UNDERNEWS
Aug 2, 2000
THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
For more than 35 years,
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Editor: Sam Smith
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WORD
Writing . . . must come from a great emotional upheaval in the soul, and if
that upheaval is not present, it must come from the work of any other writer
which happens to be handy and easily imitated -- Robert Benchley
MARTIAL LAW
DECLAN MCULLAGH, WIRED: US Army is prepared to respond to disruptions
ranging from civil disobedience to nuclear explosions at the Republican
National Convention, a confidential government document says. The terrorism
response plan includes flying giant C-5 Galaxy cargo planes loaded with
military gear into Willow Grove Naval Air Station, about 25 miles outside
the city, and assembling troops at three National Guard armories near the
downtown protest areas. "Preparedness for nuclear, biological, chemical, and
civil disturbance events, as well as potential weather-related disaster
events, must be considered," says the Federal Emergency Management Agency
document, obtained by Wired News from a source who asked to remain
anonymous. A FEMA spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the document, but
said he did not have any information that a terrorist attack was likely to
happen during the GOP convention . . . The document, created by FEMA to
supplement its usual procedures, says that the US First Army will, if
necessary, execute Operation Garden Plot to quell any serious civil
disturbances.
Operation Garden Plot has long been an object of speculation by conspiracy
theorists, but the watchdog group Federation of American Scientists
describes it as the military's overall plan for "support related to domestic
civil disturbances" that was last used during the Los Angeles riots in 1992.
Critics such as the American Civil Liberties Union have protested the recent
trend to use military troops for law enforcement purposes.
If a terrorist attack happens, FEMA is responsible for aiding the FBI. But
if the president declares martial law in response to looting, vandalism, or
civil unrest, FEMA works with the Defense Department.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,37920,00.html?tw=wn20000801
[NOTE: There is no basis for martial law under the Constitution and no
constitutional basis for the role that FEMA intends to assume under such
circumstances. -- TPR]
THE STORY BEHIND FEMA http://prorev.com/fema.htm
PHILADELPHIA
R2K: Thousands of activists protesting the "criminal injustice" system
created major non-violent disruptions around this city today, occupying a
dozen intersections, taking over many streets, and blocking several buses
transporting delegates to the Republican National Convention. Throughout the
day, at least 450 people were arrested at various locations. Activists
demanded abolition of the death penalty and the prison-industrial complex,
an end to police violence, and freedom for award-winning death-row
journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners. The convention's
evening session was delayed because of the protests. Today's massive
protests were met by pepper-spraying, beatings with batons -leaving at least
one activist unconscious and hospitalized - and arrests of people not
committing civil disobedience who were perceived by police to be "leaders."
Observers noted that police appeared to single out people of color for
harsher treatment. In addition, an hour before the protests began, police
raided the "Ministry of Puppetganda," a studio where puppets were being
assembled, trapping over 70 activists inside for about four hours before
arresting everyone.
UNITY 2000: One of the more outrageous police actions of the day started
before the actions got underway. At 2 PM this afternoon scores of police
officers surrounded the building being used to create puppets and other
creative props. The Puppetistas call this location the home of puppetganda
and it was here that folks have been busy for weeks creating the puppets and
other items used in the demonstrations over the past few days. Arriving with
no search warrant, the legal team forced the cops to go to court to get a
warrant before they could enter the building. While the legal process was
unfolding, the police kept a solid line of officers around, and on top of,
the building for several hours. And they took the 75 people in the space
into custody, keeping them in buses in the hot sun. (Yes, it was yet one
more very hot and humid day here.) Eventually the police got the warrant and
searched the place...supposedly looking for weapons and for a plastic
explosive called C4. According to one of the lawyers, the last time C4 was
used in Philadelphia was when the police bombed the Move house and set a
whole block of houses on fire, killing a number of adults and children. As
you might imagine, there was no C4 and nothing else resembling a weapon. The
raid on the puppet space was pure intimidation.
