Volume 4 Issue 3…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race… January 24, 2001

Note: The DISH is based on themes from T.H.I.N.C. (Teaching Humanity In New Consciousness): The Chrysalis of Evolution. According to the President's Initiative on Race, "The issues that this book brings to the forefront are important in our efforts to achieve the goals set forth by the President for the Initiative. This work will serve as a solid resource for us as we begin to examine these critical issues." For your copy of T.H.I.N.C., The DISH or to submit comments, contact ICIM, Inc. at (404) 244-6023. The DISH © 2000

(Sing to The Beverly Hillbillies' Theme Song)

By Unknown

Come and listen to my story 'bout a boy name Bush.

His IQ was zero and his head was up his tush.

He drank like a fish while he drove all about.

But that didn't matter 'cuz his daddy bailed him out.

DUI, that is. Criminal record. Cover-up.

Well, the first thing you know little Georgie goes to Yale

He can't spell his name but they never let him fail.

He spends all his time hangin' out with student folk.

And that's when he learns how to snort a line of coke.

Blow, that is. White gold. Nose candy.

The next thing you know there's a war in Vietnam.

Kin folks say, "George, stay at home with Mom."

Let the common people get maimed and scarred.

We'll buy you a spot in the Texas Air Guard.

Cushy, that is. Country clubs. Nose candy.

Twenty years later George gets a little bored.

He trades in the booze, says that Jesus is his Lord.

He said, "Now the White House is the place I wanna be."

So he called his daddy's friends and they called the GOP.

Gun owners, that is. Falwell. Jesse Helms.

Come November 7, the election ran late.

Kin folks said "Jeb, give the boy your state!"

"Don't let those colored folks get into the polls."

So they put up barricades so they couldn't punch their holes.

Chads, that is. Duval County. Miami-Dade.

Before the votes were counted five Supremes stepped in.

Told all the voters "Hey, we want George to win."

"Stop counting votes!" was their solemn invocation.

And that's how George finally got his coronation.

Rigged, that is. Illegitimate. No moral authority.

Y'all come vote now. Ya hear?

About Me: Artist unknown. This song came to The DISH via email from a friend of a friend of a friend. No one seems to know the originator/creator. If you know the author(s), tell us their name (s) and something about them. Unless they choose anonymity, we will give them props for this creative hilarity!

Disgruntled says: A self-described "honorable man of integrity" and Yale University graduate, Dubya lied in his speech when he described America the Republic. After circumventing its pseudo-democratic institutions to get selected commander-in-chief, Dubya ditched honesty to cite "democracy" twice and "democratic" once in his coronation remarks. Holding steadfast to America's tradition of hypocrisy, he neither mentioned "republic" nor repented stealing the election. Instead, he called for civility from those disenfranchised. Hail to the imperial thief - His Fraudulency #2 - King Dubya.

Disgruntled wants to know: If the economy slips into recession to accommodate Dubya, can we label it spoofing, a spell casting tool for voodoo economics?

Disgruntled feels: Media merger mania demands productivity rates unheard of since sweatshops were outlawed. Remaining employed in this environment is tough. At one-mind headquarters - CNN, an employee must gather the news, sanitize it to fit one-mind specifications, write and edit newspaper copy, deliver it to a television audience, read it for radio, put it on the World Wide Web and archive it for posterity.

Before January 6, 2001, Turnout 75% suggested KUDOS for Al Gore, despite his fundamentally flawed campaign. He neither acknowledged nor embraced the Democratic Party's base of black voters. Nullifying the compliment, Gore joked as the nation aborted one-person, one-vote democracy. His "no controlling legal authority" humor killed our goodwill gesture.

Turnout 75% voted for Gore because he was the lesser of two evils. We faced the same untenable position as Missouri voters when Gov. Mel Carnahan died. Adamantly opposed to former Senator John Ashcroft’s far-right wing Southern conservatism, Missouri voters elected a dead man to replace him in the Senate.

Blacks hoped Gore would be moderate like Bill Clinton. While Clinton did not change the "traditional family values" mandated by the first law, to his credit, Clinton acknowledged his base of power. And, he basically told blacks he was powerless. His dialogue on race let blacks know the country tenaciously adheres to its first law, and changing this mindset will not be easy.

Unlike Clinton, Dubya openly supports the first law, which defines America’s socioeconomic and political intercourse. Gore honored its institutionalized racism in accepting Bush v. Gore and ending "the fight" to have black votes counted. To continue, he risked the wrath of those who support the gentlemen’s agreement, a la Abraham Lincoln and some say John F. Kennedy.

