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UNDERNEWS
THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
Washington's most unofficial source
Nov 27, 2001
Editor: Sam Smith
1312 18th St. NW #502, Washington DC 20036
202-835-0770 Fax: 835-0779
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WORD
I had just dozed off into a stupor when I heard what I thought was myself
talking to myself. I didn't pay much attention to it, as I knew practically
everything I would have to say to myself, and wasn't particularly
interested. Robert Benchley
THE BUSH PUTSCH
*** The Washington Post, which has been losing interest in democracy for
some time now, sent a little billet-doux to the Bush regime in the form of a
defense of its assault of the Constitution. Wrote Post Supreme Court
correspondent Charles Lane, "Today's anti-terror crackdown seems quite
defensible, even moderate."
*** Douglas Linder: The hanging [of 38 Indians], following trials which
condemned over three hundred participants in the 1862 Dakota conflict,
stands as the largest mass execution in American history. Only the unpopular
intervention of President Lincoln saved 265 other Dakota from the fate met
by the less fortunate thirty-eight. The mass hanging was the concluding
scene in the opening chapter of a story of American-Sioux conflict that
would not end until the Seventh Calvary completed its massacre at Wounded
Knee, South Dakota, on December 29, 1890.
MORE http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/dakota/dakota.html
*** LLOYD CUTLER, TIME - On June 27, 1942, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover
announced to the country that superior American intelligence had foiled a
Nazi plan to destroy U.S. bridges and factories. The FBI had captured eight
Germans and German-Americans, who had landed in Long Island and Florida . .
. In the days after Hoover's announcement, I helped draft a proclamation for
Roosevelt that created a military commission to try foreign spies and
saboteurs, and denied them the right to judicial review and the right to
trial in nonmilitary U.S. courts. They would, instead, be tried by a
military tribunal of seven generals, none a trained lawyer, in a conference
room in the FBI headquarters, on the fifth floor of the Justice Department,
away from the press, a civilian jury and civilian judges . . . In July 1942,
when the first witness took the stand and was asked the first question,
Kenneth Royall, the appointed counsel for the defendants, stood up and made
a valid objection to the form of the question. The tribunal recessed for 45
minutes, roughly the amount of time it takes to smoke a good cigar, and
returned with their response. Objection overruled. The question was answered
and another asked. Royall stood up and made a second sound objection, but
after another cigar break, the panel again overruled him. At this rate the
trial would have lasted three years, but Royall took the generals' hint and
sat virtually mum for the remainder of the month-long trial.
MORE http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,185167,00.html
*** WILLIAM SAFIRE, NY TIMES - President Bush, with no Congressional
declaration [of war], is using [Roosevelt's] mistake as precedent for his
own dismaying departure from due process. Bush's latest self-justification
is his claim to be protecting jurors (by doing away with juries). Worse, his
gung-ho advisers have convinced him as well as some gullible commentators
that the Star Chamber tribunals he has ordered are "implementations" of the
lawful Uniform Code of Military Justice. Military attorneys are silently
seething because they know that to be untrue. The U.C.M.J. demands a public
trial, proof beyond reasonable doubt, an accused's voice in the selection of
juries and right to choose counsel, unanimity in death sentencing and above
all appellate review by civilians confirmed by the Senate. Not one of those
fundamental rights can be found in Bush's military order setting up kangaroo
courts for people he designates before "trial" to be terrorists. Bush's fiat
turns back the clock on all advances in military justice, through three
wars, in the past half-century . . . And on what leg does the US now stand
when China sentences an American to death after a military trial devoid of
counsel chosen by the defendant
*** ANN WOOLNER, BLOOMBERG NEWS - President George W. Bush cites the 1942
military tribunal convened to prosecute eight Nazis plotting attacks on U.S.
soil to show how he wants to prosecute present-day terrorists. It's a model,
all right. It's a model of a powerful government official using the secrecy
of a military tribunal to deceive the public, falsely embellish his
reputation, break promises to a whistleblower and sit by while a 30-year
prison sentence is given to the man who thwarted the Nazi sabotage, a man to
whom the agency had promised a presidential pardon. That official was
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover. His aim was glory
for cracking this hugely important case
MORE http://www.bloomberg.com/feature/feature1006529973.html
POTATO REPUBLIC
*** D.F. Oliveria, SPOKANE SPOKESMAN REVIEW - Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne is
getting lashed by constituents closest to home for the security measures he
has ordered in wake of Sept. 11. One letter writer in the Idaho Statesman
called him "Emperor Dirk." Another wrote: "Who is this chicken-livered clod
that hides in our beautiful, once free and open Capitol building, cowering
in a Hitleresque fashion behind concrete and armed guards?"
