Fornits

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An open discussion about the troubled parent industry

AmeriSnitch
Bill Berkowitz, The Progressive
May 24, 2002


With the familiar strains of "Heeeeere's Johnny" resounding throughout the auditorium, professional sidekick Ed McMahon introduced Attorney General John Ashcroft to an enthusiastic audience of representatives from more than 300 Neighborhood Watch groups meeting in Washington, D.C., in early March.

Ashcroft was unveiling a new and expanded mission for the Neighborhood Watch Program. He announced a grant of $1.9 million in federal funds to help the National Sheriffs' Association double the number of participant groups to 15,000 nationwide.

Up to now, Neighborhood Watch has been a fairly low-key crime-prevention tool focused on break-ins and burglaries. But all that is changing, as the Bush Administration has earmarked it for a broader role--domestic surveillance in the service of the "war on terrorism." "President Bush has announced that, with the help of the National Sheriffs' Association, the Neighborhood Watch Program will be taking on new significance," according to the government's web page at citizencorps.gov/watch.html .

"Community residents will be provided with information which will enable them to recognize signs of potential terrorist activity, and to know how to report that activity, making these residents a critical element in the detection, prevention, and disruption of terrorism."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be supervising the program. "Terrorism prevention" is now part of the "routine mission" of the Neighborhood Watch Program, the web site says. This "could fuel Cold War-style discrimination and censorship," says the American Civil Liberties Union, which sees the Neighborhood Watch initiative as part of an "ongoing pattern of erosion of basic civil liberties in America in the name of unproven security measures."

"By asking neighborhood groups to report on people who are 'unfamiliar' or who act in ways that are 'suspicious' or 'not normal,' our government is unconstructively fear-mongering, and fueling the already rampant ethnic and religious scapegoating," says ACLU President Nadine Strossen.

The new thrust of Neighborhood Watch is just part of the Bush Administration's plan to set up a whole network of citizen snitches. In August, for instance, it will unveil a new Justice Department initiative called Operation TIPS, which stands for Terrorist Information and Prevention System. Operation TIPS "will be a nationwide program giving millions of American truckers, letter carriers, train conductors, ship captains, utility employees, and others a formal way to report suspicious terrorist activity," says the citizencorps.gov web site.

Involving one million workers in ten cities during the pilot stage, Operation TIPS will be "a national reporting system. . . . Every participant in this new program will be given an Operation TIPS information sticker to be affixed to the cab of their vehicle or placed in some other public location so that the toll-free number is readily available." A Justice Department spokeswoman says TIPS was developed by a working group made up of people from the Department of Justice and several other agencies. When asked about the identity of members of the working group, she says she is unable to disclose their names at this time, adding it is "too soon to speak to the people involved." TIPS will involve workers who, in the course of their daily activities, are well situated to be "extra eyes and ears" in the struggle against terrorism, she says. The mission is to "report suspicious activity and to report suspicious-looking people."

But that does not reassure Representative Dennis Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio. When I ask him about Operation TIPS and its one million snitches, he takes a deep breath. "It appears we are being transformed from an information society to an informant society," he says. "Do the math. One tip a day per person and within a year the whole country will be turned in, and we can put up a big fence around the country, and we'll all be safe." As the ranking Democrat on the Government Oversight Committee's National Security Oversight Subcommittee, Kucinich says he intends to look into the program as soon as possible.

At the moment, few people are even aware of Operation TIPS. The ACLU, the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Teamsters, and the AFL-CIO had not yet heard about it when I approached them in March. Given Operation TIPS's interest in having truckers double as informants, I asked the Justice Department spokesperson whether any unions were aware of, or involved in, developing the project. She said that to the best of her knowledge they weren't. So why aren't unions up to date one this new job duty? "That's a good question," says Chuck Mack, the West Region Vice President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. "We should approach new projects like TIPS with caution and great care," Mack says. "Too often, the devil is in the details."

