and designed to create a pretext for the phony "War on
approximately SI 14,380 per show. In just one hour of Blitzer, then, CNN can hoist in Terrorism."

more than double of what FSTV will get for an entire ten-day pledge drive. Candid observers will notice that on the back
of each edition of the Dollar a giant "9-11" with
But this is the whole point, of course. FSTV is funded by individual citizens rather is

the letters "CIA" super-imposed in the background.

then corporate advertisers. And even though most progressives have written off televi-
— many
sion completely activists know don't even own a television, including a
I
In later editions oil rigs shoot out of the image of

few FSTV employees —

Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, who are labeled "In-
television still must be recognized as the foremost medium
ternational Terrorists."
to reach a broad swath of America. And this is the problem. Too often media activists
What is so extraordinary about the Deception
sing their sermons to the choir, other progressives. There's a reason why advertisers are
Dollars is they have taken a topic that most people
willing to pay exorbitant amounts of cash for TV air time: to target consumers who are are afraid to touch with a pole and mainstreamed it.

apt to buy your product but are not familiar with it. My uncle Steve in North Carolina Decepetion Dollars are now being sold at $.25-. 50
isn't going to spontaneously buy the new issue oi Mother Jones from Barnes and Noble, each at bookstores around the country, according to
but he is more likely to take his thumb off the remote button for 10 minutes during his reports, and the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum
search for Sportscenter to check out an Arundhati Roy speech. He might call it Leftist now has the Dollar in its collection. Anyone can or-

garbage anyway, but at least he was exposed to it. Kill your television, activists, and you der Deception Dollars in bulk from www.deception-
dollarcom.
may be killing your message.
Brouillet puts the D-Dollars' message in con-
The average Dish Network subscriber is generally a person who either really likes
text: "What we are witnessing is not a War on Ter-
TV or lives so far away from a major city they don't have access to regular cable, or
rorism, but a War OF Terrorism against the people of
both. This creates an interesting cross-section of FSTV viewership.
the United States and the world. I believe 9/1 1 was
The volunteers answering the phones at the tables behind Galatas have gotten used
a desperate attempt on the part of the global elite to
to callers speaking in a rural drawl of one kind or another. Drunken angry crank calls maintain their power using their traditional methods
are frequent and taken lightly or with humor. A caller shouting "pink-ass Commie" into of war and terror. They are losing their legitimacy in
the receiver might only offend the volunteer because he's actually a Pink Anarchist and the court of public opinion."
will intently explain the distinction. The ultimate purpose of the Dollars, say Brouil-

Then there are the hundreds of other calls from all over the U.S. From liberal let and Machan, is to encourage people to check out
Berkeley and Boston, to po-dunk nowhere where such opinions are not just unfashion- some of the 23 web sites that are displayed. All of

the sites feature independent "deep politics" infor-

able, but downright alienating.
mation. In addition to the web sites, there is a grow-
"I live in a small town and we don't have access to anything like this around here,"
ing canon of literature and videos questioning the
says Cody from Salyersville. Kentucky who calls and donates $25.
"official story" of 9/11. The book "The New Pearl
Thomas from "the Republican heartland" Frisco, Texas stumbled onto FSTV a few
Harbor," by theology professor David Ray Griffin,
months ago and caught a documentary about the Bush theft of the Florida elections. He emphasizes that the failure to defend the airspace
loves this type of coverage and donated $35.
and especially the Pentagon on 9/11 proves that
80-year-old Harold from Upland, Indiana donated $25 even though he's on social there was U.S. complicity. And in his video "Truth
security. David from Roseburg, Oregon throws in $25 because he's "disgusted by the and Lies of 9/11" former Los Angeles narcotics of-

direction this country has taken." Katherine from Mckinleyville, CA says "It's time we ficer Michael Ruppert discusses a "revolving door"
got some truth out of TV rather then garbage." between the CIA and Wall St., and how this wealthy

The money slowly adds up, but it amounts to much more. The thought of all of elite has benefited from the war economy
these Americans tuned in but not tuned out makes my low-tech, inexperienced finger
"We are witnessing the greatest cover-up since
the assassination of JFK, and the stakes are liter-
feel heavy with patriotism ... or is it nervousness? It's quite a change to feel the media
ally the future of humanity," said Brouillet. "The
under your immediate control rather then the other way around. The five-second count-
problem will not be easily be solved by replacing
down has begun. Three. Two. The director looks my way. Boulder goes blank. America,
the Bushites with another administration that is
meet Mr. Chomsky, it
controlled by multinational corporations. We are
witnessing an international ultra-elite escalating a
Jared Jacang Maher has written stories and articles for the Chicago Reader. Westword, Adbusters deadly global economy of war for their own profit. It

and Aitemet.org. He is an editor of the literary anthology Life and Limb:Skateboarders Write will take all of our creativity, humor, and courage as o
o
From the Deep End out this summer on Soft Skull Press. people to stop this war and evolve beyond it."

-Adam Hurler
N
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 On May in
1 , tens of thousands of Salvadorans filled the streets of San Salvador
an energetic mega-march to commemorate International Workers'
Day. One of their main demands, as illustrated by thousands of banners and
posters carried by protesters snaking their way along the four-hour march
route, was to stop the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
Unionists, peasants, women, community groups, and street vendors carried
"No CAFTA" signs, while groups of students spray-painted city streets and
walls with "CAFTA = Death." The march's tone echoed that of dozens of
similar anti-CAFTA actions in El Salvador and the rest of Central America
that have taken place over the past two years.
Twenty-eight days later, officials from El Salvador, Costa Rica. Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua, and the United States gathered in Washington, D.C.,
to sign the final draft of the agreement. In an absurd twist, U.S. Trade
Representative Robert Zoellick tried to dismiss the protestors outside the
gathering, saying, "You'll pardon me if I have a little bit of an ironic smile
when primarily people from the United States decide to tell democracies in

Central America what's good for them. We used to call that imperialism."'

We Used to Call That

beloiv: Marchers on May Day pr oclaim,"We Demand Respect for Women's Lives, No to CAFTA"; top right Groups of young people painted the city walls with "No to CAFTA"; bottom ngltt Salvador Anas. FMLN Deputy,
gives a workshop on the economic impacts of free trade at the BPS Forum on CAFTA. The banner reads "Free Trade Lots of ^^ ^" "
".'" freedom"

^A -^0^ EUMENES DE
VISTA PRECI08

r^'

--e. 9
It I
m
I

'GIMOS RCSPCra fl Lfl

'
J
LQS MUJDJCS /
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 Five Donkeys and a Tiger "A free trade agreement between the United and their story is a dark foreshadowing of
States and Central American countries is like what CAFTA will do to workers and consum-
Here in Central America, the concept of open- putting a banquette feast between a hungry ers throughout Central America. Until the
ing markets to free trade is not new. People tiger and five little tied-up donkeys."' The bar- mid-'90s, electricity generation, transmission,
have already experienced the devastating con- gaining process was closed to the scrutiny of and distribution were all run by one public
sequences of allowing foreign capital to run most of civil society. Government and busi- corporation in El Salvador. At that time, the
loose in their countries. They recognize that ness representatives negotiated it in secret company had around 5,000 employees, many
CAFTA would deepen and solidify transna- without any participation from social move- of whom were active members of the union.
tional corporate power in the region by writ- ments or non-governmental organizations. Fredy Lopez, Secretary of Relations of the
ing all of the rules of free trade in stone. Like With such an imbalanced and guarded negoti- Industry Union of Workers in the Electrical

NAFTA in Mexico, CAFTA would take legal ation process, it is not surprising that the U.S. Sector (STSEL), explains that, "The union
precedent over national constitutions,- a mas- was able to walk away from the feast having was powerful, negotiating living wages and
sive intervention into national sovereignty. left barely any crumbs for Central America. benefits for the workers. However, over the
Even without having witnessed the ne- Of course, there are a few powerful Sal- past 10 years, as electricity distribution has

gotiations, it is possible to imagine the minis- vadoran families whose businesses stand to been privatized and much of the generation
cule leverage with which the five tiny Central gain significantly fi^om CAFTA. In order to get has been conceded, the number of workers
American parties were able to negotiate with their slice of the pie, the Salvadoran elite and has been reduced to around 700, with 240
the United States, an economic superpower their representatives in government are bend- affiliated union members remaining." Mean-
with a Gross Domestic Product at least 140 ing over backward to help Bush get CAFTA while, the great justification behind privatiza-
times greater than their collective GDP' As ratified. The severely indebted Salvadoran tion — the promise of reduced rates due to

one rural Salvadoran woman explained it, government is spending millions of dollars competition in the free market — has been

Salvadoran Resistance to Bush's

H # I# American Free Trade Agreement
Central Ai

Imperialism words & photos Alex Modotti

on lobbying in Washington in attempt to sway exposed as a hoax. "Since privatization," says

the U.S. Congress. The government has also Lopez, "electricity rates have increased by
sponsored a glossy ad campaign to promote 750% in El Salvador."
the treaty within E! Salvador, airing television Lopez sees CAFTA as the final straw,
commercials showing image after image of not only for the electricity union, but also
jobs that CAFTA will supposedly create. for the broader labor movement in Central

The right-wing Salvadoran government America. "CAFTA would make it practical-

has also rolled out the red carpet for U.S. offi- ly impossible to organize and counterattack
cials to come and promote CAFTA. In March when workers' rights are threatened. Implicit

2004, Jeb Bush traipsed through Central in this agreement is both the privatization of
America with an entourage of men in suits remaining public services and the politics of
representing Florida businesses looking to in- making labor flexible, which basically means
vest in the region when CAFTA passes. The that all of the rights the labor movement has
much-publicized visit came to El Salvador won for workers like benefits and job security
^: MUCMO COHERCIO during the height of a highly contested presi-
dential campaign, aiding the Salvadoran rul-
would be
STSEL and
lost," he says. Despite the setbacks
other unions have suffered in re-

NadrfeTTbERTAB ing party, always anxious to demonstrate

strong ties to the U.S. government. While

its

it
cent years, they continue to be an important
force in maintaining workers' rights in El Sal-
has succeeded in causing some public confu- vador.
sion, thus far, the multi-million dollar public Learning from the lessons of privatiza-
relations campaign has not slowed down El tion of electricity distribution, the health care
Salvador's organized resistance to CAFTA. workers' union (STISSS) is now leading a
national effort to save public health care from
Acting on Experience privatization. The Salvadoran people have
backed them in this resistance, especially
Electricity workers in El Salvador have seen during two long national health care strikes
o
o
the effects of neo-liberal"" reforms first hand over the past four years. Eight times in 2003,
N
 GNOMICS
people took to the streets in historic numbers CAFTA was modeled after NAFTA, so ised, that CAFTA would be passed this year

— with more than 200,000 protesters dur- the experience Central Americans would have and be ready to go into effect in 2005. The
ing one action — paralyzing the capital in under CAFTA is predictable. Guadalupe Era- President had expected that Congress would

marches that rejected both privatization and zo, of the National Association of Agricultural vote this spring but, as elections approach and
free trade agreements. This April, the union Workers (ANTA), explains that the Salvadoran attacks on his economic policy grow, a sensi-

and its supporters peacefully occupied the countryside is already affected by high levels tive and polemic issue like a free trade agree-

of emigration, but that with CAFTA, "The de- ment looks like a bigger and bigger liability

terioration of the family in El Salvador, espe- to campaign advisors.

cially rural families, will only get worse. U.S. However, the Bush administration also

agri-businesses got what they wanted with knows that waiting on a CAFTA \ote is also

CAFTA — practically unlimited access to our risky because the anti-CAfTA resistance

market for their highly subsidized goods. The mo\ ement grows in numbers and strength with
result will be thousands more peasants who each passing day. This resistance, coupled with
can no longer survive farming, and who will election year politics, has emboldened a num-
look to emigrate to the U.S. as their only op- ber of politicians to take strong stances against
tion for survival." For that reason, ANTA is the treaty. Congresswoman Hilda Sol is from

another organization in El Salvador that has California has declared that, "Our trade poli-

vocally opposed CAFTA. cies should lift people out of poverty, not keep
Cross-sector organizing — and cross- them in it. CAFTA is a gift to corporate inter-

border organizing — is also occurring in Cen- ests whose priority is access to cheap labor,

tral America. The Popular Social Bloc (BPS) not protecting working families in the United

is bringing together a wide cross-section of States and Central America."

Salvadoran society in a united front to oppose In the face of a growing, internationally-
CAFTA by organizing both international fo- coordinated movement. Central Americans
The Popular Social Bloc for a Real Democracy's (BP ':ru;' jn CAFTA
rums and region-wide protest actions. The are optimistic. Brizuela affirms that. "With the
brought together over 300 people from all over Central America in

February BPS has helped organize three border actions solidarity of compaheros in the U.S. and our
to shut down traffic between the f\\e Central abilit)' to mobilize in Central America, we can
Metropolitan Cathedral, demanding the right American nations party to the treaty. Mad- still derail CAFTA and instead work to create

to organize and an end to privatization. When delin Brizuela of the BPS explains, "The idea alternative economic models that improve the
union leaders were arrested, people held a of taking over the border crossing is twofold. situation of the poor in our countries." 'A'

hunger strike. Nine days later, the unionists First, we are creating consciousness in the
had built enough pressure to win their lead- population that CAFTA is not what our lead- Endnotes
ers' release from prison. Through all these ers make it out to be, that it will not bring
'
V\.ishington Post. May 28. 200.4. p E04

struggles, the union has maintained com- In 1994 Mexico was forced to rewrite its constitution to
its good jobs or benefit our poor economies. Sec-
comply with the rules of NAFTA, particularly the part
mitment to defending the public good from ondly, the action is symbolic: we are extend-
that allowed for communal landholdings.
corporate profiteering by speaking out loudly ing our hands across the borders to our Cen-
'
Calculations based on UN commissioned Human
against CAFTA. tral American brothers and sisters to show the
Development Reports, www.hdr.undp org reports
Unions are not the only ones resisting, power we have in organized resistance."
of open-
'
"Neo-libcralism" refers in part to the politics
of course. The trade agreement would also
ing a nation's economy to international markets and capi-
have devastating impacts on the environment, Solidarity facing the challenge of global- talist investment, privatization, and eliminating protec-
women, peasants, students, and other margin- ization tions for national production.

alized groups throughout Central America. '

"Lessons from NAFT.A: The High Cost of "Free" Trade.

In organizing resistance, Central Ameri- At a recent conference on trade in Washington, Hemispheric Social Alliance, www.asc-hsa.org

cans often point to Mexico's 10 years of ex- Peter Allegier, U.S. Sub-secretary of Trade, ' EI Diario de Hoy. May 21. 2004. p.38

perience with NAFTA, particularly in the ag- used the familiar and patronizing rhetoric of
ricultural sector. Traditional small farmers in the U.S. government, saying "Latin America Alex Modotti is a CISPES organizer in El

Mexico have been unable compete with the Salvador

to must decide if it will face the challenges of
flood of highly subsidized U.S. agricultural globalization or remain in the past."'' Latin
products that have poured across the border Americans are. in fact, facing the challenges
since

report
NAFTA was passed. According
by the Hemispheric Social Alliance,
to a of globalization
way that Allegier intended.
daily, although not
They
in

are loudly
the
^ Help ensure clamor's
future as an amplifier of
"Mexico is losing its food sovereignty and and actively rejecting the U.S. imposition of
instead has a great dependency on imports."^ a corporate profit-driven agenda in Central independent voices.
This drastic change has led to the collapse
o America, and they are building altemati\es.
o of small farms, forcing an approximated one After the May 28"" signing ceremony, SUBSCRIBE NOW
million small fanners in Mexico to abandon the final step remaining for the Bush ad-
generations worth of knou ledge of traditional ministration to make CAFTA a reality is its online at
tanning and to migrate to urban areas in Mex- ratification in each country's congress. The www.clamormagazine.org
ico and the United States. Bush administration has hoped, even prom-
$18 for 6 issues ^

O
 —

"These days, it's wealth vs. weahh with

weahh mostly winning."

There is a story, possibly apocryphal, about John Ken-

nedy turning to query an advisor during a campaign
stop. Why undertake a 30-year ordeal of paperwork
and cancelled checks when it would be so much easier

to buy a house outright and be done with it, JFK asked.

At this point, the advisor is said to have explained to

an astonished Kennedy the usurious indignity known

as a mortgage.

While our present-day Democratic pretender, JFK

II, did not achieve uber-wealth by fortuitous bloodline,
he didn't exactly earn it either. John Kerry married it.

Twice. There are many paths up the mountain. But the

ascent is a lot easier when you can transport your loot

in a ski-lift. Unfortunately, a dearth of rich widows

makes mortgage or rent payments the norm for most
of us.
At least Kerry had to sell himself George II is a
virgin in the hustle and bustle of life's transactions. A
stranger to the sweat of his own brow, the President
likes to peddle the fanciful notion that he is a fiscal

conservative. In truth. Bush is a disastrous budgeter,

perhaps abudgetal by birthright.

You see, the Bush clan finds itself miles above the
"need thing." George II's fiscal thermostat is not bro-
ken. It's been bred out of him. For ordinary Americans,
the occasional hunger pain teaches us real life skills,

such as where the refrigerator is and how to make a

ham sandwich. Bush experienced no such pangs be-
cause he had a butler with a silver stethoscope who lis-

tened for the faintest rumblings in Boy George's tum-

my and then dashed to the pantry for a cheeseburger.

