-Caveat Lector- UNDERNEWS Oct 2, 2000 THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW Washington's most unofficial source Editor: Sam Smith 1312 18th St. NW #502, Washington DC 20036 202-835-0770 Fax: 835-0779 E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] WEB SITE: http://prorev.com ----------------------------------------------------- WORD The Bible's the greatest book ever written. But I sure don't need anybody I can buy for six bits and a chew of tobacco to explain it to me. -- Huey Long A QUESTION THAT WON'T BE ASKED DURING THE DEBATES Why should you be allowed to run for the presidency while thousands of other people are languishing in prison for having used drugs just the way you did? PUPPET POLITICS After the current unpleasantness, a.k.a. the election, is over, those interested in recovering sense, reality, and decency in this country need to spend some time considering a particularly sleazy product of postmodern politics, namely the wanton kidnapping of progressive rhetoric without a scintilla of the substance that the rhetoric is meant to describe. Fred Harris, in his short-lived populist presidential campaign back in the 1970s complained that he was feeling like a ventriloquist. He would say something and the next thing he knew, the mainstream candidates were repeating it. The most dramatic use of puppet politics came in the 1990s when a group of right-wing Democrats formed an organization absurdly called the "Progressive Policy Institute" that helped boost a corrupt conservative into the White House on the wings of liberal-sounding words. Now the problem has arisen again. Albert Gore is playing Charlie McCarthy to Ralph Nader's Edgar Bergen and the mass media, with its usual perceptive abilities, can't figure out which one is the puppet. Under the rules of postmodernism, words are just part of the ambiance, like turning on a soft rock CD or lighting a candle. And under the rules of postmodern agitprop, the first refuge of the scoundrel is to use words that diminish the opposition by stealing its vocabulary. After all, if we're both using the same words, there isn't that much to fight about, is there? Gore is not the only one about this seedy business. Witness this from the Washington Post: "The anarchist and the financier, of course, remain far apart on ways and means. But both reflected the widely shared recognition that there's something missing in the headlong rush into a world without borders . . . Finance ministers, central bankers and international financiers no longer celebrate the triumphs of free markets without acknowledging, in the same breath, the need for new global rules and regulations to tame the excesses of global capitalism. In official speeches and position papers, equity has assumed an equal place alongside economic growth and stability. "Our challenge is to make globalization an instrument of opportunity and inclusion, not fear and insecurity," World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn said here last week. . . . Not surprisingly, it fell to Czech President Vaclav Havel last week to give poetic expression to these anxieties. 'We often hear about the need to restructure the economies of developing countries and about the wealthier nations being duty-bound to help them accomplish this," said the playwright who led his own country from communism to capitalism. "But I deem it even more important that we should begin to think about another restructuring, a restructuring of the entire system of values which forms the basis of our civilization today.'" And just what have the financiers done aside from adding a exculpatory parenthesis to their message of greed? Certainly Havel need look no further "for a restructuring of the entire system of values," then his own prisons where anti-globalization protesters are presently being abused and tortured. The words of Gore, Wolfensohn, and Havel add rank hypocrisy to their other sins. ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER WAR WASHINGTON POST: Thailand and the United States are working on an agreement that will pave the way for the two countries to cooperate on the suppression of drug trafficking along the Thai-Burmese border, a senior US commander said. Admiral Dennis Blair, commander-in-chief of the US Pacific Command, told reporters yesterday that both countries are working out details of this far-reaching cooperation, which will include training, the provision of equipment and the sharing of intelligence. It will be the first time that the Kingdom and the US army will work together to combat the drug scourge, which both countries view as a security threat. http://washingtonpost.com SPORNOGRAPHY NBC's coverage of the Olympics mercifully ended with Jimmy Roberts admitting, "I'm all out of poignancy." WAY WITH WORDS One of the most interesting aspects of this otherwise soporific campaign is that both the leading candidates have trouble saying the right words, the main difference between that Bush's gaffes seem to be accidental while Gore's are those of intent. Bush is verbally dyslectic, Gore ethically so. There has been a belated attempt by some liberal media to provide what might be called a controlling legal authority in defense of Gore's words. The problem, of course, is that most of us don't listen to debates with our lawyers and thus are left to struggle along with mere impressions. And while one can, for example, come up with a technical argument that Gore didn't actually say he discovered Love Canal, if the words had been written rather than spoken, any decent editor would have made him revise them. A good rule of thumb is this: if you need a lawyer or a journalist to explain what you said, you didn't say it right. It's not a new problem. