Subject: Fwd: 02-07-02 Online Journal: Slate, Marsden
>Sally Slate's Reprehensible Sources, February 7, 2002
>
>For those of you who watched Super Bowl on television, how did you like
>the Bush administration's anti-drug/ anti-terrorism commercials that cost
>taxpayers $3.5 million? Inquiring minds want to know.
>
>Ms. Sally will refrain from listing the litany of social services
>programs—you know, gentle readers, the ones that help people—that George
>W. Bush says there is no money for, but he found $3.5 million of your
>money lying around in petty cash to further enrich Rupert Murdoch's Fox
>Network. Call it a little payback for Mr. Murdoch's support of
>Republicans. Not a bad return on a $527,275 investment in the GOP.
>
>It ought to make the people happy to know that Mr. Murdoch who has been
>granted the right to use their airwaves is now also charging them to run
>promos, as they are called, that used to be aired for free—the content of
>Mr. Bush's commercials aside.
>
>And, gentle readers, that is your lesson for today in why the rich get
>richer and the rest of us become poorer.
>
>The commercials must have been a hoot, since the Afghani poppy farmers are
>back in business and, as one wit observed, the financial systems are
>dependent on the drug trade. Hence, decriminalization is unthinkable and
>the prison industry takes precedent over treatment.
>
>Congress Gets Layed
>
>Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay failed to keep his appointment Monday to
>explain to Congress the tricks used to create a top Fortune 500 company
>that in reality was nothing more than smoke and mirrors that vastly
>enriched the top players, while leaving Enron's employees and shareholders
>holding the bag.
>
>Mr. Lay chickened out when some members of Congress brought up the subject
>of criminality. Oh my, how crass of them.
>
>Mrs. Lay's crocodile tears about how destitute they are were really
>touching. Why the poor things have to sell a few homes. What she didn't
>mention were all the homes that aren't up for sale. And does she really
>expect us to believe that hubby Kenny blew the $300 million he got for his
>Enron stock on "bad investments," hmm? If true, wouldn't that be a kick in
>the head to the free market promoters who claim private enterprise is more
>efficient than government?
>
>Ms. Sally would look offshore for Mr. Lay's and his cohorts' stashes.
>
>Speaking of offshore, since Mr. Lay and the senior Enron execs haven't
>been taken into custody, have their passports been picked up? If not, what
>is to prevent them from making like fugitive financier Robert Vesco and
>fleeing the country? Will Mr. Lay and the others be around when the
>subpoenas arrive?
>
>A Fitting Punishment
>
>Ms. Sally says since Mr. Lay kept exhorting his hapless employees to keep
>buying Enron stock, while he and the officers in the know were dumping
>theirs, a fitting punishment would be to confiscate everything they own,
>sell it and put the proceeds back in the employees' 401(k) pension plans.
>
>Then Mrs. Lay and the other spouses will really have something to cry
>about. It would be a mighty lesson in what it is like to lose their jobs,
>their health benefits and their pension plans. They would learn what it is
>like to lose their homes because they can't pay the mortgage; have their
>cars repossessed when they can't meet the payments; to have to beg money
>from family and friends just to eat.
>
>What Does Cheney Know?
>
>A reader pointed us to a piece by Scott Burns in the June 10, 2001, Dallas
>Morning News that slipped below the national radar.
>
>Mr. Burns discovered from Dick Cheney's public financial disclosure
>report, filed May 15, 2001, that Mr. Cheney has the bulk of his fortune in
>cash, not stocks: "Plain old cash, as though you were waiting for
>something to happen."
>
>At the time, Mr. Burns was questioning Mr. Cheney's faith in the tax cut
>that was supposed to get the economy moving again, when he asked, "Is
>there something you know that we don’t know? Is there something you’d like
>to share with us, the people who may (or may not) have elected you to your
>present office?"
>
>Mr. Cheney obviously knows a lot, which is why he doesn't want to talk
>about it.
>
>Let's see, this is the administration that wants you to invest part of
>your Social Security money in Wall Street offerings.
>
>Texas Two-Step
>
>The word coming from the Lone Star State is that Rick Sanchez, a Laredo
>oilman, banker and venture capitalist, who is in a race with Dan Morales
>for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, appears to be a Republican in
>Democratic clothing.
>
>Sources say Mr. Sanchez endorsed and supported George W. Bush in his
>successful run for governor against Ann Richards. In the 2000 presidential
>race, Mr. Sanchez and his wife, as Pioneers, raised $323,625 for Mr. Bush.
>Mr. Sanchez also reportedly gave $100,000 to the Republican National
>Committee to aid Mr. Bush's fight to seize Florida's electoral votes.
>
>According to Texas Monthly, Mr. Sanchez is opposed to abortion. That
>should endear him to Texas women.