While most of us were bringing macaroni and cheese

to a slow boil, the Bushes were brewing a political dy-

nasty with the Carlyle Group as dessert. It was either

that or endless rounds of golf The result is the tale of

how one man's good fortune can become a nation's

The Privileged Few catastrophe.

As Meet the Press Tim Russert noted

'

recently, no
less conservative bastions as the Cato Institute and The

and the Heritage Foundation have deemed Bush "the biggest

Budgeted lyiany spender

whose
in

identity
American
is
history. " For those Republicans
lashed to the quaint notion of fiscal
conservatism, these are strange times indeed. Their
guy makes Lyndon "Great Society" Johnson look like
Can the President Turn a skinflint.

Of course there is still the obligatory rhetoric

Conservatives Towards Class War? the discredited, counter-intuitive supply-side mantras:

won Norman Ball lustratior Teresa Watson It s the people 's money and cutting taxes in the face

of growing deficits is economically stimulative. But

even the staunchest trickle-downer must be checking
his barometer 'cause we're in the Gobi Desert of fiscal
unchartedness. Red jerseys and blue jerseys notwith-
standing, anyone with a passing interest in national
solvency should take a renewed look at the old tax-
and-spend Democrats. We need their budgetary disci-
pline. At least Kerry's acquired family makes a fine o
o
w
 ketchup, a Reagan-era dietary staple. Our grandkids' school lunch
programs may need vats of the stuff before we see the back of this S7
organizer's story:
trillion rich man's burden.

Bush vs. the Let's review a sampling from George II's current Santa's list...

American Family
• $40.2 billion to create a massive new bureaucracy to protect us from
Ethel Long-Scott
rogues wielding box cutters (President's FY2005 proposed HSA
The national economical and social policies of the Bush adminis- budget)
tration filterdown to the family level in simply awful ways. Ev- • $53 billion to create a Star Wars program to protect us from rogues
ery month members of about 400 families come to the Women's wielding missiles (GAO est. 2004-2009)
Economic Agenda Project (WEAP) to receive food aid from our • S401.7 billion for a reduction in the number of global despots, and
Prescott Resource Center in West Oakland. This little bit of ex- even more for a two-front military capability (President's FY2005
tra food is needed because the income they receive from their proposed DOD budget)
low-wage jobs, senior fixed incomes, disability checks, public • $534 billion for pharmaceutical giants to sell seniors prescription
assistance checks, or reduced earning as people in recovery is drugs (White House est. of the President's Medicare drug plan over
insufficient to meet their basic human needs. Each visit, people ten years)
tell us about an outrageous lack of health care, an outrageous lack • $120 billion for manned missions to Mars and the Moon (NASA
of decent housing, a stunning lack of programs to help their kids est. through 2020)
grow up decent and safe. • $24.3 billion to prop up nineteenth century energy sources (Presi-
Most outrageous is that these working people represent mil- dent's FY2005 proposed DOE budget)
lions more in the same situation, all victims of the stepped-up war • $266 billion in tax cuts for the rich (combined rev. loss est. by
on the poor that represents the other war being waged by the U.S. Citizens for Tax Justice for FY2004 resulting from all three Bush
government — the war they don't discuss. But, just as much as tax bills)
the torture in Iraq's Abu Gharib prison, the government's war on • Even good manners (GAO est. "priceless')
the poor is a violation of fundamental human rights as defined by
the United Nations. The impact of the government's war on the And we're gonna get them all. As Bush told Russert. ".../ think it's
poor is that increasingly people don't have enough income to deal important for people who watch the expenditures side of the equa-
w ith both rent and food. tion to understand we 're at war. Tim, and any time you commit your
It's significant that this is happening in California, the sixth troops into harm s way, they must have the best equipment, the best
largest economy in the world. California is one of the leaders of training, and the best possible pay. "
Okay, it" s tough arguing for
the national war on the poor, with its disappearing jobs, shuttered an escalation in troop endangerment. George II deftly sidesteps the
hospitals, horrendous rents and devastating cuts to public educa- expenditure issue by draping it in a war-torn flag. Budget-wise. I'd
tion while its corporations make off with billions. say he's skating just like a rich kid.
Deep in the throes of a multi-year "budget crisis," we know But then, rich kids have the option to skate. The rest of us must
this is no mismanagement of funds or a temporary slump. It is a chart a life course around and between the twin-pylons of desire and
deep economic and political crisis based on the fact that jobs are realistic expectation. Ask your average American family what a bud-
disappearing, corporations are making off with billions, and the get is. Chances are they'll offer up a poignant refrain such as passing
government will cut every program possible before it touches the on the kid's braces for a college tuition fiind. A family budget is a tes-
gargantuan profits of their corporate bosses. tament to painful accommodation. Hard choices are about forgoing
Big problems demand big solutions. That is why WEAP co- something you really need for something else you really need, only
ordinates the California Poor People's Economic Human Rights worse. There are always blood, guts, and abandoned music lessons
Campaign (PPEHRC) to build a movement to end poverty and oozing between the line items. Every good budget is a poignant me-
guarantee economic human rights for all. The PPEHRC is based morial to deserving deeds left undone. The operative term is sacrifice.
among working poor and jobless workers all over the country, But then, working people know this intuitively.
including California and West Oakland. It brings the message The pri\ ilcged increasingly the sole guardians of our national
thatwe must unite behind a broad social movement to guarantee treasury — lack this penny-wise prowess. Vast personal wealth can
economic human rights for all. WEAP unites poor women, and undo the most earnest attempts at consenatism. Our current inher-
bring in others from senior groups, youth in recovery groups, la- ited rich guy has been an abysmal steward of the nation's fiscal well-

bor unions and religious organizations. being. True to ill-formed character and social position. George II did
We educate one another and build towards solutions to eco- not hash out a budget. He olTered up a self-indulgent wish-list gilded
nomic injustice through campaigns around Just Health Care and by the usual paper tigers: a money press, an c plunbus unum stamp,
I rce Higher Education. Ultimately we must build a movement and a lifetime of pri\ ilege. Our grandchildren are now on the hook

o that will lay the base for a time in this country when we elect lead- for a mortgage more onerous than JFK I's worst imaginings. If he
o
eg ers to govern in our true interests, not the interests of the wealthy. what would Kennedy make of loans
cringed at mortgaged digs, lever-
( )nly then will wc have attained democracy. aged on the backs of entire future generations? "k

WEAP I
449 1 5lh St, 2nd Floor Oakland,
|
CA 94612 \orman Ball (wwwnormanball.com) is a writer and businessman
(510) 451-7379 www.weap.org. |
living in Hcrndon, \ Irginia.

N Ethel Long-Scott is Executive Director of WEAP.

Someone's Gotta Pay the Bills!
An Introduction to Radical Philanthropy
, Sara Zia Ebrahimi

These days, voter registration is no longer • Election 2004: Vote for Homes! is reg- political struggles," says its co-founder Wil-
tiie work of mainstream moderates such as istering homeless voters and is planning liam Goldsby. "The money from Bread and
the Women's League of Voters. Around the to conduct a massive get-out-the-vote Roses has specifically allowed us to build our
country, it has tai<en on renewed significance campaign throughout the city. capacity by bringing in experienced organiz-

as grassroots groups add it as a tactic for ers and trainers who have helped us make the

building power within their communities. In • Delaware County Wage Peace and Jus- connections between those personal issues
the Philadelphia area, some truly inspiring or- tice has the goal of registering 10,000 and the larger systemic problems that we
ganizing is taking place around voter registra- new anti-war voters before the Novem- need to change."
tion. For example; ber elections in the low-income, post-in- Founded originally as the People's Fund
dustrial town of Chester, Pennsylvania. in 1971, Bread and Roses has distributed
• ACT UP Philadelphia is actively reg- more than S8 million over the past 30 years to

istering those who are most affected by All of these groups fight for racial, economic, grassroots organizations in the Philadelphia

HIV/AIDS and is using the current elec- and social justice. They share the common area. Approximately 80 percent of Bread and
tion cycle to press candidates to commit goal of turning the tide of right-wing policy Roses' half-million dollar operating budget
to increasing AIDS fianding locally and making in the United States. Another impor- comes from individual donors. Seventy per-

globally. tant aspect they share is that Bread and Roses cent of them give donations of SI 00 or less.
Community Fund is one of the few founda-
• Reconstruction, Inc., an organization tions supporting them. Philanthropic Mythology
led by former prison inmates, is regis- For most people, the word "philanthropist"
tering ex-offenders as part of an overall "Reconstruction, Inc. has made it possible conjures images of well-to-do New England
strategy to win more humane sentencing for community members and ex-oflfenders to families or famous men like Bill
rich white

laws in Pennsylvania. collectively turn our personal struggles into Gates. It is rare that someone like me comes
continued next page

organizer's story: "As young people, we've been pushed out of the democratic pro-

cess by the parties and elected officials," says Yesenia Garcia, SWOP
The Battle for the youth member who just graduated high school. "They all talk about
bringing young people into the process, but effectively ignore us or just

; Southwest pander to us by using slick advertising — we're taking it upon ourselves

to represent our interests."
Karlos Schmeider
"Most people choose not to vote even after they've registered.
President Bush lost the State of New Mexico by a mere 366 votes in the That's understandable considering how we've been treated. But we want
2000 election, making the Land of Enchantment a definite "battleground to create a culture of democratic participation, even as we are discour-
state" m this year's contest. aged to do so," says Lolita Roibal, SWOP youth organizer. "We pay a
The stakes are high in the bid to control the world's most expen- heavy price otherwise."
sive democracy, and even New Mexico's measly five electoral votes are According to a database compiled by the Associated Press from news
highly coveted. With the country evenly divided, a surprise has emerged: reports, 70 percent of US soldiers to die in Iraq have been between the ages
New voters are en vogue. of 8 and 27.
1 A growing deficit also looms, in part due to the war. A January
With a mission to "empower disenfranchised communities to real- Newsweek poll showed 56 percent of young people say the Iraq war and the
ize racial and gender equality and social and economic justice," South- so-called "war on terror" have placed a substantial burden on people under
West Organizing Project (SWOP) registered nearly 30.000 people to 30 while comparatively little sacrifice is placed on those over 30.
vote in the early '90s as part of a nonpartisan effort to get low-income, "After years of being criminalized and stereotyped as apathetic by
working and communities of color to the polls. At the lime it was the the media and our elected representatives, we're sure being asked to
largest such effort in our state's history. That work continues today sacrifice a lot with very little promise to represent our interests," says
through a program called just Vote. Garcia. "[The media and elected officials] grossly misunderstand the
"We're talking to our neighbors about a better New Mexico and realities facing young people today."
informing each other so we feel confident we're representing commu- "The only way to protect ourselves from being left with the bill is
nity interests when we vote come November," says Victoria Rodriguez, to become involved," says Roibal.
SWOP organizer. "Yes, we're registering people to vote, but we're also
asking people to pledge to actually go to the polls on Election Day." SWOP I
211 10'" St SW I
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Voter turnout has been low in recent elections, especially amongst (505) 247-8832 www.swop.net.
|

young people: justVote tries to tackle that issue head on by reaching out O
o
directly to potential young voters at high schools, college campuses and Karlos Schmieder is Communications Organizer for SWOP
in the neighborhoods. u
 organizer's story:
to mind —a late 20s immigrant turned urban hipster visual art-

ist and nonprofit office worker. Despite my average salary, I

Power to the am a serious philanthropist with a giving plan to distribute an

allocated percentage of my earnings that comes out to roughly

Poor! $300 a year. I am not the aberration here. My donor profile is

much closer to the norm.

Brinda Maira
Eighty percent of charitable giving in this country is by
Make the Road by Walking is a member-led organization based in the individuals. The vast majority of individual donors are middle-

low-income community of Bushw ick, Brooklyn. Over forty percent of the class and low -income people of all racial backgrounds. This has
residents of Bushwick live below the poverty level, and almost forty percent been a static trend over the last 60 years, since charitable giving
rely on means-tested government benefits. Per capita income is under in the U.S. first began being studied and recorded.
S7,000, less than half the New York City average. The unemployment rate Unfortunately, less than two percent of all philanthropic
is over twenty percent, twice the New York City average, which is already dollars go toward funding progressive social change, accord-
among the highest in the nation.
ing to a study by the National Network of Grantmakers. This is
Bushwick's economic marginalization compounded by its political is
contrasted by the millions of dollars in individual contributions
marginalization. Sixty-five percent of the community is Latino, and almost
that support the conservative movement, as documented by the
half of these Latinos arc legal permanent residents. Thus, more than one-
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.
third of the adult population of Bushwick is denied the vote based on their
immigration status. Bushwick also has a substantial youth population

under 18 that cannot vote. For many residents, language barriers further Strength in Numbers
impede political participation. In the early 1970s, groups of individuals began forming pro-
In the long-term, the political and economic marginalization of gressive community funds, like Bread and Roses, in a number
Bushwick community residents creates a lack of accountability on the of cities across the country. Their vision was to create structures
part of community institutions, both public and private. Neighborhood that would channel money toward progressive community orga-
law enforcement and city-run social services, as well as local employers nizations. In 1979 the Funding Exchange (FE.X) was created as
and landlords, chronically exploit this lack of accountability. As a result,
a national network of five progressive foundations. Today FEX
inequitable and unlawful treatment deeply pervades the daily lives of
has 18 local member and affiliate member funds.
Bushwick residents.
"Building a national network helped individual funds take
While the Bush administration did not create the problems in
a great leap forward," says Ellen Gurzinsky. executive director
Bushwick, the President's "War on Terror" has made things even worse,
siphoning off resources that could be spent on domestic programs and of the Funding Exchange. "Grounded in the concept of mutual

further maligning immigrants. support. FEX was able to provide increased visibility and finan-

Make the Road by Walking was founded to build a voice for Bushwick cial stability that helped build both the network and individual
community residents, and to build power for poor people. Six years funds into sustainable institutions that have continued to sup-
since opening our doors, we currently address a wide range of economic port grassroots movements over the past 25 years."
and social problems of concern to local people, often related to federal The first thing these foundations have in common is a com-
immigration and welfare policy. We build power for low-income residents mitment to change, not charity.
of Bushwick and adjacent communities by enabling people to strategize
FEX supports groups working toward systemic change by
and advocate effectively for themselves. This approach has helped us
altering public opinion and public policies toward greater eco-
to build a si/eablc, united and well-informed membership that has a
nomic and social justice. All FEX members also operate under
significant impact on neighborhood life and broader public policy.
the principle of constituent-controlled grant making. Tradition-
Our membership of almost 900 community residents, assisted by
a staff of 14 full-time organizers, educators and attorneys, works to
ally, philanthropic funds have boards of directors who decide

challenge injustice in many ways. Parents educate one another about their w ho should receive grants from the foundation. Most often these

children's educational rights, and young people challenge neighborhood people arc bankers, lawyers, and other professionals whose life

policy-makers to invest more in youth services. We work to ensure experience is often far from those economically and sociallv
that local schools provide a safe environment for LGBT students. Our marginalized. The philanthropic process becomes an exercise in

Environmental Justice Project is fighting against a neighborhood lead paternalism — a traditionally-patterned relationship of money
poisoning epidemic and unsafe housing conditions, and workmg to
and power in which those with wealth are able to control who
convert hazardous vacant lots into park space. We combat unlawful and
and what are funded.
discriminatory treatment of immigrants by the welfare bureaucracy and
FEX foundations have committees made up of activists
fight for improved access to healthcare in local hospitals. Our members
w ho are on the ground doing the actual work, including former
also force employers and unions to respect the basic workplace rights
or current grantee organizations. These committees guide all
of community residents, many of whom work under illegal sweatshop
grant-giv ing decisions. Cross-issue, cross-class, and cross-race
conditions without receiving minimum wage, overtime pay or sick leave.
All in all. these programs affirm an ethic of cooperation, mutual help, groups come together to collectively decide what the funding
dignity and animo. while helping to make local institutions more subject priorities in their region should be. The power nomially associ-

o lo democratic community control. This work is a necessary counterweight ated with money is shifted into a new context that is governed
o Bush administration, and whatever administration
lo the follows. by a more broad-based vision.

To quote from FEX's vision statement, "Money alone does

Make the Road by Walking \
M)\ Cirove Street |
Brooklyn. N^' 1 12.^7
not bring about change; nor do individuals. But when people
(7IS) 4IS 7h90 [
www maketheroad.org.
band together and fomi organizations to focus their collective

power, social change can happen." Each of the FE.X member

Hriiula \hiini is School Cnmiinilv ()r^iini:cr for Make the Roati hy
Walking
funds is an attempt to bring together the collective power both of money and
organizer's story:
vision for social change.

This Program is Made Possible By...

