   Issue #58 - August 2002 - First Anniversary Edition 9:29 PM 8/7/02
Courtesy of: Mod Man's Observation: I STILL believe the DOW will close below 8000 this week. (Caveat: I'm an engineer, NOT a stock analyst, and I don't do well in Vegas.) 9:00 PM 8/7/02 "We wish to control big business so as to secure among other things good wages for the wage-workers and reasonable prices for the consumers. Wherever in any business the prosperity of the businessman is obtained by lowering the wages of his workmen and charging an excessive price to the consumers we wish to interfere and stop such practices. We will not submit to that kind of prosperity any more than we will submit to prosperity obtained by swindling investors or getting unfair advantages over business rivals." 7:41 PM 8/7/02 Editorial from: On the same day police had contained a group of anti-war protesters nearly a mile away, President George W. Bush told an audience at Grandover Resort The protesters, who were members of the Greensboro Peace Coalition, had notified police of their plans a week in advance. They were complying with city regulations. Yet they were denied the opportunity to join "open debate" by standing quietly where the President might see signs reflecting their opinions during a July 25 visit to Greensboro. Something is wrong with this picture. Meanwhile, no such restraint applied to the spontaneous flag waving by residents along the circuitous route of the presidential motorcade. The difference, of course, was the message. Nonetheless, the First Amendment guarantees free speech, regardless of ideology. 7:45 AM 8/6/02 By: Big John Sharque One commonly-held definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result". And, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, the word "conservative" means "tending to oppose change". "Opposing change" means doing the same thing over and over. When that "same thing" is electing Republicans that claim they'll:
(and these things have never happened, Reagan and Bush I raised taxes 4 times between themselves, submitted budgets to Congress 10 of 12 times that were sent back to them reduced, and expanded the size of the government by 14%), it means that they expect a different result from Bush II. 6:58 AM 8/6/02
6:32 AM 8/6/02 By: Paul Krugman Winston Smith, the protagonist of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, was a rewrite man. His job was to destroy documents that could undermine the government's pretense of infallibility, and replace them with altered versions. Lately, Winston Smith has gone to Washington. I'm sure that lots of history is being falsified as you read this - there are several three-letter agencies I don't trust at all - but two cases involving the federal budget caught my eye. Every government tries to make excuses for its past errors, but I don't think any previous U.S. administration has been this brazen about rewriting history to make itself look good. For this kind of thing to happen you have to have politicians who have no qualms about playing Big Brother; officials whose partisan loyalty trumps their professional scruples; and a press corps that, with some honorable exceptions, lets the people in power get away with it. 5:55 PM 8/5/02
Courtesy of: Mod Man's Observation: The DOW will close below 8000 this week fer sure. 8:27 AM 8/5/02 Offshore Edition From: George W. Bush (1) is clearly the man for the job when it comes to cleaning up crooked corporations, since he already knows all the dirty tricks in the book. And Dick Cheney (2) is not just his faithful number two in the administration - he's nudging up behind Dubya on the list this week as well. Meanwhile Paul O'Neill (4) is single-handedly destroying Brazil's economy, Rick Perry (6) is going straight for the personal attack ads, and Bill Simon (8) seems absolutely determined to lose the California governor race. Finally in last place we have a certain special someone who is very dear to our hearts, making a great big foul up in a most amusing manner. Enjoy! 2:38 AM 8/5/02 By: Tally Briggs Have you ever seen a group so out of touch with the realities of the common man? Countless executives running shady corporate Ponsi schemes with bogus accounting scams, then raiding the corporate treasury as their companies tank into oblivion. Not only did they steal money that they didn't earn, they helped destroy the very companies they were entrusted to run successfully, not run into the ground. Whatever happened to "you do the crime, you do the time"? Do they honestly believe they have done no harm and are blameless, or even worse, above the law? Millions of Americans have lost their retirement savings and for many Boomers with retirement just around the corner, they have no time to start over... 5:39 PM 8/4/02 "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him!" 12;58 PM 8/4/02 S econd quarter 2002 affordable price by income: 3:11 PM 8/2/02 "...beware: the road of the sword will bring division and much blood. Those who take it up will be devoured by it. Many people, in the name of God, have taken up the sword. And many have come to ruin. Thinking themselves capable of naming evil, they have become the very evil they name." 2:57 PM 8/2/02