Idahoans take easy access to their state Capitol building seriously. They
aren't happy about the concrete barriers that now block two important
streets adjacent to the Statehouse in downtown Boise. Or the bulked up
security in the Capitol itself. Of even more concern, however, should be a
list of 34 proposals presented to Kempthorne by Attorney General Al Lance
that threatens important civil liberties in the name of homeland defense . .
. These include:
�Allowing the attorney general or a county prosecutor to authorize a wire
tap without court approval for up to 48 hours. It's chilling to think of the
civil liberties abuses that could occur if an unscrupulous attorney general
or prosecutor was given this unilateral power.
�Allowing state agencies to question individuals who request public records.
This would give reluctant bureaucrats more power to bedevil legitimate
record seekers.
�Increasing the response time for public records requests from three days to
five days. This provision sounds more like an attempt to make record
gathering more tedious, than an anti-terrorism measure.
�Allowing the governor to exempt records or documents when needed for state
security or safety.
MORE
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=112601&ID=s1061968&cat=se
ction.commentary
NEXT?
*** COKIE ROBERTS, megaphone of the mighty, mentioned Colombia in a NPR
report listing countries the Bush regime might wish to attack next.
*** FROM A WHITE HOUSE news briefing:
- MR. FLEISCHER: Again, I refer you back to what the President said today in
the Rose Garden, and he said that's for him to find out, referring to Iraq's
leader, Saddam Hussein.
- HELEN THOMAS: Does the President feel the United States has the right to
bomb or invade any country harboring terrorists? Is he going to invade Spain?
- MR. FLEISCHER: Helen, the President, as I mentioned, is focused on phase
one --
- Q Eight suspected terrorists --
- MR. FLEISCHER: The President is focused on phase one of the war against
terrorism. But the President has made it plain to the American people that
this a long-term war.
- Answer the question. What right do we have to invade any country?
- MR. FLEISCHER: I'm not aware that we are invading Spain.
*** TIMES, LONDON - The war on terrorism is to be extended to three new
countries as soon as the campaign in Afghanistan is over. Targets linked to
Osama Bin Laden in Somalia, Sudan and Yemen will be at the top of the hit
list, according to senior sources in London and Washington. Tony Blair and
President George W Bush have agreed that the momentum created by the
anti-terror coalition's successes must be maintained with swift action
elsewhere. "We have the wind at our backs and we don't want to lose it,"
said a senior Washington source. Preparations are under way in all three
countries.
MORE http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,9002-2001544397,00.html
*** WORLD TRIBUNE - The Bush administration is building a case with its NATO
and Arab allies and organizing an international coalition against Iraq. U.S.
President George Bush made the clearest threat yet that he might order an
attack on Iraq if it refuses to honor United Nations Security Council
resolutions and to allow the return of UN weapons inspectors. U.S. officials
said Bush's statement marks a consensus in the administration that Iraq is
the prime candidate for the next target of Washington's war against
terrorism. They said the consensus includes Secretary of State Colin Powell,
who had dismissed the prospect as he sought to form a coalition for the war
in Afghanistan. But the officials said they did not expect an imminent
strike on Baghdad. They said Washington has encountered resistance from such
allies as Britain and France to a campaign to overthrow Saddam. Russia, they
said, opposes the effort.