Bush's War
When organizations say every dollar counts, they mean it. When they ask for on the Poor
donations, they are asking >om. It is easy for many of us to think, "I don't have
much; I'll let someone well-offtake care of the financial support." But that's . Jesse Leah Vear
not the case. Grassroots fundraising is like grassroots organizing; it relies on
each of us understanding our role and increased strength when we come to-
President Bush made it a priority to give hundreds of bil-
gether. lions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy. He has proposed
"If we believe in the need for the work," says Christie Balka, long time spending billions more on the military, oil exploration and

activist and current executive director of Bread and Roses Community Fund, even to send a man to Mars. Yet he has done next to noth-

"we've got to write our own checks — and add them to checks written by oth- ing to provide adequate healthcare, childcare or housing for

ers. It's only when we have the resources that the Right has will be able to take America's working families.
In Maine, as elsewhere throughout the country, the
the power back. And too many people are being hurt by right-wing politics to
state Human Services (DHS) often removes
Department of
not get serious about taking power back."
children from the homes of poor families due to conditions
Institutions like the Funding Exchange and Bread and Roses are testa-
of poverty. Contrary to many people's notions of Child Wel-
ment that people can pool their money collectively to support social change
fare policies, more than 60% of children who are removed
work. People who want to stop the policies of this horrendous administration
from their homes were never abused; they simply lack ac-
need to push themselves to give more and to give more strategically. Educate cess to a decent standard of living. DHS pays foster care
yourself, decide on your fianding priorities, and create a strategic plan for giv- agencies up to $300,000 a year for every child they place
ing. Whether you can give five or 500 dollars a month, your donation will with a new family. The government should use that money
make a real difference if you donate to groups doing effective organizing for for better healthcare, childcare and housing programs to,

social change. In the face of the current right-wing assault, let's claim our roles "Take away our POVERTY, not our children!" Better al-
location of ftinds and better policy priorities are desperately
not only as artists and activists, but as radical philanthropists.
needed both at the state and federal levels, because our fami-
For more information on the Funding Exchange or any of its member
lies are being literally torn apart by economic injustice.
funds, visit www.fex.org or call 212.529.5300. For information and resources
Founded in 200 1 , Portland Organizing to Win Economic
for young people with wealth involved in social change work, visit www.re-
Rights(POWER), is a no-budget, all-volunteer organization
sourcegeneration.org. ii
made up predominately of low-income and working-class
people working together in the struggle for economic justice
Sara Zia Ehrahimi lives in Philadelphia and is Assistant to the Director of Bread and
here in Maine. On International Women's Day this March,
Roses Community Fund. She has also served on the board of the Self Education Founda- DHS offices to speak up for the rights
we held a march to the
tion and participated in the Young Donor Organizing Alliance. When she's not asking
of those whose children were unjustly stripped away from
people to donate money, her other interests include video production, cultural studies
them. We marched behind a banner reading "Mothers of the
and contemporary! Iranian historv.
Disappeared," to relate our struggle with that of the brave
women of Argentina who stood up to a military dictator-
ship that brutally robbed them of their loved ones: We also

carried approximately twenty-five large cut-out silhouettes,

each representing a child that had been removed from their
bring the revolution family by DHS caseworkers.
to your inbox. At first, many of us were worried about reprisals from
DHS and also whether the police would interfere because
we were marching without a permit. As we gathered, how-
ever, the shared stories of DHS abuses emboldened people.
Some had driven for hours to attend, and one woman even
slept in her car the night before to be there. Shared experi-
ences united us, like that of a young woman who told us,

"I asked for help and instead of helping they just came and
communiques took my kids. It's hard enough just being poor. Without my
kids I ain't got nuthin" left."

The march went otT without a hitch, and our story of

people struggling against poverty became the top news story
that night on television stations all across the state. Months
Clamor Communiques are a free,
later, our phone still rings off the hook with people whose
twice-monthly supplement to
families have been torn apart first by poverty and then by the
the print edition of Clamor. Each
system, who are glad to know that their cases aren't isolated
installment is delivered to your email
and that people are coming together to fight for change.
inbox along with a link to a PDF zine/

pamphlet that you can download

and pass on to friends.
POWER PO Box 4281 I
|
Portland, ME 04101
(207) 681-0035 power(griseup.net.
For more information, visit us online. |

o
o
www.clamormagazine.org/communique Jesse Leah Vear is a low-income rights activist working with
Portland Organizing to Win Economic Rights
(11
 ^^.

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A Radically
Different
World View
Is Possible
llie Gift Fx'onomy In.side

and outside of patriarchal capitalism

n e wt o p i a Whoever wins
cultural alignment
the US
is
election a
necessary for the
new
j,<i*>"^"'*|\

magazine survival of the planet. A radically

different world view can liberate an
V^^'

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leadership of women.

November 13-14, 2004

Clark County Library
1401 East Flamingo Road Las Vegas, Nevada

www.GiftEconomyConference.com

ommon sense
(512)444-1672

SPEAKERS
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lorina commo •Claudia Von Werlhof(Austria) •Genevieve Vaughan (USA) and many others...
CULTURE

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"to l3e a.
illionSLar'e?
Billionaires For Bush Kicks off a Season of Protest, Pranks, and Party-going.

On a breezy Saturday night

The occasion for the duo's arrival — terparts on the (anti-)campaign trail. "Billion-

about 1 5 years ahead of" schedule — was the aires for Bush is a do-it-yourself street the-
in late May, New York's Billionaires' Ball: a Spring Bling K'Ching ater and media campaign," according to Pam
youngest Billionaires were Thing, a night-long party put on by the street Perd. the group's National Director for Public

theater-cum-protcst group. Billionaires for Relations (who provided only her Billionaire
six-week-old dubbed
twins
Bush. "Founded during the 2000 Presiden- identity, "for separation reasons"). Perd's ef-

"Cash" and "Carry." They tial election. Billionaires for Bush (B4B) was fort at separation seems to be in name alone,

designed to be a strategic, grassroots media as she typically devotes 40 hours per week to
were proudly toted around
campaign that spreads like a virus" to de- the Billionaires on top of working full-time.
by their mother and father, nounce the negative effects of wealth on poli- The creation of a Billionaire identity is

both in evening gowns, while tics, according to the Billionaires" online DI but a preliminary step in casting oneself as a

guide to becoming a Billionaire, available Billionaire. Billionaires for Bush's Web site
other Billionaires, bedecked
at their Web site (www.billionairesforbush. lists snarky names for acolytes to assume,
in their own ballroom finery, com). and encourages them to emerge from "behind
Newly mobilized, strategically planned, closed limo doors" to engage in an intensely
cooed over the infants in ele-
and garnering more media attention than many media-savvy combination of protest, street
vator lines on the three floors of their more official and better- funded coun- theater, organization, and activism. Role-

of Chelsea's City Stage.

RPORKnOMS
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pEOPtEfOO

B'lWion
airesForBushxom
wvas Rebecca
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CULTURE
playing generalities may pepper the web site, year of actions, fundraising, and demonstra- ing and savvy delivery," she said. "We know
but the DIY guide to becoming a Billionaire tions — B4B had only two chapters and a our facts, and we are witty. Plus, it's fun to be
is 45 pages long and provides instructions Ball with 450 attendees; May's event boasted a Billionaire!"

for everything from developing a Billionaire approximately 1,100 guests while 50 new At the spring fundraiser. Billionaires of
personality (encouraging newbies to cre- chapters have sprung up nationwide, accord- all ages appeared to agree. Throughout the
ate "Your Persona & Portfolio") to planning ing to Emily Wynns (a.k.a. "Lucinda Regula- night, party-goers in tuxedos, opera gloves,

one's own Billionaire actions (including the tions"), Deputy Director of Public Relations. and evening gowns streamed into City Stage

inside-out approach of "Counter-Demonstrat- Given the rapidly devolving situation in to watch Billionaire performers convey the
ing at Anti-Bush Events"). Iraq, when every passing day seems to pro- group's message through singalongs, brief
The Billionaires bank upon the creativ- vide anti-Bush activists with a new reason speeches defending the rich, and skits in

ity of their membership to embrace their sto- to rally to unseat him, and in an increasingly which mock corporation heads and moneyed
ry-within-a-story approach to ousting Bush, charged election season, the Billionaires' suc- old-boy networks fought to protect their size-
inverting typical models of protest and dem- cess in building membership and popularity able political interests.

onstration by subversively appearing to sup- stems from the fact that "people are looking One of its major successes is that, un-
port that which they wish to alter. Billionaire for change," according to Perd. "People are like many other protest groups, the Billion-

street actions are typically peaceable ones in very unhappy with the administration at this aires have been able to attract participants of
which it's not uncommon for actual Bush sup- time and they're looking for a way to lend all ages and backgrounds w ith their grandeur.

porters, confused about the Billionaires' real their hand to changing that." As Perd sees it, Though Cash and Carry were the youngest

intentions, to append themselves to the group the Billionaires provide a droll, creative road- Billionaires at the Ball, others ranged in age

in a show of mistaken solidarity. According to map to efTecting such change. "Billionaires from seven to seventy. Ariel Willner, aged
Perd, the Billionaires' collective straight face for Bush works because of our tight messag- seven, was wearing a white wedding dress,

and singularity of focus and answering

vuuon
Alan Greenspend takes a load off at the ball.
is what keeps it so effec- to "Mary Rich."
tive in "using a heaping According to her

spoonful of humor, sav- mother, Toby Will-

vy political messaging, ner. a petite dark-

grassroots participation, haired woman

and the Internet to flush only slightly less

out the truth about how bedecked than her

the Bush administration's offspring in nup-
economic policies have tial attire, their in-

been a disaster for most volvement in the

Americans." Billionaires arose

May's Billionaires from their partici-

Ball raised money for the pation in the Radi-

group's summer "Swing cal Cheerleaders

State Limo Tour" and its (defined on its Web
upcoming actions, cur- site as "acti\ism

rently in the planning with pom-poms

stage, in conjunction with and middle fingers
the Republican National cMcndcd"). "I'm
Convention's arrival in divorced, so when

New York City at the end Bush got elected. 1

of August. would bring Ariel

At press time, it's w ith me to the Rad-

too soon to speculate on ical Cheerleaders
how many members will practice because I

represent the group in didnt ha\e a baby-

New York City, if those sitter. She wound

numbers mirror B4B's up learning the

exponential growth since cheers better than

the first of the year, it me." said \\i liner

seems unlikely that con- Dark-haircd

o
o
vention-goers will avoid Ariel streamed Ia\
fvj ihc lasishly-clad impos- crs oi tulle as she

tors. Back in Januan., ai shyly circled her

B4B's inaugural event mother, who said

which was to kick ofl "1 think It's rc-

the presidential ekiiiDii alK nibbed olT on

O
[Ariel]. At school they had the students draw important to bring those issues out — certain tion, and we'll definitely rely on text messag-
pictures of the flag and she wound up drawing candidates are owned by rich folks," Dinero ing," she said.

two — one was an American flag and the oth- said. Also on the docket for the Billionaires
er was a peace flag. It was a golden mothering Pam Perd also believes in the Billionaires' are potential unions with other web-savvy
moment for me," Willner said with a laugh. post-presidential future. "Corporate cronyism grassroots groups aiming to activate voters.

Of her own political involvement, Will- is not going to disappear in one election," she While no connections have been formalized
ner said, "I've been doing activist stuff my said. "The Billionaires will continue to exist." yet, "We've been making strides and alli-

whole life. Back when 1 started, you did it be- To accommodate the proliferation of Billion- ances with various groups like Moveon.org,
cause it was the right thing to do, not because aire chapters across the country, as well as reaching out and being reached out to," said
it was fun. 1 think Billionaires for Bush is a to a continually shifting political landscape, Perd. "Has there been anything concrete, an-

great concept — it's really fun," she said, ges- Perd said, "Groups can adapt into subsidiary nounced, official? No, but there are alliances
turing to the throngs of people in their finery. organizations," beneath the umbrella of the being formed right now," she said.
"A lot of people who have progressive senti- Billionaires' anti-big money philosophy. As the Billionaires kick into high gear

ments don't end up getting involved, because Formal in attire more than attitude, the in the months leading up to November's elec-

they think this is drudgery. If it's more fun, flexible formulas by which the Billionaires tion, demands on top-tier Billionaires are also

like this, people want to get involved." broaden their efforts and plan their actions ac- on the rise. Perd dedicates approximately 40
count for the group's ability to stage effective hours a week to the Billionaires, and Wynns
Around Willner and Ariel, the fun took actions and recruit new members far from clocks a solid 25, on top of full-time jobs in
increasingly disparate shapes as the evening their New York headquarters, according to both cases. "I do expect that as the summer
progressed. In the night's earlier stages, Perd. Here, monthly "Billionaire Meet-ups," progresses and the election approaches, we
couples waltzed to piped-in ballroom music open to whomever wishes to attend, gener- will all be under a great deal of pressure and
on a darkened dance floor. An adjacent bar ally start with proposed actions that can be will be faced with handling increased work
fashioned from folding tables had an invert- reactive (tied into an upcoming news event or and accompanying high stress levels," said

ed black plastic top hat on it. Intended for governmental visit or occasion) or proactive Wynns. "Come election day, I will definitely

tips, it was emblazoned with a sign reading (celebrating an economic issue-based event take some time to relax and take a vacation."
"BRIBES." On the top floor, the Billionaires of the Billionaires' own conception, such as Both Wynns and Perd cite the ardor and
Follies re-purposed sing-along favorites in its "Widen the Healthcare Gap Day," which innovation of the individuals who comprise
their own musical satire, replacing the words was rung in on June 19). the Billionaires as their own source of moti-
of the Village People's hit "YMCA": With upcoming occasions of both types vation. "Every member is dedicated, creative,

in mind, the Billionaires brainstorm ideas intelligent, and progressive, and being sur-

Dubya, when you re short on the dough for slogans and messages, asking themselves rounded by such people is a great high," said

I said. Dubya, call up a CEO what their plan of attack should be as well as Perd. "I was recently asked, 'What would you
Legal tender identifying the goals of the action (maximum be doing if you weren't involved in the Bil-

Wi'.l be crossing your paws media exposure being a primary objective). lionaires?'" she recalled. "Of course, I could
To make sure you 're After breaking into small groups to make sug- have listed off numerous things — but 1 don't
Soft on laws gestions, the Billionaires reconvene and select think about my involvement that way. It's not
It s fun to say that we 're your CEOs! their strongest strategies and slogans by vote. a 'this or that' situation. I am exactly where 1

President Bush, we're your CEOs! Commanding media attention as their want to be, doing exactly what I want to be

We 're the fattest of cats primary goal. Billionaires for Bush, like the doing and loving every minute of it."

Backs are mutually scratched presidential candidates themselves, look for- Back at the Ball, revelers shared Perd's
We cut checks and then he cuts tax! ward to reaching out to swing voters. The enthusiasm. A hip-hop group entreated the
"Swing State Limo Tour" is focused upon crowd to "Bounce, Billionaires, Bounce,"
Somewhere between the wildly gesticu- acquiring new Billionaires by infiltrating as a man in a white leisure suit and a Nixon
lating performers and the bar was an elderly college campuses and taking their messag- mask straddled a beach ball painted to look
Billionaire, dapper in tuxedo and cane. Sev- es to political events in heavily-contested like a globe. "He has the whole world be-
enty-year-old Tom Uchs extolled the Billion- states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, tween his legs," remarked an onlooker with a
aires' approach. "To produce publicity like this Wisconsin, and the famously pivotal Ohio. maroon Louise Brooks bob, strands of pearls
gives strength to individuals and groups," Uchs The fourth-week culmination of the Swing wound around her neck. As she exited City
said. His companion, Polly Dinero, chimed in, State Tour will send Billionaires out in force Stage with a tuxedoed date, they sidestepped
"This puts a new face on politics." throughout the Republican National Conven- Cash and Carry to stride past an ice sculpture
Dinero, a board member of Responsible tion and feature both the Million Billionaire in the shape of the Billionaires" symbol: a ro-
Wealth, NY/United for a Fair Economy (the March, scheduled for August 29, and the tund piggy bank, stuffed to overflowing with
Boston chapter helped spawn the Billionaires Coronation Ball, which will be held on the (faux) cash. Over the course of the evening,
in 2000) believes the Billionaires' Bush-re- eve of Bush's acceptance of the Republican in its inevitably melty undoing, the ice sculp-
lated efforts are only the tip of the ideological nomination. ture streamed, sending the illusion of money
iceberg in terms of the political changes the To ensure maximum involvement and trickling down, "ir

group can cfTect. "Win or lose [the presidential mobilization, the Billionaires intend to capi-
race]. Billionaires for Bush is just getting start- talize on technology, according to Wynns. Rebecca L. Fox is a magazine writer and editor in

ed. There are congressional races where "I'm sure be a of email coordina- New York.
it's there'll lot
o
o
 No, George,
A New Pack of Kids'
Books Confronts
George's Juvenile
Presidency
oy Eric Zassenhaus

from Chad Crowe s Curious George W.

