… Felton managed to stay free for only three months. He is back in prison now, beginning a 21-year sentence for crimes he committed after his release. The prosecutor in the case said in court that Felton was a racial terrorist, that he had been ''plotting to use violent terrorist actions, like blowing up the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., in the hope and belief that such actions would spark and ignite a racial war, a racial holy war, that would bring about this new, all-white nation.'' In a letter that Felton wrote to the judge, after he was found guilty, he confirmed that his ultimate goal was to establish ''a politically and territorially autonomous White nation somewhere in North America.'' He wrote that given the way things had looked to him at the time he got out of prison, he wasn't able to see any path that seemed like ''an honorable alternative to armed revolt.''

… If you know Leo Felton's story, it is difficult, when you first meet him, to concentrate on anything other than his appearance. It's not just the tattoos. He has spent many years devoted to the idea of racial separation, to the belief that Americans should be divided by the color of their skin. But his own appearance is hard to define. His skin is olive-colored. His features are angular. It's not hard to believe what he wrote in a letter to a racist friend just before he got out of prison, that he is '' 1/4 English and 3/4 Italian.''

But, in fact, he is the product of a short-lived and idealistic late-60's marriage between a white former nun named Corinne Vincelette and a black architect named Calvin Felton. That is Leo Felton's biological reality, despite his elaborate attempt, over the last decade, to rebel against it. It is a reality that he blames for many of the wrong turns that his life has taken, a reality that he successfully shielded from his brothers in the movement for years, a reality that only now, back in prison, is he trying to understand in a new way.

DETROIT, May 23 - All the flash - the Harley he rides, the hip-hop he listens to and the one-and-a-half-carat diamond that glows from one ear - makes Kwame M. Kilpatrick, the youngest mayor this city has had in ages, popular on the streets.

But those signs of his generation, Mr. Kilpatrick contends, may also help explain why seven investigators from the state attorney general's office and the state police are digging into his life.

The authorities say they are looking into reports of misdeeds by his team of police bodyguards, assertions that the mayor had a party with nude dancers and Mr. Kilpatrick's removal this month of a deputy police chief who says he was in the middle of investigating those very accusations.

Mr. Kilpatrick says that the allegations are all false and that he wants the inquiry because it is the only way to end the flood of rumors.

"If I was 60 years old, if I came from the `country club community,' if I came out of an established private firm or something like that, none of these would get the lift that they have," Mr. Kilpatrick said this week in his office. "I guess it's believable that a 32-year-old black man with an earring in his ear has parties like that. It's so unfortunate. I'm here to fight that stigma."

But as twists emerge virtually daily in newspapers here ? by week's end, a bodyguard resigned ? people worried aloud about damage that the scandal might do to the nation's 10th largest city, a place that has long struggled with a ragged reputation and economic scars.

Officials and business leaders are asking whether business prospects might shy away and whether the city becomes tarnished and loses state aid and political support.

"Image is important," said Maryann Mahaffey, the president of the City Council, which asked for an investigation. "It's unfortunate, because we're doing a lot of great things. We don't need that to get lost in the furor over this situation."

Some people here say Mr. Kilpatrick and his aides are immature. Ms. Mahaffey, who has been on the council for 30 years, said she did not believe that the mayor's troubles had much at all to do with his generation or his jewelry.

"I don't think it's his youth," Ms. Mahaffey, 78, said. "I think that it is very heady being the mayor of a big city."

… "This ain't the end of it ? we're going to have some more," said Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority leader, shortly before the 1:45 a.m. vote in which the House approved the tax plan. "Our budget says we're going to have $1.3 trillion in tax cuts, and you bet we're coming back for more."

… "The reason we have to sunset some of these taxes is because we had to fit within an artificial constraint of $350 billion," said Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, referring to a large number of cuts within the bill that last for only a few years. "What we certainly hope to do is not to sunset these tax cuts, the tax relief for hardworking American families, but instead to allow these to go forward. We will pass new legislation to do it."

… So Austin is full of powerful politicians who know that what happened to you was wrong. These are intelligent folks who figured out how to win elections. They are talking about doing something, but not one of them has yet managed to turn a key and set you free.

