DEEP GREEN PERSPECTIVE

There’s a special election in Nashville this week over whether to raise the sales tax another half cent on the dollar to pay for improvements in the school system, or what the tax’s proponents call improvements in the school system. When it comes to public schools, I tend to agree with H.L. Mencken, who asserted that the aim of public education “is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.” (Thanks to Adbusters Magazine for that), but as a somewhat practical guy I have to admit that most people in America right now are not living lives in which they could organize their children’s education from scratch, and so public school, like the Democratic party, is a necessary evil.

And, speaking of evils, Tennessee’s tax system is disgusting. A sales tax of nearly ten percent and no income tax is about as regressive as it gets. The state might as well hire special police to shake down poor people. Wait—we do that already—it’s called “the lottery.” I think it’s ludicrous to load the sales tax up like this.

But on the other hand, it’s a half cent per dollar, another nickel on ten dollars, an extra fifty cents on a hundred dollars. If you spend two hundred dollars a week on taxable items, (I don’t) you will be contributing an extra fifty-two dollars a year to Nashville city schools, an extra fifteen cents every day. You know and I know that we can spare that kind of change—so why fuss? The principle? “Sales taxes are regressive—no more?” That certainly resonates–but what about the principle of generosity—the schoolteachers in our community—and a great many of them are idealistic about teaching children—they certainly aren’t in it for the money—would appreciate another fifteen cents a day from me—why turn down such a modest request?

Caught between two principles, I’m still making up my mind.

I’ve been reading an extraordinary book lately, renewing and expanding my knowledge of recent history, oftentimes in ways that leave me shocked and angry—not just at the tragedy of the events themselves, but at the shallow and slanted way in which they were reported to me and the rest of the American public, if they were reported at all—for this book is not just a history, it is a history of how history is reported, and it lays to rest the myth of “the liberal media.” Even though it is nearly twenty years old, it is still fully relevant to current events, because some things—like the fundamentally conservative, not liberal, bias of the mainstream media—don’t change.

The book is Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman’s Manufacturing Consent, subtitled “The Political Economy of the Mass Media.” It examines several major news stories of the sixties, seventies and eighties in deep and well-footnoted detail: terrorism and electoral politics in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, the so-called plot to kill Pope John-Paul II, and the three wars in Indo-China—Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. In all of these cases, I was astounded to discover the difference between reality on the ground and what I had been able to learn about these events from the mass media (even my cynical reading of the mass media) and even from such alternative news sources as were available at the time—about which I have to say, thank goddess for the internet—it has made the news much more democratic and diverse.

Chomsky and Herman point out that the so-called “liberal media”–the television networks, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time and Newsweek—consistently ignored obvious connections between governments and terrorist activities in El Salvador and Guatemala, while straining to create them in Nicaragua; pumped up the idea of a KGB-Bulgarian plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II when there was no credible evidence to back up the claim (and a great deal of evidence pointing to the fascist-leaning Italian secret police’s manufacture of the plot).

I had long been aware of how widespread state terrorism has been in Central America, and the “plot to kill the pope” seems like the stuff of comic opera, but somehow I had missed just how completely and intentionally devastating America’s assault on Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam had been. The United States’ objective was to destroy the fabric of civil society in those countries, and through our superior weaponry we all but succeeded—in disrupting the lives of millions of people who were not actively hostile to this country and certainly represented no threat to America. If tht’s not terrorism, I don’t know what is. Chomsky and Herman posit that the military’s aim was to demonstrate to the third world that it was not worthwhile to engage in guerilla warfare, because US airpower would more than make up for any success against our ground troops—and the overwhelming sympathy that the people of Vietnam had for the Viet Minh (“Viet Cong,” the authors point out, was in fact a derogatory term) made U.S. success on the ground an impossibility.

And so, the atrocities at My Lai were the rule, not an exception. John Kerry’s “war hero” status devolves into war criminal status—do we know how many innocent civilians he killed?

The war on Vietnam was an attempt by the Western economic system to destroy the working, communal peasant network that was in place in southeast Asia, and force the people there to adopt a consumerist way of life that would benefit the Western economic system. The same kind of eminent domain that the Supreme Court just approved, on a transnational scale.

This is not, however merely a book of history—it is a history of how the history has been told, and it is easy to connect the dots—the same cover-over is going on today. Just as there were no hard questions in the popular media about the Gulf of Tonkin incident, there are no hard questions about why there was no wreckage scattered around from the airliner that allegedly hit the Pentagon, nor a call for a good explanation of why the World Trade Center collapsed from below when it was struck from above, nor an explanation of why World Trade Center Building 7 imploded several hours later when it had not been hit by an airplane or damaged by the collapse of the main towers, let alone a good explanation for why the “Bin Laden likely to use planes to attack U.S.” briefing was ignored, why Colin Powell lied to the U.N., why the Bin Laden family was allowed to leave the country unquestioned, why no interceptor planes were scrambled when the hijacking started…the list goes on and on

I am marking this fourth anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center by asserting that it wasn’t a terrorist attack—it was a sucker punch, My fellow Americans, we have been had. That pain you feel is George Bush’s fist in your gut.