"There's only one person who hugs the mothers and the widows, the Sensing there's no lack of lessons kids could learn from the flim-
wives and the kids upon the death of their loved one. Others hug. but blings of the administration and its head, a number of kids' books
having committed the troops. I 've got an additional responsibilit}' to on Bush have recently appeared on select bookshehes across the
"
hug and that s me and I know what it s like. U.S. From Chad Crowe's satirizing knock-off. Curious George IV..

to Karen Ocker's George W. Bush Coloring Book, to Kathy Eder &

George W. Bush says the darnedest things. Clay Butler's more sincere. No. George. No! . the books draw on the
Whether he's enumerating our reasons for going into Iraq (". .we . many mistakes of the Man-child in Chief to illustrate life lessons to a
must not allow the world's worst leaders to develop and harbor the new generation of kids, or maybe just to have a laugh at the President
world's worst weapons. I got a lot of tools at my disposal, and I'm a Select's expense.

patient man, and I'm a patient man..."), showing surprise at his vic- Chad Crowe's Curious George U'. draws on Bush's simian simi-
tory in the 2000 election ("It's amazing I won. I was running against larities to reintroduce him (pretty convincingly) as Curious George
peace, prosperity, and incumbency"), or merely calling for the support — the naughty chimp w ho's always the center of minor catastrophe.
of the nation ("People say, how can I help on this war against terror? "I'd seen photos comparing [Bush] to chimps before, and his physi-

How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going cal characteristics, coupled with his mischievous ignorance seemed to

to a shut-in's house and saying M love you'..."), the President Select fit right in line with the original Curious George," says Crowe. In his

seems to have a knack of transforming even the most basic sentiments satirical spin-off, George is constantly doing his best to impress the
into a confusing and pathetically inarticulate statement. In the weeks mysterious Man in the Yellow Hat (who bears a striking resemblance to

and months just after his supposed victory in 2000, a glut of books was #2 man Dick Cheney) and his cigar-chomping groupies. Cutting deals
released that collected his (mis)statements. Since that time, there have with fat cat energy CEOs, deli\ering billions to oil giants, dropping
been enough confusing (mis)pronunciations and embarrassing quotes bombs on far-olT lands — it's all part of the eflbrt to win the afleciion
to fill several hundred others. of his yellow-hatted man. By the book's end. howe\er. George sur\eys
Add to Bush's ability to mangle a statement and humiliate a na- the damage and realizes, perhaps too late, the human cost of his efforts.

tion, his childish gestures and mannerisms — that shifty Dennis-the- But are all these slightly-% eiled references and scenes of carnage some-

Menace glance he gives the audience whenever he comes to the end thing a kid could understand, and stomach? Chad says no: "A young
of an orchestrated statement, his trademark half-cocked sneer/grin audience might find the pictures humorous, but you'd have to have a
o
o - and his incredibly simplistic view of the world, in which every- background in recent political events to understand the story."
rvj
thing is reduced to goodevil. terrorist/Republican dichotomies. The Karen Ocker, author of The George W Bush Coloring Book, dis-
scenarios the Bush Administration is constantly finding themselves agrees: "Kids are aware of the world beyond our borders. They are
in sometimes seem like a terrifying, apocalyptic version of the ca- aware of terrorism and ha\e experienced its sting of fear and confusion
pers Dennis is constantly inventing: a sort of cataclysmic Curious first-hand. They are aware that we are at war. To mistakenly think that

(ieorgc. policies and e\ents in the world do not affect them seems dangerous to

N
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 \A/.Bu^^,
me." Pairing the President's confiased statements with the sometimes from his nap and, we're lead to
surreal images they conjure up, Ocker has created a coloring book believe, begins to rethink the way
that invites the reader to enter into the odd world of W. through his he's ruled.

mis-statements. Take a statement like the mushy-mouthed 'hugging' There's a little irony in the fact

diatribe above. What the hell does that mean? Nothing, really, but it that no one has benefited more from
does evoke some strange, perversely dream-like images, and that's the perception of Bush as a simple-

exactly what Ocker explores in her coloring book: Bush and Cheney ton than Bush himself What might
hugging each other, hugging grieving families, hugging their bombs, be the basis for years of summer
even as they drop them on a terrified populace. In case you missed the school for most of us has been translat-

sarcasm, the back of the book contains a two-page "footnote" by Joley ed into a special ability for Bush Jr., as

Wood, which elaborates on the President's doublespeak more bluntly, is evidenced by a number of pro-Bush
pinpointing the Bush Administration's abominable record on every- books which glamorize his inability to

thing from education reform to environmental policy. "It's been great speak — for instance, Bill Sammon's
seeing kids look at the coloring book." says Ocker, "asking questions recent Misunderestimated. It might be
and watching the fantastic way it opens up communication between that, for many Americans, a simple-mind-

parents and kids about serious issues." confused babble of ideas beats the double-speak you hear from well-
Perhaps more imaginative, if more bizarre, is Kathy Eder and Clay seasoned, sleight-of-hand politicians like Gore and Kerry. In a number
Butler's beautifully-illustrated book. No. Geoi-ge. No!: The Re-Parent- of ways, the perception of Bush as a child has done a lot to excuse his
ing of George W. Bush. Here, the President, napping one afternoon in glaring errors and ingratiate him in the minds of many as an honest, if

his executive office, has a dream in which he's taken back to his child- naive, straight-shooter After all, who can resist feeling sympathy for a

hood. For the rest of the book, an oddly chubby child George Jr spouts naughty little monkey or an imaginative plumpkin? Is there a way that

on about his many fantasies of world domination and economic con- this new spate of Bush kids' books, rather than highlighting the idiocy

trol. For each terrifying power-hungry idea (all ideas which have come of his statements and acts, might "cute-ify" the Bush Administration's
to pass, now that Bush Jr has grown up), a "Truth Fairy" policies as well-meaning, if misdirected, solutions to real problems?

steps in to re-educate him: "No, George, "I guess that might be a concern in some circumstances, as everything
No!" The book is an imagining of what becomes a media spectacle for entertainment's sake these days," waxes
the world might be like, had a spoiled Crowe. "So much information hits you over the head, but 1 think laugh-

and pampered little scion been redirect- ter is a powerfiil, and often overlooked, means of communicating a
ed at a younger age. Says Eder, "I teach serious subject matter The administration appears to handle problems
young men... I often see childhood events in a very juvenile manner, and the results are often horrible and shock-
that lead to negative behavior in adulthood, ing to them after the fact, just like what happens in the real Curious
instead of hating criminals or politicians who George stories. So the metaphor appears to have been an appropriate
abuse or harm others, I prefer to look to see one." Ocker agrees, "...people are more inclined to approach grave
what caused such hatred, greed, or negative subjects with laughter or humor and probably more likely to share it

behavior. ..Young George needs to learn how with others." She adds, "There is certainly nothing cute about a failing

to behave in the world, and hopefully the les- economy, dead soldiers and grieving families, racial profiling, terror-

sons he leams while playing 'Let's Imagine' will ism, unbridled power paired with massive arsenals of WMDs, poor
change his behavior as an adult." "Let's Imagine" environmental policies, or the angry world that Bush has alienated us
is a game George Jr plays with his mentor, the from at a time when we need allies and their support the most. These
Truth Fairy, who bears a striking resemblance to a issues are all depicted in the illustrations along with other quotes with

kind of overzealous social worker The book comes less gravity that sound more like hallucinatory babble than words of a
off as a bit didactic, and threaded into the beautifully illustrated pictures world-leader" Whether Bush's policies make you laugh, cry, or bury
is a battle between George's sociopathic fantasies and his Truth Fairy's your head in the sandbox, Ocker says, "You just can't invent this stuff.

attempts to "re-educate" him. By the book's end, the president awakens It's laughable and terrifying all at the same time." iV

t SUBTERRANEAN HIP HOP

Work non-flashy, DIY feel that Spin," their production pien samples. With "Symmetry"
All that is solid melts is most tangible. This assures the listener that and "Question," their production

Independently released collection of 15 tracks this is the real thing by shines both musically and lyrically

(WORKMUSIC@peoplepc.com) is the first full-length aligning with the vocal and the tone is undeniably sub-
release by the Houston, track and flowing evenly versive. Many will appreciate how

Hardly an allusion to the mindless TX based duo known as into "lnter_ahhh." "Fo- Work makes their statement the-
monotony inspired by the word, this Work. A masterful col- cus" captivates for one matic by sowing just seeds of dis-
CD is revolutionary hip-hop music laboration by DJ Task quick moment and then sent, which ultimately grow, blos-
for us, the working class. With in- and MC Evak, who serve up an segues into "Daniel," by bringing som, and spread like wildfire. This

credible lyrical content from start unconventional progressive edu- great storytelling via a convinc- CD is subterranean brilliance and
to finish, it features intelligent vo- cation, well versed on their sub- ing delivery. "Good Life" haunts stands as a well-crafted contribu-
cal flows by an MC that spits keen ject matter. Featuring an excellent the house with spoken truth and tion to the world of underground
and unrelenting. Yet the backbone "Intro" that ebbs into "Element," a spooky vocal loop, while "Sus- hip-hop. It deserves to be heard by O
of this project is undoubtedly the a message to those egotistical, no pension" features some hot utili- the masses, not the mainstream.
O
production, with its down-to-earth. talent MC's out there. On "Broken zation of Del the Funkee Homosa- -Vigilance
u
CULTURE

words Aysha Massell

Hip Hop is Breedin' photos Ana Nogueira

Revolution. Ya Heard?
A First

the voice
important
what the majority
minority of America
Nations' healer once said that
of the minority
voice
is
because
forgetting.
—
The
is

the black, the brown,

the most
it relates

so-called
Hip hop music can be a
which the eloquent preach
bing heads and swaying bodies.
to a

talented storyteller to capture his or her audi-

ence. As Pabon puts it, "You don't
pulpit
crowd of bob-
It

just
takes a
from

want
it as a
political
weapon

what they want."

Hard Knock Radio
gather together the
against us to
platforms continue to be exactly

many
is
make

one attempt
sure their

diverse voices of
to

the yellow and red, the youth, the homeless, to write down facts and blurt out statistics; the hip hop community and fashion a public
and the poor — can attest to many things the you want to really touch someone's heart and consciousness. A daily hour-long program
majority has forgotten: the prison-industrial make them understand why there's a connec- devoted entirely to issues surrounding hip
complex, increasing poverty, police brutality, tion between them and the rest of the world." hop music and culture on an independent
and inadequate education. These are just some Hip hop music at its roots is resistance (non-commercial) station, it is unique. Some
of the issues that barely touch the middle and culture, bom of a time and place when instru- of the bigger names who have appeared on
upper classes yet weigh heavily on the poor ments were hard to come by and people had the show include KRS-One. Saul Williams,
and people of color. to make do with record players and the hu- Sarah Jones. Sista Souljah. Congresswoman
Underground hip hop culture, bom Chuck D addressing delegates man voice. It is a Barbara Lee, The Coup, Congresswoman
on the streets of America's inner cities, part of the folkloric Cynthia McKinney, Paris, Chuck D, and the
speaks loudly and consistently of life on tradition — simple Reverend Jesse Jackson, just to name a few.
the local level, which has everything to songs that talk More importantly. Hard Knock gives voice to
do with politics on the national and even about everyday lesser-known artists and activists w ho are not
global level. Take the experience of things. Although heard anywhere in the mainstream or even
Rico Pabon, for example, an emcee for the technology the progressive media. There you might leam
theBay Area-based Prophets of Rage has evolved some, about the young man in Ohio who is facing
and 0-Maya. He remembers a time the basic premise up to four years in jail for producing and dis-

in his youth when remains the same: tributing a CD that has some violent lyrics.
cocaine suddenly add a voice to Equally likely, you might hear about a local

flooded the streets rhythm and you've natural-birthing support group or the latest
of his neighborhood. got music to groove merging of soul and hip hop. The program-
Family members to. ming is always compelling. rele\ant. and full

became caught in As hip hop of a variety of music.

various stages of ad- music has grown Hard Knock Radio was bom in 1999
diction and his own in popularity, how- when the 94.1 KPFA community' radio sta-

mom and step-dad ever, entertainment tion in Berkeley, California, was under siege
started using heroin. moguls have in- by its managing entity, the Pacifica Founda-
It was only later in creasingly turned tion. Known for its hard-hitting, progressive

his life that he picked It from its roots programming and its history as the first com-
up a book called The Dead Prez performing as a subculture of munity-supported radio station in the U.S.,

Big mite Lie: The resistance to an KPF.A was in danger of becoming yet another
Deep Cover Operation That Exposed the CIA industry driven by profit and mainstream corporate-driven radio station. Earlier in the

Sabotage of the Drug War. by Michael Levine political agendas. Music videos with barely- year. Pacifica's board had eliminated the
and Laura Kavanau-Levine, and realized that clothed women. $45,000 trucks, guns, and elections process and set up a self-appointing
there was a connection between his family's all-night dance parties depict a hip hop cul- governance The Executn e Director
structure.

private struggles with drug addiction and big- ture of superficiality, violence, and material- of Pacifica then KPFA's popular general
fired

time policymakers in the White House. Be- ism. "The commercial side of hip hop. the manager. Nicole Sawaya. Things became
cause of his personal experience, Pabon feels side that has been bought from us. that has more tense as e\ idence surfaced that Pacifica
a responsibility to tell the truth as he sees it been taken away from us, and is now being was considering selling KPFA and \\ BAl in
and share that know ledge with others through sold back to us." Pabon says, "just reinforces New York —
two of its most belo\ed and
the medium of the spoken word. "People are negative stereotypes about all people of color most brazenly progressive stations. Radio an-
still living with family members, a mother and youth in general... If my ele\ en-year-old nouncers at KPF.'\ who reported on the situ-
who is on crack, a father who is in jail, and cousin sees only these images, it's not cool to ation, despite a Pacifica-imposcd gag rule,

they need to know that it's not an accident," go vote, it's not cool to smile at my brother were fired. Eventually. Pacifica locked out
he says. "They need to know that it's not be- when he walks past me, it's a threat if some- all statT and prepared to stream in program-
cause they're ignorant or that they're bom out one looks at you. What does all this mean'.' ming from KPFK in Los Angeles. Outraged
o It

of sin or because they're less than somebody. means I'm never going to connect with my KPI .A supporters flocked lo the station and
They need to know that its a system designed neighbor. We see each other as a threat rath- held demonstrations and sit-ins. and the hip
a. specifically so that certain people can stay up er than allies. We're not going to mobilize; hop community was an integral part of the
on top and that it can't work any other way; we're never going to go to the polls, whether protests. Wcyland Southon. executive direc-
o
E the system is not made so that c\ cry one can you belie\e in the ssstein or not. Because of tor, co-founder, and co-host of Hard Kiuxk
Su succeed." the way hip hop has been stolen, they can use Radio, describes the way the hip hop commu-
nity eventually helped to win access back into sha says, "is to be However,
the station: able to listen to Blackmon is also

"The hip hop heads among the staff and that music com- quick to point
the community' decided to organize and ing in, to listen to out that electoral
get back into the station. We held dance how creative, how politics is not a

parties out in the street, break dancing amazing, how panacea. Many of
contests, street battles, poetry readings. aware people are the delegates are

When we did win access back into the all over the coun- organizers in their
station we demanded primetime air time. try. We get tracks communities and
We just felt like we could give voice to from all different therefore recog-
a community that not heard, we could
's kinds of folks.
activist Marinieves Alba speaking next to her father and
nize the strength
bring a new audience to KPFA that is Most of them are Young Lords founder. Panama Alba of direct action.

not heard, and that we could push the people who are Political organi-
envelope and break all the rules. The living under the zations in the hip
assumption is that hip hop youth don 't gun, and to hear them be so true and commit- hop community, she says, need to be built

want to analyze so there 's not a forum. ted and focused is really inspiring." from the ground up. "The kind of change
We give them a forum where they can ex- As it gains strength, hip hop culture has that our constituents want to see is local. In

change ideas, share strategies, and hear become more refined and politically savvy. many cases, they don't necessarily feel the
"
music that other radio isn ) playing. The result is a potentially powerful new po- diflFerence between Democratic power and
Unfortunately, Hard Knock remains a litical movement that focuses on electoral Republican power in terms of how it pans out
rare voice on the airwaves. However, there politics to achieve its goals. The National Hip — whether they have jobs, quality schools,
are other movements afoot that are advanc- Hop Political Convention was held June 16- or justice in the criminal injustice system...
ing the reach of politically-conscious hip hop. 20 in Newark, New Jersey, in an effort to de- A critical issue that is incredibly powerful
AWOL Revolutionary Artist Workshop maga- velop a hip hop political agenda, register hip across the country and came up for almost all

zine, a project of the Central Committee for hop voters, and eventually run candidates at of the states that were present is police bru-
Conscientious Objectors, is a prime example the local and national levels. With over 5,000 tality. The prison industrial complex is just
of hip hop activism reaching a national popu- participants. 400 delegates from around the not being addressed at the national level at
lation. Currently working on their third issue, country, and 20,000 new registered voters, all. But it's one of the most pressing issues in

the people at AWOL have hit upon the per- the three-day conference/convention was a urban environments and certainly the hip hop
fect combination: a visually stimulating, po- resounding success. One of its major achieve- generation. That's an example of something
litically packed magazine that includes a free ments was the successful ratification of a na- that would not be on the radar u ithout the ex-
CD compilation of mostly underground hip tional hip hop political agenda focusing on istence of a collective like ours."
hop artists, all for five bucks an issue. Wali- five major areas: education, economic justice, When asked how hip hop impacts social
dah Imarisha, editor oi AWOL and half of the criminal justice, health, and human rights. change and political movements, Blackmon
dynamic spoken word duo Good Sista. Bad Dereca Blackmon. co-chair of the Bay responds, "By giving voice to the voiceless.