LAND OF THE FREE
DENVER POST: Caitlin Rezac's face is dotted with freckles, both her knees
are skinned, and she's looking forward to middle school so she can start
playing soccer. She also has an apron with the slogan "Soda Girl" on it, a
2,000-word business plan and a sales-tax license. And in her most recent
foray as an entrepreneur, she has learned a hard lesson in civics. Boulder
County health officials shut down the 11-year-old's curbside lemonade stand
July 9, five days after she started selling chic Italian sodas. Caitlin
didn't have a $110 health license to peddle sodas on the street, nor did she
have a sink to clean her hands. "When you're handling and scooping ice, it's
important your hands are clean," said Ann Walters, coordinator of the food
protection program at the Boulder County Department of Health. "We take our
sanitation very seriously."
WILD SHOTS
JENS LUDWIG & PHILIP COOK, JOURNAL OF THE AMA: Based on the assumption that
the greatest reductions in fatal violence would be within states that were
required to institute waiting periods and background checks, implementation
of the Brady Act appears to have been associated with reductions in the
firearm suicide rate for persons aged 55 years or older but not with
reductions in homicide rates or overall suicide rates.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v284n5/abs/joc91749.html
TYPOS YOU DON'T WANT TO MAKE
INSIDE: Los Angeles resident Cornell Zachary sued Duran Duran. Zachary
claims in his two separate Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuits that the band
erroneously gave out his phone number -- a custom one to accommodate his
unspecified physical disability -- for a promotion line that sold band
tickets and merchandise. Hordes of Duran Duran fans made ''a cascade of
telephone calls,'' causing him to suffer from sleep disorders and other
health problems, including ''life-threatening high blood pressure
episodes,'' Zachary claims. Combined, the two lawsuits name five causes of
action, including invasion of privacy, infliction of emotional distress and
negligence.
http://inside.com
CLINTON SCANDALS
WORLDNET DAILY: Hearings into missing White House e-mail took a surprise
turn when a former White House computer manager said she told Congress about
gaps in e-mail records almost two years ago. The federal court testimony
undercuts GOP lawmakers' claims that the White House never told them the
subpoenaed e-mails were missing until this year. Sheryl Hall, a former
branch chief in the White House's computer division, said she secretly
briefed a House investigator in November 1998 about the records gap, known
internally as "Project X." She says the Republican staff lawyer, who went on
to work for the independent counsel, didn't follow up on her complaint. The
lawyer, Keith Ausbrook, told Worldnet Daily he doesn't recall talking about
Project X with Hall.
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3986750d018d.htm
JUST POLITICS
BLOOMBERG: Political scientists who specialize in statistical studies of
elections are almost unanimous: Al Gore is a shoo-in to win in November.
This may come as a surprise to those who read public opinion polls . . . Yet
academic models based on past elections, which factor in economic variables
such as inflation and the gross domestic product, see Gore winning, largely
on the strength of the economy.
NEW WORLD ORDER
ASHVILLE GLOBAL REPORT: Seven people arrested on April 12, on charges of
"possession of implements of crime" and "conspiracy to commit possession of
implements of crime," during events leading up to the IMF/World Bank protest
in DC, went to trial. The judge ruled that the statute in question was
ambiguous, and because the most obvious reading of the statute applied only
to tools and implements for picking locks and pockets, the cases were
dismissed . . . The objects found on the accused - among them, Asheville, NC
resident Kent Richards - consisted of chicken wire, duct tape, lengths of
PVC pipe, tools, and -according to the police - completed lock boxes. Lock
boxes are devices often made from common variety items found at any hardware
store. They are typically used in acts of civil disobedience to reinforce
the immobility of the person wearing the device. However, the materials in
the possession of the accused are also often used in puppet-making . . .
Richards and others were arrested by an "anti-terrorism task force," made up
of DC police and FBI special agents, after their van and another were
stopped near the corner of 14th and U streets. "We were under surveillance.