MORE http://worldtribune.com/worldtribune/front.html
NEWS FROM THE COLONIES
*** Justin Huggler, INDEPENDENT, London - When we reached the center of the
city, the Taliban soldiers were still lying in the streets where they had
been shot. A tall, bearded man lay near the main roundabout with his arms
and legs twisted in his death agony. A trail of blood snaked down his
forehead, glistening in the sun. A crowd of people gathered to watch one of
the Taliban die. He lay there, shivering despite the warmth. At least 50 men
stood and watched, but not one tried to help him. They did not have words of
comfort to offer him. He died there, under their unforgiving stare.
They brought a heavy-set Talib into the crowd, and the Northern Alliance
soldiers beat him with their rifles, holding them by the barrel and swinging
the butts into him. He was screaming, and blood was pouring from his mouth,
but they kept on beating. The local people joined in many of them probably
faithful Taliban supporters until yesterday kicking him in the head where
he lay on the ground. Eventually the soldiers dumped him in a truck, which
sped away. Nobody expected to see him alive again. This was the long-awaited
fall of Kunduz . . . As the afternoon wore on, the bodies started to smell,
but still nobody moved them. The flies, spoilt for choice, moved between the
animal carcasses hanging at the butcher's and the bodies of the Taliban.
Somebody threw a cloth over the face of the man near the main roundabout.
But the crowds hung around all day, as if waiting for another chance to try
to beat a Talib to death.
MORE http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/story.jsp?story=107026
*** PAUL WATSON, LA TIMES - There was something sadistic about the way two
Taliban government ministers and their shock troops destroyed many of
Afghanistan's precious works of art. They did it with smiles on their faces.
They walked through the National Museum last year, inspecting each object to
determine which ones depicted living beings. And then they raised their axes
and brought them down hard, smashing piece after piece of Afghan history
into oblivion. It was such a high priority that the Taliban minister of
information and culture, Mullah Qudratullah Jamal, and the minister of
finance, Aghajan Motasem, led the wrecking crew, witnesses said. Over three
days, as the Taliban ministers walked from one artifact to another, an
Afghan archeologist and a historian followed at a respectful distance,
pleading for mercy as if begging for the lives of their own children.
*** INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE - The war in Afghanistan has relegated
European governments to peacekeeping and humanitarian missions while the
United States takes care of military operations - a glaring division of
labor that could damage prospects for Western military coalitions in future
crises, according to military officials on both sides of the Atlantic. With
the Taliban's demise in view, allied troops may yet have a combat role,
notably with British and possibly French and German special forces
supplementing U.S. efforts to comb the Afghan mountains, track down Osama
bin Laden and destroy fortified terrorist hideouts. But the military
campaign as a whole is driven by sophisticated U.S. firepower that in
practice excludes effective cooperation with European forces, which are not
equipped to fight so far from their home bases. Partly as a consequence of
this shrinkage in Europe's military contribution, allied governments,
including that of Britain, have apparently been left largely in the dark
about the Bush administration's planning for the war and its political
aftermath. This has irritated European leaders. Behind their unflagging
public political support for Washington are private complaints about the
constant risk of being caught flat-footed by the U.S. refusal to limit its
own options by revealing its plans. Accustomed to being consulted about or
at least alerted to U.S. moves, these leaders are now embarrassed. In
effect, a French policymaker said, the message from Washington is: "We'll do
the cooking and prepare what people are going to eat, then you will wash the
dirty dishes."
MORE http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&;
ArticleId=40012
DRUG BUSTS
NORML - A Shelby County, Kentucky public school district's decision to
abruptly fire an award-winning fifth-grade teacher was motivated in part by
her decision to speak to her class about industrial hemp, the 6th Circuit
Court of Appeals in Cincinnati unanimously ruled. Their decision overturns a
previous lower court judgment dismissing the teacher's First Amendment
retaliation claim against the district. The school district fired elementary
school teacher Donna Cockrel in July of 1997 after she twice invited actor
Woody Harrelson to speak to her students about alternative agricultural
crops like hemp and kenaf . . . Justices added, "While many of the
allegations made against Cockrel would, if true, amount to serious
misconduct on her part, the fact that she was not disciplined for any of
this behavior, nor did the Superintendent know of it, until after Harrelson
visited and various members of the school community voiced their displeasure
with the presentation, leads to a genuine issue of material fact concerning
the defendant's assertion that Cockrel would have been fired regardless of
her decision to speak on the environmental benefits of hemp."