Just as the media unquestioningly accepted that the rebels in El Salvador and Guatemala were communists, and that the death squads had nothing to do with the government and were not trained, equipped, and encouraged by the United States, so today the media accept that the struggle in Columbia is narcotraffickers versus government, with some uncontrollable right-wing death squads floating around, and that the trouble in Iraq is with a small minority of the population there.

And just as there were no questions about whether the United States had a right to be in Vietnam, only questions about whether the war was winnable, so there is no discussion in the mainstream media about whether the U.S. has any right to be in Iraq, only arguments about whether we can prevail against the “insurgents.” The question is too embarassing to ask, because the answer is that the United States had as much right to interfere in Vietnam—and in Iraq—as the Germans had to send their troops into Poland in 1939.

Let me say that again, more clearly: the United States has as much right to invade Iraq as the Germans had to invade Poland. Again: the United States has as much right to invade Iraq as the Germans had to invade Poland. Please tell all your friends to tell this to all their friends. It’s the thousand pound gorilla in America’s living room: the United States has as much right to invade Iraq as the Germans had to invade Poland. Do I make myself perfectly clear?

All those who support America’s current war of aggression in the middle east—including recent Democratic candidate Kerry and current front-runners Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden—are complicit in war crimes just as surely as any member of the 1939 German government. There is no good reason for the United States to have military forces in Iraq. None. Zip. Nada. The World Trade Center bombing was allowed to happen by the Bush junta, if it was not actively planned by them. And you’ll never read about it in Newsweek.

The book, again, is Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent.” Read it and weep. Read it and get motivated. Happy anniversary.

Something is rotten in the state of Georgia. The state legislature recently passed a highly restrictive voter registration act, in an atmosphere so polarized that the legislative black caucus walked out in protest. Since Georgia is still on probation, in a manner of speaking, for its discriminatory policies in the past, an appeal was made to the federal government, which has the authority under the voting rights act to strike down laws deemed too restrictive. Alberto Gonzalez and his so-called Justice Department declined to do so, although during the Clinton years, the Justice Department had struck down less restrictive laws in other states.

What this law does, is mandate that voters have one of five forms of photo ID in order to vote. While one of these forms is a driver’s license, many poor people, as we just discovered in New Orleans, don’t own cars, and so have to get a special ID issued at one of only 56 centers in the state. There is no such center, for example, in the City of Atlanta proper, only in the wealthy, mostly white suburbs around it.

Defenders of the Georgia rule have pointed out that Mexico, a third world country, requires a photo ID to vote, but they are ignoring the fact that Mexico makes it much easier to get a photo ID. They are also ignoring how well known it is that photo IDs have not made Mexican elections any more honest—although the bill’s proponents were forced to admit that there was no reason to believe that Georgia elections are NOT honest because they don’t have stringent ID requirements.

On the other hand, any bunch of voters dumb enough to believe a chicken hawk who impugns Max Cleland’s patriotism probably don’t give a hoot about the details. They just want to keep the nigras from voting and taking over.

A case in point is Brunswick, Georgia, where former Black Panther Chairwoman Elaine Brown is running for mayor on the Green Party ticket. A lot is at stake. The city is a seaport, with a lot of money coming in, or at least going through, especially now that the Port of New Orleans is shut down for the immediate future, and, like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Ms. Brown would like to see more of that money go to help people who need help, rather than accrue in the bank accounts of the already wealthy, as it tends to do in this country.

Furthermore, the white folks who run Brunswick (Ms. Brown’s opponent is a member of the Sons of the Confederacy—I didn’t know such foolishness still existed), have concocted an Urban Removal, excuse me, Renewal project that will gentrify the poor, predominantly black part of town, using the kind of power of eminent domain the Supreme Court recently approved, in the name of improving the business climate—and disrupting the possibility of a black political power base in the town.

The County Commission in Glynn County, where Brunswick is located, is predominantly white and what we call conservative in this country, though they are not interested in conserving the things I think need to be conserved—but I digress. They have decided to have a special election to try and pass new taxes on the same day as the mayoral election, but guess what—county election polling places are not in the same locations as city election polling places, so people will have to go to two different places to vote. Divide and conquer, eh?

Ms. Brown has called for freedom rides and other forms of massive public protest over the way her candidacy is being jacked around by the power structure. I’m unable to break loose from what I’m doing to go help out, and I’m not sure how much concrete response her request has generated, but I know a shaft when I see one, and she and all the poor, black people in Georgia are getting it.

