UNDERNEWS Sam Smith June 28, 1999 The Progressive Review 1739 Conn. Ave. NW Washington DC 20009 202-232-5544 Fax: 202-234-6222 E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] INDEX: http://prorev.com RECENT UNDERNEWS: http://prorev.com/indexa.htm TODAY'S HEADLINE NEWS: http://prorev.com/altnews.htm ALTERNATIVE NEWS SOURCES: http://prorev.com/hot.htm THE REVIEW FORUM: http://prorev.com/letters.com DONATIONS AND ORDER FORM: http://prorev.com/order3.htm For a free subscription to our e-mail updates send your postal address with zip code. To unsubscribe, reply with the word 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. Copyright 1999, The Progressive Review. Matter not independently copyrighted may be reprinted provided TPR is paid your normal reprint fees, if any, and is given proper credit. While there is no subscription fee for UNDERNEWS, donations are welcome and can be made by check to the address above or by credit card at http://prorev.com/order3.htm Because of its quantity, TPR's mail is not always answered, but it is always read. The editor is cheered or remorseful as appropriate and posts some of the more interesting messages at http://prorev.com/letters.htm ==================================================== THEOLOGY IN WASHINGTON Added Cmdr. David B. McDonald, the supervisor of police Y2K planning, "We want to reassure the residents and visitors to the District that even if Armageddon comes, we will assist and protect the public." -- Washington Post PARENTING IN WASHINGTON FROM AN AD IN A WASHINGTON WEEKLY: We are looking for a babysitter/housekeeper for our busy family. We are working parents with six year old twins. The twins are a boy and a girl and will be in first grade in the fall .... We live in a large house in the Palisades .... which is close to pool, library, parks, shopping and restaurants. The job requires that the babysitter/housekeeper arrive at 7:30 to get the kids out of bed, make their beds and breakfast, help them get dressed and drive them to school by 8:45 am. Between 8:45 and 3:00 (or later if the kids have after school activities) .... the babysitter/housekeeper must be available to take care of kids if they are sick, to accept deliveries and let repair people into the house and do laundry and light housekeeping .... At 3:00 pm the children must be picked up from school and taken to after school activities and any other appointments such as allergy shots. The children should be fed dinner, bathed and helped with putting on their pajamas. At 7:00 pm, one or both parents return home. . . OF SLAVERY AND STARDOM When the NBA's $8-million-a-year Larry Johnson referred to himself and his co-payers as "rebellious slaves," he took a public whipping. Johnson later refused to back down at a news conference called by the NBA and the Knicks. Here's some of what he said as reported in the Philadelphia Daily News: JOHNSON: Let me ask you a question. Did I lie? Oh, OK. I'm telling the truth. Y'all know it. REPORTER: This is what people see. People see you have an $84 million contract. JOHNSON: $84 million contract. REPORTER: You work for a company, a multibillion-dollar company. JOHNSON: Work for a company. Keep going. We've got to stay after practice to continue this. REPORTER: And you could go teach in high school for work. JOHNSON: Teach in high school, keep going, keep going. REPORTER: Yet you bring up the word 'slave'. JOHNSON: Bring up the word 'slave.' Keep talking. REPORTER: And people say, 'What the hell is he talking about?' JOHNSON: What the hell is he talking about? Reporter: What the hell are you talking about? JOHNSON [to Knicks media relations coordinator Lori Hamamoto]: Hold on. Y'all want me to talk to the media. I'm going to talk to the media .... Listen, no man can rise above .. the conditions of his people. Understand that? I am privileged and honored by the situation I am in. No question, I have an excellent opportunity. And this is a beautiful country, the best country, but it's not holy. It's not righteous. We talked about what's going on in Kosovo. We talk about Algiers. Well, what's going on here? Here's the NBA, full of blacks, great opportunities, they made beautiful strides. But what's the sense of that .. when I go back to my neighborhood, I see the same thing. Huh? I'm the only one who came out of my neighborhood. Everybody I knew is either dead, on drugs, in jail or selling drugs. So am I supposed to be honored and happy just because of my success? .... Am I supposed to be honored, happy and whatever just because of my success or that brother's success? Well, yes, I am. Still, I can't deny the fact of what has happened to (African-Americans) over years and years and years, and we're still at the bottom of the totem pole. I can't turn my head to that. REPORTER: And that's your point? JOHNSON: That's my point. Any more questions? SOUNDS OF PACIFICA -- According to Pacifica spokeswoman Elan Fabbri last year the Corporation for Public Broadcasting told Pacifica it could lose federal funding if it continued to allow local board members to hold national seats. -- HELEN CALDICOTT ON KPFA: I have to say that I don't know what the hell is going on with Pacifica. I don't know what the Corporation for Public Broadcasting thinks they're doing. But the show is run by a man who runs . ran Voice of America, which was sort of a CIA deal. .... How dare the Cooperation for Public Broadcasting try and steal these radio waves from the people? These were set out for the people, for the truth to be spoken .... Now, who's behind it? A- that they want these radio waves because of the money, because they're worth a hell of a lot of money. Or B - they want to stop the truth coming out. Or it's a combination of both. If so, either way, this is fascism. To come into your radio station and see a guard at the door, to know you do not have a key any more, you have to have your courage to get in. This is fascism! .... It's the last..