… The chain of events and contacts connecting the Majority Leader to a criminal investigation is now drawing awfully tight. (Keep in mind: the entire redistricting map power grab was orchestrated from Washington by DeLay and it's increasingly apparent that much of the manhunt was too.) It'll be interesting to see whether this town's chief buzzmasters and propriety hounds start to take notice.

A small sample of Afghan civilians have shown "astonishing" levels of uranium in their urine, an independent scientist says.

He said they had the same symptoms as some veterans of the 1991 Gulf war.

But he found no trace of the depleted uranium (DU) some scientists believe is implicated in Gulf War syndrome.

Other researchers suggest new types of radioactive weapons may have been used in Afghanistan.

… It says Nangarhar province was a strategic target zone during the Afghan conflict for the deployment of a new generation of deep-penetrating "cave-busting" and seismic shock warheads.

The UMRC says its team identified several hundred people suffering from illnesses and conditions similar to those of Gulf veterans, probably because they had inhaled uranium dust.

To test its hypothesis that some form of uranium weapon had been used, the UMRC sent urine specimens from 17 Afghans for analysis at an independent UK laboratory.

It says: "Without exception, every person donating urine specimens tested positive for uranium internal contamination.

"The results were astounding: the donors presented concentrations of toxic and radioactive uranium isotopes between 100 and 400 times greater than in the Gulf veterans tested in 1999.

"If UMRC's Nangarhar findings are corroborated in other communities across Afghanistan, the country faces a severe public health disaster... Every subsequent generation is at risk."

It says troops who fought in Afghanistan and the staff of aid agencies based in Afghanistan are also at risk.

5:43 PM PDT, May 22, 2003

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and several of his colleagues stood beside a large poster to dramatize their concern that more than 1 million IDs issued by Mexican consulates -- and accepted in the United States by many local authorities and banks -- are a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

The poster depicted a mock consular ID card with a picture of Mexican President Vicente Fox. It was captioned "Office for the Issuance of Illegal Alien ID." It listed Fox's occupation as "El Presidente," and the citizenship of his parents as "Unknown."

"I call it anti-Hispanic. You can quote me on that," said Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas.

~ The Department has used the new powers of the PATRIOT Act for non-terrorism cases (drug violations, credit card fraud, theft from a bank account, a lawyer who defrauded his clients).

~The Department has sought and the courts have authorized delayed notification of search warrants 47 times. Some courts have authorized delayed notification lasting until the indictment was unsealed. The Department has sought extensions of such delayed notifications 248 times.

~The Attorney General made emergency authorizations 113 times for FISA electronic surveillance and/or physical searches in a one-year period.[p6: twice a week??]

~Prior to moving to DHS, the INS did not charge any aliens with the expanded terrorism grounds of inadmissibility or deportability provided under section 411 of the PATRIOT Act.

My Dear Mssr. Bush:

It is with great apprehension I broach the matter of your economic stimulus plan, which peradventure was only attributed to your counselors by a most condign device?

Methinks it would but ill boots your grace to take amiss at such well-meant words as I have to proffer. The purpose you undertake is dangerous; the institutions you name, uncertain; the time itself unsorted; and the whole plot too light for the counterpoise of so great an opposition. The tax cut on corporate dividends wouldst serve in another time marvelously well; I would well content me to endorse it when your exchequer is in better sorts, but the flight of treasure from these shores is of great urgency. God wot I hath in past days praised subsidies and immunities from taxes; but only companies bound to the service of the state.

Charles Davenant

To the Esteemed Mr. President:

In the matter of your proposed economic stimulus package, as cited in The Washington Post, I have undertaken to enlighten your discretion, and elevate your satisfactions, by the following advice.

You say you intend to stimulate investment in your country by a reduction in taxes on dividends. I say, well and good, if you wish to bring about in ensemble the abolition of just-such rent-seeking behavior as would bring your republic into fiscal balance. But be advised that such a course of action, while noble in the endeavor and virtuous in the execution, cannot be looked to as a source of exogenous stimulus. It is a canard to suppose that your state can endlessly reap bounties from deficit spending, when in fact such deficits merely tie up lendable funds.