The ACLU echoes Mack's caution. "We have deep concerns," says Rachel King, legislative counsel for the ACLU, "about the way that particular groups are being encouraged to act as agents and spy on other groups." Operation TIPS and the new mission for Neighborhood Watch flow out of Bush's State of the Union speech, where he urged every American to commit 4,000 hours, or at least two years of their lives, to national service. By executive order, he established the USA Freedom Corps as the umbrella organization for this effort. "Through the USA Freedom Corps, he wants to help every American to answer the call to service by strengthening and expanding service opportunities for them to protect our homeland, to support our communities, and to extend American compassion around the world," says the usafreedomcorps.gov web site.

The President is requesting more than $560 million in new funds in Fiscal Year 2003 to support the new initiative. Freedom Corps covers the Peace Corps, as well as AmeriCorps and SeniorCorps, but even these last two groups will now have a security role.

Both will be involved in "fingerprinting" so as to relieve overworked police officers, and AmeriCorps will be "creating 'reserve service corps, in conjunction with states, to support homeland security throughout the country," according to the USA Freedom Corps Policy Book. (By the way, AmeriCorps will also support "faith-based organizations.") Operation TIPS and Neighborhood Watch are under a different section of Freedom Corps called Citizen Corps. The goal of Citizen Corps is "to engage citizens in homeland security," the handbook says. Citizen Corps Councils will be established in each community, and they will "include leaders from law enforcement, fire and emergency medical services, businesses, community-based institutions, schools, places of worship, health care institutions, public works, and other key sectors."

In addition to a revamped Neighborhood Watch Program and Operation TIPS, the Citizen Corps consists of a Volunteers in Police Service Program, Medical Reserve Corps, and Community Emergency Response Teams. Citizen Corps "will be coordinated by FEMA," the web site says.

Bush's Freedom Corps has been a blessing for Neighborhood Watch Institute, based in Santa Fe Springs, California. Since 1982, the institute, a folksy operation, has been marketing the accouterments necessary for warning criminals that they are being watched. The organization boasts that its "complete line of crime prevention materials" is used by more than 1,500 police and sheriff agencies, local Neighborhood Watch groups, and homeowner associations.

A basic kit includes handbooks for identifying suspicious criminal activity, stickers, signs, and decals. It costs about $125. Shortly after September 11, the institute began offering "Homeland Security Street Signs," which notify the community and criminals that "all suspicious persons and activities are immediately reported" to local police officials. Bill Preciado, the manager of the institute, says that it came up with the idea for Homeland Security signs before the Office of Homeland Security was established.

The institute is in the process of putting together a handbook advising people how to "identify terrorists and terrorist activity in their neighborhoods," he says. While "business went up immediately after September 11, it has been leveling off in the past few months," he says. Although he's heard about the new Justice Department Neighborhood Watch initiative and has sent an e-mail to the Department of Justice telling the agency about the company's services, his company "hasn't been contacted by any official government agency." Preciado is hopeful that the new interest and emphasis on Neighborhood Watch groups "will be good for business."
Bill Berkowitz is a freelance writer covering right wing movements. He is a regular contributor to Working Assets's news site, workingforchange.com. Re-search assistance by Laura Ross

I know a lot of readers and posters to this forum won't apreciate the connection here. But ya'll old farts (I can say that! I'm just barely over the hill compared to you Seedlings!) might make the connection...

***** IT'S GETTING DOWN TO THE WIRE FOLKS *****
      ******   AND WE NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU!   ******  

   If you're planning to take part in any of the conference activities, or
if you KNOW of someone who is (and who doesn't check their email
compulsively like some of us) PLEASE contact the conference planning
committee* or have your friend contact us so that we can better plan for
the number of people we'll be accomodating!

Well folks,
  In just one week, June 8-9, 2002, The Second International Conference on
Adolescent Treatment Abuse &  Straight, Inc. / Kids Reunion will begin. For
those of you who don't have all the details, please see
http://trebach.org/abuse/

   Although the conference itself promises to be very informative--we've
lined up an impressive panel of childrens' rights advocates, legal experts,
experts in cult recovery, authors and survivors of various branches of the
institutionalized child abuse industry--it's also going to be a
Reunion/Party/Celebration... a real BASH not to be missed.