NORML - Daily ingestion of hemp oil and food products will not produce a
"confirmed positive" drug test for marijuana, according to a study published
in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology. The findings call into question the
rationale behind recently enacted DEA regulations criminalizing the
possession and manufacture of any edible hemp seed or oil products that
contain trace levels of THC. Many experts believe that the new regulations
came about, in part, because of concerns from the Office of National Drug
Control Policy and the drug testing industry that employees would purposely
consume legal hemp products as a way to dispute positive drug tests.
Kamal Ahmed, Observer, LONDON - One of Britain's most senior police officers
reignited the debate over the policing of drugs last night when he revealed
that first-time offenders caught with ecstasy are not being prosecuted, even
though it is a Class A drug punishable by up to seven years in prison. The
disclosure by Andy Hayman, the deputy assistant commissioner of the
Metropolitan Police, comes days after another senior police officer, Brian
Paddick, was rebuked for suggesting that pursuing cocaine and ecstasy users
was not a priority. Hayman, the chairman of the Association of Chief Police
Officers' drugs committee, said that it was usually better to caution
first-time offenders rather than send them to court, which can cost
thousands of pounds and means courts have less time to deal with more
serious offences . . . Hayman, who argued last week that he would favor
reclassifying ecstasy if scientific evidence supported it, said that it was
better to caution offenders and educate them about the dangers of drugs. 'We
know from the experience of shoplifting and other offences that once they
have had that deterrent, sometimes that is enough and they don't go back to
it,' he said.
http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,605733,00.html
GREAT MOMENTS IN MOUNTAIN CLIMBING
REUTERS - Weary Japanese climbers will be able to relieve themselves in
style after local authorities shelled out nearly $600,000 for two mile-high
toilets . . . "We decided to build the toilets after climbers complained
that the old one smelled really bad," a Tottori prefectural official said on
Thursday. Up to 1,000 people each day will be able to use the two recently
completed and environment-friendly lavatories.
MORE http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=humannews&StoryID=400418
THE LIST
Cities with the longest average commute
New York City: 39 minutes
Chicago: 33 minutes
San Francisco: 30 minutes
Newark: 30 minutes
Oakland: 29 minutes
Miami: 29 minutes
Philadelphia: 29 minutes
Riverside: 29 minutes
Washington DC: 29 minutes
Los Angeles: 28 minutes
[U.S. Census]
LOOSE CHANGE
MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS avoided $45 billion in U.S. taxes last year,
according to Senator Byron Borgan, by a scam that involves overpricing goods
sold to U.S. operations by foreign affiliates and by underpricing goods
purchased by those foreign affiliates. For example the study found such high
prices as e $5,655 for a toothbrush, $5,000 for a flashlight and $2,306 for
a hypodermic syringe. At the other end, there was a charge of $1.58 for a
ton of soybeans, $528 for a bulldozer and 82 cents for a prefabricated metal
building. The study did not identify the perps.
YOUTH
*** MENSAH M. DEAN, PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS - Gov. SchweIKER and Mayor
Street laid the groundwork for the state to engineer a peaceful takeover of
the School District of Philadelphia by the end of the month. After meeting
for three hours, the leaders and aides emerged dramatically from a Center
City office building to announce that the central administration of city
schools would not be turned over to Edison Schools Inc. Instead, all school
district employees, including the future chief executive officer, would
report to a state-controlled school-reform commission that will assume the
duties of the school board after a takeover . . . Under a takeover, the
reform commission - four members appointed by Schweiker and one by Street -
would hire a new chief executive officer. Edison, the nation's largest
private manager of public schools, would be hired by the reform commission
and the CEO to provide "comprehensive strategic and operational support"
toward implementing Schweiker's reforms. Though Edison officials will not be
in charge, Schweiker said, they will be involved in the improvement of
virtually every aspect of the district's operations. Edison will also still
manage 45 of the district's 60 lowest-performing schools, as the original
proposal calls for. That Edison is still involved is cause to keep fighting,
said Eric Braxton, director of the Philadelphia Student Union. "We will
fight it tooth and nail. There is a climate for change, but we want real
change," said Braxton, whose group was among several hundred people who
demonstrated against privatization in Harrisburg yesterday. "What we want is
reduced class sizes, more certified teachers and a new school-funding
formula that does not punish people for living in a poor area," Braxton added.
