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Ticky Disclosure: The Chamber anonymously tips the scales of justice

Last June, in a cleverly calculated political pseudo-event, Governor Bob Taft and his sidekick Secretary of State Ken Blackwell announced their long awaited “campaign reform proposal.” Their rhetoric stressed the importance of achieving “full public disclosure” of anonymous money flowing into Ohio political parties as well as electioneering communications. Still, Ohio does not require that political parties disclose of money, even corporate money, coming into their coffers.

The question of whether “electioneering communications” can be kept private however, is under litigation in Ohio. Both the Ohio and U.S. Chambers of Commerce asserted their right to run so-called “issue ads” that looked a lot like attacks on judicial candidates in the 2000 election. as long as the ads bogus “issue ads” focused on smearing judicial candidates, but never mentioned “magic words” like “vote for,” “elect,” “support” or “defeat” any specific candidate.

Questions that won’t be asked about Iraq

Soon we hope to have hearings on the pending war with Iraq. I am con- cerned there are some questions that won’t be asked, and maybe will not even be allowed to be asked. Here are some questions I would like answered by those who are urging us to start this war.

1. Is it not true that the reason we did not bomb the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War was because we knew they could retaliate?

2. Is it not also true that we are willing to bomb Iraq now because we know it cannot retaliate, which just confirms that there is no real threat?

3. Is it not true that those who argue that even with inspections we cannot be sure that Hussein might be hiding weapons, at the same time imply that we can be more sure that weapons exist in the absence of inspections?

4. Is it not true that the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency was able to complete its yearly verification mission to Iraq just this year with Iraqi cooperation?

5. Is it not true that the intelligence community has been unable to develop

'Free societies do not intimidate by cruelty and conquest' and other great quotes from Bush’s big speech to the UN

1. “Our principals and our security are challenged today by outlaw groups and regimes that accept no law of morality and have no limit to their violent ambitions.”

• Conservative commentator Samuel Huntington has pointed out that many people worldwide consider the U.S. to be “the single greatest external threat to their societies” (Foreign Affairs, 1999).

• Under Bush, the U.S. stands in violation of international law for its bombing of Afghanistan and ongoing bombing of Iraq (violating Article 51 of the UN Charter); its treatment of the Guantánamo Bay prisoners (violating the Geneva Convention); and for its “first strike” nuclear weapons doctrine (violating the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty). Bush has declared his willingness to commit another grave breach of international law by bombing Iraq without authorization from the Security Council.

• The Bush Administration has also undermined the U.S. Constitution by declaring the War Powers Act (requiring Congressional authorization to launch a war) irrelevant.

Big Oil’s war on Iraq

“Doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t.”

That’s how a Bushwhacked-sounding Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz described the box President Bush has put Iraq in to American journalist Norman Solomon.

Solomon is one of the few American journalists who has tried to get Iraq’s side of the crisis over whether the Mideastern country’s purported “weapons of mass destruction” are such a threat to world peace that the United States has a right to take preemptive military action against it.

Of the many tragedies of last year’s terrorist attacks on America, one of the worst was that it turned a war wimp like President Bush into an international bully. Bush is intent on telling the world what to do, and if the rest of it won’t go along with him he will go it alone.

Media greenspace at risk

A significant Columbus civic and cultural resource has been quietly vanishing and is at risk of disappearing altogether. Columbus public access television, once a national model for citizen creativity, free speech and activism, may simply fade away unless we urge the City of Columbus to preserve and fund it.

As this article is written, the City is contemplating the future of the medium and, through the Cable Commission, is taking public comment and hearing proposals to manage the station. The problem for would-be managers is that the City appears set on diverting cable franchise fees into the general fund rather than equipping a facility and hiring staff to train community producers and conduct community outreach. While the City has the ultimate control of these funds, diverting them reverses longstanding and hard-won support of this civic resource.

