The DISH

"Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"

Volume 7 Issue 36…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…September 10, 2004

Intuit's Vibe

New National Anthem

By Herb O. Buckland

There's a new National Anthem

being taught to the young

it clouds the shadows of a phantom,

by how it's shown to be sung.

The White House wrote the verse

and the media gave it far and wide

tis a modern form of the plague curse,

where misery reigns behind those who died.

And like the Black Death of old

with its "ring 'round the rosey" rhyme

today's version is just as bold:

"Join in the ring of the Corporate Crime".

Ring 'round Corporate thieves

with a pocket full of green leaves

and if the stockmarket crashes,

you won't be buried in its ashes.

You can plead the 5th... or simply lie

no less say you don't remember

pay off some politician by the by,

to get a verdict both weak and tender.

The White House will then excuse you

(or scapegoat you for some example)

teaching that lies can be told true,

(or used as a carpet on which to trample.)

And the chorus for this Anthem

(whether or not you believe it)

perpetuates the disease and not prevention,

called: credible evidence or top secret.

(Note: This poem and others can be read at the website

http://cenocracy.topcities.com/cro103b.html. Please forward comments to

herobuckland@hotmail.com)

DISHing It Up Hot!

On Cyber Attacks

By Dot

Over the past three years, The DISH has been under a sustained attack that basically focused on denials of Internet access and viruses sent to disable our computer system. A testament to our hard work and resilience against the unrelenting effort to silence dissent, we improved our product and delivery system, which have allowed us to reach even more people faster.

Unfortunately, the cyber attacks continue. We recently lost our main computer; we believe it finally overdosed on virus. On Monday (9-6-04), a message, cleverly disguised to appear to be sent from The DISH, posted to our network. It contained an attachment that has been identified by our technical support as non-lethal.

To counter and minimize the negative impact of future attacks, which we fully anticipate, another firewall and level of security have been installed to safeguard The DISH and its subscribers. As general rules of thumb, The DISH is sent once a week usually on the Wednesday before the issue's Friday date. A copy is also posted at our website- www.thedish.org. The listing is never accessed to send invitations or solicitations to invest, rent or buy anything. The DISH is sent as a plain text email without attachments. From this point forward, we will no longer provide hyperlinks; readers must type or copy and paste any URLs into their Internet browsers to access referenced sites.

NEVER open an attachment. As this recent cyber attack shows, you cannot be sure who sent a message. Netizens do not send friends attachments. Be smart, stay safe and keep reading the only unbossed and unbought Internet weekly The DISH.

Bit of History

Campaign Financing Scandal (1996)

After the Republican victories in the 1994 mid-term elections, President Clinton's 1996 defeat seemed inevitable. A major setback for Democrats, for the first time in 40 years, Republicans controlled Congress.

To assure a win in 1996, President Bill Clinton and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) devised a plan to raise an unprecedented amount of money to fund an aggressive advertising agenda. Advertisements, created under the direction of the President, but funded by the DNC, began running as early as 1995.

Numerous revelations of possible illegal fund-raising by the Democratic Party during the 1996 campaign appeared in the news media. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott called on the Committee on Governmental Affairs to investigate the media's allegations. The Rules Committee passed Senate Resolution 39 by a party-line vote of 9 to 7. It narrowed the scope of the inquiry to illegal activities, called for a deadline of December 31, 1997 and provided a budget of $4.35 million. While the investigation and public hearings were billed as bi-partisan, the primarily focus was on improper fund-raising and spending practices on behalf of the Clinton/Gore re-election campaign.

The committee issued 427 subpoenas and reviewed more than 1,500,000 pages of documents. Its staff took 200 depositions and conducted more than 200 interviews. The committee held 32 days of hearings with testimony from 72 witnesses. Thirty-five witnesses with information relevant to the investigation asserted their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Released in March 1998, the committee's report documented a number of illegal or improper fund-raising and spending activities in the 1996 election cycle, including Vice President Al Gore's dialing for dollars on government property, "with no controlling legal authority," the fund-raiser he attended at the Buddhist Temple and foreign contributions. The DNC was forced to return $2,825,600 in illegal or improper donations. Almost 80 percent of this amount was either raised or contributed by John Huang and Charlie Trie, friends of President Clinton. Huang and Clinton shared a mutual friend in James Riady, head of the Lippo Group, an Indonesian conglomerate. Trie raised money, had access and sought to advise Clinton on US-China relations.