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan says that Gore "received a memo from an aide in 1988 warning him that his tendency to 'exaggerate' was a threat to his candidacy." It should also be recalled that it was not those awful right-wingers but Bill Bradley who most dramatically drew attention to Gore's sneaky way with words. For example, in Iowa he said of the Gore campaign, "They believe the politics of distortion and manipulating the truth for political gain is the way to succeed. That's the Washington way and I reject it." When asked about his use of words by Larry King, Gore did not deny it but said, "I think that in a campaign, you know, if you get a fact wrong, all of a sudden you're accused of, you know, committing some horrible offense . . . Sometimes you're just talking, you're just thinking, you're talking about the - you know, being yourself and everything is so closely scrutinized and analyzed." So even Gore knows there's a problem. And we've got one, too. Whoever wins, we lose. At least with Bush, we'll have a better idea of what he meant to say. DSL: DUBYA AS A SECOND LANGUAGE [Cont'd] Vocabulary 200,000 = 2,000 foreign-handed policy = even-handed foreign policy Grammar Bush has "ruled out no new Social Security taxes." Important ideas "More and more of our imports come from overseas." THE MEDIACRACY NY TIMES: Hollywood is in a panic mode. For the first time, unions are confronting networks and studios about how writers and actors should be paid when films and television shows are shown on the Internet and on the growing number of cable outlets. And they are threatening strikes that union officials and television and film executives all expect to define the issues that will shape the entertainment industry's labor relations for decades. The impact of the strike threats is already rippling across the entertainment business and is affecting what viewers around the world will see in movies and television next year. Although the job actions are not scheduled until mid-2001, studios and networks are consumed with making films and television series in advance of the possible walkouts. Television networks are already planning more reality and news shows, which would not be affected by an actors' strike. In the rush to make movies now, executives acknowledge that some scripts that are not fully ready have been given the green light in order to speed films into production before a strike. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/01/business/01STUD.html UPSIDE TODAY: $22.1 million: amount high-tech firms gave to political parties and campaigns in the first 18 months of the 2000 election cycle, an increase of 135% from the 1998 campaign cycle. http://www.upside.com/texis/mvm/ebiz/story?id=39cbbd050 IDEA MILL ART-O-MATIC: In what may be the largest gathering of artists' works in the country, the capital city is enjoying the second edition of Art-o-Matic through the end of this month. More than 650 artists are showing their work in a 160,000 square foot former hardware emporium. The turnout of artists, who pay only $35 plus 15 hours of their volunteer time, is double that of last year, when some 20,000 people visited the show. Also included: a music stage with 78 bands scheduled and live dramatic performances. http://www.artomatic.org/ NY TIMES: In the face of doubts and many difficulties, the revival of indigenous languages is a growing movement among Native American groups from Hawaii to Cape Cod, and it is fast becoming a new sub-specialty in the field of linguistics as well . . . There are 211 indigenous languages still extant throughout the United States and Canada, but only 20 of them are spoken by the youngest generation of their communities. The rest may well face oblivion in the next 50 years. Only one, Navajo, has more than 100,000 speakers, and it, too, is declining among the young. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/30/arts/30REVI.html LOOSE CHANGE NY TIMES: The nation's savings rate fell in August to the lowest rate in at least four decades as spending grew faster than incomes for the second consecutive month, the Commerce Department said today . . . With spending outpacing income, the amount of after-tax income left over after spending fell to a negative 0.4 percent, the lowest rate since the Commerce Department began tracking such data in 1959. