Hell to Pay

Read this essay by Will Pitt. It's required reading! No one says it better.

This bears repeating:

“We are a loyal member of your team and are prepared to do whatever fits your strategic plan... In public policy it matters less who has the best arguments and more who gets heard - and by whom.” -- Ralph Reed, Oct. 23, 2000, in a memo to Enron obtained by The Washington Post in which Reed asks for $380,000 in lobbying fees.

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 “Terrorists have a different understanding of choice. Because they fear that people with freedom will reject their dogma, terrorists seek to destroy our freedom and to deny us our right to chose. Terrorists seek to impose their dogma.” -- Attorney General John Ashcroft.

No, he wasn't talking about abortion. Yes, he is a hypocrite. Yes, he opposes all abortion, even in cases of rape, incest, and the mother's life. Yes, he is against job discrimination protection for homosexuals. Yes, he is afraid of calico cats; he thinks they are the devil. Yes, he covered a statue in the Justice building with a blue burka type curtain. Yes, he is further right than the NRA. Yes, he refused to let the FBI search gun records for evidence of terrorists buying guns. Yes, he wants to take away more of your freedoms. And, no, he is not the most right wing asshole in the Bush administration.

“In public policy it matters less who has the best arguments and more who gets heard - and by whom.” -- Ralph Reed, Enron Lobbyist, Bush campaign advisor, and former head of the Christian Coalition, in a memo promising to lobby the Bush Administration for Enron Deregulation efforts.

Read and vote 7 on this MSNBC story that exposes these zealots for what they are: Reed offered clout to help Enron: Bush campaign adviser paid $380,000 for lobbying strategy.

Drugs in Our Food

Arianna Huffington has become the most sensible person I know. She has really amazed me. She is one of the best critics of the corrupt, bankrupt policies of this, and other, administrations. The amount of drugs in meat, and the resulting pollution, is pretty scary stuff, and Bush is going to look the other way and hope they do right. More faith based policy from the right wing....

Remember this

The White House said last year’s $1.35 trillion tax cut would spur 800,000 new jobs by the end of the year and pull the country out of recession. OK, Georgie Boy, we'll check back on Dec. 31, 2002. The clock is ticking.

During the highest stage of terror alerts, the feds are raiding medicinal marijuana clubs

This is an outrage. Coke-head Bush is busting medicinal marijuana users in California, despite the fact that a large majority of voters (a bigger margin than Gore's victory) voted for legal medicinal marijuana. The hypocritical Bush administration wants terminally ill patients to die in pain. They want sick people to be forced to use drugs made by the companies that give him campaign money instead of medicine that nature provides free. They want to thwart the will of the people of California despite their rhetoric about states rights and local controls. I beg Democrats, Greens, and all progressives who run for office to use this as a campaign issue. We need a federal law to change the DEA. The people support the reform of marijuana laws. The Bush Junta's treating marijuana the same as heroin is a lie and a travesty. Perhaps all the cocaine Bush snorted has shorted out the reason centers of his brain.

Please read this letter from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and take action today. These people are being robbed of a natural medicine they have the right, and the legal standing, to use:

On the morning of February 12, DEA agents carried out a massive series of raids on California's medical cannabis co-operatives and providers. The ultimate result of these raids is that hundreds of seriously ill patients who rely on these support groups must now turn to the streets and black market in order to obtain their medicine.

Disturbingly, these raids took place on the same day that our nation's federal law enforcement agencies were to be on their highest alert protecting Americans from a possible terrorist attack. At a time when federal law enforcement resources are desperately needed to combat the real threat of terrorism in America, it is absurd that the DEA would spend time and money coordinating and implementing an assault on California's medical marijuana patients and providers. Even more appalling is that this action took place despite the fact that these clubs enjoy the support of California voters, local law enforcement, the San Francisco District Attorney's office, and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Please take five minutes to write to your Congressmen and Senators, urging them to go on record opposing these DEA raids as a waste of time and money and as a violation of the will of the people of California. We also recommend that you request your elected official to introduce legislation in Congress to cut the DEA's budget by the amount of money spent planning and carrying out these misguided raids. NORML has provided a pre-written letter which you can e-mail or fax to your representative by visiting:

http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=100506&type=CO

Thank you for your help in this important matter.