Courtesy of: Mod Man's Observation: The DOW will close below 8000 next week. 2:38 PM 8/2/02 From: anonymous Subject: Take Hold of Every Moment A friend of mine opened his wife's underwear drawer and picked up a silk paper wrapped package: "This, - he said - isn't any ordinary package." He unwrapped the box and stared at both the silk paper and the box. "She got this the first time we went to New York, 8 or 9 years ago. She has never put it on. Was saving it for a special occasion. Well, I guess this is it." He got near the bed and placed the gift box next to the other clothings (sic) he was taking to the funeral house, his wife had just died. He turned to me and said: "Never save something for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion." I still think those words changed my life. Now I read more and clean less. I sit on the porch without worrying about anything. I spend more time with my family, and less at work. I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived up to, not survived through. I no longer keep anything. I use crystal glasses every day. I'll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket if I feel like it. I want to. The words "Someday..." and "One Day..." are fading away from my dictionary. If it's worth seeing, listening, or doing, I want to see, listen, or do it now. I don't know what my friend's wife would have done if she knew she wouldn't be there the next morning, this nobody can tell. I think she might have called her relatives and closest friends. She might call old friends to make peace over past quarrels. I'd like to think she would go out for Chinese, her favourite food. It's these small things that I would regret not doing, if I knew my time had come. I would regret it, because I would no longer see the friends I would meet, letters... letters that I wanted to write "one of this days". I would regret and feel sad, because I didn't say to my brothers and sons, not times enough at least, how much I love them. Now, I try not to delay, postpone, or keep anything that could bring laughter and joy into our lives. And, on each morning, I say to myself that this could be a special day. Each day, each hour, each minute, is special. 1:32 PM 8/1/02 "It doesn't take any courage to order men into battle." 12:20 PM 8/2/02
11:51 AM 8/2/02 Bush Approval Ratings Plunge 28 Points to 59% in State By: Ethan Fry A Quinnipiac University poll Thursday showed President Bush's Connecticut approval ratings have dropped drastically from post-Sept. 11 levels. Bush's overall approval rating in the state is now at 59%, down 28 points from his all-time high of 87% in December. And 48% of Connecticut voters disapprove of the way Bush handled recent business scandals, compared to 40% who approve of his behavior, the poll said. The poll was taken from July 23 to 29, with 1,092 registered Connecticut voters surveyed. It has a 3% margin of error. 'Oily Boy', save yourself the embarrassment... just resign while you still can. 11:41 PM 8/1/02
Courtesy of: Mod Man's Observation: The DOW will drop to less than 7000 within a month. (It's 'double-dip' recession time.) 11:45 AM 8/1/02 Nation infuriated by U.S. Treasury Secretary's comments that Latin-American aid could end up in Swiss banks.
From: Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Lafer told the U.S. ambassador that his country could not accept remarks by U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill suggesting foreign aid to Latin America could end up in a Swiss bank account, the ministry said Tuesday. O'Neill's comments infuriated Brazil, prompting President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to call for a retraction Monday. Lafer, in a meeting late Monday of less than 15 minutes with U.S Ambassador Donna Hrinak, said O'Neill's remarks caused "extreme ill feeling and negative repercussion in government and political fields, with the public and in Brazilian markets", the ministry's press office said Tuesday. People in this administration are TOTALY CLUELESS when it comes to understanding that: WORDS MEAN THINGS! 'Oily Boy' and his incompetent staff must go! 7;39 AM 8/1/02 Editorial from: The latest raft of economic data released yesterday was cause for more heartburn. The weaker-than-expected growth for the second quarter of this year - an annual rate of 1.1%, half of what had been predicted - calls into question the solidity of the recovery and gives more credence to warnings by some analysts that the economy could be in for a possible "double-dip" recession. The new government data also seem to confirm a fact of life not always acknowledged by pure economic orthodoxy - the volatile stock market's impact on the "real" economy. Those free-spending consumers who have been propping up the economy at a time of sluggish business investment do not inhabit a parallel universe, untouched by Wall Street. They are the same people who receive increasingly painful brokerage statements, which helps explain the falloff in consumer spending growth shown in yesterday's report and earlier surveys indicating plummeting consumer confidence. 6:36 AM 8/1/02 By: R. Porrofatto Ann Coulter, like others of her right-wing ilk, is a hate monger, pure and simple. The CoulterGeist lives and loves to hate, to froth, to rage against her enemies, to spew forth mindless belligerence and intellectual dishonesty, Why? Because they are loathsome extremists, an evil "cabal", a "cult", the worst scum of humanity, and most importantly, they don't agree with her. She calls them "liberals", and it is a species which exists solely in what passes for her own mind. Sure, half a million more people voted for one of those liberals over what she calls our present "magnificent leader" but dear Ann hates them all. Hate, hate, hate. It's because "her" liberals are traitors, you see, treasonous villains who want to destroy America. In her benighted Hassenlust, facts are beyond her ken, and she wouldn't want them to interfere with her lunatic rage. It doesn't matter that Ron Dellums, one of those "liberals" she excoriates for treason, is a decorated veteran of the Marine Corps. And who cares if Charles Rangel was decorated for valor in the Korean War or that George McGovern flew 35 bomber missions in WWII and earned a Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery under fire? It makes no difference that John Kerry won the Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts, five more medals than the combined totals earned by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Armey, Phil Gramm, Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay, and all the rest of the right-wing chicken hawks. Kerry and McGovern are liberal, and therefore they must be traitors to America. 