News of the Month

October 12, 2002

Oh, we all know what’s been happening – more of the same old s… stuff.

· Even though California (and several other states) have passed laws allowing medical patients whose conditions could be improved by the therapeutic use of marijuana, the Feds have raided several California clinics, arresting all those present. (George W, by the way, is on record as favoring states’ rights on this issue.) Doctors, nurses, critically ill patients – all rounded up and hauled off to the hoosegow for the crime of using a doctor-prescribed medication to alleviate the symptoms of cancer and other diseases.

· The Man Who Would Be Emperor, our own King Georgie II, has his sabers out and rattling. His speech early in the week listed a whole host of things Saddam Hussein might do against this country – but nothing about what he has done. Now, why could that be, do you suppose? Is it by wild chance that he hasn’t done anything against this country? (Well, except orate, of course – but since when is that an offense worth an offensive strike to counter? <pause; “hear” someone> What’s that you said? Cuba? <to the camera> Never mind.) Never mind that even the CIA is saying that they can find no connection at all between Iraq & Saddam Hussein and the terrorist actions against the United States. Never mind that the bulk of the money supporting Al-Quaeda is coming from Saudi Arabia, an old and dear friend. Never mind that … oh, you get the picture.

· And so now King Georgie has his way. He gets his war. The House of Representatives voted on Thursday in favor of this war, 296-133, and the Senate voted in favor of it yesterday, 77-23. Fascinating, isn’t it, how the senior military men recommend caution and restraint, but the “chicken hawks” are all too ready to send other people off to kill and die for their benefit? You do know who the chicken hawks are, don’t you? They’re the ones who are all hawkish now to let other people go fight and die in this new war, but who were too chicken to participate in the US military when it was their turn?

Let’s see – King George himself is a chicken hawk. During Vietnam he joined the Texas Air National Guard, thanks to his daddy’s money and power, and then basically just stopped showing up for drills after a couple of months. What would happen if you or I did that? Crown Prince Dick is a chicken hawk, too. He got off because he “had other priorities.” Who else? Oh, John Ashcroft, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Ken Starr. (He had a good excuse, though; he had the “heartbreak of psoriasis.”) Also Jeb Bush (no surprise there!), Newt Gingrich, Phil Gramm, and Dan Quayle.

· From The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods, we learn that:

Since President George W. Bush took office, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been operating without a Commissioner. Therefore, the top official of the FDA is the Deputy Commissioner, Lester M. Crawford, who took office in February 2002. In an unusual and disturbing move, Deputy Commissioner Crawford sent a letter to the Governor of Oregon, John Kitzhaber, objecting to Measure 27, a citizens’ initiative to be voted on at the November elections. Measure 27 would require genetically engineered foods to be labeled in Oregon. Measure 27 will be voted on in the upcoming election.

Monsanto and its coalition are reported to be spending $6 million dollars in an attempt to defeat Measure 27. They are using every resource available. We can assume that Deputy Commissioner Crawford was encouraged to send the letter to Governor Kitzhaber by key opponents of Measure 27. It is unlikely that he thought of the idea of sending this letter to Governor Kitzhaber on his own. (Monsanto is the agro-chem giant that successfully sued Percy Schmeiser of Saskatchewan for allowing his fields to be invaded and polluted by Monsanto-owned pollen. Think about that.)

· From Reuters, just this morning, we learnd that “former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday by a committee whose head called the decision a deliberate slap in the face for the current U.S. government over its policy on Iraq. The chairman of the committee, Gunnar Berge, used the prize to make a scathing attack on President Bush’s campaign to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

“U.S. lawmakers gave Bush solid bipartisan support on Thursday for a strike on Iraq. Carter said last month it would be a “tragic mistake” for the United States to attack Iraq without U.N. backing. “With the position Carter has taken...(the award) can and must also be seen as criticism of the line the current U.S. administration has taken on Iraq,” Berge, a former Labour cabinet minister, told reporters after announcing the award.

“Asked if it was a "kick in the leg" at Washington, Berge said: ‘Yes, the answer is an unconditional yes.’ A ‘kick in the leg’ is a Norwegian phrase meaning ‘a slap in the face’.”

In the upcoming news, next weekend Naom Chomosky, world-famous activist and Professor of Semantics at MIT, will be in Austin to speak at a conference sponsored by the Texas Fair Trade Coalition. He will also be giving a public talk at noon on Sunday at the LBJ auditorium.

Finally, let me leave you with something I came across as I was researching this part of the show, from Mahatma Mohandas Ghandi:

“There are seven sins in the world:
Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Knowledge without character
Commerce without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice
Politics without principle.”

Sound familiar? Can you think of even one thing on this list that our leaders aren’t trumpeting as virtues these days?