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Tell Congress -- Save Organic Standards!

Organic standards are under fire in Washington. An industry-sponsored "sneak attack" rider to the 2006 Agriculture Appropriations Bill would take away traditional organic community and National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) control over organic standards, and centralize control in the hands of White House-appointed USDA officials. This would likely open the door for non-organic animal feed and hundreds of synthetic ingredients and processing aids in organic foods.

The sneak attack rider is being pushed by powerful corporate interests such as Kraft, Dole, General Mills, and the Grocery Manufacturers of America (which includes Wal-Mart and the supermarket chains). Take action today to stop this "unfriendly takeover" of America's alternative food system by giant food processors and supermarket chains.

Click here to take action now: Save Organic Standards

Miers

“The War on Terror” -- in Translation

When the Bush administration fires off a new round of speechifying about “the war on terror,” the U.S. press rarely goes beyond the surface meanings of rhetoric provided by White House scriptwriters. But the president’s big speech at the National Endowment for Democracy on Oct. 6 could have been annotated along these lines:

* “We will not tire or rest until the war on terror is won.”

Translation: This is a war that can go on forever.

* “And while the killers choose their victims indiscriminately, their attacks serve a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs and goals that are evil but not insane.”

As president, I am the world’s authority on evilness and insanity.

* “These extremists want to end American and Western influence in the broader Middle East, because we stand for democracy and peace and stand in the way of their ambitions.”

Those who stand in the way of our ambitions are extremists.

* “They hit us and expect us to run. They want us to repeat the sad history of Beirut in 1983 and Mogadishu in 1993, only this time on a

Dems Go After Bennett, Salem Radio Network, FCC

A growing list of Congress Members are not just speaking out about Bill Bennett's recent racist remarks on his radio show.  Some of them are pressuring the network that airs his show, Salem Radio Network, and asking the sponsors that fund it to withdraw their support.  One already has.  Other Congress Members are asking the Federal Communications Commission to censure, suspend, and fine Bennett.

If you've been wisely avoiding US mass media for the past week, you won't know that Bill Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education and "Drug Czar," and editor of "The Book of Virtues" (a collection aimed at showing how dumb ethics can become if you paste together the most boring excerpts of musings by mostly religious, mostly white, mostly dead, mostly male, mostly European authors) spouted off on his radio show on September 29 as follows:

BENNETT:…one of the arguments in this book "Freakonomics" that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up.  Well –

CALLER: Well, I don't think that statistic is accurate.

Bonnie Raitt's soulful masterpiece

A Review of Bonnie Raitt’s “Souls Alike” (Capitol Records: 2005)

The incomparable Bonnie Raitt has produced an another incomparable masterpiece. “Souls Alike” confirms that she can create cutting edge new art even after decades at the top, while still being able to connect deep into the mainstream.

Long enshrined in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Bonnie’s shelf full of Grammys has not compromised her commitment to her craft, her adventurism or the creative demands of her raw talent.

There are ballads on this new album that remind us how Bonnie manages to speak to the pop mainstream with an integral clarity of soul and vision. There are others that take us deep into a world of hard blues and experimental jazz. How she pulls it all off is why she’s, well, Bonnie Raitt.

Three ballads are for the ages.

Torture and the “Controversial” Arc of Injustice

Several decades ago, “controversial” subjects in news media included many issues that are now well beyond controversy. During the first half of the 1960s, fierce arguments raged in print and on the airwaves about questions like: Does a black person (a “Negro,” in the language of the day) have the right to sit at a lunch counter, or stay at a hotel, the same way that a white person does? Should the federal government insist on upholding such rights all over the country?

Some agonizing disputes, in the media and on the ground, came to a climax with passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Suddenly, after many decades of struggles against Jim Crow, federal law explicitly barred racial discrimination in public accommodations and employment. After President Lyndon Johnson signed the measure, saying “Let us close the springs of racial poison,” controversy faded about access to restaurants and hotels.

But the need for civil rights protests continued, and for a time they increasingly focused on the right to vote. Banning poll taxes, literacy tests and other timeworn devices of discrimination that were

New Mexico Election Results Need Analyzed

Help raise money to continue the valuable discovery of privatized electronic vote recording and tabulation problems. If adequate funding is raised immediately, discovery will continue with meaningful machine inspections conducted by academic experts.

There are real and serious problems with the 2004 General Election results. Although we have seen similar issues in other states, the analysis in New Mexico, due to the availability of the data, and thoroughness and manner in which the analysis was conducted, has pinpointed serious problems according to specific machine types at the precinct level. Troubling patterns of unreliability and gross errors in the official election results especially in Native American and Hispanic communities have emerged. Problems include:

* 24,000 "under votes", that is , a ballot cast but no vote recorded, with the highest under vote percentages in Hispanic and Native American precincts - but only when those voters votes on specific electronic paperless voting equipment. These under vote rates in the same precincts dropped when voters used paper ballots.

Rhetoric and reality in the business of getting rid of black people

Every year or so, some right-winger in America lets fly in public with a ripe salvo of racism, and the liberal watchdogs come tearing out of their kennels, and the neighborhood echoes with the barks and shouts. The right-winger says he didn't mean it, the president "distances himself," and the liberals claim they're shocked beyond all measure. Then, everyday life in racist America resumes its even course.

This past week it's been the turn of that conservative public moraliser, William Bennett. He should have known better than to loose off a hypothetical on his radio show. Announce publicly that "if you wanted to reduce crime, you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down," and many Americans reckon that's no hypothesis, that's a plan waiting to happen.

Katrina, Katrina, Katrina

Equality is essential for democracy

I’ve got to confess, I occasionally yell helpful driving suggestions to others on the road; I often talk back to newscasters and politicians on TV; and I always wish I could add my comments on-line to the letters to the editor.  Polite people say that opinions are like elbows, everybody’s got one (or two.)  While it’s good to be passionate, small, differing opinions can divide an otherwise cohesive populace.  Wedge issues are used by political strategists to splinter us into opposing groups and divert our attention from the big issues that most of us would agree on.  

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