| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Vladas Mazelis" |
| Date: |
22 Oct 2003 02:23:17 AM |
| Object: |
War on Drugs Is Crime! |
I've received this very fine mailing from our Libertarian Party. It makes a
lot of sense!
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America owes talk host Rush Limbaugh
a debt of gratitude, Libertarians say
WASHINGTON, DC -- The entire nation owes radio broadcaster Rush
Limbaugh a debt of gratitude, Libertarians say, because his ordeal
has exposed every drug warrior in America as a rank hypocrite.
"One thing we don't hear from American politicians very often is
silence," said Joe Seehusen, Libertarian Party executive
director. "By refusing to criticize Rush Limbaugh, every drug warrior has
just been
exposed as a shameless, despicable hypocrite. And that's good news,
because the next time they do speak up, there'll be no reason for
anyone to listen."
The revelation that Limbaugh had become addicted to painkillers --
drugs he is accused of procuring illegally from his housekeeper --
has caused a media sensation ever since the megastar's shocking, on-air
confession last week.
As the Limbaugh saga continues, here's an important question for
Americans to ask, Libertarians say: Why are all the drug warriors
suddenly so silent?
"Republican and Democratic politicians have written laws that
have condemned more than 400,000 Americans to prison for committing the
same 'crime' as Rush Limbaugh," Seehusen pointed out. "If this
pill-popping pontificator deserves a get-out-of-jail-free card, these drug
warriors had better explain why."
Given their longstanding support for the Drug War, it's fair to ask:
Why haven't President George Bush or his tough-on-crime attorney
general, John Ashcroft, uttered a word criticizing Limbaugh's law-
breaking?
Why aren't drug czar John P. Walters or his predecessor, Barry
McCaffrey, lambasting Limbaugh as a menace to society and a threat to
"our children?"
Why aren't federal DEA agents storming Limbaugh's $30 million Florida
mansion in a frantic search for criminal evidence?
Why haven't federal, state, and local police agencies seized the
celebrity's homes and luxury cars under asset-forfeiture laws?
Finally, why aren't bloviating blabbermouths like William Bennett
publicly explaining how America would be better off if Limbaugh were
prosecuted, locked in a steel cage and forced to abandon his wife,
his friends, and his career?
The answer is obvious, Seehusen said: "America's drug warriors
are shameless hypocrites who believe in one standard of justice for
ordinary Americans and another for themselves, their families and
their political allies.
"That alone should completely discredit them."
But there's an even more disturbing possibility, Seehusen said: that
the people who are prosecuting the Drug War don't even believe in its
central premise -- which is that public safety requires that drug
users be jailed.
"The Bushes and Ashcrofts and McCaffreys of the world may
believe, correctly, that individuals fighting a drug addiction deserve
medical, not criminal treatment," he said. "That would explain why
they're not demanding that Limbaugh be jailed.
"But if that's the case, these politicians have spent decades
tearing apart American families for their own political gain. And that's an
unforgivable crime."
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| User: "Jeff Strickland" |
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| Title: Re: War on Drugs Is Crime! |
22 Oct 2003 03:36:01 PM |
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The revelation that Limbaugh had become addicted to painkillers --
drugs he is accused of procuring illegally from his housekeeper --
has caused a media sensation ever since the megastar's shocking, on-air
confession last week.
Yes, Rush is addicted to pain killers used to quell pain that he suffers
daily.
His drug addiction, untill now, has not caused him to miss work, wreck his
car, kill anybody, forfiet his home, or any of the things that beseige those
using drugs that the Drug War is fighting against. Rush does not use his
dependency as a crutch, he does not use it to justify other illegal
activities. He is just a guy that suffers intollerable pain, and the drugs
that ease the pain have an addictive quality to them, making it necessary to
take more and more of them to ease the same amount of pain.
Yes, there is a certain "entertainment" quality to his usage patterns, but
this does nothing to eliminate the very real pain he feels in his back.
As the Limbaugh saga continues, here's an important question for
Americans to ask, Libertarians say: Why are all the drug warriors
suddenly so silent?
Because this drug issue and the drug issue that the Drug Wars are all about
are not the same issue?
"Republican and Democratic politicians have written laws that
have condemned more than 400,000 Americans to prison for committing the
same 'crime' as Rush Limbaugh," Seehusen pointed out. "If this
pill-popping pontificator deserves a get-out-of-jail-free card, these drug
warriors had better explain why."
Many of the druggies in jail have committed some other crime as a result of
thier drug use. Rush has done nothing wrong, besides using his prescription
drugs at a rate higher than his prescription calls for.