The committee's report identified conflicts of interest and misuse of government offices. It explored how access to the President and senior officials through "coffees" and White House "overnights" were used to raise campaign contributions. Between January 11, 1995 and August 23, 1996, the White House hosted 103 coffees. Sixty were DNC-sponsored; 92 percent of these guests were major Democratic Party donors. During the 1996 election cycle, they made an average contribution of more than $54,000. In addition to coffees and overnights, donor perks included Air Force One flights, seats in the President's box at the Kennedy Center and use of the White House pool and tennis courts.

According to the committee's report, the schemed coordination between the presidential campaign and the DNC allowed the Clinton/Gore ticket to raise and spend funds beyond the federal campaign limits. Through coordination with outside individuals and/or groups, such as charitable and tax-exempt organizations, unregulated ("soft") money may well have been used to influence the outcome of the 1996 political election. (Source: www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/sireport.htm )

Politics Y2K4

Local Shakedowns

"All politics is local," coined by Tip O'Neill, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, has never been more relevant than in discussions of campaign financing reform and scandals. While federal campaign financing garnered a great deal of attention following the 1996 election and more recently with the role of 527s in the presidential campaign, the role of money in local campaigns and the resulting access and power have been virtually ignored by the media.

The Real Campaign Scandal by Taegan D. Goddard and Christopher Riback makes this point in relating how fundraising by local politicians changed the structure of state and local governments. Their examples include appointments made by North Carolina Gov. James Hunt to the board that runs the state's transportation department. The families of the twenty-one board members are all large campaign contributors. With no state oversight, these board members have approved a bevy of transportation projects that basically increased personal profits at taxpayers' expense.

The writers' other examples are equally egregious. Unfortunately, these local shakedowns occur nationally. And, given the court has made money speech, the poor and powerless have no vocal chords.

News You Use

Dollar Democracy

"Campaign money-not votes-is now the currency of our democracy, determining who is able to run a viable campaign for office, who usually wins, and who has the ear of elected officials. Our democracy is in crisis because the election system discriminates against large sectors of our society." Nick Nyhart, Executive Director of Public Campaign

Color of Money 2003, a study released by Public Campaign, the Fannie Lou Hamer Project and the William C. Velasquez Institute, uses campaign finance data and Census Bureau demographics to show that a small number of people from majority non-Hispanic white zip codes fund political campaigns in the United States. Although one of three US citizens is non-white, they account for less than ten percent of the dollars contributed by individuals to federal campaigns and political parties. This disparity in cash contributions is mirrored in the disproportionate power and access wealthy and predominantly white neighborhoods enjoy.

The study provides statistical evidence to show that the US system of privately financed elections disenfranchises its relatively poor racial and ethnic minorities. And, while the US Supreme Court has upheld the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (BCFRA) ban on "soft money" contributions to political parties, it left in place "hard money" contributions, which make up some eighty-five percent of the more than $2 billion in individual contributions examined in this study.

The disparities in campaign contributions and access are played out across the US. Major findings of the study include zip code 10021, Manhattan's Upper East Side. Its 91,514 mostly non-Hispanic white residents ages 18 and over contributed $28.4 million to federal campaigns in the 2000 and 2002 election cycles, more than any other area. In general, the study found that areas contributing the most campaign cash are among the wealthiest. Unfortunately, while the poor and middle class are urged to get involved and vote to be heard, their voices are drowned out by the sound of cash registers ringing in wealthy white neighborhoods.

For more, visit www.colorofmoney.org, the interactive site allows users to research campaign contributions by state, city or zip code. Visit today and see whose dollars fund democracy in your neighborhood.

Disgruntled wants to know: The money connections between Enron and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay are well-documented. Like most successful politicians, the Texas Republican is known for shaking down corporate American to fund his agenda. Most recently, DeLay employed his skills to help finance efforts to redistrict Texas. His successful efforts resulted in Republican control of the Texas legislature for the first time in 130 years. It is common knowledge that DeLay violated a number of laws in accomplishing his mission. Question is, where is the media coverage of DeLay's outrageous fundraising, as well as scrutiny of George W. Bush's use of his office to fill his campaign coffers and the Republican National Committee's intimate connection to those "Swift Boat Veterans." More important, when will the rule of law Republican hypocrites hold hearings and prosecute the guilty in the DeLay scandal?

Disgruntled says: A symbol of the role of money and the access to people in power it affords, Roger Tamraz, a large campaign contributor to both political parties, was refreshingly candid in his testimony before the Senate Oversight Committee hearing on the campaign finance scandal of 1996. Tamraz admitted that his political contributions had nothing to do with supporting or opposing the person in office; he wanted access to those in power to promote his significant interests in the oil business. When asked to reflect on his $300,000 contribution in 1996, Tamraz said, ''I think next time, I'll give $600,000.'' For Tamraz and others with wealth, buying the access that is clearly for sale is legal.