2:45 AM 8/1/02 "Fact is, the only 'class warfare' fought in the USA since 1980 was declared by free market fundamentalists in light-wing 'think tanks', politicians like Newt Gingrich, and their media allies who persuaded millions of gullible voters that no valid public sphere exists apart from the military, and that vast wealth absolves its possessors of what old fashioned theologians called 'Original Sin'. In reality, we need regulated markets for same reason we need speed limits and state troopers with radar guns: because without them some people will do any damn thing they think they can get away with." 1:03 AM 8/1/02 By: William Rivers Pitt While American troops and Afghan civilians continue to bleed, Bush is shopping around for a new battlefront. Momentum is building across our national political landscape for a war with Iraq. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold hearings beginning Wednesday, July 31st, to explore the threat to America represented by Saddam Hussein. It is unlikely that any politician will stand up and ask the central questions - Where is the evidence that Hussein poses a threat? If he has weapons of mass destruction and we know it, why didn't we go to war against him months ago? Thanks to this cowardice, the Committee hearings will be little more than a rubber stamp for conflict. It seems all too likely that our forces will soon be engaged in Iraq. The fallout from this conflict will be enormous. American troops will die, unless we engage in antiseptic aerial bombardment that will utterly fail to dislodge Hussein or his purported weapons. Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians will die no matter how we decide to wage the war. If America decides, in pure Bush unilateralist action, to wage war without the blessings of the international community or a United Nations mandate, our prestige on the world stage will be annihilated. Worse, war in Iraq will drive the Middle East into a state of utter chaos. Reports from the British Foreign Affairs office paint a picture of a teetering Saudi Arabia on the brink of collapse. Infighting between the ruling Prince Abdullah and pro-Al Qaeda members of his royal family, fueled by Abdullah's pro-Western stance, has led observers to wonder how long this American ally within the House of Saud can stay on the throne. Popular uprisings against Abdullah have added fuel to this fire. An American attack upon Iraq could very easily be the spark that ignites a terrible conflagration... 12:42 AM 8/1/02
12:31 AM 8/1/02 By: Molly Ivins Anyway, the "Litigation Reform Act" (beware anything with tort "reform" in the title) among other things made it harder to sue executives and accountants - lawsuits that the corporate world invariably describe as "frivolous". This is the bill that made accounting firms "sue-proof" for aiding and abetting securities fraud. The bill also made it legal for CEO's to pipe up and lie about their company's prospects. Until then, executives had to avoid all "forward-looking" public statements about future earnings. Contrast that with Jeffery Skilling of Enron, bullying and snookering stock analysts right up to the end. In the real world, there are only two ways to deal with corporate misbehavior: One is through government regulation, and the other is by taking the misbehavers to court. What has happened over 20 years of free-market proselytizing is that we have dangerously weakened both forms of restraint - first through the craze for "deregulation", and second through endless rounds of "tort reform", all of which have the effect of cutting off citizens' access to the courts. By legally bribing politicians with campaign contributions, the corporations have bought themselves immunity from lawsuits on many levels. 12:15 AM 8/1/02
12:06 AM 8/1/02 By: Bernard Weiner As we approach the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it might be useful to see how far an ordinary citizen's knowledge has progressed one year on. So here, in the way of a summing-up, based on journalistic documentation, is a list of things we Americans have learned since last September - some of which might prove useful in the run-up to the November elections. Finally, as we enter August, we know that one of two things will happen in the summer-doldrums, with the Congress on vacation: Either Bush&Co. will start its Iraq war and carry out more under-the-radar attacks on important American programs, or the media, bereft of their usual Beltway stories, will use the down time to engage in hard-hitting investigative reporting that will reveal in even more stark relief the machinations of Bush&Co. illegalities and other scandalous behavior. But, given the corporate nature of our corporate-owned media, don't count on it. Instead, we'll probably be flooded with this summer's Condit-like sex scandal. It's a great list of Bush&Co.'s 'achievements' since 9/11.     - except wherein noted.All rights reserved. |
that the nation's terrorist enemies "cannot stand the fact that we have open debate in our society".
and the people she loves to hate most are her fellow Americans. She wants the rest of us to hate these Americans, too.