Sincerely,

R. Keith Stroup
Executive Director
NORML

Time for federal Marijuana legislation that makes sense. We could solve the prison over-crowding problem right now: release marijuana offenders. There are wheelchair bound MS patients in prison in Texas for possesion of less than an ounce. It's a joke. The Marijuana Policy Project has been working to change these ridiculous laws. They need your help. Because this drunk, coke-head, AWOL, frat-boy isn't going to do anything about it.

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -- Teddy Roosevelt, 1918.

Crack this shell and the whole nut will fall out

Most Americans are convinced the White House is hiding something. Seems a federal judge agrees, and has issued a stern warning to the White House. Hey, Dicky and Georgie, whatcha hiding? One thing they're hiding is the fact that those 90% approval ratings are bull. Proof? Well, despite the fact that his publisher tried to stop it, the pundits said it would flop, and it's not even out yet, Michael Moore's new book is already on best seller lists. Seems some folks have pulled their heads out of their asses long enough to realize it's OK - indeed, neccesary - to criticize the Resident. In fact, that's just what Al Gore is doing, finally. Meanwhile, more about Enron lobbying has been discovered, while proof that Kenny Boy is lying has surfaced. In fact, Kenny Boy's lies, like Bush's, were designed to screw everybody else while he and his buddies got richer. And this, from Republicans, still suprises me?

Buhron News

I made a new page just to focus on Bush news - mostly stuff that gets tucked below the fold on page 24, if it even makes the conglomerate owned papers to begin with. Just thought it'd be good to have a place with honest coverage of the Junta.

Think the White House has been candid about Enron? Think again.

A great story by Eleanor Clift of Newsweek. Read it. Vote 7 on it!

Now you can purchase products featuring our signature photograph, Consoling!

Read the story of how this book finally got published!

Re-elect Gore in 2004

But maybe this time we can get it right. Encourage McCain to run and Nader not to! Gore should offer Nader the EPA position now, or even Interior.

Hollywood Downside Up - a new Hollywood photography essay featuring free desktop wallpaper pictures of Hollywood

A long time dream of mine was to put together a photography series of Hollywood from a less glamorous perspective. Since I've been working at the Pantages, on Hollywood and Vine, I finally found the time to strap on the camera and walk around to most of the spots I've been looking at for a long time. Hollywood is full of contrasts, to put it mildly, and I think I've captured some of them here. These photographs have been sized as desktop wallpaper pictures, as part of our now quite large collection of free desktop wallpaper from around the world. Or, you can download and print the postcard quality versions. Enjoy.

Here's some quotes about Hollywood:

"My God, almost anything we do here will be an improvement."
- John Barrymore, scouting a hilltop home in 1915

"Hundreds of acres abounded with orange and lemon groves - a heaven on earth."
- Frances Marion

"The most important deals in the movie industry are finalized on the sun-drenched turf of golf courses or around turquoise swimming pools, where the smell of barbecue sauce is born on gentle breezes and wafts over the stereo system of houses that people seldom leave."
- Shirley MacLaine

"I've been to Paris France and I've been to Paris Paramount. Paris Paramount is better."
- Ernst Lubitsch

"Hollywood is the only industry, even taking in soup companies, which does not have laboratories for the purpose of experimentation."
- Orson Welles

"Its idea of "production value" is spending a milion dollars dressing up a story that any good writer would throw away. Its vision of the rewarding movie is a vehicle for some glamour-puss with two expressions and eighteen changes of costume, or for some male idol of the muddled millions with a permanent hangover, six worn-out acting tricks, the build of a lifeguard, and the mentality of a chicken-strangler."
- Raymond Chandler

"In Beverly Hills . . . they don't throw their garbage away. They make it into television shows."
- Woody Allen

"Hollywood is a place where people from Iowa mistake each other for stars."
- Fred Allen

"You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough."
- Joseph E. Levine

"Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents."
- Marilyn Monroe

"Hollywood is a place where they place you under contract instead of under observation."
- Walter Winchell