MORE
http://dailynews.philly.com/content/daily_news/2001/11/21/local/SKUL21C.htm
*** JONATHAN M. STEIN, PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS - Edison and its president,
Christopher Whittle, who had a reported $180 million in stock options when
he went public, have hit the huckstering trail with the fervor of an Elmer
Gantry. Edison is peddling the same private enterprise ideology that has
delivered (in) security inspections at airports and anti-customer services
at merged banking institutions. The Edison operation specializes in PR spin
behind closed doors of government. But the facts about what happens when
Edison comes to town, and what it candidly files with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, tell another story. No publicly traded company can
afford to lie to the SEC. Here is a sampling from a public record of Edison
filings:
* "We have incurred substantial losses in every fiscal period since we began
operations."
* "We have not yet demonstrated that public schools can be profitably
managed by private companies and we are not certain when we will become
profitable, if at all."
* "[We] may find it difficult to attract and retain principals and teachers.
. .We have also experienced higher levels of turnover among teachers than is
generally found in public schools nationally."
* "We are experiencing rapid growth, which. . .has sometimes strained our
managerial, operational and other resources. . .this strain will increase"
with opening new schools.
MORE
http://dailynews.philly.com/content/daily_news/2001/11/21/opinion/STEI21E.ht
m?template=aprint.htm
NATION
*** Kathleen Murphy, Stateline - U.S. Census Bureau and homeless advocates
figures on homelessness are as wildly different as a penthouse in New York�s
Trump Tower is from the Rescue Mission at Los Angeles� Fifth and Wall
Streets. The gap, of about 629,000 people, highlights Census limitations in
taking a single-day snapshot of the shelter population. But a few states are
collecting more accurate figures by developing computerized information
systems to track their homeless. A recent congressional directive requires
communities receiving federal homeless assistance aid to start making
unduplicated counts of people served in homeless programs by 2004 . . .
While Census-takers found just 170,706 people in the nation�s shelters, an
Urban Institute study estimated last year that at least 800,000 people are
in shelters on any given night.
MORE http://www1.stateline.org/story.do?storyId=210063
*** CATHERINE C. ROBBINS, NY TIMES - The combination of preservation
legislation and explosive growth in the Southwest over the last decade has
created an archaeological boom that has completely overwhelmed the region's
museums and anthropological centers, archaeologists, museum executives and
government officials say. Their institutions cannot handle all the artifacts
found and excavated during publicly financed projects, which are known in
the trade as cultural resource materials. The logjam is so bad that some
museums like Northern Arizona are closing their doors to the resource
materials, and others are limiting what they will accept, while a third
group has increased their fees for cataloguing, analyzing and storing them
by as much as 10-fold. MORE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/24/arts/design/24ARCH.html
*** LARRY HENDRICKS, ARIZONA DAILY SUN - It is a way of solving disputes
between parties as old as their culture, and it has now been formally
included within the Judicial Branch of the Navajo Nation. Called
peacemaking, or Hozhooji Naat'aanii, the informal process involves bringing
the two parties together with a mediator to "talk things out" as
characterized by Navajo Nation Chief Justice Robert Yazzie, and arrive at a
resolution themselves. They use their own language, culture and customs, and
bypass the court systems of western culture. The mediators, called
peacemakers, are people considered to be wise in their communities to the
point where other people listen when he or she offers advice. On Oct. 25,
Navajo Nation President Kelsey A. Begaye's signed a resolution by the Navajo
Nation Council recognizing the Peacemaking Division of the Judicial Branch.
Merle Pete, spokesperson for the office of the Navajo Nation President and
Vice President, said President Begaye's reason for signing the legislation
is because the program has been proven to be effective at resolving
differences in a traditional style.