Jean-Baptiste Say

Dear George,

At the risk of blowing a perfectly good opportunity to gloat, Old Boy, I'm going to dispense with the chortling references to how your crew heaped opprobrium on my name for about 24 years, utterly knocked me about like a disgraced maid aunt, and generally used the opportunities created thereby to peddle a bastardized version of the wholly benevolent advice I offered up to you decades ago. Oh, I could prophesy! But tell me, Dear Lad, what in God's name "supply side" is supposed to be the supply side of? Are we perchance talking about my policy recommendations as "demand side," whilst you muck about trying to cut taxes to run deficits? Well, I guess you ought to know I did include that in my general theory but I included constraints as to when one ought and oughtn't to stimulate with tax cuts.

John M. Keynes

… But what Jane has done in her post is effectively categorize legitimate Democratic dissent with the Bush power structure as just as kooky as the Tom Delays and Dick Armeys of the world. It is sadly another episode of the right telling the left, when the left finally acts up, that it should be quiet and act "civil".

WASHINGTON, May 20 ? A group of black motorcycle riders filed suit today against the city of Myrtle Beach, S.C., and various businesses, accusing them of discrimination during Black Bike Week, the biggest African-American biker rally in the country.

Plaintiffs say the event, held in South Carolina each Memorial Day weekend, has been marred by excessive police force, intrusive traffic laws and a hostility that flows from the shell-encrusted fringes of the Atlantic Ocean to the doors of the local Denny's.

"I've seen it myself," said Craig Williams, a Baltimore police detective who is a rider. "When the white bikers come to Myrtle Beach, the town rolls out the red carpet. When the black riders come, they roll it right up."

… The predominantly white bike week, which has been going on for 63 years, is called Harley-Davidson Week and finished up last weekend. The mostly black event, called the Atlantic Beach Bike Fest, or Black Bike Week, starts on Thursday

… The city's response: they are different.

"Black Bike Week is rowdier, younger and much more crowded," said Mayor Mark McBride of Myrtle Beach.

City officials say Black Bike Week is nearly twice the size of Harley Week (375,000 people compared with 200,000 last year). That is why, they say, they change the streets to a one-way system and employ 550 police officers, compared with 300 for Harley Week.

"You need more cops for more people," said the police chief, Warren Gall.

Another difference between the two events, city officials said, is that Harley Week revolves more around concerts and contests, while Black Bike Week is all about cruising.

"It's guys looking for girls looking for guys," Chief Gall said.

… That does not mean much to Washica Little, a plaintiff in the case. At the news conference, Mrs. Little said the police had humiliated her in front of her children.

"I'm sick of getting categorized as someone I'm not, " said Mrs. Little, a real estate broker from Greenville, S.C. Mrs. Little does not even ride a motorcycle. She drives a Mercedes.

And that is just it, say the plaintiffs, which include a South Carolina chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Black Bike Week may have begun around 20 years ago as a small gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts in the predominantly all-black community of Atlantic Beach, just up the coast. But now it is a major African-American event, not bound to bikes. Some people describe it as "Black Fill-in-the-Blank Week," a time to listen to music or go to the beach or meet singles or just relax at a resort that one weekend a year is packed with African-Americans.

Despite the large draw on Memorial Day weekend, or perhaps because of it, many businesses close. In a state human rights complaint filed today, the plaintiffs named 28 Myrtle Beach restaurants that they said shut their doors last year or cut back on hours, including Red Lobster and Denny's.

ASHINGTON -- Christie Whitman, often at odds with the Bush White House over environmental issues and a lightning rod for the administration's critics, resigned Wednesday as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Whitman said in a letter to President Bush that she was leaving to spend time with family. [p6: you know what THAT means…]

"As rewarding as the past two-and-a-half years have been for me professionally, it is time to return to my home and husband in New Jersey, which I love just as you do your home state of Texas," she wrote Bush.

… With Bush's re-election campaign gearing up, the White House has told senior staff and Cabinet members that if they are thinking of leaving the administration, this is the time to resign; otherwise, they will be expected to remain aboard until after the 2004 election if Bush wins a second term. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer announced Monday that he will resign in July.

… "Christie Whitman must feel like her own long national nightmare is over," said Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, an advocacy group. "No EPA administrator has ever been so consistently and publicly humiliated by the White House."