[unclear]..soul of America, this place. It really is one of the few places you can hear the truth now. -- Copies of 2000 letters and e-mails of protest were turned over to the Berkeley Police department supposedly as part of the inquiry into the identity of the person who fired shots into Pacifica's National Office last March. In a statement the foundation justified its action by seeming to lump all critics of Pacifica with the lone shooter: "The situation whereby Pacifica Foundation is currently cooperating with the Berkeley Police Department in their investigation of the March 31st shooting at the Foundation's national office in Berkeley is one predicated upon direct and targeted acts of violence against the foundation, and ongoing threatening communications received by board and staff members. Someone acted in a destructive and violent manner by shooting a gun three times at the Foundation's offices and KPFA, creating significant property damage which could have seriously injured or killed anyone who may have been in the building. .... For the safety and well-being of our staff, we must provide copies of threatening email, letters and verbal threats to the Police Department for their ongoing investigation. .... The communications given to the Police Department are not part of journalism, nor reporting. They are part of an organized campaign being waged against Pacifica Foundation and it is our hope that the Berkeley Police Department and their psychologists will be able to determine who perpetrated this act of violence against the Foundation, and continues to threaten the physical well-being of Pacifica staff, volunteers and board members. People who engage in violent acts are a danger to society, and completely contrary to the mission of Pacifica, which espouses peace and tolerance amongst all people." -- Pacifica has hired plain- clothes armed guards to "defend" KPFA round the clock. They refused to answer any questions, including their names. A memo from Pacifica's Executive Director, Lynn Chadwick, states that no more than one guest will be admitted and must escorted by a staff person. On Sunday morning June 27, two members of the vocal ensemble SoVoS� had been scheduled for a joint interview and performance of a duet. SoVoSo member Melanie Rath, having arrived first, was in the studio when Joey Blake, fellow member of the ensemble and a long-time collaborator with Bobby McFerrin, was refused entry. Black said, "I've never been to a station where I couldn't even get access into a reception area. Since when do you need armed guards at a radio station?" -- Protests have continued, reported the SF Examiner, with vocal calls for Chadwick's ouster, but Berkeley police have made no further arrests. After Berkeley Police Chief Dash Butler received a call from friend and U.S. Department of Justice official Joe Brann. Butler said he was surprised and was not sure who at the Department of Justice had asked him to make it. "I laughed and said, 'Wow. What is this... why has this gotten to be such a big deal?" LOOSE CHANGE If the minimum wage increased as fast as CEO pay since 1960 it would be over $57 an hour today. -- United for a Fair Economy CHECKING IN OUR ALLIES AGENCE FRANCE PRESS Chinese police have begun detaining artists and writers and accusing them of endangering state security .... Beijing painter Yan Zhengxue and two Shanghai writers, Jiang Tanwen and Li Xunrong were detained on June 19 in Hangzhou and remain in custody under suspicion of "endangering state security," the Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said. "This shows that the central authorities have enlarged the scope of their oppression of dissidents to intellectuals," the center said. HOW TO HELP YOUR COUNTRY USA WEEKEND: As a White House appointee, [AIDS czar Sandy Thurman] has reconciled the president's sex scandal with her job to preach safe sex. She insists lives are being saved as a result of Clinton's behavior. "It has forced us to open the door to conversations with our children about sexuality and responsible behavior. Children are driving the dialogue. They're asking questions we have to answer." FIRST FUGITIVE Dick Morris reports that on one occasion W.J. Clinton got so mad that he threw Morris to the ground and was about to slug him when Hillary Clinton intervened. THATCHER NERVOUS ABOUT TRAVELING Margaret Thatcher, reports the London Observer, has been making discreet inquiries to the interior ministry to find out the likelihood of her being incarcerated or arrested while traveling abroad. In the wake of legal moves against her old friend Augusto Pinochet, Thatcher is worried about being taken for a war criminal because of her actions in Northern Ireland and the