Concert promoters under attack with broad threat of 20 years in prison

The Senate is poised to pass legislation that would give federal prosecutors broad new powers to shut down RAVEs, hemp festivals, marijuana rallies, concerts and other events and punish business owners and activists for hosting or promoting events. Because of its broad language, the proposed law would also potentially subject people to enormous federal sentences if some of their guests smoked marijuana at their parties or barbecues. This includes promoters of national acts that perform at the Nationwide and Schottenstein arenas, as well as the Promowest Pavilion.

The bill, known as the Reducing American’s Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act (RAVE Act), was just introduced in the Senate on June 18th and has already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is moving very rapidly and could be passed by the Senate as early as this week. While it purports to be aimed at ecstasy and other club drugs, it gives the federal government enormous power to fine and imprison event promoters, even if they’ve never smoked marijuana.

Remembering Rainbow Farm

Labor Day weekend marked the one year anniversary of the execution-style slayings of Rainbow Farm campground owner Grover “Tom” Crosslin and Roland “Rollie” Rohm. Both died during a 5-day standoff with the FBI and Michigan state and local law enforcement.

A 3-part series in the South Bend Tribune recounted the tragedy and raised new and troubling questions surrounding the deaths. The Tribune’s lead noted that the once vibrant campground – rated by High Times Magazine as among the nation’s Top Ten “stoner” spots – “…today resembles nothing so much as a graveyard.” In the mid-1990s, Crosslin opened his Vandalia, Michigan farm as a site for hemp festivals involving education, relaxation, music and politicians speaking out for legalization of hemp and decriminalization of industrial hemp and medical marijuana. Rainbow Farms was a Liberated Zone; a respite from the deranged policies of the Reagan-Bush drug war.

Boycott Wal-Mart

he National Organization for Women (NOW), its Board of Directors, and its members have received numerous complaints regarding workplace environment and employment practices at Wal-Mart stores, distribution centers and regional and corporate offices. Extensive public record on cases filed against Wal-Mart were considered and the allegations were found disturbing. They are sex discrimination in pay, promotion, and compensation; wage abuse; exclusion of contraceptive coverage in insurance plans; violations of child labor laws and the Americans with Disabilities Act; and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Cases have also been filed regarding firing pro-union workers, eliminating jobs once workers joined unions, and discouraging workers from unionizing. In addition, Wal-Mart continues to refuse to dispense Preven, the “morning-after pill.”

Ohio Center for Social Justice Workshops

"Mighty Times, The Rosa Parks Story" a remarkable and inspirational "behind the scenes" look at the single act of defiance that started a civil rights revolution. "Mighty Times" proves beyond any doubt that one person can indeed make a diference. Workshop includes a 40 minute video, speaker, study guide and discussion questions, all OCSJ workshops are available at affordable rates for your group, organization, church, business, school, and community. To schedule your workshop, or for more info about all of our workshops and rates, please contact us.

"Domestic Violence 101": What is Domestic Violence? Why do victims stay with their abusers? How does religion play into DV? What can You do end DV? These and many other insights are offered and discussed. Workshop includes domestic violence nformation, resources, speaker, and more. Contact OCSJ for more details including rates and scheduling.

New Social Justice resources:

"Parents, Be a Role Model for Children": A free booklet that offers tips and suggestions that Parents, family, friends, and community, can do to help keep children free from violence.

Rehnquist in hot water

AUSTIN -- Under the radar. Wheee, it is coming down fast and hard out here.

The Wall Street Journal devoted some coverage to the interesting case of Janet Rehnquist, inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Rehnquist, daughter of the chief justice, is in hot water for politicizing her nonpartisan office and forcing out longtime career civil servants: This is the kind of thing that draws attention in Washington, D.C., but buried in the story, we find some interesting nuggets concerning Inspector Rehnquist's efforts to create a kinder, gentler IG department.

"The HHS office is responsible for safeguarding $450 billion-plus in annual spending, including Medicare and Medicaid, giving it a big role in policing health-care fraud. It annually makes cost-saving recommendations totaling billions of dollars, participates in hundreds of criminal prosecutions and bars thousands of entities from government work," reports the Journal.

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