The Pentagon's research arm, in a report released Tuesday, changed the name of its mammoth electronic surveillance project following public outcry, but concerns that the project will unnecessarily invade privacy without necessarily improving national security remain strong.

Jim Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, said he was encouraged that the report recognized that the effectiveness of a project like TIA should be evaluated before it is deployed.

"They acknowledge that a threshold question is effectiveness," Dempsey told eWEEK. "They acknowledge that the law has imposed very few limits on what [data] they can get and how they can get it."

The San Francisco Video Activist Network presents the story you won't see on Fox News: an eye-popping, jaw-dropping look at the Bay Area's radical resistance to an illegal war. WE INTERRUPT THIS EMPIRE... screens Tuesday, June 10th at 7:15 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. and Wednesday, June 11th at 2 p.m., 7:15 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. at the Red Vic Movie House in San Francisco. Regular admission is $6.

What Has Changed
One of the difficult things when examining a paper even a few years old is determining just how much has changed; have the conclusions of the paper held up or been overturned; where is the bleeding edge of research today; what path did it take?. Normally you have to do some keyword seaches to find something recent on the field and do some detective work. Now, for the first time, you can link forward to articles that will help you find out the answers to these questions.

In the U.S., race ideology, as a body of beliefs and attitudes about human differences, evolved in the wake of the establishment of slavery only for Africans and their descendants. The invention of race was primarily a product of efforts to justify slavery and the continuing conquest and exploitation of Native Americans on the basis of "natural" difference and inferiority. Race from its beginning was a mechanism denoting social ranking and inequality of human groups.

Race came into the American consciousness as a way of expressing social distinctions in a population with considerable physical variation. Skin color, hair texture, nose shape and size, and eye shape, were some of the features Americans used as markers of race status in the 18th century. When Chinese and Japanese immigrants began to arrive in North America in the 19th century, their physical features also became interpreted as evidence of an inferior race status.

During the late 19th and 20th centuries, racial ideology spread and was incorporated into the cultures of many other nations, particularly where there existed some form of continuing inter-ethnic, or inter-group conflict. The process of racialization of an out-group even spread into areas where large physical differences were absent (e.g., Japanese racialization of Koreans).

During the Renaissance and Reformation, the official rationale for enslaving Africans was that they were heathens: non-Christian. But when Virginia decreed in 1667 that converted slaves could be kept in bondage not because they were actual heathens but because they had heathen ancestry, the justification for Black servitude changed from religious status to something approaching race.

During the Enlightenment, 18th-century ethnologists began to think of humans as part of the natural world, subdivided into three to five varieties of a single human species. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, an increasing number of writers, especially those committed to the defense of slavery, maintained that the races were separate species. After emancipation, racism was intensified rather than diminished. In particular, social Darwinism helped foster a new and more credible scientific racism that remained respectable and influential in the U.S. and Europe until World War II.

Hitler, it has been said, gave racism a bad name. People's moral revulsion against the extremes of Nazi Germany, reinforced by new scientific discoveries, served to finally discredit overt scientific racism. Biological racism, however, is not a thing of the past. Discrimination by institutions and individuals against those perceived as racially different can long persist and even flourish under the illusion of non-racism, as historians of Brazil have recently discovered. The use of allegedly deep-seated cultural differences to justify hostility and discrimination against newcomers from the Third World in several European countries has led to allegations of a new "cultural racism."

American slavery is distinctive because it is the first system based on race, or innate difference. In many parts of the world, those captured in battle were often enslaved. Anyone could be enslaved if they were on the losing side. But only in America do you get this special category of human bondage. Ironically, that's because we are the first to propose that man has God-given natural rights.

There's a moral contradiction between espousing the lofty ideal of equality and having slaves form the foundation of your economy. To avoid looking like a hypocrite, you come up with a story that says, "There's something different about these people. This whole business of inalienable rights is fine, but it doesn't apply to everyone." Once you recognize the necessity of trying to justify slavery in the land of freedom, you start to build a case specifically geared to tell the world that these people are different.

But that means when slavery is over, the rationale remains. And it takes on new incarnations. The most destructive part of the American experience is the rationalization of this special category of human bondage. Although slavery is long gone, the rationale continues to divide us and makes it difficult for us to be the kind of nation that we really want to be, and ought to be.

