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Educational/Public Access Channel Funding in Jeopardy!!

We just found out: The Columbus City council did NOT include funding for the educational or public access channels in their 2004 budget.

However, we think there may be time to save the channel!

The actual budget will be introduced at the Council meeting on Jan. 26 and voted upon at the Council meeting Feb. 2.

WE NEED YOUR HELP. Please take a few minutes to email or call asking the Columbus City Councilmembers to fund the educational access channel with their promised $60,000 and public access with their promised $40,000. This must be done by Friday, Jan. 23! Contact information for Council aides is provided below. Please ask them to forward your message immediately to the Councilperson.

Thanks for any help you can provide! Suzanne Patzer 253-2571, 287-5748, spatzre@cscc.edu

Mary Ellen O'Shaughnessy: Legislative Aide: Lelia Cady   (614) 645-8509, lecady@columbus.gov

Mike Mentel: Legislative Aide: Kate McSweeney   (614) 645-8558, mkmcsweeney@columbus.gov

Help these 5 Political Prisoners Imprisoned in the USA

US intellectual, linguist and political analyst, Noam Chomsky, has signed a letter for the National Committee to Free the Five in which he requests help in bringing to the public's attention the case of the Cuban Five imprisoned in the United States for defending their island against terrorist attack.

The letter seeks to raise enough money to place an ad in The New York Times in view of the fact that the nation's "newspaper of record" has chosen not to cover the story - in line with the rest of the US mainstream press.

Given that the case involves Cubans accused of espionage - one of whom was irrationally charged with involvement in the downing of two light planes that violated Cuban airspace in 1996 - the fact that there has hardly been any coverage by any major US news outlet is nothing short of remarkable and, of course, extremely suspect.

Fight for your right...

Iowa-Unio-Bush-Blues

Dear Mr. Wasserman: Great Article! I'll forward it to JPS in Ashland-you were on"the Exchange" radio (progressive) with Jeff Golden last year, and I hope you make it back again in this election year. Thanks for all the writing you do; there is so much mainstream, coporate  nonsense.  keep writing and a lot of us will keep reading hopefully get activated this year! Bill Ziebell in C/Point

p.s. Last night on Bill Mahers program the actor/comedian Richard Belzer made a crack about "Dubya' being AWOL from his Texas Nat Guard- I keep hearing/seeing this, but I never here the story. Do you have any info on this? Thanks

Seven Trillion Dollar Man

Seven trillion dollar man
Look what’s happened in your span
While toasting New Year’s Eve ‘04
As crystal clangs and champagnes pour
You gladly let
The Public Debt
Move past the seventh door

Seven trillion dollar man
What’s your re-election plan?
While boasting lies and threats du jour
The Public Debt
Does not upset
Your failed Phoenician war

Hey seven trillion dollar man
Blinded from the flames you fan
Raiding coffers, fields and ore
You madly bet
This Public Debt
We pay so dearly for

Hey seven trillion dollar man
Pull every sleight of hand you can
To hide the truth and blur the score
Of Public Debt
Which may just yet
Lay bear your evil core

(Author’s note: On New Year’s Eve 2004 the United States National Debt surpassed the $7 trillion mark - sources: U.S. Treasury, and National Debt Clock at Brillig.com)

Bush and Veterans

Just an aside, while he might not attend the funerals he had lunch with the families at Fort Carson last fall and he has made multiple trip to Walter Reed to visit the seriously wounded. How do I know this, my brother is stationed at Fort Carson and was medevaced out of Iraq after the convoy he was riding in was hit by two rpgs. His driver was seriously wounded and medevaced to Germany and then to Walter Reed. My brother was not as serious so his arrival stateside took ten days longer. He visited his driver in October and Bush's picture was right up there along with multiple generals who had visited her. And he was the one who told us that Bush had lunch with the families when he flew to Colorado last year. He does care about our military; more than Clinton ever did.

Carl Rove

I've been trying to get information on Carl Rove, however, every article in your rag must be written by a nut case.  Every article starts out by raging on George Bush.  Where can a person go to get the history on Carl Rove without having to read a bunch of crap by a nut case?

Ed note: A couple of good places to start are: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/20/2003/386 and http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/20/2003/399. Using the name "Karl Rove" should also help.

Iowa results

AUSTIN, Texas -- Love those Iowa results. Nothing better than a huge political scrum where the front-runner stumbles, the guy everyone wrote off for dead six weeks ago comes roaring back, an unknown emerges, an old war-horse drops out -- a wonderful scenario. Let's hear it for upset, confusion and the conventional wisdom with egg on its face. A banana cream pie right in the kisser for everyone who pretends they know how a political race will turn out. Happy days. Ain't democracy grand?

            Not saying I necessarily agree with the conclusions reached by the Iowa caucus-goers, but I do love it when voters make fools of the pundits, including me. My biggest reservation about the result is John Kerry, who could take the excitement out of a soccer riot.

The states of Iowa and the union agree: Bush can be beaten

Is the tide turning?

George W. Bush and his puppetmaster Karl Rove tried to upstage the Democrats with a State of the Union Address full of tricks and gimmicks, martian distractions and rattling sabers.  

It backfired.  The stunning results from Iowa far overshadowed Bush's lame, malapropic stump speech.  Space travel, gay marriage, steriods in baseball, these are the burning issues for a Republican Party smug enough to be certain they can steal any election.  

The week's signature GOP moment came from Tom DeLay's Texas, where a woman who sells vibrators was arrested for possessing more than two.  In a state that's just been redistricted to prevent any Democrats from going to Congress, we see the GOP as the ultimate Luddites.  Are Texas men that insecure?  What will they ban next?  Massage oil?  

Come November, we can expect Osama bin Laden to be miraculously "found" whenever Rove decides the timing is best.  

A terrorist attack will explode here or there precisely as the Democrats gather steam.  Bush may dump Dick Cheney into a cardiac unit to grab headlines and expand his base.  

Help restore Lake Erie

Lake Erie is arguably Ohio's most precious natural resource, providing outlets for boating and fishing, recreation, and unique habitat for endangered species such as the bald eagle. Despite the lake's importance it suffers from pollution, habitat destruction, and a new dead zone. The U.S. Senate is now considering putting $6 billion toward the restoration and protection of the Great Lakes.

You can make this restoration a reality by e-mailing Sen. DeWine and Sen. Voinovich to thank them for their support of the measure and urge them to ask President Bush to include funding for the Great Lakes in his budget proposal. Then, ask your friends and family to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.

To take action, click on this link or paste it into your web browser: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=590&id4=OHFreep

BACKGROUND

More than 8 billion pounds of toxic pollution have been dumped into Lake Erie, hundreds of its beaches are closed each year due to sewage overflows, and 80 percent of its coastal wetlands have been destroyed.

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