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/30/business/30ECON.html DRUGGING KIDS A subcommittee of the House education committee held an important hearing on the legalized drugging of school children. There are now some five million children taking drugs thanks to diagnoses of syndromes such as ADD and ADHD. There has even been a recent three-fold increase in the number of 2-4 year olds placed on Ritalin. While there is little dispute that such drugs help some children, there is also growing evidence that their use has gotten out of hand. Here are some of the questions being raised: -- Are ADD and ADHD diseases or merely socially unapproved behavior? One witness, for example, argued that the diagnostic signs -- including inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness -- are just the basic attributes of childhood. Until the children are drugged, there is no disease. "We are crushing spontaneity," he said. -- The physiological effects of the drugs have not been adequately studied. A study of brain scans of drugged ADHD children found an average 10% brain shrinkage. -- Are children being over-diagnosed because of funding incentives provided by government, particularly the federal government? -- Are the fiscal requirements for "special needs" children taking away funding from those with diseases and problems that have a true physical source? -- Are the remedies used for these children -- such as smaller classrooms and more highly trained teachers -- actually just those needed by all students? Some parents are reported trying to get their children diagnosed so they can have smaller classrooms. -- What are the social costs to the patient who is labeled or drugged? For example, the military disqualifies applicants who have used brain drugs after the age of 12. -- What is the connection between the government spending on diagnostic programs and the corporate self-interest of the drug manufacturers? Among the questions not asked during the highly informative hearings: -- Are we drugging the sort of restless children who in other times grew up to be fine artists, writers, and advocates of social change. EXCERPTS OF DR. BREGGIN'S TESTIMONY http://prorev.com/bb.htm HARMFUL EFFECTS OF DRUGS http://www.breggin.com/appendtableI.html LAND OF THE FREE WIRED: When Congressman Dick Armey spoke up in favor of filtering software and other Net censorship measures, he probably didn't think it'd come back to bite him in the, um, ass. But irony being what it is, the House majority leader's own conservative Freedom Works site is one of the many blocked by filtering software, according to the winner of the Foiling the Filter contest's Poetic Justice Award. Bill Hart, a retired Colorado professor, found that at least six filtering programs blocked the Freedom Works site, probably because of the prolific use of the House majority leader's shortened first name. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,39038,00.html GETTING ALONG KEITH GOTTSCHALK, PEORIA JOURNAL STAR: [Bloomington, IN] Mayor Judy Markowitz was praised by Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan for what he called a unique gesture. "You have made a step that members of the Jewish community have not made," Farrakhan said at his news conference at the Jumer's Chateau. "I came here today with some reluctance," Markowitz told Farrakhan. "I just wondered for the people of my religion who said to me, 'Why are you going there today?' and I said that I belong there ... I would like to know what I tell my Jewish friends how you feel about the Jewish community individually." Farrakhan thanked Markowitz for her question and seemed genuinely surprised the mayor had come to hear him against the advice of friends. "This is the first mayor who is Jewish and female that came to hear for herself what Louis Farrakhan has to say," Farrakhan said. "And all I can do is thank her, and I think that people like her, I believe, are the kind of people who would help make the country better, because she was at least willing to listen." . . . Farrakhan said his willingness for a dialogue with the Jewish community was rebuffed until recently, when Joseph Lieberman, a US senator from Connecticut and the Democratic vice presidential candidate, offered to meet with him. Farrakhan said he looks forward to their meeting. Markowitz said she was impressed with what Farrakhan had to say. "He really described in detail how this (dispute with the Jewish community) came about," Markowitz said. "I don't know anything else about the man or any other side of it, so I would believe him." . . . "I just felt it was fair to go and listen to him," Markowitz said. "I just didn't feel comfortable not going. I think we all have to listen to one another and I think if people say they have been misunderstood then we owe them a second chance." http://www.pjstar.com/frontpage/topnews/copa.html FIELD NOTES COMPARING THE PLANS: Tax Clarity lets you plug in your financial status and find out how you would do under the Bush and Gore tax plans. http://www.taxclarity.com TO PROTEST PRAGUE TREATMENT OF DEMONSTRATORS: Czech embassy: 202-274-9100; press 0 for operator Office of President Vaclav Havel: 011 4202 24310855 phone 011 4202 24373196 fax Ministry of the Interior: 011 4202 61421115 US Embassy in Czech Republic: 011 4202 57530663 DC NOTES OVER 500 'CHANGE THE CLIMATE' on marijuana ads will be displayed on the Metro system just in time for the Inaugurations, but only after the ACLU and Arnold & Porter convinced Metro it was fighting a losing First Amendment battle in turning down the ads. Boston is a different story. On September 21, the Boston Herald reported that Governor Cellucci "blew his stack" over our lawsuit to place ads on the MBTA http://changetheclimate.org * * * * * * * * * * THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW 1312 18th St NW (5th Floor) Washington DC 20036 202-835-0770 Fax: 202-835-0779 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Editor: Sam Smith INDEX : http://prorev.com RECENT UNDERNEWS : http://prorev.com/indexa.htm TODAY'S HEADLINES: http://prorev.com/altnews.htm ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day. ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