MCI has won the gig to build Iraq's mobile phone network. The value of the contract is undisclosed.

Sensibly, the US Government ignored demands from Congressman Darrell Issa (R., San Diego) to ditch the outdated, 'French' GSM option, in favour of an All-American Qualcomm CDMA network. Technical considerations aside, the Middle East is an all GSM-zone. It makes sense for Iraq to be GSM too.

It's been a good couple of days for MCI, the company formerly known as Worldcom. Today the company agreed to pay shareholders $500m, around one week's revenue, in a settlement with the SEC over fraud charges concerning $9bn, give or take a billion, in inflated revenues. [p6: emphasis added]

The purpose of the 6th Annual Hiphop Appreciation Week (May 18th-25th, 2003) is to continue decriminalizing Hiphop's public image and promote the unity of Hiphop Kulture. Plans for the 6th Annual Hiphop Appreciation Week have already begun! All suggestions, endorsements and approvals for the 6th Annual Hiphop Appreciation Week events can be emailed to [email protected].

This year our theme is responsibility. Lets us take time during this week to be conscious of how Hiphop looks and acts in society. There is no reason to sit around wondering what you can do to help promote or assist in the success of the 6th Annual Hiphop Appreciation Week (May 18th-25th 2003). The following is a definitive list of
activities and suggested projects for anyone with a sincere desire to get involved. Whether you are a Deejay, record label executive, journalist, parent, B-boy or girl, Graffiti Artist, Emcee, politician, radio personality/programmer, etc., you are listed below with helpful hints to make the 6th Annual Hiphop Appreciation Week 2003 a success!

If you need any assistance launching a Hiphop Appreciation Week event in your area please do not hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected] or 877- 310-0396. It goes without saying; you should pass this information on to everyone you know who loves Hiphop!

Hiphoppas: Within the theme of responsibility, the Temple of Hiphop encourages Hiphoppas to do what they are supposed to do when they are supposed to do it. Be aware of those who depend upon you; and always be aware of how your performance affects others. The attuned Hiphoppa upholds an image of trustworthiness and can be depended upon. In all thoughts and actions, attuned Hiphoppas are responsible people. We do not unnecessarily break promises and/or commitments.

During this time, May 18th-25th 2003, Hiphoppas are encouraged to honor their ancestors, reflect upon their cultural contributions and appreciate the elements and principles of Hiphop Kulture.

Emcees Take time to write two conscious rhymes/songs this week that will uplift and inspire others to better themselves. Remain conscious and mindful of the power behind the words you speak and how they affect your life and your environment. Speak or perform publicly in a way that enhances the unity of Hiphop. Battling is prohibited this week.

Graffiti Artists Draw two socially conscious graf pieces this week in your artwork and/or draw a portrait of a true Hiphop pioneer. Take your Graf crew and visit a local school, prison or youth home to talk about the responsibilities of the Graffiti Artist and how Graffiti Art is not vandalism. Graffiti Artist can also design flyers for the 6th
Annual Hiphop Appreciation Week. Bombing and tagging is prohibited this week.

B-Boys/B-Girls Talk to everyone you know about Hiphop Appreciation Week. Take your crew and visit a youth center or local school to educate young Hiphoppas on the history of B-boys/B-girls and Hiphop Kulture. Display your Breakin, Poppin, Lockin and Uprockin dance moves publicly. Battling is prohibited this week.

Deejays Play more conscious Rap music classics. Showcase a specific artist that has influenced Hiphop Kulture. Give them public thanks. Include Hiphop Appreciation Week information in your mix. Play the Temple of Hiphop's public service announcements. Spread the word about Hiphop Appreciation Week. Battling is prohibited this week.

Radio Stations Upgrade your conscious Rap music programming. Have your mix show Deejays cut, scratch and play conscious Rap music classics. Have the visiting Rap artist do radio drops in celebration of Hiphop Appreciation Week with this year's theme of responsibility. You can also do interviews on the techniques of settling disputes, family planning and domestic relations. This week is a great time to memorialize those Hiphoppas that have passed away.