          -->>   FRIDAY, JUNE 7th at 4:30PM  <<--
   The party begins with an informal gathering in the park

            -->>   FRIDAY, JUNE 7th at 7:00PM  <<--
   From there, off to Mattisons for happy hour/final conference planning
session and some smooth jazz from the Nate Najar Band  

            -->>   SATURDAY, JUNE 8th at 9:00AM  <<--
    The formal conference begins at Heritage Hotel, Julian?s Conference
Room  256 Second Street North  St. Petersburg, Florida 33701  We'll be
focusing primarily on the history and nature of thought control 'treatment'
as well as recovery from the harm done by them.

            -->>   SATURDAY, JUNE 8th at 12:15PM  <<--
    Lunch prepared by wold class chef, Paul Mattison at Mattison's American
Bistro 111 Second Ave., NE, St. Pete., FL What a treat! Chef Paul is
preparing a special menu for conference attendees. The cost for attending
the luncheon will be $15 (included in conference fee) If you're planning to
attend the lunch, whether you're taking part in any of the other
activities, PLEASE contact the conference planning committee* ASAP so that
we can let Chef Paul know how many people to expect.

            -->>   SUNDAY, JUNE 9th at 9:00AM  <<--
  The second day of the formal conference begins at 9AM. We'll be focusing
on legal actions, past, present and future in the morning session. In the
afternoon, Dr. Conrad will facilitate conference participants in building
an effective organization for broad social, political and legal reform.

   With this, I must remind ya'll that, so far, these conferences have been
funded out of pocket by just a handful of dedicated people, with the help
of many hours of unfunded effort. This project has been a labour of love.

-->>   BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME...  <<--
If you want to attend but you can't swing the $100 fee, we understand and
we'd rather have you there than your money. But that "well funded, thightly
knit, carefully camoflaged, organized consipracy" is just another of Betty
Sembler's wild flights of fancy. Personally, I'd trade all of my funding
for the coffee kitty at just one of Betty's ".* Drug Free .*" outfits.
We're about as organized as a herd of cats. And we're not camoflaged at
all, even carelessly. The only thing we're conspiring to do is to SET THE
RECORD STRAIGHT. And I'm proud to be a part of it.

Although we've gotten some generous donations to help make this happen, and
we are deeply grateful, some folks we all know and love have contributed
significant sums out of their own pockets in addition to working tirelessly
on this project outside of their normal working hours. If you can spare
$10, $20 or more or if money's not a problem and you can donate more than
that, please do!

*
-->>   REGISTRATION AND DONATIONS   <<--
Here are several ways to register and/or make donations.

WWW: http://Fornits.Com/anonanon/conf2002/
Use the comment box to tell us which activities (if any) you plan to
participate in.

If you use that form, you'll get a page with a link to
http://trebach.com/abuse/conf2002/#donate

If, for any reason, you don't want to use the web forms, you can send a
check payable to:
   The Trebach Institute
       Box 185
       5505 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
       Washington, D.C. 20015-2601

Then call Mike and Rhonda (our gracious hosts) at 888-883-5685

For further assistance send eMail to [email protected]      | http://Fornits.Com/

***** IT'S GETTING DOWN TO THE WIRE FOLKS *****
      ******   AND WE NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU!   ******  

   If you're planning to take part in any of the conference activities, or
if you KNOW of someone who is (and who doesn't check their email
compulsively like some of us) PLEASE contact the conference planning
committee* or have your friend contact us so that we can better plan for
the number of people we'll be accomodating!