MORE http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=29829
[One of your editor's 18th century ancestors was Official Peacemaker of the
County of Philadelphia, a job established by William Penn "to prevent law
suits, act in the manner of arbitrator and end strife between Man and Man."]
FEEDBACK
<> Who's "we?"
[TPR: "We have decided to trade off the liberty of immigrants - particularly
Arabs and Muslims - for the purported security of the majority," said David
Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University who often represents detained
foreigners]
PABLO, USA - I think Mr Cole has a point. At the same time (and
understanding that I don't have the full context of his remark), it would
also be good to note that 'We' have not even really 'decided' this. It's
been done and is being done for us, to us, and in our name, but not with
terribly much fanfare or openness. Some of it has been downright secret. It
would also be important to realize that the Constitution does not limit its
guarantees to citizens (except for a few places clearly enumerated). And
that citizens are very much affected, for the worse, by violations of the
rights of non-citizens. As when they are married to non-citizens. As when
they are mistaken for non-citizens and treated accordingly, with the damage
likely never undone even if the "mistake" is later noted and rectified. As
when they think they might be mistaken for non-citizens and therefore
constrain their own freedom, censor themselves, refrain from the exercise of
their rights, etc. So, it's an illusion to think that "we're" fine and "our"
rights are intact, it's just "them" who have to pay in the name of security.
And we will all live to rue these days in which we sold our birthright and
sold it on the cheap.
<> Bush's daughters
JOHN CAUKINS, PRAGUE - Sorry to say it, but you delivered a real cheap shot
in raising the issue of the bush daughters' "exile" and their father's
alcoholic (read: abusive) past. Now these girls didn't choose their father
(although they probably did vote for him for president) and to believe that
they are worthwhile targets for your scrutiny is unfair and undeserved. Who
really cares if they are party chicks? They're in college. Their father's
checkered past (and their grandfather's past) is an entirely different issue
that does deserve attention and we do expect you to explore those details
when relevant.
Thanks for a great publication otherwise.
[I brought this up not as gossip but as possible insight into an abusive
president who is endangering both the republic and the orb on which it sits.
A woman who had an alcoholic, abusive father and a alcoholic, abusive
husband pointed it out to me and when I reviewed the bidding it made sense.
I don't buy the line of mavens of the preceding regime who said that a
politician's personal life is of no public relevance. They didn't really buy
it either as they voraciously read new details about the personal life of
Eleanor Roosevelt. There is no doubt that one understands Mrs. Roosevelt
better now that these details, personal as they may be, have come to light.
Bush was abusive as a child (as mentioned here, he liked to shoot up frogs),
he abused himself for many years with alcohol and cocaine and now he is
abusing third world countries and our Constitution. He is showing himself to
be a man of exceptionally low tolerance for ideas other than his own or
those that he has acquired cheap from someone else. Even his wife was
reported in one account to be afraid that he was acting too much like a
macho cowboy in his handling of the present situation. He has all the
markings of a petty tyrant in an exceedingly non-petty position. One is, as
he has noted, either for him or against him. It's hard to grow up with
someone like that, especially when they're on the sauce.
And it's fair game to note this. If - and it's a question not an assertion -
the Bush daughters are deliberately keeping their distance, it might be yet
another useful hint for us. After all, they know our president a lot better
than any White House correspondent. - SAM]
LAND OF THE FREE
A California appellate court has decided for the first time that criticism
of public companies on Internet message boards are protected from frivolous
litigation by California's anti-SLAPP statute. This echoes the position
taken by Public Citizen - that companies should not be permitted to use
lawsuits, or the threat of lawsuits, to silence Internet critics. In March
2000, Computer XPress, a California company that sells computer-related
products, sued one of its competitors over, among other things, criticisms
expressed on Internet bulletin boards and in a complaint to the SEC. The
trial judge decided that none of the issues in the case pertained to issues
of public interest that were within the protection of the anti-SLAPP statute
(Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation). That law recognizes
that First Amendment rights are threatened by the financial hardship and
chilling effect of defending a frivolous lawsuit . . . In an unpublished
decision issued earlier this year, the Court of Appeal in Riverside decided,
in agreement with a Los Angeles federal trial judge, that statements made on
an Internet bulletin board about a company whose stock is publicly traded
are a matter of public interest and thus are protected by the anti-SLAPP
statute. The court further decided that the mere fact that the speaker may
be a competitor of the plaintiff does not mean that it is not expressing its
free speech rights.