Television Stations Upgrade your conscious Rap video programming. Produce or re-air shows that explain the History of Hip-Hop. You can air the following movies/documentaries: Wild Style, Krush Groove, Scratch, Beat Street, Style Wars and/or Rhyme and Reason. You can also do interviews on responsibility and the meaning of commitment. You can also memorialize those Hiphoppas that have passed away.

Hiphop and Rap Publications In your June issue you can interview and/or honor Hiphop's originators and pioneers. You can publish articles on Hip Hop's history, meaning and purpose. It's been an estimated 33 years since the emergence of our modern Hiphop expressions and 23 years since the first major Rap recording. With this in mind, you can give thanks to Hiphop as a great inner-city strategy toward improved health, love, awareness and wealth.

Internet Subscribers and Hiphop websites Those that have legitimate Hiphop websites and would like to support Hiphop Appreciation Week may do so by posting this and other Hiphop appreciation Week information on their sites. Web links can be organized as well. Be creative!

Educators and Student Groups Hold discussions on the future of Hiphop, Hiphop's culture and Hiphop's expressions. You can also organize lectures on the preservation of Hiphop and its contribution to popular culture worldwide. A discussion on Hiphop's political potential can also be effective. Visit templeofhiphop.org for accurate and helpful
Hiphop lesson plans. The Temple of Hiphop has lecturers and Kultural Specialist that can accurately speak on the subject of Hiphop and its preservation. Elementary through High School students can do reports on issues such as Rap and its influence on youth, Graffiti Art vs. Vandalism, The responsibility of a Deejay, When I grow up I want to be a Rapper, Breaker, Graffiti artist, Deejay, etc. (and why) and How Hiphop has affected family life. They can also pledge, in their written essays, to take responsibility for how Hiphop shall grow and develop in their communities.

We also urge you to contact other Hiphop organizations such as Zulu Nation, The Rock Steady Crew, The TAT's Cru, The Rap Coalition, Rhythm Cultural Institute and others for more accurate and helpful Hiphop information.

News Media Print, video and/or audio formats can alert the public before, during and after Hiphop Appreciation Week on our theme of responsibility. Those journalist working in print media must remember to spell Hiphop beginning with a capital H-Hiphop or Hip Hop. Such a spelling is not only grammatically correct, (Hiphop is a proper noun) but all cultures and nations are spelled beginning with a capital letter. Such a spelling is simply a matter of respect. In addition to our main theme of responsibility, it is of great importance that you report the fact that Hiphop has taken an initiative to clean up its own act. Not that we are on a bash gangster Rap crusade, but that some of us have matured and would like to project a more responsible cultural image to the public. Phoners and in-person interviews can be scheduled at [email protected]. Check templeofhiphop.org for scheduled press conferences.

It's the year 2003, but the way things are going it might as well be 1984... In the wake of the 9-11 Terrorist Attacks and the passing of Homeland Security and the Patriot Acts I and II, the Bush administration has set a climate that has been Draconian and Dogmatic where disent or differing opinions are not only not tolerated, but also grounds to call you a traitor...

Over the past couple of years there have been journalist fired for speaking out against Bush's policies..Talk show host Bill Mair is the most glaring example.. Anti-War activists have been visited from the FBI and other government officials who wanted to make sure 'they weren't a threat to national security'. Michael Franti and Spearhead
recently had this happen..

We have had a number of celebrity activist who have lost endorsement deals or come under well orchestrated, organized attacks for speaking out against Bush... Actor Martin Sheen was let go from being a spokesman for a major credit card company. The Dixie Chicks were subjected to boycotts from major radio station chains.. and the
latest skirmish has Danny Glover underfire with him possibly losing his spokesperson position with MCI.

Now we have 'private' citizens that are leading the witch hunt with no discouragement from the Bush administration. There are two scenarios that have popped up. First is a deck of cards called the 'Deck of Weasels' that have been put out by NewsMax.. The cards were patterned after the Bush administration's Deck of Death cards which highlighted 52 Iraqi leaders who were wanted by the USA..