Well folks,
  In just one week, June 8-9, 2002, The Second International Conference on
Adolescent Treatment Abuse &  Straight, Inc. / Kids Reunion will begin. For
those of you who don't have all the details, please see
http://trebach.org/abuse/

   Although the conference itself promises to be very informative--we've
lined up an impressive panel of childrens' rights advocates, legal experts,
experts in cult recovery, authors and survivors of various branches of the
institutionalized child abuse industry--it's also going to be a
Reunion/Party/Celebration... a real BASH not to be missed.

          -->>   FRIDAY, JUNE 7th at 4:30PM  <<--
   The party begins with an informal gathering in the park

            -->>   FRIDAY, JUNE 7th at 7:00PM  <<--
   From there, off to Mattisons for happy hour/final conference planning
session and some smooth jazz from the Nate Najar Band  

            -->>   SATURDAY, JUNE 8th at 9:00AM  <<--
    The formal conference begins at Heritage Hotel, Julian?s Conference
Room  256 Second Street North  St. Petersburg, Florida 33701  We'll be
focusing primarily on the history and nature of thought control 'treatment'
as well as recovery from the harm done by them.

            -->>   SATURDAY, JUNE 8th at 12:15PM  <<--
    Lunch prepared by wold class chef, Paul Mattison at Mattison's American
Bistro 111 Second Ave., NE, St. Pete., FL What a treat! Chef Paul is
preparing a special menu for conference attendees. The cost for attending
the luncheon will be $15 (included in conference fee) If you're planning to
attend the lunch, whether you're taking part in any of the other
activities, PLEASE contact the conference planning committee* ASAP so that
we can let Chef Paul know how many people to expect.

            -->>   SUNDAY, JUNE 9th at 9:00AM  <<--
  The second day of the formal conference begins at 9AM. We'll be focusing
on legal actions, past, present and future in the morning session. In the
afternoon, Dr. Conrad will facilitate conference participants in building
an effective organization for broad social, political and legal reform.

   With this, I must remind ya'll that, so far, these conferences have been
funded out of pocket by just a handful of dedicated people, with the help
of many hours of unfunded effort. This project has been a labour of love.

-->>   BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME...  <<--
If you want to attend but you can't swing the $100 fee, we understand and
we'd rather have you there than your money. But that "well funded, thightly
knit, carefully camoflaged, organized consipracy" is just another of Betty
Sembler's wild flights of fancy. Personally, I'd trade all of my funding
for the coffee kitty at just one of Betty's ".* Drug Free .*" outfits.
We're about as organized as a herd of cats. And we're not camoflaged at
all, even carelessly. The only thing we're conspiring to do is to SET THE
RECORD STRAIGHT. And I'm proud to be a part of it.

Although we've gotten some generous donations to help make this happen, and
we are deeply grateful, some folks we all know and love have contributed
significant sums out of their own pockets in addition to working tirelessly
on this project outside of their normal working hours. If you can spare
$10, $20 or more or if money's not a problem and you can donate more than
that, please do!

*
-->>   REGISTRATION AND DONATIONS   <<--
Here are several ways to register and/or make donations.

WWW: http://Fornits.Com/anonanon/conf2002/
Use the comment box to tell us which activities (if any) you plan to
participate in.

If you use that form, you'll get a page with a link to
http://trebach.com/abuse/conf2002/#donate

If, for any reason, you don't want to use the web forms, you can send a
check payable to:
   The Trebach Institute
       Box 185
       5505 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
       Washington, D.C. 20015-2601

Then call Mike and Rhonda (our gracious hosts) at 888-883-5685

For further assistance send eMail to [email protected]      | http://Fornits.Com/

***** IT'S GETTING DOWN TO THE WIRE FOLKS *****
      ******   AND WE NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU!   ******  

   If you're planning to take part in any of the conference activities, or
if you KNOW of someone who is (and who doesn't check their email
compulsively like some of us) PLEASE contact the conference planning
committee* or have your friend contact us so that we can better plan for
the number of people we'll be accomodating!