Falklands. LAND OF THE FREE WASHINGTON POST: As part of a new and aggressive effort to track down parents who owe child support, the federal government has created a vast computerized data-monitoring system that includes all individuals with new jobs and the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and wages of nearly every working adult in the United States. .... Never before have federal officials had the legal authority and technological ability to locate so many Americans found to be delinquent parents or such potential to keep tabs on Americans accused of nothing. ASSOCIATED PRESS: Most Connecticut residents believe that the state court system is fair to racial and ethnic minorities, but many have their doubts about lawyers and litigation, according to a new [University of Connecticut] poll .... As for the jury system, those questioned were generally supportive. Nearly 80 percent said it is important that criminal and civil cases be decided by a jury .... However, there was majority support for the concept of jury nullification, in which jurors set aside the law out of sympathy for the defendant. Thirty-four percent of respondents agreed strongly that they could set aside a judge's instructions if they believed it would avert an injustice, 27 percent agreed somewhat. Files obtained in a public interest law suit contain evidence that the FDA declared genetically engineered foods to be safe in the face of disagreement from its own experts. According to the litigants, internal reports and memoranda disclose that the FDA allowed genetically engineered foods to be marketed without testing on the premise that they are generally recognized as safe by qualified experts. The FDA stated, "The agency is not aware of any information showing that foods derived by these new methods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way...." despite agency experts advising that genetically engineered foods should be subjected to special testing. ALLIANCE FOR BIO-INTEGRITY http://www.bio-integrity.org THE MEDIACRATS When former Republican Representative Susan Molinari was given a CBS anchor slot, the Washington media stood up for their trade. Said Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, "Well, it really just obliterates the line that used to separate the two professions. And it's kind of an insult to journalism .... because, you know, according to this star-maker mentality, what matters is not reporting experience .... or experience or fairness, but celebrity, and to take a partisan member of Congress and just magically transform him, or her, with the wave of a wand, into an anchor who can sit behind that CBS logo with a statue of Dan Rather, just is not what I consider journalism." Here's what National Public Radio's Mara Liasson said: "Well, I think it's disturbing. I mean, she's is not going to be a commentator or a part of a show where she's clearly identified with her partisan point of view -- she's going to be an anchor. And I think it means, it sends the message that there's no such thing as journalism anymore. It's all just about celebrity-hood and name recognition and I think it's, I think it's disturbing." Nina Totenberg of NPR and ABC: "This really makes me want to puke." A New York Times editorial: "The GOP News from CBS." We mention this because George Stephanopoulos recently showed up as a news anchor an co-host of Good Morning America with barely a whisper of professional outrage. Times change. ECO NOTES ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE: The U.S. branch of the World Wildlife Fund, an international organization, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development based in Winnipeg, Manitoba today said there is growing abuse of the NAFTA investment rules. Last week, a Canadian chemical manufacturer initiated proceedings under NAFTA to attack a recent clean water initiative by the State of California .... In their new report, the World Wildlife Fund and IISD object to the way that NAFTA proceedings, conducted under the so-called "investor-state" dispute mechanism, are modeled after private commercial arbitration. They take place behind closed doors, in front of a panel of arbitrators chosen by the parties to the dispute. "A procedure designed to settle private commercial disputes is being used to rewrite important public policies behind closed doors," said Schorr. "This is precisely the kind of abuse of trade and investment agreements that environmentalists have come to fear." ENS NAFTA STORY http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun99/1999L-06-24-04.html THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW 1739 Connecticut Ave NW Washington DC 20009 202-232-5544 202-234-6222 Fax [EMAIL PROTECTED] Editor: Sam Smith INDEX : http://prorev.com RECENT UNDERNEWS : http://prorev.com/indexa.htm TODAY'S HEADLINES: http://prorev.com/altnews.htm ALTERNATIVE NEWS SOURCES: http://prorev.com/hot.htm THE REVIEW FORUM: http://prorev.com/letters.htm For a free trial subscription to both our bi-monthly hard copy edition and our regular e-mail updates send e-mail and terrestrial address to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To order "Sam Smith's Great American Political Repair Manual" (WW Norton) direct from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0393316270/progressiverevieA/