Disgruntled feels: Robbed! Ironically, the US Open women's quarterfinal match between US players Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati began with a ceremony honoring Althea Gibson, the first black woman allowed to play in the all-white world of professional tennis and win a major tournament. Uncannily reminiscent of Gibson's struggle, it ended on a series of bad calls against Williams, denying her the opportunity to advance to the semifinals. The match between Williams and Capriati will be remembered not for the quality tennis played, but for the controversial line calls and inferior officiating. Cast from birth in the lifelong role of victim of US racism, thanks to Cyclops, Serena's complaint is more than baseless biased black whining. The white fans wildly cheering Capriati can pretend otherwise, but we know Serena was robbed!

Election Illusions

By John Burl Smith

Born of struggle against unlimited power and domination, the US Declaration of Independence embraced equality of all men and their right to secure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. However, the US Constitution was written by wealthy white men and by limiting the vote, they insured wealthy white men dominated government decision making. They did not fear wealthy absolutism, rather the US founding fathers feared equality with common people. Distrusting common people, the founding fathers created the Electoral College and reserved the election of president for special Electors, rather than we --the people.

Most US citizens are under the illusion that we (the people) elect the president. Fact is, votes cast by "the people" are not binding on electors. When it selected George W. Bush president in 2000, the Supreme Court showed legally cast votes could be ignored. The surprise of Election 2004 is that some governors and state legislatures have pledged to select only Electors that pledge to vote for Bush no matter which candidate wins the popular vote. Corporate America, which owns the media, is preparing the public to accept this Electoral College coup d’etat.

A part of the corporate power structure, media giants, like Fox, Disney and CNN, helped create the illusion that the Supreme Court's theft of Election 2000 preserved democracy. Now, these media giants are using polls, which are conducted among wealthy whites, to justify stealing Election 2004 for Bush via the Electoral College in order "to keep America safe."

Election 2004, as the Constitution (1789), Civil War (1860) and Poor People's Campaign (1968), is about the status of black people. Unfulfilled promises beg the question "whether this nation...can long endure...half slave and half free?" Whites passed laws to deny blacks equality and used their taxes to benefit only whites. Black and white signs symbolized this commitment. The Civil Rights movement brought the signs down in 1968, but whites kept them up mentally. Corporate media support Bush's efforts to preserve the US white power structure, especially his appointment of strict construction judges to re-segregate the country.

The presidential debates will verify that neither the political system nor media is holding Bush accountable for his record. Both are helping him run away and hide from any examination of his policies, which have failed to fulfill promises of fairness, justice and equality in education, employment, healthcare and poverty reduction to name just a few.

For example, while he fought affirmative action, Bush favors awarding students legacy points for college admissions. This practice favors whites because their parents attended colleges blacks were legally barred from attending. Bush opposes fulfilling the Brown v Board of Education (1954) edict, which mandated that states make up for denying blacks an equal education. Bush's answer, "No Child Left Behind," does not make up for the decades states denied blacks an equal education.

Poverty reduction is another area the presidential debates will overlook. The historic gap in employment and family income of blacks relative to whites tells the real economic story. Bush insists blacks have made great progress. However, the best two indicators of progress, going back as far as such data exist, are employment and income. Black unemployment is consistently twice that of whites, and black median family income hovers around 60% of whites. Moreover, since Bush took office, over 5 million people, mostly black women and children, slid into poverty. The latest Census Bureau report shows 1.4 million slipped below the poverty line in 2003.

Not illusions, these statistics are realistic reflections of Bush's devastating economic policies on middle class and poor US citizens. Bush should answer for these results; after all, they are his record.

Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes & Telephone Calls

Email www.Misleader.org The Bush White House has denied any connection to the Swift Boat Veterans. As the Washington Post reports, Rear Admiral William L. Schachte Jr., who claims Kerry was not under fire when he received his first Purple Heart, is a top lobbyist for a defense contractor that recently won a $40 million grant from the Bush administration.

Email h_novick@hotmail.com Thank you for bringing people's attention to the horrors of Agent Orange. In the Chicago VA, an African-American woman, Maude DeVictor noticed the illnesses of the men and began to piece together that they were suffering from the effects of Agent Orange. It is some of her efforts that brought about that Class Action suit. A film starring the late John Ritter and Alfre Woodard playing Maude was made for TV. Just thought I 'd let you know and honor a wonderful woman I had occasion to meet.

THINC  || 2004 Issues || The DISH