Gore would not fight the rule of American law, and therein lies Bush’s victory, our loss and the daunting challenge facing America. Gore surrendered to honor his white supremacy heritage, just like Bill Bradley. The rub is, they honor the Founding Fathers’ great compromise, the hypocrisy that legalized slavery and gave us the Electoral College. Adding insult to injury, our children are taught to believe we live in a democracy. No wonder they see us as fools for sending them to school to learn to doublethink.

Fact of the matter is, blacks make up the key electorate for winning elections almost anywhere in this country. Blacks are the decisive power block, if our votes are counted. But, as long as the law can be strictly interpreted to make black votes of "questionable legality," the black voter power bloc is neutralized. This is what happened in Election 2000; it is how America -the Republic operates; a smart-guy like Gore understands its dynamics better than most.

For his betrayal, Gore is just a bore looking for black votes. The jester need not bother asking anymore! Black people know the score. Gore - the jester bore- is a hypocrite. He will not fight for democracy! He just wants to be top dog of America - the Republic!

With Jesse Jackson- the media acclaimed leader of the black struggle for freedom and equality- caught in the crosshairs of the politics of personal destruction, there is an effort afoot to derail the groundswell for change engulfing the country. Efforts to render it leaderless are useless, because this movement has no one leader; individual responsibility provides countless leader citizens, as black, white and brown people commit themselves to making democracy an American reality.

Across America, discussions on slavery and reparations, protests against the display of Confederate symbols, hostile work environment lawsuits in all employment sectors, racial profiling and police brutality demonstrations, etc. are signs of the groundswell to bring democracy to America by reconciling its divisions.

Individuals are taking responsibility and claiming their civil rights, no more waiting for the "leader" to show up. The DISH proudly announces BATT-PAC. Sometime ago, we proposed a Black Agenda Two-Thousand (BATT). Its primary objective is to improve the condition of slave descendants, whose current status is the result of law and economics. Specifically, BATT seeks to repeal Article 1 Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which would abolish the Electoral College, and to secure just reparations for African slave descendants and other victims of institutionalized racism.

In the next few weeks, we hope to officially launch our political action committee (PAC), which will lobby our elected representatives, support candidates who share our views and agenda and educate the public about institutionalized racism. We urge those fighting for racial equality to support BATT by working for the passage of an African American Equal Rights Amendment (AAERA) and reparations. Election 2000 showed clearly that the current socioeconomic and political arrangement is one of inequality. If we do nothing, our children and theirs will be trapped in the chasm of inequality. Join BATT-PAC! Together, we can change the face of America.

Spoofing is the use of "phantom quotes" to "spur momentum traders to exacerbate short-term price swings." Spoofing may be the cause of those huge one-day swings in the NASDAQ. Bloomberg News Service reported the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating spoofing and tech sector volatility.

To make his tax and spending proposals palatable, Bush is engaged in what could be called spoofing. It is not the usual jawboning used to get the economy going. Bush is trying to talk the economy into recession. While the SEC is not examining Bush spoofing, it is spooky when the president is talking up recession. However, Bush must make something happen quickly to justify his tax and spending proposals.

Problem is, Bush spoofing affects the long-run health of the economy. By definition, recession means economic welfare loss - pain for the people. Conjuring up recession is voodoo economics. Casting bad spells to justify even worse proposals will hurt more people.

Ripping off Americans, the voodoo economics of the Ronald Reagan-George H. Bush Administrations is upon us again. The massive federal debt from their last raid on the treasury has not been paid. Instead of retiring that debt, to save Social Security and help lower interest rates, President-select Bush plans to spend any budget surplus on a $1.6 trillion tax cut that benefits the wealthiest Americans. He proposes allowing the volatile stock market to play a role in the future of Social Security. He wants to spend billions on a missile defense program - relic of the Cold War era that predates his father’s administration. Like his economic policy, his defense and foreign relation philosophies are throwbacks of a bygone era. Let us be fair! Bush is spoofing, which is bad news for American economic welfare.

Email: dmm46@earthlink.net:"Most of the big business media were forced to say that the protests at Bush's inauguration were the largest since the 1973 Nixon protests. In fact, CNN and other networks said demonstrators outnumbered supporters of Bush along the parade route, but you wouldn't know that from the pictures and images shown on TV and in the newspaper coverage of the day. It was rare to see a large shot of the rows and rows of protesters that filled the streets from the Capitol almost to the White House and the nearly empty bleachers that the Bush inauguration committee had set up along the route. The only sites that were relatively "free" of demonstrators were the "invited guest only" areas on the Capitol grounds where the swearing-in took place and right in front of the White House, where Bush got out of his armored car to walk a little way. Even there, someone managed to throw an egg, which hit the car.

C-SPAN 's coverage showed that the streets of DC from Dupont Circle to the Supreme Court to Freedom Plaza were filled. Tens and tens of thousands of demonstrators carried signs reflecting many, many issues, but especially that of a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, an end to the death penalty, racism and police brutality. Everywhere were signs reflecting the fraudulent and anti-democratic character of the elections."