If the liberals, or liberetarians, are going to go after Bush about Rush's
problems, then the liberals, or liberetarians, have serious problems.
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| User: "Vladas Mazelis" |
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| Title: Re: War on Drugs Is Crime! |
22 Oct 2003 10:22:15 PM |
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"Jeff Strickland" <beerman@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:vpdqi8liev12d5@corp.supernews.com...
The revelation that Limbaugh had become addicted to painkillers --
drugs he is accused of procuring illegally from his housekeeper --
has caused a media sensation ever since the megastar's shocking, on-air
confession last week.
Yes, Rush is addicted to pain killers used to quell pain that he suffers
daily.
His drug addiction, untill now, has not caused him to miss work, wreck his
car, kill anybody, forfiet his home, or any of the things that beseige
those
using drugs that the Drug War is fighting against. Rush does not use his
dependency as a crutch, he does not use it to justify other illegal
activities. He is just a guy that suffers intollerable pain, and the drugs
that ease the pain have an addictive quality to them, making it necessary
to
take more and more of them to ease the same amount of pain.
Poor Rush! There are thousands and thousands of men and women right now
trying to get some sleep behind bars, who also never killed anybody, never
stole anything, never hurt anybody, only wanted to feel better, to escape
some kind of external or internal pain. They are now, because of that
terribly criminal desire, in cages that would make the PETA mad, if some 3
or four animals of human size were locked up in cages of similar size
anywhere in the world. I don't think they are, thank God!
If the liberals, or liberetarians, are going to go after Bush about Rush's
problems, then the liberals, or liberetarians, have serious problems.
No, we will go after fascism, after the American Gulag, after the Police
State USA, which tore apart no, not 400,000 as Libertarians write, but some
8 million American families over the 30+ years of this perpetual war on
drugs. This is the crime against humanity of immense proportions, and it's
great that more and more people are starting to realize this fact.
And I am optimistic about the future. Looking back into the history, all
past tyrannies crumbled under the weight of their own attrocities. This one
will crumble too. And, as always in cases of all collapsed tyrannies, the
judges will trade places with their victims. As usual!
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| User: "Carol Lee Smith" |
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| Title: Re: War on Drugs Is Crime! |
22 Oct 2003 02:53:06 PM |
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On Wed, 22 Oct 2003, Vladas Mazelis wrote:
I've received this very fine mailing from our Libertarian Party. It
makes a
lot of sense!
----------------
America owes talk host Rush Limbaugh
a debt of gratitude, Libertarians say
<snip>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oaxaca, Tuesday, October 21, 2003
Friends,
Here we go once again. Though many of you already know me, I'm
writing with the hope that this note will also reach many people who don't
know me.
A way with words
Nancy has a way with words. She said to me, during the past year or
two, 'You're the biggest fucking cheapskate I ever met.' It's true. I
watch my expenses like a hawk circling over a barnyard in the grey
pre-dawn light of early morning, as intent on holding down my living costs
as the hawk is in holding down the size of the chicken population. An
eagle-eyed product of my youth during the Great Depression, with an
independent streak of miserliness thrown in.
So what's this all about? Well, I want to tell you why I've sent
$1,000 to support the work of Al Giordano, tax-exempt of course, and am
ready to do it again each of the next two years.
Who's Al Giordano, and who am I? I'll start with him.
Alberto Giordano is the most inspiring person I've met in recent
years, maybe ever, and I'm 78, so I've had a little experience. The
on-line investigative reporting of his NarcoNews website burst like a
supernova of no-punches-pulled journalism -- what he justifiably calls
authentic journalism -- in the sky of America latina. Three and a half
years ago he started with his laptop, telling the truth about the U.S.
'War Against Drugs', exposing that dirty war of Washington for what it
was, and is, a war against the mostly poor people south of the Rio Grande.
And telling the truth about the dirty reporting of mainstream media. He
laid it all out, no holds barred, and scooped them all on the real news,
again and again. And he had fun doing it.
The New York Times was eating crow the day after it editorially
welcomed Pedro Carmona, the wealthy coup-installed dictator-for-a-day of
Venezuela in early April, 2002. Al had previously reported what was really
going on, hidden and lied about in mainstream pseudo-coverage. He told how
the poor people were coming down from the hills to seize back their
country from 'las golpistas'- the military engaged in the coup. He also
beat a legal attack against NarcoNews by a major drug money profiteer, the
billionaire owner of the privatized former Bank of Mexico, a stunning
legal victory for the first amendment rights of all on-line journalists.
