UNDERNEWS February 4, 2000 Free-range journalism from Washington's most unofficial source ----------------------------------------------------- THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW Editor: Sam Smith 1312 18th St. NW #502, Washington DC 20036 202-835-0770 Fax: 835-0779 E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] PROGRESSIVE REVIEW INDEX: http://www.prorev.com/ UNDERNEWS: http://www.prorev.com/indexa.htm RECOMMEND US TO OTHERS: http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=526397 SUBSCRIBE: Reply with "subscribe" as subject UNSUBSCRIBE: Reply with 'unsubscribe' as subject ----------------------------------------------------- WORD >From the conclusion of this war we shall be going downhill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded... The shackles, therefore, . . . will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion. -- Thomas Jefferson INFOWARS Internet Censorship SAN FRANCISCO WEEKLY: So far, the ADL HateFilter has been marketed as a service to be used in the home. But that may soon change ... The ADL's national director, Abraham Foxman, met with President Clinton at least twice last year . . . After the latter meeting, Malcolm Hoenlein, a top official in the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, told reporters that Clinton had agreed to take the lead in persuading Americans to install a "hate filter" on their computers. In October, Clinton again met with the ADL, and began his speech with a tribute to the organization's new software . . . More recently, Elizabeth Coleman, the ADL's director of civil rights, was asked to participate in a panel discussion concerning a "family friendly" Internet at a conference for the National Association of Attorneys General a few weeks ago . . . She said over lunch that the organization had also shown the filter to Vice President Al Gore, who "loved it." . . . If made explicit, White House support for the ADL filter could have a significant impact on the policy decisions of public schools and libraries across the country. Although decisions regarding school and library Internet filters are currently made at the local level, a bill before Congress spearheaded by Sen. John McCain, called the Children's Internet Protection Act, would require all schools and libraries receiving federal funds to install Internet filters on computers accessible to children. If the bill wins approval, even a mention by the White House, combined with the ADL's strong regional lobbying, could go a long way toward encouraging local jurisdictions to choose the HateFilter from the filtering software on the market. But if Clinton likes and Gore loves the HateFilter (at least in the ADL's eyes), many are aghast at the thought of the ADL having any say over what children may or may not see. These critics, whose political and religious affiliations vary widely, repeatedly describe the ADL as a self-appointed agent of Israel that cloaks itself in the rhetoric of fighting hate, while actively attempting to silence those who are not hate-mongers, but mere opponents of Israeli government policy... THE ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER tested out a leading filter, Net Shepherd Family Search. Here are some of the subjects for which over 95% of the hits were filtered out when compared to a normal Alta Vista search: AARP, American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services, Congress of National Black Churches, Leukemia Society of America, National Organization for Women, UNICEF, United Jewish Appeal, Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of America, Cleveland Orchestra, Disneyland, Independence Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Zoo, PBS, Smithsonian, and Yellowstone National Park. A search on Alta Vista for the National Basketball Association produced over 18,000 hits. When Family Search was used, only two items came up. The state-run Utah Education Network filtered out the Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, bible, Book of Mormon, Koran, all of Shakespeare's plays, and George Washington's farewell address. EPIC http://www.epic.org SAN FRANCISCO WEEKLY http://www.sfweekly.com/ INFOWARS Political bullies JAMES RIDGWWAY, VILLAGE VOICE: The way the Democratic presidential candidates try to manage the press is a study in propaganda. In the Gore campaign, nothing is left to chance, and when it suits their purposes, a little intimidation is not considered out of bounds . . . Not long into [a] stump speech (which has been known to last more than an hour), a small street-theater group called Class Act unraveled a banner in the bleachers challenging him to speak out on the Amazon rain forest . . . Gore supporters immediately tore down the banner, and Secret Service agents assembled at the foot of the bleachers to escort the protesters from the gym . . . Later, local cops rushed across the floor and grabbed a man who they later said had been making gestures and threatening the peace, and hustled him from the room. Reporters trying to follow were blocked by Secret Service agents, but not before they saw a half-dozen cops