Portrayed as "liberal," a major criticism of mainstream media is its handling of Bush’s bid for president. Having lowered the bar so low as to give Bush a bye, when Dubya mastered white supremacy rhetoric, the one-mind media dubbed him leader of the "free world." A "liberal" media could not ignore Bush’s radically conservative political philosophy.

Mainstream media has yet to examine how Bush - the divider - secured his victory. During his campaign, Bush promised to appoint strict construction judges to the Supreme Court, and the media did not explain what this meant for the philosophical direction of the country. Beyond Roe v Wade, the media did not explain the case law for Bush’s judicial preference. Ironically, it directly contradicts his claim that he is "a uniter not a divider"; Bush never says unifier. Strict construction leaves intact the 3/5ths compromise, the most divisive element in American law. It is neo-slavery, the institutionalized racism that made Dred Scott property rather than a citizen. Born again, Bush telegraphed his commitment to white supremacy, and the "liberal" mainstream media said nothing. There is no "liberal" in American mainstream media bias"; it is hardcore conservative and of one mind. It should be a crime to call handmaidens of hypocrisy "liberal." Blah on those who use the label!

The nation’s unprecedented prosperity, defined in terms of low inflation, low interest rates, a low unemployment rate and a booming stock market, defies explanation. Former President Clinton is credited with these good numbers. "If the numbers are too good to be believed, then they probably are." Someone probably said that, if not, I claim authorship.

High credit card interest rates, high levels of consumer debt, bankruptcies at an all-time high, merger mania, rising fuel prices, more than two million people in prisons, a growing underclass, more working people without access to healthcare, more underemployed or discouraged, etc., spell human welfare loss. These things do not speak well of an economy that is not only "healthy," but is prosperous according to these numbers.

From the nation’s underbelly, news that the stock market rose does not get a rise out of the black boats sinking in this wave of prosperity. Many of those boats should have stayed afloat but got swallowed up in government downsizing or forced by mergers and acquisitions into temp agency neo-slavery or day labor situations. At this level, people are unconcerned if the stock market closed higher or lower. There is no wealth-effect in nonexistent portfolios.

Income from wages is the largest component of national economic welfare. However, the stock market is the most closely monitored measure of economic performance. Economic analysis is geared toward business profits and capital markets. This limited economic perspective says little about the human condition. Poor people, concerned with putting food on the table and paying the rent, do not cheer when the unemployment rate rises or buy more stock. Declines in employment are not cause for celebration. Yet, in the news, "the unemployment rate rose; the stock market soars."

In explaining these "good" numbers and reality, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan gets confused looks from members of Congress. One wonders, will he call the "too good to be true numbers" "irrational exuberance" or just admit to "spoofing?"

In the wake of numerous customer complaints, the Georgia Public Service Commission suspended the rules and regulations between Atlanta Gas Light and gas marketers that made gas consumers captives of the gas billers. These arbitrary rules literally froze consumer choice. The agreement to enforce such stringent rules between the PSC, Atlanta Gas Light and the gas marketers (providers or billers) is a collusive racket, which preys on the poor and ignorant, the very people least able to afford regressive fees, fines and taxes.

Georgia gas marketers are middlemen; their raison d'être is to bill customers for gas provided through our public utility, Atlanta Gas Light.

The marketers are making themselves out to be potential losers in allowing customer choice. And, they are right. If they are lousy marketers, like SCANA, consumers should have the right to get another biller. Our public gas utility (AGL) provides the gas through its pipelines - an absolute monopoly. If the billing process is a free market operation, bad marketers will be run out of business. The competition model leads to monopoly, which is what we had under AGL before deregulation. Why the hell did we ‘bust’ up a perfectly good operation to pay more for the same product? In the case of public utility, it is hard to argue for competition when it leads back to monopoly in the long run.

In the sixties, blacks in Memphis, TN chased white insurance salesmen from our neighborhoods? We felt something was not quite right about those sweaty agents of summer knocking at our front doors. Sure enough, insurance companies were robbing blacks blind. Manifesting the 3/5ths compromise, they charged black insurance policyholders up to 35% more than whites. According to Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, Atlanta-based Life Insurance Company of Georgia used race-based factors to charge blacks more for policies that cost them more than the face value.

Oxendine is expected to seek fines and restitution against the 110-year-old company, but the policyholders of the so-called industrial life or burial policy will most likely never see a dime of what they lost through this kind of institutionalized racism. If you or a loved one holds such a policy, you may want to contact the insurance commissioner at his toll-free number 1-800-686-2298 or visit the insurance commission web site and file a complaint at http://www.inscomm.state.ga/

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