Sista explains the origin of the magazine: Area Local Organizing Committee for the From the beginning, hip hop was about peo-
"A few years ago. it was brought to [the Hip Hop Convention and executive director ple who felt marginalized, people who felt

attention of CCCO] that there were no of Oakland-based 'Leadership Excellence* their experience, their voice, their culture,
materials aimed specifically at people of says, "We dealt with the criminal justice their creativity, and their politics were mar-
color even though they are the most re- agenda — ending the persecution, prosecu- ginalized."
cruited populations by the military. Peo- tion, and incarceration of drug users, youth, Hip hop will continue to serve as a plat-

ple of color are really in an extremely and [We also addressed]

political activists. form from which youth and people of color
vulnerable position due to economic fac- the end of mandatory minimums, the over- can speak and have their voices heard and
tors — what we call the poverty We
draft. haul of the prison system, looking at rehabili- acted upon. Perhaps radio stations will begin
say that there is a draft going on when tation as opposed to punitive measures, and to play more of the thousands of artists who
people don 't really have any other eco- making sure that prisoners have voting rights, are putting out socially conscious music and
nomic options. They are being drafted, educational opportunities, and safety." One maybe television will sport hip hop news an-
not recruited. A WOL was conceived as a of the most impressive aspects of the con- chors and talk show hosts. One day, hip hop
tool to utilize so that folks could have a vention, Blackmon says, was the dedication may cease to be criminalized by the police
"
forum to talk. of the organizers leading up to the event and and instead recognized as a significant contri-
Over time, the magazine has evolved the emphasis they placed on the action plan, bution to American society and politics. Or.
to encompass not only militarism in society, which included setting timelines and imple- it may remain underground and continue to
but also prisons, poverty, and sexism, among menting accountability measures. She noted who seek alterna-
inspire the disenfranchised,
other important issues. The editors are con- that some states like California, New Jersey, tive ways of living and governing themselves.
tinually recruiting youth to write stories, Ohio, and Pennsylvania sent many delegates
submit art. and send in tracks of their music, and invested a high level of depth and thought
and as a result their readership has responded into their agendas. This served as a model Aysha Ma.s.sell can be reached at
with interest and enthusiasm. The magazine for other delegates who weren't quite at that ayshamas.seU(ajhotmail.com. Rico Pabon can
is distributed primarily by grassroots means level. As part of the action plan. The League be reached through www.o-maya.com. Walidah
— volunteers who go into the schools along- of Pissed Off Voters will provide training to Imarisha can he reached at awol@objector.org.
side military recruiters and hand out copies people from around the country who are in- Hard Knock Radio can be accessed through w\\'w.

of AWOL as an antidote (half of what AWOL terested. Blackmon expects this will result in hardknockradio.com. •^•WM.daveyd.com, and the
prints is given for free). Despite the pressures a higher degree of political sophistication as archives at www.kpfa.org. Information on the Na-
of working daily with issues of war and injus- well as a greater public awareness of the hip Hip Hop Convention www.
tional is available at
o
o
tice, "What really keeps my spirit up," Imari- hop political agenda. hiphopconvenlion. org.

Ui
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 SEX & GENDER

How
Became Sexy
Behind the Myths
of a Slave Economy

wordb Yasmin Nair

illustratJL Zack Giallongo

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trafficking is in the news. And it's sexy. NBC's "Law explain the institutional and widespread nature of trafficking. Accord-
Suddenly,
and Order: Special Victims Unit" has dramatized the issue ing to the Department of Justice, approximately 700,000 persons are

twice this last year. In one episode, a predatory Russian traf- trafficked worldwide and about 50,000 of them are trafficked into the

ficker entices a barely pubescent American girl with e-mails so al- United States. According to a 2003 Department of Health and Human
luring that she runs away to join him. Once in Russia, she begins a Sciences survey, 54% of those trafficked into the US are male, 46%
tangled relationship with her captor, and he sells her body as she falls female. Only 4% are minors. Some may enter the country on work vi-

into a drug-induced stupor. Eventually, of course, she is rescued by sas but soon find themselves at the mercy of traffickers who take away
NYPD's finest but not before viewers get glimpses of the explicit web their passports and legal documents. They find themselves stranded in

photos the Russian uses to advertise her services. Another episode is a strange country and unable to speak to anyone outside workplaces,

about children imported from Africa by a Nigerian trafficker. Things which include farms and sweatshops. Actual numbers are admittedly

go awry when one young boy dies from what looks like a ritual hang- hard to pin down because traflficking's success depends upon its tight-

ing. Eventually, the detectives discover that an art professor had rented ly-knit networks and its ability to deliver laborers who will not reveal

the boy for sex and that he killed the child when he feared his wife themselves for fear of retribution from their captors. Depending on
would discover his pedophilia. the sources, the numbers are either higher or lower than those above.

Most of us think about trafficking in these terms, as a phenom- Regardless of where you look, though, it's clear that human traffick-

enon that locks women and children into sinister sexual relations with ing is a serious problem.

unscrupulous foreign men or secretly sadistic liberal intelligentsia. We In terms of gender and the question of forced sex, the facts are
also think of it as something that happens outside the boundaries of also hard to determine. Most males enter the country as agricultural

the United States. However, the trafficking of human beings as unpaid workers and most women become domestic workers, but their actual
labor is in fact widespread within the United States and not as solely work might be a combination of the two. Domestic work might in-

sexual as mainstream media images suggest. clude conditions of sexual slavery and, for that matter, although less
It's not that stories about the sexual abuse of trafficked humans obviously, so might agricultural labor. It's impossible to determine at

and of many prostitutes are not true or relevant, but focusing on the what points the lines might blur between the kinds of "work" that the
morality of prostitution or on highly individualized stories does not trafficked are forced to do by their captors, regardless of gender. The
o
o
SEX & GENDER
only thing that's clear is that trafficking includes but is not limited to tims so that they might file charges against their captors without fear
sexual servitude. Given the difficulty in determining the exact nature of deportation. The detection and prevention of trafficking is particu-

of this indentured labor, how did trafficking become a media story larly complex because they have to happen within the nexus of inter-
primarily about prostitution forced upon women and girls? national law and domestic policies and those trafficked may find it

Trafficking became sexy in part because the most vocal anti- difficult to seek redress especially when, as is often the case, they lack

trafficking activists are also often those who protest against prosti- the social and economic means to argue for their rights. For instance,
tution per se, arguing vehemently against the concept of sex work: the T-Visa application asks for S200 in application fees alone, along

the exchange of sexual labor within consensual relationships. Among with other filing charges. Since trafficking etTectively creates a large
these. Donna Hughes, a professor of Women's Studies at the Univer- pool of slave labor, how is a trafficked person to gather the money
sity of Rhode Island, has written against the distribution of condoms to apply for a T-Visa? Moreover, who are the traffickers and the traf-

to prostitutes because it would legitimize prostitution. Hughes's call ficked? And, how do people end up within the growing slave economy
to eradicate prostitution was noted and echoed by Nicholas Kristoff of the United States and what keeps the system going?
who chronicled, in his New York Times op-ed articles in the early part I posed some of these questions to Elissa Steglich, Managing
of this year, his efforts to "buy the freedom" of two teenage Cambo- Attorney of the Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center, a
dian prostitutes and return them to their families. Kristoff's sanctimo- counter-trafficking project at Heartland Alliance (HA). HA. a Chicago-
nious pieces reminded me of Americans who take candy to starving based non-profit organization that pro\ ides legal and social services for
kids in places like India, believing that a few nuggets of crystallized the impoverished, has been working on trafficking since approximately

com syrup might alleviate systemic conditions of poverty and hunger. 1 996. Staff members came across instances of trafficking in the course

Hughes and Kristoff present such personalized narratives about the of routine work on immigration cases. Without a widespread public

Contrary to the Increasingly present media representations, traffickers are rarely

the evil men operating out of pure malice; they're sleazy but often Innocuously
so. Many traffickers are part of the Immigrant communities they exploit, from
places as different as Jamaica and Russia. They are often men and women —
— who return to their homes of origin with stories of economic success and
promises of taking fellow Immigrants towards more of the same.

supposed evils of prostitution with only tangential discussions about recognition of trafficking, HA's only legal recourse for victims was to

the economics of prostitution. Ultimately, their narratives imply that help them claim asylum.
trafficking is only about sex. In 2000, HA joined the Freedom Netvvork, a consortium of 22 or-

Peter Landesman's story in the January 25, 2004 New York Times ganizations fomied in response to the VTVPA. Members recognized
Sunday Magazine further emphasized the sexual aspect of trafficking that the new legislation would mean renewed efforts to identify and aid
in highlighting the extent of sexual slavery within the United States. those who might not know about the support available to them. They
While such facts are important to the public, the cover photograph also expanded the definition of trafficking to include mail-order brides

echoed our collective ambivalence about adolescent female sexuality: tricked into sexual and domestic servitude. With regard to the financial

a young girl in a Catholic School uniform sits on the edge of a bed burden of the T-Visa. Steglich informed me that the Department of Jus-
with bare knees and a bit of thigh tantalizingly exposed. Sex sells, tice has been generous about granting fee waivers \\ hen applicants are
and while that's not in itself a bad thing, the photo seemed at odds assisted by agencies such as hers. But most of the trafficked \\ ork in

with a piece designed to invoke the brutal sexual exploitation of young isolation and are unaware of their rights. For that reason HA conducts
girls. workshops and maintains links with community agencies and activists

With regard to sex and trafficking, the United Nations Protocol including those related to social service and domestic violence. They, in

to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, ratified in turn, are able to alert HA to instances of trafficking.

2000, carefully separates forced sexual labor from prostitution. The In the course of its work, HA and other organizations like the Co-

definition of trafficking is "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, alition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) have unearthed surprising facts

harboring or receipt of persons by improper means, such as force, ab- about the demographics of both traffickers and tratTicked, who come
duction, fraud or coercion, for an improper purpose, like forced or from varied educational, ethnic and racial backgrounds. A number of
coerced labor, servitude, slavery or sexual exploitation." And further the trafficked are US citizens whose drug dependency and homelessness
on: "With the exception of children, who cannot consent, the inten- make them especially vulnerable to traffickers. Those trafficked often
tion is to distinguish between consensual acts or treatment and those owe large sums (at sonic counts as much as S3000 or more) to the traf-
in which abduction, force, fraud, deception or coercion arc used or fickers. They become indebted because they believe they are purchasing

threatened." It's clear that trafficking is difficult to track and prosecute legal \ isas and that thev can ev entualK cam enough to repay their debts.

o without clear guidelines that encompass a range of forced human rela- Once in the L nited States, they are forced into indentured labor and their
o
CM tions. It's especially hard to prosecute because most of those trafficked debts never di.sappear. Very often, traffickers will threaten their captives
may risk their lives or be criminalized and deported as illegal aliens. and their families left behind if thev irv ti> escape.
^
Kollowmg the UN Protocol, the C Imton administration passed The largest problem in detecting and lighting trafficking, Steglich fl

the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTVPA) in told me, is that most people don't recognize Irafticking when they see

2000. The Act provides for temporary Non-Immigrant T- Visas for vic- il and have misconceptions aboul how it occurs and to whom.

O
in
 The about trafficking happens around us
truth is

every day. Contrary to the increasingly present media represen-

that it

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tations, traffickers are rarely the evil men operating out of pure
Benn Ray
malice; they're sleazy but often innocuously so. Many traffick- Now here's a sentence you don't hear every day: "I don't get enough sex-

ers are part of the immigrant communities they exploit, from related emails." Our inboxes are deluged with ads for generic Viagra, lonely

places as different as Jamaica and Russia. They are often men barely legals looking to meet for a lucrative online chat, women and the ani-

— and women — who return to their homes of origin with sto- mals they love, pumps and pills to enlarge things that most likely don't need

ries of economic success and promises of taking fellow immi- enlarging, and (if you're lucky) the occasional dirty email that was meant for

grants towards more of the same. Those who use unpaid illegal someone else but accidentally sent to you.

labor do so in order to cut costs, and are as likely to be small If you're looking for sex-related, informative email newsletters you can

fanners in the North East as large orange-growers in Florida. browse through on those lazy Fridays when half the office is out and you are

Those who use unpaid domestic labor range from United Na- mentally, strap one of these on for size. (Visit the URL to subscribe to the

tions officials to professionals of various sorts. Trafficking oc- newsletter.)

curs within our everyday reality, and within the same economy
that gives us relatively cheap milk and orange juice because of Scarlet Letters

cheap and abundant labor www.scarletletters.com

We're used to seeing but ignoring the vast numbers of The groundbreaking website offers a newsletter

janitors, bus people and farm hands silently working around that tells you when to visit the site to check out

us, so it comes as a shock when a case of trafficking is ex- new information. Scarlet Letters is all about cre-

posed. In 2001, the Ramos brothers were arrested for exploit- ation, seduction, and genre-fucking, and that's the

ing 700 workers on their citrus groves in Lake Placid, Florida. sort of content they offer They have everything

The workers were invisible only because labor usually goes from photography and illustration to prose and

unseen in the United States: the vast enterprise operated within poetry to essays, commentary, and mixed media

plain view of a Golf Club attached to a retirement community. reviews. Plus, their name is a Hawthorne refer-

The discovery of trafficked labor shocked the community only ence, ironically used, of course.

because it forced them to open their eyes to the everyday eco-

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nomic conditions that make their world possible. Sex News Daily

As Americans, we like our garbage collected on time and www.sexnewsdaily.com

we want to pay the least possible amount for groceries. We They claim to be "The World's Most Interesting Real News," which may be
don't care to know the truth about the labor that makes all that slightly hyperbolic, but descriptive nonetheless. SND is more like a sex-re-

possible. We grumble when the price of gas goes up and we are lated media filter blog in email form. They claim to offer a "fascinating jour-

especially testy around the issue of outsourcing. But even as ney into human sexuality" and at times they succeed. Their content is made
we worry about "our jobs" being sold away to faceless masses up of small write-ups with links to larger news stories from elsewhere on the

in India and China, we are surrounded by the benefits of slave web. These stories run the gamut from pop-culture (Ken & Barbie relationship
labor Commentators often refer to tratTicking as the "dark side quandries) to news of the weird (a woman Googies a blind date which leads

of globalization", but the phenomenon flourishes in the United to his arrest) to gender politics (dowry issues) and science to fashion (chastity

States for an old-fashioned reason: the need to maximize prof- belts for men?). The charm behind SND is they surf the web for this stuff so

its while mmimizing expenditures. you don't have to.

To blame trafficking on globalization and price competi-

tion ignores the fact that an economy that actually values hu- Societv For Human Sexuality Lists

man labor and the health of workers w ould make modem-day www. sexuality.org
slavery untenable. When trafficking seems to be about sex and The SHS offers two different lists. The monthly SHS Announcement List

violence, we're more able to connect with and eulogize the supplements the Seattle Sex-Positive Resource Guide and contains additions,

"victims". We see ourselves rescuing hapless young women corrections, and special events held that month. The SHS Discussion List is a

and children but prefer not to think about supposedly abstract high-volume open forum for a frank and candid discussion of human sexual-

issues like labor and fair wages, even though those affect us in ity, where everything from pornography vs. erotica to the legitimacy of sexual
intimate ways. surrogates is fair game.

Trafficking survives because it's a part of our daily lives,

not because it emerges from distant shores and invisible net- Toys In Babeland
works of pure evil. Trafficking is only partly about sex and www.babeland.com
more about the price we pay for a carton of orange juice, 'ir This newsletter is one of those crafty blends of content and product. Toys In

Babeland is an online (and brick and mortar) sex-toy store that distributes

To report a case of trafficking, call the Human Trafficking its own newsletter showcasing different toys you can purchase from them

Information and Referral Hotline: 1-888-373-7888. to spice up a sex life which may be running bland. They also offer an advice
column called Ask Rachel and Claire which dishes out sex advice that is of
Yasmin Nair is a Chicago-based academic and writer. Her cur- the "what kind of strap on should I use" and "what video would help me the

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pieces about fashion, death, and debt. She may be contacted the newsletter equivalent of doing just that.

at: nairyasmin@yahoo.com. o
Sign up for any of these newsletters. They prove that sex-based emails don't o
have to be trash (but "trashy" never hurts). U1
SEX & GENDER

From My
word. Dave Arenas
Lai
illustratic Brandon Bauer

the discussion about the abuses revealed at Abu

InGhraib and the interrogation techniques US soldiers

and intelligence personnel have used at Guantana-

mo Bay, the media continues to make comparisons to

the My Lai massacre of 1972. As with the My Lai mas-

sacre, there is still a debate about whether just a few

individuals committed these acts or if they were only

one example of follow ing widespread orders and policy

US military commanders and government officials es-

tablished. What has been lost in the debate about Abu

Ghraib and My Lai, perhaps because of its shocking
nature, is the question of the use of sexual violence in

both incidents.
At both Abu Ghraib and My Lai, US soldiers used

sexual violence to terrorize the indigenous population.

Despite the focus on what US soldiers did to the vic-

tims, the question remains of how our planning out and

enacting such sexual violence, as well as our reasons for

using such a tactic, reflect upon the United States" think-

ing about sex, gender, and race. What examining the My

Lai massacre serves to point out, in the long run, is that

even in the aftermath, gender and race are employed not

only for intimidation but also in an attempt to recover
a belief in the messianic mission of the US soldier and

ultimately US foreign policy.