I watched videotapes that they'd filmed of us. They had tapes of us at the
warehouse and of people going in and out of the plumbing supply store," said
Richards. "According to the police report, they were tipped off by employees
of the plumbing supply store (where the articles in question had been
purchased). The police knew well in advance, because they had footage from
early in the morning, long before we met at the warehouse. They also had a
detective in one of the blockade trainings that were held at the convergence
space."
http://www.agrnews.org
WOODY HARRELSON ON POT
GUARDIAN, LONDON: In the US, the government is very partial to telling you
that you are living in the land of the free and the home of the brave -
well, it sure ain't free," says Harrelson. "I believe that, in a truly free
country, you should be able to choose the drug you want, as long as you are
not harming anybody else. Now, everybody's a drug-addict, children are
addicted to sugar, caffeine and pharmaceuticals, every one of those kids who
shot up the schools in the US were on some kind of pills. My best friend,
Danny Platner, died from the use of alcohol, pills and tobacco, all
extremely addictive drugs. All legalized and freely available. Put him in
the grave at age 32 . . .
"The most destructive drugs are all condoned by the government," he
continues, "yet they criminalize marijuana, a lot of my friends are in jail
for smoking pot (and the prison system is one of the fastest-growing
industries, by the way), which has no proven side-effects apart from making
you feel euphoric. So what's wrong with that? Every year hundreds of
thousands die from tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical use - I'm sorry, I
get emotional about this. But to my knowledge, nobody's ever died from
smoking marijuana. And, believe me, some nights I've tried and you can't do
it."
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4042212,00.html
SOLVED MYSTERIES?
APB NEWS: For hundreds of years, mystery lovers have theorized about
spontaneous human combustion -- the strange physical phenomenon that
allegedly turns its victims into columns of fire, without an apparent spark
and without doing damage to anything else around. Stories of death by such
magic flames have been written about since Charles Dickens' era and repeated
by generations of believers in the paranormal. These rumors have proved so
persistent that they are still commonly accepted as fact on the Internet, on
television and in the minds of many people today. But almost 50 years ago, a
source no less authoritative than the FBI testing lab came to a different
conclusion on the issue of "SHC" after examining the immolation of an
elderly St. Petersburg, Fla., woman who mysteriously burned to cinders in
her easy chair . . .
Before the bureau's dismissal of the spontaneous combustion rumors, the 1951
case of Mary Hardy Reeser's burning had stumped local police. On July 1, the
grandmotherly 67-year-old -- upset over a delay in plans to move back to
Pennsylvania -- took a dose of the sleeping pill Seconal to calm herself and
settled into her easy chair to have a smoke. It was her usual ritual, but
that night it would have tragic consequences. Nothing but cinders -- and one
foot . . . The bureau ruled Reeser died from a phenomenon known today as
"the wick effect," in which a small simmering fire sparked by something such
as a cigarette grows to an intense heat with the body's own fat acting as
fuel source. The fat, in effect, seeps into the victim's clothes and causes
the victim to burn like the wick of a Coleman lantern. This process causes
great heat in the immediately vicinity. But the heat only goes straight up,
leaving flammable items next to the fire as unharmed as a camper sleeping
next to a crackling campfire . . .
http://apbnews.com
THE MEDIACRACY
FAIR: A new round of scrutiny directed at a report by ABC's John Stossel
once again raises questions about whether Stossel distorts factual evidence
in his reporting. The new revelations, brought to light by the Environmental
Working Group and published in the New York Times on July 31, concern "The
Food You Eat," a report that aired on 20/20 on February 4 and was
re-broadcast on July 7.
Stossel argued that organic produce may in fact be more dangerous than
conventional produce, with ABC's tests showing increased levels of E.coli
bacteria in organic sprouts and lettuce. He also maintained that the tests
found no pesticide residue in either the conventional or organic produce,
thereby removing a key reason for buying organic food.