literally sitting on the man. As the rally labored on, a Gore staffer assigned to patrol the press area passed a Village Voice reporter and, intently eyeing his press pass, whispered to a security agent, "That guy standing next to you is from The Village Voice." The men exchanged knowing glances." . . . Many of the Bradley people, dressed in gray striped suits with individual name buttons attached, act like they're working for Lyndon LaRouche . . . They are into ropes in a big way, incessantly tying off spaces where the senator is scheduled to speak, knotting off holding pens for the press, and then herding reporters into the secluded areas . . . Because Bradley has a thing about cameras, his people have been known to push cameramen to keep them at a proper distance. If a sound man lowers a boom anywhere near the candidate, an aide charges through the film crews, screaming, "Booms Up!" and swatting at the poles to get them away from the sacred space around their man's head, lest they record the great one saying something profound, like, "I need your vote." At the end of a campaign stop, the suits let the spectators out first, then block the press from leaving the building until Bradley is safely into his van and sucking a Coke. "Nazoids!" yelled one photographer. "It's a cult," said another. VILLAGE VOICE: http://villagevoice.com/issues/0005/ridgeway.shtml JUST POLITICS SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS: Texas Gov. George W. Bush portrays himself as a candidate who reaches out to minority voters, but he was the featured speaker Wednesday at a Christian school that prohibits interracial dating . . . In going to the school, the Republican presidential hopeful reached out to Southern conservatives at the possible risk of alienating moderates, independents and minority voters in other parts of the country . . . Census figures from 1998, the latest available, show that 5.6 percent of married couples in the United States identify themselves as interracial, up from 4 percent in 1990 . . . At a news conference after his speech, Bush said he opposes the ban on interracial dating. SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS http://www7.mercurycenter.com/premium/nation/docs/bushrace03.htm TRENDS USA TODAY: The nation's historically black colleges are becoming increasingly white . . . Four of the USA's 106 historically black colleges and universities are majority-white, according to the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education . . . As of 1998, at least a dozen of the schools were 19% to 49% white, according to the NAFEO. The white population at all historically black schools climbed 16% from 1990 to 1998. MEXICO ASSOCIATED PRESS: Prosecutors have filed criminal charges against 174 radical student leaders of a strike that has shuttered Latin America's largest university for the last nine months, local news media reported Thursday . . . Fellow strikers, who remain in control of the National Autonomous University of Mexico's huge main campus, have added the release of their comrades to their list of demands for ending the strike. ECO NOTES ENS: A letter from the U.S. State Department to the European Union reveals that the United States is demanding that the European Union drop its current commitment to eliminate some of the world�s most toxic chemicals. The letter was leaked today by the international environmental group Greenpeace . . . The letter reveals that United States is urging the European Union to vote with the U.S., and do no more than reduce the toxic chemicals at the March negotiations of the global persistent organic pollutants treaty in Bonn. ENS http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2000/2000L-02-03-04.html UNSOLVED MYSTERIES CBS: In a little-noticed message to Congress Tuesday, President Clinton again acted to protect the secrecy of military operations at the facility that has come to be known as Area 51, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller . . . Area 51 is not mentioned by name in the presidential notice. Instead, it is referred to mysteriously as "the United States Air Force's operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada." In the message, Mr. Clinton informs Congress that, acting under the authority of Presidential Determination 99-37, he was exempting that facility "from any federal, state, interstate or local hazardous or solid waste laws that might require the disclosure of classified information concerning that operating location to unauthorized persons." ------------------------------------------------ RECOMMEND US TO OTHERS: http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=526397 For a free trial subscription to UNDERNEWS send your postal address with zip code. Copyright 2000, The Progressive Review. Matter not independently copyrighted may be reprinted provided TPR is paid your normal reprint fees, if any, and is given proper credit. Because of its quantity, TPR's mail is not always answered, but it is always read. The editor is cheered or remorseful as appropriate and posts some of the more interesting messages at http://www.prorev.com/letters.htm.