Well folks,
  In just one week, June 8-9, 2002, The Second International Conference on
Adolescent Treatment Abuse &  Straight, Inc. / Kids Reunion will begin. For
those of you who don't have all the details, please see
http://trebach.org/abuse/

   Although the conference itself promises to be very informative--we've
lined up an impressive panel of childrens' rights advocates, legal experts,
experts in cult recovery, authors and survivors of various branches of the
institutionalized child abuse industry--it's also going to be a
Reunion/Party/Celebration... a real BASH not to be missed.

          -->>   FRIDAY, JUNE 7th at 4:30PM  <<--
   The party begins with an informal gathering in the park

            -->>   FRIDAY, JUNE 7th at 7:00PM  <<--
   From there, off to Mattisons for happy hour/final conference planning
session and some smooth jazz from the Nate Najar Band  

            -->>   SATURDAY, JUNE 8th at 9:00AM  <<--
    The formal conference begins at Heritage Hotel, Julian?s Conference
Room  256 Second Street North  St. Petersburg, Florida 33701  We'll be
focusing primarily on the history and nature of thought control 'treatment'
as well as recovery from the harm done by them.

            -->>   SATURDAY, JUNE 8th at 12:15PM  <<--
    Lunch prepared by wold class chef, Paul Mattison at Mattison's American
Bistro 111 Second Ave., NE, St. Pete., FL What a treat! Chef Paul is
preparing a special menu for conference attendees. The cost for attending
the luncheon will be $15 (included in conference fee) If you're planning to
attend the lunch, whether you're taking part in any of the other
activities, PLEASE contact the conference planning committee* ASAP so that
we can let Chef Paul know how many people to expect.

            -->>   SUNDAY, JUNE 9th at 9:00AM  <<--
  The second day of the formal conference begins at 9AM. We'll be focusing
on legal actions, past, present and future in the morning session. In the
afternoon, Dr. Conrad will facilitate conference participants in building
an effective organization for broad social, political and legal reform.

   With this, I must remind ya'll that, so far, these conferences have been
funded out of pocket by just a handful of dedicated people, with the help
of many hours of unfunded effort. This project has been a labour of love.

-->>   BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME...  <<--
If you want to attend but you can't swing the $100 fee, we understand and
we'd rather have you there than your money. But that "well funded, thightly
knit, carefully camoflaged, organized consipracy" is just another of Betty
Sembler's wild flights of fancy. Personally, I'd trade all of my funding
for the coffee kitty at just one of Betty's ".* Drug Free .*" outfits.
We're about as organized as a herd of cats. And we're not camoflaged at
all, even carelessly. The only thing we're conspiring to do is to SET THE
RECORD STRAIGHT. And I'm proud to be a part of it.

Although we've gotten some generous donations to help make this happen, and
we are deeply grateful, some folks we all know and love have contributed
significant sums out of their own pockets in addition to working tirelessly
on this project outside of their normal working hours. If you can spare
$10, $20 or more or if money's not a problem and you can donate more than
that, please do!

*
-->>   REGISTRATION AND DONATIONS   <<--
Here are several ways to register and/or make donations.

WWW: http://Fornits.Com/anonanon/conf2002/
Use the comment box to tell us which activities (if any) you plan to
participate in.

If you use that form, you'll get a page with a link to
http://trebach.com/abuse/conf2002/#donate

If, for any reason, you don't want to use the web forms, you can send a
check payable to:
   The Trebach Institute
       Box 185
       5505 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
       Washington, D.C. 20015-2601

Then call Mike and Rhonda (our gracious hosts) at 888-883-5685

For further assistance send eMail to [email protected]      | http://Fornits.Com/

Find this at http://www.ips-dc.org/projects/drugpolicy/ohio.htm.  


       Ohio Governor Bob Taft and the highest reaches of his administration have embarked on a concerted, months-long effort to subvert the state's electoral process. With overall control of budgets, jobs and sentencing policy at stake, the Taft administration has organized a sophisticated, sub-rosa campaign to defeat a drug treatment rather than incarceration amendment likely to appear on the ballot in November. Starting last spring, Gov. Taft himself, First Lady Hope Taft, his chief of staff, Brian Hicks, two of his cabinet members and numerous senior and support staff have - while on the clock, ostensibly serving the public - conceived and directed a partisan political campaign.