MORE http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/E027841.PDF.
ATTORNEY YVONNE RENFREW
http://www.renfrewlaw.com/
GREAT MOMENTS IN CRIME PREVENTION
Two Albuquerque NM cops have been disciplined for landing their helicopter
outside a donut shop in order to pick up some Krispy Kremes.
HARVARD, THE MSNBC OF UNIVERSITIES
Patrick Healy, Boston Globe - After a quiet few months as Harvard
University's new president, former US treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers
has begun using the post as a bully pulpit to forward a bold idea: In
response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the academic world should get more in line
with mainstream Americans. Several times in recent weeks, Summers has made
carefully worded speeches imploring academia to embrace patriotic values
such as respect for the US military and government service, and repeating
President Kennedy's call for Americans to ''ask what you can do for your
country.'' Summers has particularly championed military service, a position
that strikes a nerve at Harvard, which was the site of violent student
protests during the Vietnam War and still bans ROTC on campus. Some Harvard
officials believe he is trying to gently coax his faculty into restoring
ROTC - a goal embraced by hundreds of Harvard alumni . . . Summers's
comments have bothered some students, who see the school as a refuge from
the pro-Americanism of national politics. . . An official in the Harvard
administration who asked not to be named said Summers's remarks are striking
because of the university's reputation as a global-minded school, its deep
intellectual and financial connections abroad, the fact that Summers's
predecessor, Neil Rudenstine, rarely advanced controversial ideas in the
public sphere. ''Harvard is not just an American university, and statements
by its leader usually reflect an array of interests,'' rather than a
specifically American outlook, the official said. ''Harvard presidents also
usually don't tell faculty members what to think about issues like moral
relativism, good versus evil, and the like. But then again, it's a new day.''
MORE
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/329/metro/Harvard_head_urges_a_deeper_patr
iotism+.shtml
PASSINGS
REUTERS - Legendary jazz promoter and manager Norman Granz, who became known
as the conscience of jazz through his efforts to integrate concerts in the
1940s and 1950s and who helped guide Ella Fitzgerald to international
stardom as her personal manager, has died. Granz, who was famed for his Jazz
at the Philharmonic series of concerts and recordings featuring such stars
as Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Charlie Parker and Billie
Holiday, died at his home in Geneva. He was 83. . . . At the height of his
career, Granz was one of the most powerful non-musicians in jazz. He is
credited with presenting the music as an art form by bringing performers out
of small clubs and into larger concert halls and theaterswhere he insisted
that audiences be seated together regardless of their race in a major blow
to the segregation that prevailed in many areas, both north and south, in
the 1940s and 50s.
MORE http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10162-2001Nov24.html
HEALTH
MARIAN BURROS, NY TIMES - Just in time for Thanksgiving, researchers have
discovered that cranberries have five times the antioxidant content of
broccoli, which means they may protect against cancer, stroke and heart
disease . . . Even before the recent discovery about the antioxidant
properties of cranberries, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of
Agricultural and Food Chemistry, cranberries had a lot going for them. Not
the least of which is the scientific confirmation of the old wives' tale
about the value of cranberries in reducing the risk of urinary tract
infections . . . Research has shown that cranberries keep E. coli from
adhering to the walls of the urinary tract. Eighty to 90 percent of urinary
tract infections are caused by E. coli . . . Since the news on urinary tract
infections, additional research has suggested that cranberries may inhibit
the growth of human breast cancer cells, and reduce the risk of gum disease
and stomach ulcers. And with the release of the study on antioxidants in
cranberries, from the University of Scranton, this native American berry
ranks right up there in the pantheon of highly beneficial fruits and
vegetables. Research at three other universities shows that cranberries
decrease levels of total cholesterol and LDL, or bad cholesterol, in
animals. Studies are under way to see if the high level of antioxidants in
cranberries also protects against atherosclerosis.