These questions about our own thinking with re-

gards to the victims of US abuse are important because

they turn the lens back onto US ideology and activ-
ity. The use of sexual abuse in both My Lai and Abu
Ghraib hit a deep nerve within the US consciousness
as it struggles with the history and the present of sexual

abuse within its own society. The raping and killing of

non-combatant women and children at My Lai, shown
in graphic photographs to the world, and the depiction
of forced homosexual acts among male prisoners at Abu
Ghraib, broadcast across television screens around the
globe, shocked the US public. The sense about these US
troops, w hether mythical or not, is that a\ eragc. patriot-

ic North Americans are not capable of such sexual vio-

lence. In both incidents, it is not that North .Xmcricans

appear as brutal as their enemies. Rather, revelations of

such actions make North American troops seem e\cn
more bmtal and ruthless than their enemies. While ac-
counts at .Abu Ghraib are too fresh and still scanty for

in-dcpth analysis, the accounts that have emerged from

My Lai, particulariy that of Lt. William Callcy, help us
o
o better understand not only the moti\ ations behind these

atrocities but also the ensuing justifications for ongoing

US aggression and occupations.
On March 16, I96S. approximately more than a
month atkr the Tct offensive and after three months be-
ing first assigned to Vietnam. Company C, first battalion
 Race and Gender, Rape, and Failed Messianism:
to Abu Ghraib A Repeating Theme of US Culture and Expansionism?

of the twentieth infantry, proceeded on an offensive mission to My of communities, he learns to suppress any ethical standards that may
Lai, one of four subhamlets in Son My Village. Their deployment was make him hesitate to act violently toward civilians. Furthermore,
to be part of a search and destroy mission, in which commanders and should the women and the community be innocent of giving support
troops expected heavy fighting. In such a mission, commanders did to the enemy, such indiscriminate acts of rape and mass killing signal

not give clear directives regarding the treatment of combatants. Sol- the lengths of violence to which the soldiers will go should the com-
diers understood that the order for search and destroy meant that the munity decide to support the enemy in the future. Targeting women
soldiers had to destroy any support structures, such as food supplies as a means to terrorize the community as a whole, and other women
and buildings. Crucially, the unit had already suffered twenty-eight in particular, points to the fact that military organizations hold a pre-

casualties with five wounded without any active engagement w ith the dominantly male understanding of community structure and the vul-
enemy prior to the attack on My Lai. nerability of women.
During the briefing prior to the assault, commanders told the US In the aftermath of this event, Calley was the only officer to be
soldiers that the non-combatants would be at the market that day and tried and convicted for killing civilians during the massacre. From
that the only people in the village would be Viet Cong guerrillas and Calley's accounts and testimonies, his actions were confined to killing
regulars. Concomitantly, commanders said that the area would give — with no indication that he had participated in the acts of rape. In
stiff resistance, but that this would be an opportunity for the Company explaining his actions at that time, he discusses not only the sense of
to "get even" for losses suffered. The anticipation was high for a com- messianic mission, which he learned in the army, but also his view as
bat situation, to the point that if the village offered any resistance, US to why the My Lai attack failed. In his account, he uses gender and
retaliation would be fatal. race to point out not the failures of the US soldiers who were there but

In the aftermath, US soldiers killed approximately 400 elderly rather the failure of Vietnamese culture at receiving such aid.

men. women, and children at My Lai. Of that number, according to one Calley does not see his actions in terms of personal spite. Nor
army investigator, Andre Feher, approximately 120 were women and does he see the Vietnamese as human beings. Rather, he shows how
children. There were no North Vietnamese regulars. South Vietnam- he saw them as objects he needed to eliminate and how he saw his own
ese irregulars were not present in the village, and the village gave no actions in accordance with his training. He says, "As for me, killing
resistance to the US troops. During the operation, US soldiers rounded those men in My Lai didn't haunt me. didn't I couldn't kill for the 1 —
up and machine-gunned prisoners, mostly women and children. Sys- pleasure of it. We weren't in My Lai to kill human beings, really. We
tematic rape became pervasive during the carnage with soldiers vio- were there to kill ideology that is carried by — I don't know. Pawns.
lating Vietnamese women and children by group or individually. The Blobs. Pieces of flesh, and I wasn't in My Lai to destroy intelligent
soldiers killed most of the Vietnamese they raped and threw them into men. 1 was there to destroy an intangible idea." In his discussion

nearby ditches. Soldiers interrogated of My Lai, his gendering of the enemy

others in order to find out whether there as male allows him to objectify the Viet-

were Vietnamese guerrilla groups

The systematic manner by which sol-
in the namese as non-living matter while eras-
area. If the Vietnamese prisoners failed diers of Company C raped women and ing the memory of the non-combatant
to answer, or did not answer convinc-
children before, during, and after the women and children he executed. The
ingly, the soldiers shot them as well. question of women does return when he
The systematic manner by which My Lai incident points to the use of rape recounts his personal relations and ex-
soldiers of Company c raped women as 3 systcmatlc means of torrorizing plains the deficiencies of the Vietnamese
and children before, during and after the culture he sought to save.
My Lai incident points to the use of rape
^^^ cOmmUnity,
j' r i the
SpeCiflCally WOmOn, »
Through his descriptions of the
as a systematic means of terrorizing the tO prOVent them frOm giVing SUPpOrt tO Vietnamese women with whom he had
community, specifically the women, to thg gngmy had relations, Calley portrays Vietnam-
prevent them from giving support to the ese culture as incapable of receiving
enemy. Cynthia Enloe has pointed out US help. In one example, he discusses
that the tactic of rape by soldiers also hardens the soldiers to the atroci- Yvonne, a woman who worked
of Vietnamese and French descent,
ties that they commit against an enemy population. Rape becomes a as a prostitute to support her mother, who was also a prostitute. As he
discipline of maleness, according to Enloe, whereby routine acts of describes Yvonne, Calley also identifies his own maleness as being the
violation against women accustom the soldier toward even more de- one who is there to help and links that help to the North American way
structive acts of violence. The soldier internalizes the performance of of life that he offered her. His account registers his shock and helpless-
rape as an act of exerting power over those women whom he cannot ness over her situation, as he points out. "But a woman ought to have
control by other means. something more. A husband. A family. A drive to the suburbs every
The soldier also learns to view the enemy, particularly women, day: I just don't know, but I say there's something more, and Yvonne
as degraded and not worthy of ethical consideration. Through the was just cheated of it. 1 wanted to seize her and say, 'Jesus Christ!
systematic and routine use of rape in the occupation and destruction Believe me! It isn't life! It isn't the way the world is! Let's steal away
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 'uLsiXJuyi'Sji

to America! I'll show you!' A daydream, but I was in Vietnam to help At Abu Ghraib, the roles may seem reversed, in that US soldiers

these people, right?" In the end, Calley concludes that he could not and interrogators directed the abuse at males while some women
help her because she could not fit into the American way of life. guards participated in the abuse. And, the US government and the US
In his view, the people from his community would not accept how guards and interrogators treated
press have yet to fully investigate

her. Thus, he blames her for failing to show the ability to assimilate. women and children prisoners. However, what is clear in the case of
He also concludes that she was unwilling to be helped, at least in the both Abu Ghraib and My Lai is the fact that both military and intel-
way that he wanted to help her, zis she did not want to leave her moth- ligence personnel used sexual violence as a systematic weapon of ter-
er. Calley explains his vision of the Vietnamese people as potential ror. At the same time, at least in the case of My Lai, the collective US
threats and incapable of accepting US aid in the example of Yvonne. thinking about race and gender continues to project the blame onto the
At the same time, through her example, he explains the failure of the victims. Whether or not this thinking will continue to emerge in the
Vietnamese culture through its unwillingness to accept what he sees as aftermath of Abu Ghraib has yet to be seen. The fact remains, though,
a better life. Thus, when he says, "I can't help the Vietnamese people." that the use of sexual violence to humiliate prisoners comes from an
it is with this view of Vietnamese women as being trapped within their historical tradition of US military and intelligence policy. The fact that

own culture. we as a nation do not critically examine this historical tradition reveals
In the case of My Lai, one sees two roles for race and gender in the pervasiveness of a collective denial about the violence of US na-

the enactment of rape and mass killing as tools of military occupa- tional culture and thinking, "ir

tion. Through race and gender, soldiers such as Calley and the popular
media often rationalize rape as an act of frustration and desperation Dave Arenas works as an ESL instructor in Chicago and is presently
with the resistance of the people the soldiers sought to save rather than doing researching into the roles that auto-didacticism, creativity, and
as a means of terror and degradation. Race and gender also become resistance play in the formation of egalitarian learning communities.

a means for erasing the humanity of the victims of such abuse while
exculpating the perpetrators. Blame is ultimately put back onto the

victims.

BOUND GENDER >

Kings and Queens: Without A Net: The Female expensive coat, or the freedom from torment).
Queers at the Prom Experience of Growing Up The book touches on the ideas of having no
Edited by David Beyer Working Class exposure to upper and middle classes, not
Soft Skull Press Edited by Michelle Tea knowing you are poor (in contrast with having
www.softsku press.com 1 1 Seal Press, 2004 constant knowledge of your family.s poverty),
www.sealpress.com being denied available resources and care
Ido not know much about because of social stigma, and realizing the
prom. missed mine
I
— "At Halloween, we got implications of wanting to get out of and/or
never noticed it had come yelled at or whipped return to the working class.
and gone. About a week for throwing eggs, not In separate pieces Terry Ryan and Silas

after, though, I overheard because it was childish Howard discuss the plots and schemes people
my High School Spanish teacher talking with and rude, but because we come up with to get by, and to sometimes
the was seeing. Mrs. Thomas was incredu-
girl I were screwing with the food supply." fund getting to also do what they wish they
lous.She could not believe had neglected my I
- Tina Fakhrid-Deen, from "Ghetto Fabulous" could do for pay. Lis Goldschmidt and Dean
"prom duty" and told my girlfriend she should (in Without A Net) Spade together take up the emerging hip-ness
dump me. walked away from my eavesdrop-
I of white-trash-chic and "trailer trash" theme
ping and awaited the outcome. never men- I I don't tend to read anthologies the whole parties. Various authors, including Shawna
tioned what I overheard. My girlfriend never way through, but this time had to. had
I I Kenny, talk about the experience of poverty
dumped me, and we never spoke of the prom. known about Without A Net since the call for being blocked out people's memories later
We broke up nine months later, after I left for submissions had gone out, and still was blown in life. There is hardly a story in the entire

college. This is my prom story. This story and away by the success of the completed project. anthology couldn't pull a quote or an idea
I

what have learned from Brian De Palma and

I The book includes work by well-known writers from, but most of all would urge readers to
I

John Hughes movies are pretty much all know I such as Dorothy Allison and Eileen Myles as check out the stories by Joy Castro, Siobhan
about prom. well as many talented emerging writers. In this Brooks, Wendy Thompson, Nikki Levine and
Leave it to a book on queers at the prom collection editor Michelle Tea (author of The Tina Fakhrid-Deen.
finally to spark my interest in the event. Kings Chelsea Whistle) has compiled accounts from I don't know that it would be possible
and Queens is a great idea and an interesting 30 (either assigned at birth and/or presently to have an
anthology like this be entirely
set of personal stories that kept me smiling and identifying as) female writers who share the representative without it being 900 pages long,
musing from start to finish. Designed to look experience of having been raised poor or or one in a larger series of books, but Michelle
like a yearbook, it recalls over 60 years of high working class. Tea does a good job of it. Some of the stories
school disappointment, friendship,
fear, anger, Through various topics, ranging from ran into, or overlapped with each other, but
and glee. But there is more to it. This book as- racism to housing projects to experiences in appropriately, as many of the experiences of
serts that for practically every American born academia, the book as an entirety is diverse growing up working class do too. Without A
in the twentieth century, prom is a point of and each story is self-contained and complex Net finally captures the experience of growing
reference. And, it takes that point of reference on its own. Without A Net manages to capture up poor and working class by people who did,
and weaves American history around it. Most of the multi-layered experience of poverty in and not by middle-class feminist, left-leaning
these stories of being homosexual m America North America by examining such notions as authors and well-meaning activists who didn't.
do not fit prom mythology. Yet, woven between what it means to grow up working class with -Tara-Michelle Ziniuk
o
o the sociology of Amy Best and the oral history parents who hold onto middle class ideals,
fM
«^ of Studs Terkel, they convey a history attuned to how a changed financial situation does not
race, class, sex, gender, religion, and, of course, necessarily mean jumping classes (parents
a. social rituals seen from the outside. Kings and becoming employed, children having the
S!
Queens is a terrific introduction to the history of opportunity to go to university, or families
O being queer in America, and it might )ust make changing neighborhoods), and why the
E
you want to dance to Faithfully. (mis)conception of not being deserving affects
u Brian Bergen- Aurand so many (whether in terms of an education, an

in
No ous to
oflfice continues to prove as impervi-
women candidates as the Presi-
appointed High Commissioner of
Rights for the United Nations.
Human six years as president.

Chamorro was a revolutionist who used

dency of the United States of America. Per- her family newspaper to help overthrow the
haps it is time to consider seriously the end of Corazon Aquino — Philippines Somoza dictatorship. In the beginning of
men dominating this seat of power, especially Corazon Aquino served as the first woman her term in office, Chamorro faced a broken
since the "Dubya" administration. president of the Philippines from 1986 to country with a civil war, rising unemploy-

Across the world, women have had the 1992. Although some often did not take her ment and strikes. But she brought about an
opportunity to rule or run their nations. The seriously, she did a lot for the greater good of end to the longtime Sandinista control of the
first elected female leader in contemporary her country. Succeeding her assassinated hus- military, ended the U.S. -backed Contra war
history dates back to 1953, Suhbaataryn band, Aquino was a politically inexperienced and established foundations for national rec-

Yanjamaa of Mongolia. In 1979, Margaret housewife who took control of a volatile na- onciliation —not so bad for being the first

Thatcher was British Prime Minister. Cur- tion. With the country split on her leadership, woman to govern a Central American nation.
rently, Mary McAleese is president of Ire- promises of reforms failed and economic dif-

land. By now, it's almost nonnal for women ficulties plagued her. There were even six at- Meanwhile in the United States, many wom-
in other countries to run for president and tempts to overthrow her. en have tried to take the role of President, but
win. What's keeping the United States behind Despite the opposition, Aquino man- none has succeeded. Victoria Woodhull was
the times? aged to start a revolution, giving the power the first female Presidential candidate in the

back to the people and restoring democracy United States in 1 872. She was nominated by
Mary Robinson —Ireland in a nation that had been under a long dic- the National Woman Suffrage Association in
Take Mary Robinson for example. In her tatorship. Aquino eliminated communist and New York City and was the first woman to

seven-year incumbency during the majority Muslim threats that affected the stability of address Congress on the 15th Amendment,
of the 1990s, Robinson succeeded at not only the nation, and she initiated an economic re- assuring ail citizens the right to vote. Shir-

being the first woman president of Ireland, covery. Aquino also wrote a new constitution ley Chisholm was nominated for President

but also succeeded at adding a couple more appropriately titled the Freedom Constitu- in 1 972 and was the first female black mem-
firsts to her name. Robinson was the first per- tion. Overall, her work wasn't a bad start to ber of the House of Representatives. Patricia
son to defeat the two largest political parties, get the country back in shape. Scott Schroeder was a congresswoman run-
becoming the first non-Fianna Fail (Republi- In the end, Aquino received several pres- ning as a Democratic candidate for the nomi-
can) president in 70 years when she won as tigious recognitions of her accomplishments, nation of president. But Schroeder withdrew
the first Labour party president. such as the United Nations Silver Medal and before the party convention. Following in her
Robinson addressed many issues that the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award. husband's footsteps, Elizabeth Dole ran in

have made her one of the most notable and 1999 but withdrew because of a lack of fund-
successful presidents of her time. She cam- Violeta Barrios de Chamorro —Nicaragua ing. Carol Moseley Braun ran in 2004 but
paigned for the liberalization of laws inhibit- From 1990 to 1997, Violet Barrios de Cham- also seceded from the race.

ing divorce and abortion and was also a hu- orro ended a civil war, brought her country Over half a century since the first wom-
manitarian, justice and human rights activist back into one piece, and was able to stimu- an president, the United States of America
and placed importance on the needs of devel- late a broken economy that had been one of still hasn't given women the chance. Espe-
oping countries. the worst in the Western Hemisphere. The cially after this administration, maybe we
A couple months prior to the end of her remarkable thing is that she did all this even should take a look into electing a woman
term in office, Robinson resigned and was though she had never held office before her President. "^

POINT & cut)

Laptop Vibrator inside. It comes with a soft ribbed sleeve that I found unnecessary,
Toys Babeland
In but you might find comfy. As someone who loves vibrators, I'm
www.toysinbabeland.com often disappointed by new toys that promise power but fail to
follow through. Despite its small size, Ifound both low and high
Made by California Exotic Novelties and distributed by Toys in speeds satisfying. This powerful little vibe is ultra quiet — perfect
Babeland, the "Laptop" vibrator —
a small vibrator that plugs into for nighttime use when others are sleeping and includes an extra-
any USB port —
is probably the perfect companion for cybersex. long cord to encourage creativity. Best thing about it? No batteries
The small fingertip vibe plugs easily into the keyboard or the side needed, so you'll never be disappointed by low/no power as long as
of your laptop, and is about one inch long. I loved that the clasp you're near a computer. think this will stay right here in my desk
I

could fit near the tip of your finger for lots of maneuverability or near drawer. Thirty-two bucks is worth it. o
o
the base of your finger for clit stimulation while your finger(s) plays -Anita Spanking
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 "Intellectually rigorous, politically

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Summer 2004
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 Todd Steven Burroughs

anongstKUSrilC'S
It's
been easy to ignore Laura Flanders. Yes, she's been on CNN, me to [Pacifica Radio's] Amy Goodman and I'm a loafer," she said,

Fox News Channel and "To The Contrary," a national PBS chat laughing.

show from the wide-ranging perspectives of different women, but "I see Laura as one of the all-too-rare intellectuals ... and truly

only occasionally. "I'm interviewed once in a blue moon to twice in a progressive voices," says Jackson. She can field many perspectives,

blue moon," Flanders said of the cacophony of initials. She's a dying "but at the same time she's not a boring egghead. I'm thankful that she

breed — a longtime progressive radio host (Air America, "Democracy has the platform that she does. I just wish it was bigger."