For more about Al, a good place to start is his interview by the San
Francisco Independent Media Center on Dec 20, 2002, at
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/12/1552703.php.
It's also posted at
http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strategy/Discussion/2002-12-20Giordano.html
So what's the deal? On October 18 Narco News put out its final
report. It can't keep going as is. Al explains why in the Closing
Statement, at http://narconews.com/issue31/article886.html -- mainly money
and danger to the reporters. That's a great blow to all the segments of
civil society that are working to improve the deplorable conditions under
which the majority of the Western Hemisphere's people are forced to live.
We need NarcoNews. We need to know the truth. We need to counter the false
perceptions of reality put out by corporate media. We have a 'right' to
know, but we can only gain that 'right' through our own efforts, and those
of a robust, broad-based grassroots movement of authentic journalism, like
Al practiced, and, at least as important, very successfully promoted by
aiding and abetting and inspiring a whole school of young journalists.
And he's inspired, I'm sure, a whole school of old farts like me, too.
So who am I? Who is this Mr. Pinch Peso--the Mexican peso, that
is--who's ready to make a thousand dollar per year commitment for another
two years towards the work of Al Giordano?
I'm a still-rebellious but now retired professor emeritus of physics
who's obsession is trying to change history so that the truth of
Einstein's assertion, 'We shall require a substantially new manner of
thinking if mankind is to survive' will not be borne out because of human
failure to think critically about the crucial issues for survival.
Yes, I am obsessed, no doubt about it. I believe the achievement,
for all the world's people, of humane, sustainable survival is achievable
and is the preeminent issue we all ought to be grappling with. To see
where I'm coming from, a good window is probably a series of essays I'm
writing. They reveal me. The ninth one, titled 'Mutual Aid and Mutual
Trust', is framed largely on the basis of the quote from which Einstein's
ominous warning, which I think is justified, is taken. That essay is at
http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Grassroots/Infra-9.html
That's it. I'm both frugal to a fault on personal expenses (Don't
throw those leftover beans away, Nancy! I'll eat them.) and convinced that
so-called civilization is a dead end. And I don't want humanity to perish
prematurely, above all by its own hand. If a supervolcano under
Yellowstone blows, we can do nothing about it. If not, then maybe we can
continue until the sun becomes a red giant. We can't alter the cosmos, but
we can alter our own society's destructiveness.
We need to know reality, and then we need to change it. The whole
global grassroots communications infrastructure is crucial for our - this
is Paolo Freire's word for it - conscientizagco - our becoming fully
conscious of the reality in which we live. Al Giordano and his dynamite
associates have been a major sparkplug in developing this infrastructure,
and could be again, once the wherewithal were available. If we could get
it together and come up with, say, a commitment of 100,000 per year for
three years, I'm pretty damn sure Al and Luis Gomez and Dan Feder would be
strongly tempted to revive NarcoNews and keep doing what they obviously
love doing, and are so successful at. After all, they want satisfaction
out of life too, and their commitment to changing this world for the
better is beyond questioning.
It's time for all of us who have been better informed by Narco News
to show these guys that there is real support out here, not just sympathy
and words of encouragement, important though those are. Reading Narco
News' closing statement, it's clear they don't see enough commitment by
us. How can we expect them to continue carrying on with 'the landlord
incessantly knocking at the door', without any reliable backup support?
I must know at least a hundred people who could, if they chose, do
the same thing I'm doing without it having any significant impact on their
standard of living. And many others who could make smaller commitments.
There are 879 people currently on my mailing list.
So, let's do it. Let's get Narco News back in the fight for the hearts and
minds of our fellow Americans, and all Americanos and Americanas Latinos.
Let's just do it! Here's how. Send your contribution for 1994 and
your pledge for 1995 and 1996 to
Live Art 1st
51 MacDougal Street #257
New York, NY 10012
with the memorandum, For the work of Al Giordano
Live Art 1st operates under Performance Associates, a tax-exempt
organization, which you can contact for further information.
E-Mail:
Website: http://www.performanceassociates.com/
Telephone: 212.780.2159
Fax: 212.202.5386
And please forward this letter as widely as you wish. Also, I would
welcome notes from you telling me your pledges for 1994, 95, and 96, and
with any comments and/or advice about my effort to launch this campaign.
I'll attempt to keep you informed on how it's going, with information on
my website, in the Salz-mania subfolder of the Strategy for Revolution
main folder. I'll be posting this appeal there in short order, at
http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strategy/Salz-mania/2003-10-21.html
Sincerely in solidarity,
George
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