       A four-month long Institute for Policy Studies investigation by freelance journalist Daniel Forbes details political malfeasance, the misuse of public funds and the inappropriate use of government resources in Ohio. The effort has been aided by federal officials, including President Bush's publicly announced nominee to be deputy director of the White House drug czar's office (since confirmed), and a senior U.S. Senate staffer. The drug czars of Florida and Michigan and a senior Drug Enforcement Administration agent also participated in the scheme.

       Ohio officials consulted with and enlisted the aid of the wife of the former finance chair of the Republican National Committee, who herself has played a key political role for Jeb Bush, as well as several taxpayer-supported, staunch anti-drug organizations, including the supposedly apolitical Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

       The Partnership was slated to produce TV ads to sway public opinion in favor of the Ohio drug-policy status quo. Its four top executives advised the Taft administration during a day-long strategy session hosted by that Senate staffer and held in the U.S. Capitol building itself. A representative of New York-based treatment provider Phoenix House and one from the federally supported Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America also attended.

       A mid-October strategy session held at the governor's residence in Columbus was attended by 19 senior officials and private executives from Ohio, Michigan and Florida. (A similar referendum will likely be on the ballot in Michigan; in Florida, proponents have postponed their effort.) Obtained through Ohio's Freedom of Information process, a five-page memo summarizing the day's thinking features such overt political exhortations as: "Beat the Initiative back in the entire country, not just in each state."

       Ohio spent $106 million on "community-based treatment" in FY 2000; overall control of vast sums of money and vast numbers of jobs underlies the political struggle. One Ohio official worried that the state will lose both "its ability to control sentencing policy" and "control of its own budget."

       The effort has entailed hundreds of staff-hours of state-paid time. Last fall, Ohio's first lady, cabinet officials and senior staffers in the governor's office attended weekly strategy sessions on the public's dime. State funds paid for out of town trips and overnight lodging, and the administration even proposed to divert U.S. Department of Justice crime-fighting grants to fund their nascent campaign's eventual polling, focus groups and advertising.

       Modeled on a similar measure, Proposition 36, that passed overwhelmingly in California in 2000, the Ohio amendment proposes to offer treatment rather than prison to defendants charged with a first or second instance of simple drug possession. Judges may approve a few other types of nonviolent offender, but typically any crime beyond possession precludes participation. The measure is backed by the same rich trio - billionaires, George Soros and Peter Lewis, and multimillionaire John Sperling - who have successfully financed drug reform initiatives since 1996, including Prop. 36, and several medical marijuana measures.

       Should the Taft effort succeed, it will work to maintain the Ohio status quo of incarcerating a disproportionate number of racial minorities for possessing small, personal use amounts of drugs. According to Ohio State Senator, Robert F. Hagan, though an estimated 13% of Ohio's drug users are African-American, "77 percent of the people sent to prison for drug possession last year were black. This brings shame to us all."

       The revelations from Ohio question the probity of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, which partners with the White House in a controversial, nearly $2-billion (total-value) anti-drug advertising and media content campaign. The media campaign has recently come under attack from Drug Czar John P. Walters himself as being ineffectual.
Its second, five-year appropriation is currently under consideration in Congress. As the Drug Czar foists the equation that Drugs = Terrorism upon the land, will Congress now take another look at a program whose private strategic partner, the PDFA, was willing to insert itself improperly into an election in Ohio?

       Inertia, resentment of liberal outsiders trying to force change, money-and-jobs turf protecting and both state and national political calculation explain much of the Taft administration effort. Yet, the administration also seems to think the very citizens who elected it possess scant faculties to decide for themselves. So it endeavored to keep the amendment from the ballot. Such contempt towards the electorate serves only to erode faith in democracy. As previously proven in print and discussed in the report, the White House has at least indirectly meddled with state ballot initiatives for years. In fact, the effort in Ohio is just a more sophisticated - and wildly blatant - manifestation of the sort of public funding of partisan drug-war politicking that has long befouled the nation's electoral landscape.