Now," "CounterSpin") who has actually earned the right to be on radio Flanders does, too. But in the meantime, she's learning. From
and television by doing reporting. She's an interesting media person- call-in talk radio ("Most of the experts are in the audience and if you
ality — a pundit who smiles like a human being and not a snarling speak to them not in the lowest common denominator, but the high-
tiger. She's an anomaly; a strong person and personality unafraid of est common denominator, they will respond") and from television's
being nice, and a public debater who actually thinks before she speaks. power to represent opinions of people not heard
Flanders is proud to be strongly to the Left of the camera in the Land and seen otherwise.
of The Talking Heads. As a rare progressive voice in the media
Her colleagues join her in pride. "Her credential for being on the wilderness, the London native is in for the fight

radio is not having a lot of opinions," said Janine Jackson, program of her life, and she's in good company. The
director of Fairness And Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), a progres- Left, she argued, is building its own forums
sive media watchdog group based in New York City. Flanders was to counteract the Heritage Foundation and the
the founder of FAIR's Women's Desk, and co-hosted "CounterSpin," army of Right-wing syndicated broadcast and
fair's nationally syndicated weekly radio show, for several years, print pundits who, in her view, get their pub-
at least three of which with current co-host Jackson. Flanders is first lic policy agenda implemented before the
a journalist who earned her pundit stripes through reporting, Jackson rest of the country even figures out what's
reminded. But Flanders embraces analytical opinion. "She's not go- happening. These new forums, she said, in-

ing to muzzle herself and muzzle her brain," said Nicole Sawaya, clude: The Progressive Media Project; the

Flanders's boss at KALW-FM, a public radio station in San Francisco. Institute For Public Advocacy, and Paci-
KALW's "Your Call" has been hosted by Flanders since 2001. (It's fica Radio's "Democracy Now," which,
now hosted on alternate days by Flanders and Farai Chideya, a Black in its eight-year history has become the

woman who made waves a decade ago as a 20-something Newsweek closest thing progressives have to a "60

correspondent, first-time author, and CNN pundit.) But Flanders, 42, Minutes." .

has been on-air since the mid-1980s, working her way up the Pacifica And books. Bushwomen: Tales
Radio/alternative radio circuit. Of A Cynical Species is Flanders's second (and heav-
Flanders is not a kook like Ann Coulter, but she takes punditry ily footnoted) book, with a third, the anthology The W Effect: Sexual
very seriously. "To me, it's not a game, it's not a show." She explains Politics In The Bush Years And Beyond, \us\ arriving in bookstores this
that it's really about continuing a tradition of dissent — George Seldes, past June. The W Effect's contributors include feminist writing stars as
I.F. Stone, Ida B. Wells, et. al. But does she ever pal around with her Jill Nelson, Vandana Shiva and Barbara Ehrenreich.
fellow talking heads? "We get friendly with each other a little bit .... But how much does Flanders' work really matter in a nation
[but] I can't imagine going out to dinner with any of them, it wouldn't whose Establishment considers Bill Clinton a progressive and George
be a relaxing dinner anyway. It's not like we're all buddies, anyway." W. Bush a moderate? "I'm grateful she's out there," said Jackson of

And if they were, it's not like she has a lot of time to do that sort Flanders. "But I worry that she's lonely."

of thing. From her plugged-in New York City loft, she prepares for It's been easy to ignore Laura Flanders, but Bushwomen is mak-
"The Laura Flanders Show" — her weekend program on Air Amer- ing a mark. It is a deft blend of well-documented reporting, instant
ica, the embryonic liberal news-talk answer to the Right's collective history and media criticism, with just the right dashes of humor. It

hate-radio roar — and does KALW's "Your Call" two days during the tells the story of how the Bush administration redefined feminism and
week. And then there's writing for publications like The Nation and civil rights to fit its own reactionary purposes. The work profiles the
CounlerPiinch and websites like workingforchange.com. And then Right's top female leaders and how they got to power. Very familiar
there's all those meetings. And then there's... well, a life. "Compare names — Laura Bush, Christine Todd Whitman, Condoleeza Rice,
o
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PEOPLE
Elaine Chao, Lynne Cheney and Karen Hughes, among others — get Rice has played into America's self-sustained "fuzzy" memories about
a critical evaluation, and are found wanting, to say the least. race. Freeman — the fictional everyman activist of "The Boondocks,"
In the Bizzaro feminism world Flanders has thoroughly docu- the syndicated comic strip — is wrong about helping Rice by getting

mented, women in the Bush administration are "invaluable to the Pres- her a blind date; Rice doesn't need a man as much as she needs a con-
ident, [but] under-scrutinized in the press." This allows them to wreak science.

public policy havoc on environmental regulations, pervert memories "By their individual accomplishments," wrote Flanders, Bush's
of the Civil Rights Movement, help steal Presidential elections, and top women "are supposed to prove that opportunity exists for all." But

just plain lie. Flanders defines the Bushwomen — the females who it's all myth, reveals the author: virtually all of the Bushwomen are
serve either as cabinet members or sub-cabinet members — as "an heavily fiinded by foundations and corporations — and, ironically, are

extremist administration's female front. Cast in the public mind as now direct beneficiaries of the feminism they now symbolically repre-
maverick, or moderate, or irrelevant, laughable or benign, their well- sent and actually distain. And always nearby. Roe vs. Wade sw ings on
spun image taps into convenient stereotypes, while the reality remains the margins of public debate like Edgar Allan Poe's pendulum.

out of sight. If women were taken more seriously, the Bushwomen con Until now, it's been easy to ignore Laura Flanders. Bushwomen
job wouldn't stand a chance, but in the contemporary United States, it has already penetrated The New York Times bestseller list. But still,

just might." her watchdog could be barking in vain, since its masters have taken
Included in Bushwomen are stories of Katherine Harris, Christine out their hearing aids for anyone Left of the Democratic Leadership

Todd Whitman and Gale Ann Norton. Harris was the Florida Secretary Council. She is using fact-checked words during a period in which
of State who was so openly partisan that Republican Party staffers televised images plaster over what is left (and Left?) of the American
used her offices and its computers during the 2000 Presidential elec- consciousness. Anyone grinding his or her teeth watching the Estab-
tion recount. She's the one that got thousands of Blacks purged from lishment Media's wall-to-wall coverage of the Reagan death and fu-
the voting rolls in Florida. (Remember: Bush "won" that state in 2000 neral got a painful reminder of that. So starting from scratch seems to

by just 537 votes.) Todd Whitman was the Environmental Protection be the progressive's stock in trade.

Agency head who had declared Ground Zero fit for breathing (and So, then, why do all this work when "flyover country" — loudly
profit) less than one week after 9-11. Secretary of the Interior Norton represented by those very angry people who call C-SPAN's "Washing-
never met a corporation she didn't like — and, seemingly, didn't help ton Journal" every morning and ditto Rush and his clones on the radio
secure mineral-rich land without worrying about pesky things like every weekday afternoon — is converted by a certain mythological
clean air. view of America, not facts? (After all, generating sales worthy of The
Flanders's own profession does not escape her author's stem Times' acknow ledgement was no shoo-in in 2004, even if you do have
gaze. The nation's elite news media, particularly The Washington a radio show.) Flanders and Co. hope their collective effort will turn a

Post, have a lot to apologize for in their handling of these women, Confederate Gray — er. Red — state a comfortable shade of Blue this

argues Flanders. The Post, she reminded, devoted a whole article on November, but that isn't the point. It's to remain sane.
Katherine Harris' makeup (albeit done by the newspaper's fashion re- "She truly wants people to change," says Sawaya of Flanders.
porter). And, she adds, the fight on the Bush-era Civil Rights Commis- "She truly wants people to think." Flanders projects a level of intensity
sion between conservative Abigail Themstrom and liberal Mary Fran- that some might see as intimidating, according to Sawaya, but some
ces Berry was described by The Post as a "catfight" instead would also see it as being alive.

of a serious dispute over alleged rug-sweep- Jackson said that if media critics judged success and failure by in-

ing over the Florida debacle. The New York stitutional change, they would have packed their bags and gone home
Times, in a profile of Rice, talked about her long ago. "It would be hard to get out of bed in the morning." But
hair and clothes ("She is always impeccably there has been a major shift in public opinion over the last 20 years,
dressed, usually in a classic suit with a modest she maintained: before FAIR, most Americans saw their news media
hemline, comfortable pumps and conservative as sacrosanct; now, thanks to people like Flanders, media are seen
jewelry"). There have been other articles in The by public as a large and powerful collective political mterest, capable
Post and other elite media on these personalities of being pushed by activism. People like Flanders, she explained,

and issues. But the fact remains that these arti- promote sanity. They inform the Lcfi she asserted, while taking that

cles, or their particular emphases, wouldn't exist perspective into the Reagan Republican-Soccer Mom mainstream. "1

if their subjects had penises. think there is a value in that." Jackson added.

Bushwomen is powerful enough on race lo Flanders said that just educating would be enough, "\^hat we're
straighten Huey Freeman's hair. It catalogues vir- trying to do is to keep alive almost a language of dissent." she says. "I

tually every move Bush has made using race and don't think I'm advocating a solution." The days of worldwide Lib-
gender. It documents how, as women of color. Rice erate have faded like old tic-dye. becoming as nostalgic as the Afro

("[S]he had the advantage of not looking like an oilman") and Chao Pick. "1 think we're involved m a very. ver>. long term project. I don't

would use their personal histories as media shields against criticism, know if we'll see it. I'm not as sure." But she's happy about her goal:
subtly playing on the paternalism of the white men who run .Xmcrica's generating progressive, feminist media criticism that goes beyond the

o nearly all-white newsrooms. (Rice, a member of Birininghams lighl- conventional w isdom. if

o remembered well
skinned elite, the 16"" Street Baptist Church explo-
sion in 196.^ that killed four little Black girls. Another young Black girl Todd Steven Bwmughs. Ph.D. (tburroughs^ajmad.umd.cdul is an independent

who grew up there would be diametrically opposed to Rice as an adult.

n-.teanher/wriler hated in Hyallsville. Md He Li a primary author o/" Civil
Right.s Chronicle (Lci;acv). a
hi.^iory of the Civil Rights Movement, and a con-
Her name is Angela Davis.) Rice's long road to arch-conservatism is
inhiiiiir lo PultingThe Movemeni Hack Inio Civil Rights Teaching (Teaching
pa\ed with grants and access to political power and corporate boards, For Change Poverty <& Race Rcseanh .Action Council), a K-12 leaching guide
niakmg it a typical Bushwonian story. Flanders correctly wrote that of the Civil Rights Sfovemenl. He is wruing a biography ot Death Row writer
O Khtmia .4hu-Jamal
 (l/\j
Voting for the Ones
You Hate The Most Jeff Nail

Willie Johnson

Does your vote really matter? Is it true of obtaining a fair vote has gone relatively ma in deciding how his progressive organiza-

what they say, that you hurt democracy unmentioned: the way we count (attribute tion would tend to the 2004 election.

when you don't vote? Or is the reality that value to) each vote. "Who would Axis of Justice speak on
your vote is doomed to be lost in either a To understand the importance of this behalf [of]?,"' he asked. "I don't think that
computer glitch or simply purged by crooked issue, look no further than Ralph Nader's Kerry nor Bush really want universal health
politicians? Does all this "choose or lose" current presidential bid. Many Democrats care. It's a difficult thing in that sense."

hype really mean anything, or is it an unin- have released statements pleading Nader not The election of 2000 would not have
tentional subterfuge covering a much more to run, fearing Nader might receive enough come down to a few thousand potentially
serious problem? votes to escort George Bush into another four miscounted ballots in Florida, had the pref-
Since the 2000 election, voters have be- years at the helm. When very liberal publica- erence of third party voters been considered
come more informed about the voting process tions like The Nation (whose editorial board in determining whether Bush or Gore should
and mechanics, voicing a variety of concerns dedicated a flill page to imploring Nader not become president. Currently winners of the
over everything from antiquated voting ma- to run) find it in their best interest to discour- presidential election need not obtain 50 per-
chines and the loitering chads they sometimes age a progressive candidate from running, a cent of the popular vote. In fact, our nation's
produce to high-tech voting machines and flaw in the system is as evident as a porous, history of presidential elections is littered

their propensity to malfunction, and even that open sore. with elections "stolen" because of the poor
electronic votes might be susceptible to ma- Putting the issue into perspective, Serj voting method we currently employ. The 1912
nipulation. Despite all this talk, one particu- Tankian, who helped form an activism web election, for example, allowed more than 25
contentious (and fundamental!) aspect AxisofJustice.com, explained his dilem-
o
o
larly site, percent of the nation's votes to be devoid of

Ok
 value because four well-known candidates Believing that Ralph Nader is most suit- Reflecting the opinion of many progres-
ran for office: Woodrow Wilson (Democrat), ed to be president shouldn't deny someone sives, Tankian also believes that IRV would
Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive), William the right to express a preference between the solve his own voting dilemma. "When I vote,

H. Taft (Republican), and Eugene Debs (So- two top candidates, after his or her first choice I want to vote for someone I believe in. It's

cialist). Four decent candidates helped to has been eliminated from the race. One of different when your choice is to basically

significantly split the vote in four directions. the more popular alternatives is Instant Run- vote for Bush or vote against Bush."
As a result, Wilson was elected into office by off Voting (IRV). According to the Center for Another inclusive form is Borda's
winning little more than six million of more Voting and Democracy, a Maryland-based Method. Within this strategy, only one tally is

than 15 million votes. non-profit organization dedicated to fair elec- made, similar to the current Plurality Method.
Time and time again, those who vote tions, "Instant runoff voting is a winner-take- However, voters retain the right to rank each
for candidates outside of the two major par- all, constitutionally protected voting system candidate according to their preference (first,

ties witness their preferences concerning the that ensures a winning candidate will receive second, third, and fourth choice, according to
top two candidates being banished without an absolute majority of votes rather than a the number of choices). In the instance of a

consideration. Such black-and-white results simple plurality. IRV eliminates the need for four-person election, a voter would give four
should be expected from the current Plurality runoff elections by allowing voters to rank points to his or her first choice, three points
Method and its mentality of "one vote, one their candidates in order of preference." In to the second, two points to the third, and one
candidate." The consequence of limiting a such a system, each voter ranks as many can- point for the fourth, but rather than leading

voter's influence forces the debate over vot- didates as they would like to take office start- to multiple eliminations and runoffs, the can-
ing with one's ideology or voting the lesser ing with their first preference. The majority didate with the most points, rather than the

of two evils. Idealistic ballot casting (voting vote must be attained. If, after the first round most votes, wins.
for the candidate you really want) has the ten- of tallying votes, no candidate has earned the Approval Voting is another alternative
dency to help the politician you least favor majority then the candidate with the least to the Plurality Method. Approval Voting al-

in becoming elected. This alone should sig- favor among voters is eliminated and the lows voters to vote for as many candidates on
nal the need for reform to all voters — even process/count begins again. But rather than the ballot as they like while withholding their

conservatives. After all, the plurality method disregarding those votes cast in favor of the approv al for a candidate they do not support.
helped Bill Clinton roll into office in 1992. eliminated candidate, the second choice then The w inner of such an election is the candidate

Clinton was elected in spite of having becomes the candidate most favored (and so w ith the maximum number of votes. Accord-
been more than six million shy of 50 percent of on). Currently Australia, Ireland, and San ing to The Election Methods Education and
the popular vote. Though he beat out George Francisco use IRV. Research Group (EMERG). the advantage
Bush by more than five million votes, ap- Rob Richie, Executive Director for the Approval Voting has over other methods is

proximately 20 million Americans who voted Center for Voting and Democracy, believes that it is cost effective and needs little to no
for Independent Ross Perot had their opinion IRV will achieve fair representation in the new equipment. However. Loring said, it is far

completely ignored; they had no opportunity White House. more complicated than it appears. "Approval

to choose between Bush and Clinton. "We've put our money on IRV for a is simple to tally and appears simple to vot-
In 1996, more than eight million voters couple of reasons. One, there's a simple ers. But in fact it forces them to make strategic

who voted for someone other than a Demo- logic to it, which is people have preferences calculations about how many candidates to ap-

crat or Republican were refused the oppor- as long as their first choice has a chance to prove, so its results are a bit unpredictable and
tunity to chose who they preferred because win. Typically, they want that person to win," might be erratic." he said. "One of the prob-

they dared to base their vote on the candi- says Richie. At the same time, he says, if a lems with Approval Voting is that the voters

date whom they felt was most suitable for person's first choice fails to climb into the and vote counters cannot tell the difference

the job. Again, in 2000, the votes of nearly top two candidates, his or her second choice between a first choice and lower preferences.
four million Americans were excluded from would be counted. Although the benefits of implementing
the process of choosing a leader even though Robert Loring, owner and director of election reform via changing the mcthcxi of

the popular vote of both major candidates AccurateDemocracy.com, also believes IRV calculating votes is great, numerous obstacles
dilTcrcd by far less than one million votes. is the best method for selecting a President. ine\ itablv lie ahead. Election refomi is a slow