>
>Then there is the matter of Mr. Bush's gubernatorial records, which, in
>contravention of Texas law, he ordered moved prior to cataloging from the
>State House to his father's presidential library. A source says the chief
>of staff at the senior Bush's library claims the junior Bush's papers have
>not been received. Could they have been carted off with former New York
>Mayor Rudy Guiliani's to that fortress-like repository in Long Island City, NY?
>
>George W. Bush, Combat Veteran?
>
>Are you ready for this one, gentle readers? George W. Bush now claims to
>have gone to war and the Associated Press dutifully reported this
>outrageous lie without so much as mentioning that Mr. Bush went
>missing—AWOL?—during his last two years of service in the Texas Air
>National Guard.
>
>Mr. Bush popped out with this whopper during a visit last month to West
>Virginia. During a chat with Democrat Bob Kiss, the speaker of the West
>Virginia House of Delegates, the AP reported that Mr. Bush commented,
>"I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war."
>
>That reminds Ms. Sally of the time Ronald Reagan astonished French
>President Francois Mitterand by telling him he was there when the Nazi
>death camps were opened, when, in fact, Mr. Reagan's only involvement in
>World War II was making training films on a Hollywood backlot for the military.
>
>Feds Shut Down Another Web Site
>
>Charges of "computer fraud"—whatever that means—and "distribution of
>information related to explosives, destructive devices, and/or weapons of
>mass destruction" were the Los Angeles FBI office's excuse for raiding and
>shutting down RaiseTheFist.com, an anarchist web site, late last month.
>
>The raid was carried out by the Los Angeles Joint Terrorism Task Force,
>comprised of the FBI, Secret Service and the LA Police Department.
>
>As usual, no one was arrested. Only computers, software and political
>literature were seized.
>
>The site's founder stated, "It's not yet known at this point if the site
>will be back up. As of now, we have nothing. No more servers, no more
>network, nothing. My room remains completely ransacked. My neighbors
>remain shaken up by what happened. I most likely won't be getting any of
>the equipment back. They also took a lot of my political literature.
>Apparently, their excuse for shutting it down was the 'militancy'
>portrayed on the site. This is not true. This was an excuse. This same
>'militancy' they were concerned about is portrayed on at least a thousand
>other web sites across the Internet, and they haven't been touched by the
>federal government, with the exception for remote monitoring."
>
>And you think we still have freedom of speech?
>
>No Nudes Is Good Nudes
>
>Or so Attorney General John Ashcroft has decided, prompting the Justice
>Department to spend $8,000 of your money, gentle readers, on curtains to
>hide two semi-nude Art Deco statues in the building's Great Hall.
>
>It's hard for even red-blooded Christians to keep their minds focused on
>terrorism when confronted with a bare breast or a glimpse of male genitalia.
>
>What Ms. Sally wants to know is what kind of curtains cost $8,000? The
>Republican curtains put the Democrats' $600 toilet seats and $400 hammers
>to shame.
>
>Please Don't Investigate
>
>Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney separately, before Mr. Bush's vacuous State of the
>Union Address that is notable for only bringing us closer to World War
>III, tried to put the muscle on Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and
>other congressional leaders not to limit their investigations into the
>events of September 11.
>
>Did you notice, gentle readers, that the corporate media made no big deal
>of the executive branch's attempt to tamper with Congress?
>
>And the filth keeps coming and coming.
>
> From the Mailbag:
>
>Adesina wrote: "It was really refreshing to read your article on "All Hail
>the Thief and his Gang of Robbers."
>
> From Danny G.: "My friends and I have been discussing our mutual
> observations of President Bush's remarkable oratory skill improvement.
> During the first part of the "presidency," he stumbled and fumbled with
> his words. Now, it is as though he was a Rhode Scholar! Did they do
> plastic surgery on Dick Cheney to make him look like Dubya so that they
> could have an orator worthy of the office?"
>
>Florence in Arizona wrote: "If you had been paid to write the silliest
>story of the year, even you with your remarkable wit and considerable
>talent, you could not have dreamed up such an inane scenario. Of course it
>continues to change . . . this Presidential Pretzel Phenomenon . . . now
>it appears that instead of being knocked senseless when our intrepid
>leader hit the carpet, he called his wife on the telephone to tell her
>that "something terrible had happened". Now, how could he do that if he
>were not conscious? His tales are as changeable as the weather and as
>unlikely. I still can't figure out why they bothered us with it in the
>first place, can you?"
>
>Several readers wrote to say they have no trouble accessing the most
>partisan Democratic sites from their AOL accounts. Several more wrote to
>say they did. It seems to Ms. Sally that the latter could end the problem
>by getting another Internet provider.
>
>Bill in Massachusetts wrote: "You are awesome!"
>
>Aw, gosh . . .
>
>Until next time . . .
>
>
>Sally Slate welcomes mail from her readers, especially mail containing
>factual items and tidbits from sources who can’t go public. You may email
>her at mssally at onlinejournal.com.
>
>
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