New York freelancer Daniel Forbes ([email protected]) writes on politics and social policy. He testified before both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives regarding his series in Salon on sub rosa White House payments rewarding anti-drug content in the media. He subsequently detailed the paid media campaign's origins as an attempt to influence voters on state medical marijuana initiatives. (See: Fighting "Cheech and Chong" Medicine, Salon, 7/27/00.)

From the most ancient times justice has been a two-part concept: virtue triumphs, and vice is punished.

We have been fortunate enough to live to a time when virtue, though it does not triumph, is nonetheless not always tormented by attack dogs. Beaten down, sickly, virtue has now been allowed to enter in all its tatters and sit in a corner, as long as it doesn't raise its voice.

However, no one dares say a word about vice. Yes, they did mock virtue, but there was no vice in that. Yes, so-and-so many millions did get mowed down--but no one was to blame for it. And if someone pipes up: "What about those who..." the answer comes from all sides, reproachfully and amicably at first: "What are you talking about, comrade! Why open old wounds?" Then they go after you with an oaken club: "Shut up! Haven't you had enough yet? You think you've been rehabilitated!"

...

It is unthinkable in the twentieth century to fail to distinguish between what constitutes an abominable atrocity that must be prosecuted and what constitutes the "past" which "ought not be stirred up."

We have to condemn publicly the very idea that some people have the right to repress others. In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations. It is for this reason, and not because of the "weakness of indoctrinational work," that they are growing up "indifferent." Young people are acquiring the confiction that foul deeds are never punished on Earth, that they always pring prosperity.

It is going to be uncomfortable, horrible, to live in such a country!


The foregoing is an excerpt from The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn. I'm only about 1/4 of the way through this book and I have to wonder if the Semblers, Walter Loemburg, Art Barker et al actually studied this book? And if they jacked off to it?

Here's where you can get a copy

[I just sent this to http://www.foxnews.com/
 Near the bottom, under logo "STRAIGHT TALK" w/ caption "Drug War Casualties In Views: If it was a military action, many war crimes would exist" To be sure!

Fox news! This after Walters fudges all over your propaganda campaign and the Hoover Institute dedicates their weekly editorial to the same sentiment.

So it looks like your war is almost over. Thank GOD for that! My best years are gone and you own my mother and most of my siblings. But my kids may one day breathe free air. That's all I ever really wanted.

Before I close, though, I have to tell you about a dream I had some years ago. I'm not making this up, I think it may have been precognative in a symbolic way. Lord knows I had enough clues as to what was going on and who was behind it, though I steadfastly refused to put it all together in any conscious way.

At the time, I'd say around `97 or so, I'd become interested in industrial hemp. Contrary to the lies you like to tell (maybe even believe?), I'd found plenty of reference to industrial hemp in just about any historical document I looked at. I have a copy of the 1856 Patent Report, which shows hemp as having been among the top 5 cash crops in all of what is now coal mining and tobacco territory. So I decided to take a closer look and, eventually, made friends in Vancouver. Having been raised a staunch Republican Presbyterian, this was a bit of an adventure outside my normal social circle. These friends told me about Jack Herer (The Hemperor... I'm sure you've heard of him) and Ibogene; about political plots involving the DuPonts, Mellons, Anslinger and Nazi sympathizers. And I was apprehensive about these people, their agendas... the unknown.

So one night around that time I had this dream. It's one of those rare ones that's so lucid and yet strange, so vivid and powerful that I was able to tell my husband just about every detail of it in the morning and am still able, five years later, to clearly remember it.