MORE http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/21/dining/21WELL.html
WAR PROFITEER OF THE DAY
The Topps trading card company now makes an "Enduring Freedom" series
featuring the likes of the FBI director, Condaleeza Rice and F-16s . . .
NPR's Bob Edwards lovingly interviewed a 12-year-old and talked warmly about
trading their cards, thus doing his part for Bush agitprop.
REAL AUDIO http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/me/20011126.me.08.ram
ELITE FOLKWAYS
CINDY ADAMS, NY POST At the Harvard Club, Ted Turner met a 6-foot blond
with a European accent. They spoke for 45 minutes. He invited her to sit
with him. They both ordered vegetarian so, who knows, maybe that's what he
liked about her . . . When photographers snapped him, this airhead, whose
black shoes flashed bare toes, inquired who he was. They told her. "Vell,
den, who iss Tad Turner?" she asked. She then asked Tad Turner himself who
he vass. Tad replied: "You'd have to be over 50 to know me." Needless to
say, even her waistline was below 24. Tad then told the blonde, for some
bizarre reason, of his weekly talks with Gorbachev. "Dis Gorbachev iss who?"
she asked. Another 20 minutes of such stirring conversation and a 40ish
matron wanted an autograph. Tad refused with, "You're too old to be
collecting autographs. That's for kids, not grownups. Send your request to
my secretary."
MORE http://www.pagesix.com/cindyadams/cindyadams.htm
CORRECTION
WE GOT OUR dumb Virginia senators confused. It was William Scott and not
John Warner who held a news conference to rebut a magazine's assertion that
he was the dumbest member of the Senate.
NEW WORLD ORDER
WIRED - London police are planning to register children who exhibit criminal
potential in an effort to prevent them from developing into full-fledged
lawbreakers. Kids who tag buildings with graffiti, skip school, or even talk
back to adults run the risk of being entered into a database program that
will be used to monitor their behavior as they grow up, according to police
sources. Law enforcement officials say the measure is needed to combat
rampant juvenile crime, but critics condemn it as an extreme form of police
profiling.
MORE http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,48637,00.html
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Democratic Rep. Ken Bentsen, a four-term congressman from the Houston area,
plans to run for the Senate. His uncle was Senator Lloyd Bentsen.
MORE http://prorev.com/family.htm
AMERICAN NOTES
Crystal Harmon, Bay City Times, MI - A judge has thrown out a lawsuit by a
prisoner at the Standish Maximum Security Facility who claims he's not being
treated like the "Messiah" he is. Judge David M. Lawson on Friday dismissed
the lawsuit filed by Chad Gabriel DeKoven, also known as "Messiah-God" and
Prisoner No. 145274, calling it "fanciful, fantastic, delusional ...
frivolous, implausible, unsubstantial and devoid of merit." DeKoven sued the
prison system, state and federal governments, radio stations, book
publishers and others in federal court, demanding a variety of methods of
relief, including thousands of trees and animals, tons of precious metals
and full-time attendants at the prison. DeKoven also demanded public
acknowledgment that he is King of the Jews, a full pardon, peace in the
Middle East, and return of all U.S. military personnel to the United States
within 90 days. DeKoven is serving time for an armed robbery of a
Detroit-area Taco Bell. He had claimed that action was simply the
realization of the Biblical prediction that Christ will come as a thief in
the night.
MORE http://www.mlive.com/strangenews/index.ssf?/strangenews/20010501god.frm
TODAY IN HISTORY
1902 JAMES Agee is born. He will later work with photographer Walker Evans
on "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men," which initially sells only 600 copies and
won't become famous until after Agee's death. Agee will also write the
"African Queen" and "Night of the Hunter" as he becomes increasingly
addicted to alcohol and bennies. He will die of a heart attack at the age of
50 while in a New York City cab, leaving an estate of $450.
1942 Jimi Hendrix is born.
1978 San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a
gay-rights activist, are shot to death by former supervisor Dan White who
argues the Twinkies he ate made him do it.
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