But according to the Times article, the scientists that ABC hired-- Doctors
Michael Doyle and Lester Crawford-- now say that they never tested any of
the produce for pesticides, only for bacteria. During the most recent
broadcast of the segment, Stossel commented that "it's logical to worry
about pesticide residues, but in our tests, we found none on either organic
or regular produce." The testimony of both researchers indicates that
Stossel was referring to tests that do not exist. In addition, Dr. Crawford
told the Times that he did perform similar tests on chicken, and found
pesticide residue on the conventional poultry but not on the organic
poultry. That data is nowhere in Stossel's report.
http://www.fair.org/activism/stossel-organics.html
http://www.fair.org/media-outlets/stossel.html .
RIGGING THE ELECTION
PROTEST IS GROWING to the rigged presidential debates. Here are some key
sites and contacts:
CORPORATE FUNDERS OF DEBATES
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. Stephen D. LaResche, VP of Public Relations
One Busch Place Saint Louis, MO 63118 Toll-free phone: 1-877-233-7702 Fax:
314-577-2900
AT&T Corporation Richard J. Martin, Executive VP of Public Relations 32
Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10013-2412 Phone: 1-800-222-0400 Fax:
212-387-5695
Sun Microsystems, Inc. John Loiacono, Director of Corporate Communications
901 San Antonio Road Palo Alto, CA 94303-4900 Phone: 1-888-786-3463 (ask for
PR) Fax: 650-865-4643
Yahoo, Inc www.yahoo.com
3com Inc. 408-326-5000
COMMISSION ON PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES
http://www.debates.org
PAT BUCHANAN'S LEGAL COMPLAINT:
http://www.buchanan.org/pa-00-0320-fullfeccomplaint.html
NADER CAMPAIGN http://www.votenader.org
PROTEST GROUPS
MOBILIZATION FOR SURVIVAL http://www.bostonmobilization.org
RECLAIM DEMOCRACY http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/
CAMPUS ACTION NETWORK http://www.bostoncan.net
GREEN PARTY http://www.greenparties.org
UNITED FOR A FAIR ECONOMY http://www.ufenet.org
LOOSE CHANGE
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: Wall Street executives aren't known for shying away
from four-letter words, but there is one you almost never hear from
securities analysts: sell. Almost no analysts recommend selling a stock.
Less than 1 percent of 27,000 analysts' research reports on July 31
contained the S word, according to the research company First Call Corp.
Two-thirds are rated "buys" or "strong buys." The rest are rated "hold" . .
. Accentuating the positives can mean a lot of negatives for individual
investors. Misleading research brings losses for investors who base stock
purchases on it. Nary an analyst predicted the recent earnings slowdowns at
such companies as Xerox Corp., MicroStrategy Inc., Nokia Corp., and Procter
& Gamble Co. The earnings problems created millions of dollars in losses for
shareholders in those companies.
http://www.phillynews.com
WASHINGTON TIMES: FLOYD, Va. This town in southern Virginia might have only
400 residents and one stoplight, but it will soon start printing thousands
of dollars of its own money to keep cash spent on everything from doctors'
bills to groceries within its borders. The town is following the lead of
Ithaca, NY, which has printed $65,000 worth of its own currency since 1991.
About 45 cities around the United States have adopted their own "scrip,"
local currency that was common around the time of the Civil War. "Money US
dollars doesn't represent anything except an exchange. Scrip is the same
thing it's consensus," said Dawn Shiner, spokeswoman for the Floyd Scrip
Study Group. . . . The town's residents are a mix of farmers, retirees and
young artists, known locally as "alternatives." Main Street, which has the
hardware store and the barber shop, now also has stores selling arts and
crafts, herbs and whole foods, and a restaurant serving vegetarian entrees.
Locals have dubbed the thoroughfare "Woodstock Alley."
http://www.washtimes.com/metro/default-200082232318.htm
FIELD NOTES
IF THE PHONE COMPANY RAN A RESTAURANT
http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/00/Jul/atlantic.html
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