While nearly three million Americans be- "The election of a president, governor, or process, especially when many have never
lieved Ralph Nader to be the best person to mayor who can veto legislation needs to c\ en considered an alternative voting scheme.
shape up the Oval Office, the vast majority of be linked to the rules and time of election Additionally, citing what he calls "institutional

those bastardized voters may have expressed for the legislature." he said. "Otherwise the inertia." Richie explains that people are also

a preference for Al Gore over George Bush if two powers arc more likely to reach a dead- more likely to deal with the current system
they were given the opportunity. This would lock over ditfcrcnccs in policy and funding. rather than call for implementuig a new one.
have likely changed the outcome of the 2000 IRV then is the best rule for electing a chief Unfortunately, the result of stagnating reform

election significantly. c\cculi\e." will bo the continual robberv of an eclectic.

o
o

S The current Presidential voting system glares with all of its ineptitude into the faces

I of millions of American voters, many of whom are tired of having their opinions

I reduced to either-or voting - a banal segregation of ideas.

free political marketplace where an exchange
We Want Freedom:
of innovative ideas and radically diverse poli-
A Life in the Black Panther Party
tics exists. "The realities of the current system
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
is that people do divide votes," Richie said.
South End Press, 2004
"People suppress candidacies."
www.southendpress.org
The current Presidential voting sys-

tem glares with all of its ineptitude into the

Full of revelations and recollection, death
faces of millions of American voters, many
row journalist and political prisoner Mumia
of whom arc tired of having their opinions
Abu Jamal's sixth book We Want Freedom:
reduced to either-or voting - a banal segre-
A Life in the Black Panther Party is the
gation of ideas. With so many groups like
work of a scholar, of a revolutionary, of an
MTV's Choose or Lose program, Punkvoter.
idealist and a realist.
com, AxisoOustice.com, Rockthevote.org,
As the Philly chapter Minister of In-
and others investing both time and money in
formation at the age of 16, Abu-Jamal
bringing new faces to the polls this election,
shares his memories as snapshots of a
one must consider that a truly fecund politi-
movement. He was there not only as
cal landscape may not depend so greatly on
witness to history, but as creator and
encouraging the rest of America to cast their
shaper of it, whether it was the Revolu
vote. Rather, the prosperity of our democ-
tionary People's Constitutional Conven-
racy and fair representation in government
tion held in Philly in 1970, or Chicago
may have more to do with allowing voters
scant hours after police had murdered
greater preferential leeway and apportioning
Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.
greater value to the opinions of those who do
Abu-Jamal's book is not the tale
reverently cast their vote for President of the
of heroes and leaders, personalities
United States, if
and revolution superstars. It is the tale of rate the voices

a Central Florida based writer and the thousands of every day foot soldiers, of women, not just as an af-
Jeff Nail is

has contributed to publications such as Z-Maga- the black, energetic youth who flocked to terthought, but an integral part of the sto-

zine. Liberty, Impact Press, Toward Freedom, the party and who fed children, distributed ry. Perhaps even more profound than the
and Utne (web-watch). You can contact Jeff at blankets, sold papers, slept in collective chapter he dedicates to sexism within the
Sahlelide@ vahoo. com housing, and were prepared to (and did) Party, "A Woman's Party," Mumia incorpo-

give their lives for what they believed in. rates the voices of women throughout the

And
Radical Talk there is no sainthood
Abu-Jamal shares the Party's triumphs as
in this book. book.

Sharing the story of Naima Major, a

well as their mistakes, and makes a space Panther member in the Bay area, Mumia

Radio Now! where the reader can hear not only

litical voice others analyzing those mistakes
his po- writes, "Although her name may be
known by those who have read the popular
little

Farai Chideya on Working Assets Radio and offering strategies for any person who literature produced around the Black Pan-
Nate Clay on WLSam.conn is still struggling to change a system that no ther Party, her story is actually closer to

Desi Cortez on KNRCRadio.com more works today than it did in 1950. the norm of a woman's life in the Party.
Thorn Hartmann on cableradionetwork.com Looking back with four decades of Hard work. Hard study. Jailed lovers. Sur-

TheGuyJamesShow.com knowledge and reflection, as well as a vival. Striving. Times of promise. Times
Mike Newcomb on 1100KFNX.com whole lot more political experience, Abu- of terror. Resistance to male chauvinism.
Ed Schultz on BigEddieRadio.com Jamal talks about the east coast/west And hope."
TheTonyShow.com coast split between the Panthers, the Ide- This book is impressive in its own
PeterWerbe.com ological (and personal) conflicts in the or- right, but becomes mind boggling when
Lizz Winstead on Air America Radio ganization, while keeping in the front that you realize that Mumia wrote it in a cell by
And, many right-wing hosts the downfall of the Panthers was orches- hand with only the inside of a pen (as the
are open to dissent. trated by the FBI and their COINTELPRO pen casing "can be used as a weapon"),
And he having to write everything out twice for
www.radio-locator.com (counter intelligence program).
oughta know, since the FBI started their fear guards may come in and destroy his
Reclaim the airwaves. file on him at 16, and now have thousands creation. That he has so many first hand
of pages on this brotha (and no doubt account, most of them unpublished until

growing everyday). now, is powerful, as he could not go inter-

"The Party, like the proverbial cat, had view them, could not call them, could not
many lives. At some phases of its life, it drop them an email. That Mumia could do
ran with grace and purpose, at others, it what others, out here and free with mon-
limped, wounded by external and self-in- etary backing of big publishing companies
flicted injuries," he writes. could not, is the essence of the Panther
One of those self-inflicted injuries was spirit that lives on.

sexism, and Abu-Jamal attempts incorpo- -Walidah Imarisha

 Jessamyn West

Its none of your damn business

what our patrons are reading!

National Library Week was in April, and under the bipartisanly surprise, they caught on and
President Bush "celebrated" by making stump enacted PATRIOT Act can be seen in public libraries in
speeches in favor of the USA PATRIOT Act the FBI is not fighting ter- Vermont and elsewhere.
[USAPA]. rorism; instead, agents are They were deciding which circulation

USAPA has been with us since Octo- checking how far you've got- records to keep and w hich to purge under the
ber 2001, when an alarmed Congress hastily ten in the latest Tom assumption that requests for records are most
passed the 300+ page bill giving the US Gov- Clancy novel." invasive when there are records to gi\e up.

ernment unprecendcnted leeway in the War Librarians got organized. The patron has returned the book, yes? Then
on Terror. Attorney General John Ashcroft Carla Hayden, ALA's President, issued remove the fact that she ever checked it out.

gave Congress one week to pass the bill with- a strongly worded public statement telling This is happening in small libraries like mine
out making any changes, saying Congress Ashcroft to give us data instead of derogatory as well as big libraries like the University of

would be at fault if further terrorist acts oc- remarks. She wrote: "Rather than ask the na- Wisconsin at Green Bay and Boulder Public
curred while they were debating it. tion's librarians and Americans nationw ide to Library.

Like many of the other US-declared not- 'just trust him,' Ashcroft could allay concerns They were working with their elected

strictly-wars of the last five decades — most by releasing aggregate information about the representatives like Bemie Sanders of Ver-

notably the War on Drugs — the War on Ter- numberof libraries visited using the expanded mont to introduce and try to pass legisla-
ror pits US might and righteousness against a powers created by the USA PATRIOT Act." tion that exempts libraries from the invasive
shifting unknowable opponent in a battle that She got Ashcroft on the telephone and snooping of the feds: the Freedom to Read
is more of an unending skirmish than a true got him to agree to declassify a Justice De- Protection Act. Trina Magi, a UVM librarian,

tactical engagement. partment report on USAPA's Section 2 5 and 1 has become something of a celebrity for her

The PATRIOT Act increased the sur\eil- provide information about law enforcement's work with Sanders, traveling around the state

lancc and investigative powers of US law en- requests for library records. The Department holding town meetings to let citizens know
forcement without including the normal checks of Justice released a memo the next day quan- about this new affront to liberty.

and balances that would prevent these powers tifying the number of such visits as "zero." They were working with their regional

from being abused. The number given in the DoJ memo library association and in their towns to pass

Librarians were particularly concerned directly contradicts an earlier study done by local legislation against the PATRIOT Act.
about the implications of Section 215, which Leigh Esterbrook at the University of Illinois' According to the Bill of Rights Defense Com-

allows for relaxed standards in obtaining Library Research Center w hich revealed many mittee, four states and 326 cities and towns
search warrants, requesting information, and libraries that had received visits and requests have passed resolutions against the PATRIOT
inspecting records from institutions such as for records from local law enforcement and Act to date.
libraries and bookstores. There is an associ- the FBI. Fifteen libraries stated "there were .'Vnd they were writing articles like this

ated gag order, meaning that when the feds questions they did not answer because they one. I'm a public librarian in Central Ver-

come knocking at your library's door, it's il- were legally prohibited from doing so." mont. I have no special superpowers other
legal to tell anyone that they've been there. The study also touched on what librar- than laser-beam righteousness when political

Section 215 "sunsets" the last day of 2005. ians were doing besides just waiting for the players exploit fear for a power grab. If my
Bush and Ashcroft have been lobbying hard knock on the door: librarian colleagues and I can rise up from
to see that it doesn't. They were instructing their staff and our reference desks and work against the PA-
Librarians were not amused. their board about current laws and policies TRIOT Act, then so can you. Join us. "A-

The taxpayer-funded USAPA-apologist regarding patron privacy — laws that are su-

website LifcandLiberty.gov raises the alarm- perceded by Section 215 of USAPA. update: As this article w as going to press, the

ist claim that the USA PATRIOT Act is neces- They were making signs to notify their Sanders et. al. Freedom to Read .Amendment
sary to avoid the use of libraries by "terrorists patrons that their privacy was not as secure — which would have prohibited using federal
and spies" in ways that threaten national se- at it once was. While saying that the FBI had funds for Section 215 surveillance on librar-

curity. It addresses the concerns of librarians arrived was illegal, saying that the FBI hadn't ies or bookstores - failed in a 2 1 to 2 1 \ ote.

and the ACLU in a section titled "Dispelling arrived *yet* is still legal. As an elected after the roll call voting time was extended.
the Myths." member of the American Library Associa- Nine Republicans who had voted "yes" on
Librarians got annoyed. tion's governing Council, 1 was particularly the amendment w ere strongamied into chang-
John Ashcroft gave a speech in late 2003 peeved by the gag order and the snotty talk ing their voles in twenty minutes, "if

in which he actively ridiculed librarians' re- about librarians. I half-seriously created a

sistance to the USA PATRIOT Act stating: series of "technically legal" signs for librar- Jessamyn M'csi nins ihc activist librarian wchlog

"According to these breathless reports and ies that would let patrons know that their lihrarian.net an J is a public librarian in Ivrmont.

baseless hysteria, some have convmced the privacy rights were being eroded while still

American LibrarN' Association (ALA) that being w ithin the letter of the law. Much to my
 lh(B Em
Ian MacKaye &
Amy Farina

Return to Their
Roots With
New Project.

Arj Paul pnoi Mike Medow

Ann Arbor performance, MacKaye

One of the most essential elements of punk rock and the scene that the insisted that the audience chant

surrounds the genre is the concept of "Do it Yourself" or "DIY." during the breakdown of their song "Mount Pleasant Isn't," which is

No promoters, no entourages, just a band carrying their instruments, about a riot involving police brutality in D.C. ten years ago. When the

playing in a warehouse, a basement, anywhere were the players and audience chanted, "The Police will not be excused, the police will not
their friends can plug in an amp and rock out. behave," MacKaye smiled when he saw that the Ann Arbor crowd was
No one knows more about this philosophy than Ian MacKaye. He said, "Essentially, all ever
enthusiastic to play a role in the show. 1

Emerging out the underground hardcore scene in Washington D.C. wanted to do was be in room singing with a group of people."
that bred bands like Bad Brains, MacKaye, while still in his late teens, Lauren Heidkc. attending The Evens' show in Ann Arbor, clas-

became the front man for Minor Threat in the early 80s. Minor Threat sified their work as "Politically-electronic-haunting-folk." It is most
spawned a huge following, and upon its breakup, MacKaye became of these things. Electronically, MacKaye uses only one guitar and no
the singer for Fugazi, a socially conscious hardcore band with a suc- public address system, just a set of amps. But the ominous nature of

cessful career. And since the days of Minor Threat until now. he has The Evens is a departure from the adrenaline pumping sounds of Mi-
maintained Dischord, an independent record label. nor Threat and Fugazi, and perhaps for the better, even if his earlier

But in the days of the Van's Warped Tour and punk bands signing projects were as socially conscious as The Evens.
on to corporate labels, it is feared that the lack of the DIY lifestyle in the Commenting on their song "You Won't Feel a Thing" he says it is

scene asserts that punk is, indeed, dead. In the 1

0'* anniversary edition about how the U.S. government is bombarding us with warnings about
of Punk Planet magazine, a letter to the editor lamented that the DIY terrorist attacks, which in turn makes us numb to the real violence that

aesthetic was nowhere to be found, even amongst small local artists. goes in America. This ultimately gave MacKaye a chance to speak his

But MacKaye is bringing it back in a way few of his followers mind about politics, saying that young kids should vote. "I apologize
would expect. His new project. The Evens, which has him on guitar if there are any Republicans here," but urged those over 1 8 to register

and vocals and his partner Amy Farina on drums and vocal, is a bare- and vote for the candidate who is less likely to take the nation to war.

bones duo embarking on a radical, yet simple endeavor. With no plan He name a candidate specifically.
didn't

for a record, playing in art galleries and record stores instead of bars, Some punk icons like the Dead Kennedy's Jello Biafra are tour-
and promoting themselves only by word of mouth. The Evens are tour- ing to get punks and progressives to vote in November 2004. Even Fat
ing and sharing their music in a participatory fashion where the music Wreck Chords has gone high-tech and created PunkVoter.com and has
is the only thing on stage, and fans are watching their project evolve, put out a Rock Against Bush CD featuring 26 bands, including Social

instead of seeing a polished result fresh from the recording studio. Distortion and Anti-Flag.

They played for attendees at the Allied Media conference in Bowl- MacKaye 's more grassroots approach could also add to the gen-
ing Green, at a teen center in Ann Arbor, at a natural history museum in eral effort to get kids to vote. Not only is the forum for political dis-

Ithaca, and at other more obscure venues. "1 have to say there is a tradi- cussion that The Evens create more ftmdamental than the organizing
tional approach," MacKaye said, "I want something that puts music in for things like PunkVoter.com, but The Evens music, which is more
the focus." Venues such as bars and clubs that are smoky where people akin to the likes of Billy Bragg than Jello Biafra, inspires more political

are drinking provide too many distractions, he insists. What he wants consciousness. There is simply more emotion created when The Evens
to do, and what The Evens are doing, is playing for a group of people lead a chant about a riot in D.C. than Mike Ness screaming about how
in a room, where they quietly take in his music, while MacKaye and much Bush is an idiot.

Farina play and have a chance to speak with their fans after and during The Evens have no immediate plans to record an album; MacK-
the show. "We're trying to fuck with the form," he said. aye hopes that and album will occur naturally when the project is ready
Mike Medow, who helped organize The Evens' performance in to depart from the conventional practices of the recording industry. He
Ann Arbor in June, said that MacKaye was actually "pissed that we speculates that if and when an album is released, "it will probably be
had two openers." MacKaye adjusted to the environment, however. on Dischord." tV
He sat cross legged and attentively watched Eliza Beatrix Godfry play
an acoustic set while drinking a cup of water, nodding when she hit a Ari Paulis a columnist for Citizen Culture, ami has written for f/ie Ann Arbor
News. High Times, Baghdad Bulletin. w;c^ Creative Loafing.
note or busted a lyric he appeared to like.

"It's an incredible experience," he said, "it makes me think about

o
early punk rock, just a band in a room playing for their friends." At
Ok
Ul
 killed in the war in Iraq as of July 11, 2004. More than ten
These are the names of more than 1,000 coalition soldiers that .^e been !

While the U.S. Government does not keep records of civilian deaths
were killed so recently that the names haven't been released yet.
estimates as many as 13,000 civilians have been killed since the invasion began. For
abroad the web site www.iraqbodycount.com
and civilian casualties, and the Iraq occupation, please visit http://www.clamormagazine.org/iraq
more information on coalition

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R VaMezJr Ruben
McKinley. Robert Perez Jr. Willredo Skmef. Jetirer
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Andrade. Michael Buryi. Jesse R J
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