I was going to go to Vancouver--this strange and beautiful land full of wild people that I'd heard about--I was going to see for myself. Friends warned me to be careful or, better yet, to not go there because it was too dangerous, because associating with 'those people' might earn me a stigma that would be hard to wear later; might even cause me to have to stay there, like it or not, in a sort of exile.

Well I decided to go anyway. And the way there was interesting in itself. It was a suspension bridge made of rope and wood, all mossey amd dank spanning over a deep and misty gorge. Standing at the head of it, one couldn't see the other end; it just seemed to dissapear into a heavy fog. But people were coming and going on this bridge; strange people, but not unpleasant. They reminded me of all the strange peoples and creatures that populate JRR Tolkein's works of fiction.

On the other end was a smallish way station of sorts. There was shelter to be had, an old style inn, food and drink, some touted as being medicinal in nature--good for treating ailments common to the wayfaring patronage. It struck me that there was absolutely no advertizing, no familiar logos at all. If one wanted food or drink or information, one had to find a person and strike up a conversation to find out. I was easily able to find food and drink from a man (well, dwarf in a dark traveling hood) who was sitting a table, eating but not particularly enjoying a quick meal.

He told me where to buy the food, how much it cost and where I might find lodging. He didn't ask my business, and I got the impression that it would be a breach of courtesy to ask his. Then he said "Fare well, friend, wherever you go. And be careful of the soul suckers!" Then he returned his attention to his meal and I wandered off, wondering what the soul suckers were.

Then I saw one! He stood out. In this bussy crossroads of humble, simple folk, there was a man in a blue business suite with close cropped hair, shaven face and eyes lit up as one on a whole lot of amphetamine.... Take Weaver hastings, for example, cut his hair, add 30 lbs and 10 years and put a suite on him. That's the man I saw. He looked and me and smiled asif he'd been watching me all along, waiting for me to notice him.

The look of him, and that he just didn't belong in this picture, and that he seemed to be expecting me, all together gave me a terrible fright. Far worse than the bridge or any people I'd seen at the way station, and some of them seemed to be warriors. I felt compeled to follow him and find out what he was doing here. He walked casually among the people. Some seemed to avoid him, to warn me and others off with looks, but not words. Those who noticed him seemed frightened of him. But most just didn't seem to notice him at all.

Then he walked up to a person who'd been walking down a path on the edge of 'town'. He smiled at me and winked, asif to say "Watch this". He shook this other, smaller person's hand and engaged him in friendly conversation. Then he gave me 'that look' again over his shoulder, he reached out and tilted this person's head back and SUCKED HIS SOUL right out of his throat! It came out visibly, as a mist. Then the man in the blue suit tilted this person's head forward again, leaving him just as he'd been, except that there was no soul in this walking body. His face and eyes were blank and void of intelligence or human spirit. And yet he walked on about his business asif nothing had happened.

It was then that I noticed the same blank void in the faces of those people who didn't seem to notice this stranger walking among them. And it was then that I noticed others like him, both male and femail, harvesting souls as he had done. And he looked at me again with great pride and malice, asif DAREing me to do something about it.

And it was then that I discovered, in real life, the lowest common denominator to the task before me. Just make them see. That's all. Those who know you for the soul suckers that you are need to alert the rest. There are plenty more of us than there are of you. And even many of those who you thought you'd either destroyed or owned permanently are coming around.. And Betty, some of them are very, very angry!

So, what will you do with yourselves when the war is finally over? During and after WWII, I understand that a lot of Nazis found refuge in Venezuela. But you're also Jewish, right? So I guess, without the political cloute you're about to kiss goodbye and the money that goes along with it, you wouldn't find a lot of solace among your Nazi cronnies. Maybe you should think about moving to Israel. There are far worse monsters than you on all sides of that mess. You'd fit right in.

Well, whatever you do, good luck. I do mean that. I have no wish to see anything bad happen to you. I think you're probably haunted already. I'm just very pleased to see your ability to do further harm eroding daily.  

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Ginger Warbis            | He who laughs lasts.
http://Fornits.Com/