This Deck of Weasels depicts activist and celebrities who have spoken out against the Bush administration. The cards include quotes from the people depicted. Among those featured on the cards are Michael Moore, Tim Robbins, Jacques Chirac, Barbra Streisand, Teddy Kennedy and Kofi Annan. Normally this sort of thing would be overlooked and ignored. The problem is that major news outlets all over the country have spotlighted this Deck of Weasels...

Now for the record, there is a deck of cards put out by an activist group in Oakland, that spotlight companies and people who profited from the war, but that hasn't been highlighted in the mainstream press at all..Why is that? Why hasn't Fox news talked about that?

The second situation comes from a new website called probush.com which was spotlighted in Sunday's [May 18th] LA Times... Here the creators of this site have put together a 'List of Traitors'. Here's what reads on the site

Treason: Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies.

Traitor: If you do not support our President's decisions you are a traitor.

The list includes pictures of a number of outspoken anti-war activist and a number of Hip Hop artists... Including Michael Franti, Mos Def, Zack De La Roca, Fred Durst, Rakka from Dilated Peoples, author Michael Eric Dyson, Suheir Hammad of Def Poetry Slam, comic strip writer Aaron McGruder, Ozalmatli and Professor Cornel West to name a few...

There has been no condemning of this website from the Bush adminstration who are featured prominently on the site with phone numbers, website links and addresses to get a hold of them.. I caught up with Rakaa Iriscience and asked him his thoughts on this.

He said, "Things like this are ridiculous and irresponsible especially in today's political and social climate where a handful of powerful people are trying to squash dissent".

He continued on, 'Most of the people on this list had an anti-war stance not an anti-American stance. It's ridiculous to equate anti-war sentiments with being Anti-American".

When asked if he thought such lists would be circulated and have an effect on his livelihood, Rakaa said, "It probably won't effect my recording career, but it may have an impact on sponsorship opportunities considering that War is big business and a lot of big businesses supported the war efforts."

He concluded, 'I Take it as it comes. If people want to sponsor me they know where I stand on things politically. What's; ironic is the fact that I'm out here trying to promote peace and end violence so you would think I would and others would have a bigger platform to speak out unfortunately, we have people trying to silence and ridicule us for promoting peace".

Rakaa concluded by noting that it was a A-List standout group of people on the list who's community work and activism speak for itself..and he is and would be proud to hang out with them..

Both the 'Deck of Weasels' and the 'Pro Bush Traitor's List' claim to be satirical. The Probush folks even offer you an address to write if you feel like you have been unfairly added to the list.. However, it appears to be a clever way for folks behind these efforts to cover themselves in case of lawsuits and other legal actions... The fact
that these lists got such widespread coverage indicates that at least in the mainstream media the sentiments expressed by the people behind these efforts are shared by the media giants..

These things take on added weight because of the recent scenarios that have occured where folks speaking out have been approached by governement officials. The week before last two 16 year old kids from Oakland High School were interrogated by the Secret Service after one of the kids said President Bush needed to be Bushwacked'.. Two weeks before, the parents of one of the members from Michael Franti's group Spearhead were visited by government officials who wanted to know about the groups anti-war activities. The agents came with pictures and financial records of the group. Now actor Danny Glover is getting sweated and may not be a spokesperson for MCI because of his anti-war views. Lastly major radio stations all across the country are still avoiding playing the antiwar song 'Down With US' which was put together by many of the West Coasts most popular artists including WC, Daz, RBX, Dilated Peoples and many others..

Here's the URL for the Traitor's List..
http://ww.probush.com/traitor.htm

There is a reasonable $1.7 billion for the next generation of unmanned aerial drones and an unreasonable $42 billion for anachronistic fighter planes. As social, education and health care programs are being squeezed, the Pentagon is asking for $9 billion to build a missile defense system that does not work yet.

The waste easily runs into the tens of billions of dollars, making Congress's haste this week all the more outrageous.

Query: may a public school district not under any sort of desegregation order or decree take race into account in assigning students to classrooms in order to achieve the objective of "reducing a sense of isolation?"

It had all the potential for a volatile backlash: an unarmed black woman in her 50's home alone in the early morning hours before heading to work when police officers in riot gear break down her door and set off a concussion grenade. Within hours, the woman is dead of a heart attack.

Past police confrontations that ended in the deaths of black citizens often incited waves of protest that swept the city. Yet the response yesterday to the death of Alberta Spruill, the 57-year-old Harlem woman who died on Friday after police officers mistakenly raided her home, was relatively muted. While suspicion, anger and doubts were expressed in interviews in her neighborhood, there was also credit given to the Police Department for immediately stopping the use of grenades designed to stun suspects and for quickly starting an investigation.

By Jeff Zeleny and Dan Mihalopoulos, Tribune staff reporters. Jeff Zeleny reported from Des Moines and Dan Mihalopoulos reported from Chicago

May 19, 2003

DES MOINES -- When Carol Moseley Braun stepped off the stage at a weekend forum for Democratic presidential hopefuls here, her rival candidates fanned out across Iowa to meet the voters and political activists they must win over if they are to capture their party's White House nomination.

But Braun, the former Illinois senator, scheduled no such events. Shortly after the television cameras were turned off at the "Presidential Town Meeting," she and a lone volunteer drove back to Chicago.

WASHINGTON (NNPA)?Former New Orleans Mayor Marc H. Morial has been elected to succeed Hugh B. Price as president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League. In announcing the appointment on Thursday, Board of Trustees Chairman Michael J. Critelli, chairman and CEO of Pitney Bowes, Inc., said: ?Marc Morial?s entire professional career has been focused on championing urban issues, and importantly, the socio-economic issues that significantly impact the League?s constituencies

By DEBORAH MATHIS

… Powell tried to be the good soldier. He worked his shift in the saber-rattling room. He performed his version of the growl, the scowl and the sneer in public. But it is well known now that, in his truer moments and behind the scenes, Powell despised the take-no-prisoners approach to diplomacy. He broke ranks with Bush?s power-drunk macho men and pleaded for sobriety. Terrorism is an international scourge, he argued; the international community should weigh in.

That did it. If not before, then certainly after his futile attempt to get the United Nations behind the violent, vengeful, supremacist American president, Powell must have become aware that his position of power was an illusion. He isn?t the maestro of American foreign policy, he?s just an errand boy dispatched to create the impression that the Bush administration gives a damn about the rest of the planet.

In other words, Powell is trapped in the Bush Matrix -- a world of mind games and mind control. A virtual reality where perceptions are shaped by creative programming. A fake existence where appearances are orchestrated to distract us from what?s really going on. A world where the first black man to hold one of the most powerful posts on the globe is ignored, sabotaged, marginalized and patronized by people who only wanted him for his curb appeal in the first place.

I've come up with "corporate police state."

What do you think?

here's the picture that I saw, if only for a brief moment, but quite
possibly a harbinger of things to come.

just after the US 'invasion' of Iraq which then prompted the Office of
Homeland Security (& new dumping ground for our taxes) to elevate the
threat level, if we recall...military apparatus were deployed
throughout the capital thus dotting the landscape with the unmistakable
presence of force. Let's also recall that immediately after 9/11 & once
planes started flying again, in certain airports throughout the
country, the US Reserves were brought in to facilitate (more like
confuse) the augmentation of additional security.

Heck, right after 9/11, I was crossing the Sagamore Bridge (Cape Cod,
Mass) and right at the bottom of the bridge yet another 'picture' of
military presence in the form of a Reserve with weapon in hand standing
at the ready -finger lying across the trigger (it's actually quite
laughable -now- when you take a moment to envision this scenario).

Fast forward today, and once again in some 'testing grounds' aka more
airports, police are fully armed with high-powered fully automatic
weaponry and as I understand it from my brother-in-law (who is one of
them!), they are a permanent unit and fixture in many of our nations'
airports....AND that's just the stuff that we see!

In any case, all of these security 'pictures' have one thing in common,
uniformed & 'militarized' personnel.

The question is are they in position to protect, or enforce?

All we need is one more 'nasty' hit and there'll be a Hummmer and a
rocket launcher (used to be a jeep/machine gun) on every corner.

The USA has always been a police state for our people; and business
interests (especially corporations) have always wielded disproportionate
power and influence over the general population and various levels of U.S.
government as well.

Calvin Coolidge said it best: "The business of America is business."

"Corporate military state". "Police" implies something more civil, and with
the Patriot Acts I &II, there's an increasing blur between the two.