Comments

Today is the day after the election and the PEOPLE of Brunswick, GA have spoken. After months of words, campaigning, legal actions, court room drama, death threats, marches in the streets, heated exchanges, 5 day 24 hour candle prayer vigil and yes even violence; the citizens of the City Of Brunswick finally got the chance to voice their opinion and their feelings toward Elaine Brown by exercising their right to vote and loudly saying NO to Elaine Brown as Mayor of Brunswick. After the polls closed and the votes were counted, Bryan Thompson won the Mayoral seat with 63.84%. Otis Herrington, the only other black Mayoral Candidate besides Elaine Brown received 17.15% of the votes. Out of the over 16,000 residents that live in the City Of Brunswick, Elaine Brown received almost 1.5%. What that tells me is 98.5% of the residents said NO to Elaine Brown as their Mayor. Elaine Brown has already told the press that she will contest the election. To me, when Elaine Brown continues to claim she is the People’s Mayor, maybe one day she will realize that 98.5% of the people spoke, NO SHOUTED, that they do not want her as their Mayor. But Elaine Brown does have a right to continue filing complaint after complaint in court and by the looks of things this legal battle may go on for months if not years.
Posted by Brunswick Voter on 11/09/2005 09:27:18 PM

Response:  Somehow, this note slipped past my attention back when I made the post, but let’s look at the numbers and what they mean.  Sure, Confederate Party candidate Brian Thompson received 64% of the 1900 votes that were cast,  which means he is governing the town with the overt approval of more or less 1200 citizens of Brunswick.

However, there are over 15,000 people living in Brunswick, an estimated 70% of them old enough to vote.  That’s a voter pool of around 10,000 people, so Thompson’s 1200 votes hardly mean that “98.5% of the residents said NO to Elaine Brown.”  This vote means that about 12% of the (potential) voters said no to Elaine Brown.

Now, in a city that’s 60% black, howcome so many people of colour didn’t vote when not one, but two of their own were running?  Elaine Brown’s name had been removed from the ballot and the story is that poll officials were not being helpful about write in votes.

Notice that the larger part of this story is Georgia’s efforts to restrict minority voting, approval of which has since been proven to be political chicanery on the part of the Justice Department.  That’s what the US Attorney firing scandal was about.  Moreover, “Plan Brunswick” appears to be similar to the unannounced “plan New Orleans” which has cut down on the black majority in that city.

So, “Brunswick Voter” has cherry-picked the facts to make his case.  Hey, the town’s gonna be under water in the blink of a geological eye, anyway.  Let the honkies stay there and get soaked.

On the other hand, Elaine Brown has recently quit the Green Party amidst a cloud of charges and countercharges that I can’t judge.  Like Cynthia McKinney, a person Ms. Brown does not like, she is accused of being excessively combative and thin skinned.  She says her detractors are racist and sexist, although how that  fits in with their support for Ms. McKinney is a bit fuzzy to me.  I expect it will all be clearer in a few years….

No sooner had John Bolton, acting on behalf of the Bush Junta, demanded that the United Nations delete the phrase, “respect for nature,” from the core values section of a major reform document the U.N. is drafting, than Nature responded by whupping the United States upside the head bigtime, bigtime, bigtime.

You know what I’m talking about. Hurricane Katrina. The biggest hurricane ever to come ashore—ever?–well, OK—the biggest in recorded history, the most lethal of the four category five hurricanes on record. Katrina let the United States know, in no uncertain terms, that this country is vulnerable—woundable—in ways that military preparedness and heightened security measures cannot prevent.

Certainly, there are plenty of things that could have been done to ameliorate the situation. There were plenty of railroad cars and busses available to evacuate those without their own transportation (and ironically, New Orleans’ excellent public transportation system has made it easier for people to live there and not own an automobile). Ways could have been found to assure these people that their homes and belongings would be safe from looting in their absence. And surely we have all heard by now about how the Bush Junta severely cut funding for maintaining New Orleans’ levee system (which was not even built to withstand a category 5 storm to begin with), and what in the world are the Louisiana National Guard’s HIGH WATER vehicles doing in Iraq?

You know, though, that even if everything had been done right, Katrina wasn’t the whole show, she was just an opening number. It’s still only the middle of this hurricane season, and we’ve had thirteen named storms so far—the overall average is four or five. Katrina didn’t go right over the top of New Orleans, but the next storm might—or it might hit Houston, or Mobile, or Tampa—or Miami, Norfolk, WASHINGTON, Philadelphia or New York. Not only the frequency but the intensity of hurricanes is increasing—how long will it be until we have to create a “category six” and then maybe a “category seven”? And not only is the ocean getting warmer, it’s rising….

Dennis Hastert is not my kinda guy, but I think he was right to question the wisdom of rebuilding New Orleans. The city is below sea level, below the level of the Mississippi, it’s now a toxic waste cleanup site, and the river has been trying to take the Achafalaya bypass for a hundred years already. Channelization of the river for human/economic purposes has destroyed much of the network of barrier islands and marshland that used to buffer the city from storms. Maybe it’s time to let the river move, relocate New Orleans upriver to Baton Rouge, and start all over again. Maybe we can do it right this time, though I’m sure it will be done wrong if Messers. Hastert and Bush are in charge. Unfortunately they are in charge, and it looks like we may be getting a Halliburton-dominated, sanitized simulacrum of New Orleans in place of the real thing. Look for lots of eminent domain to be exercised and thousands of poor people to lose everything they had, most especially their communities.

Meanwhile, offers of aid are pouring in from around the world. We’re taking up Germany and France on their offers of fuel, but ignoring Venezuela’s offer of fuel and medical help, and of course ignoring Cuba’s offer of medical help. In case you didn’t know, Cuba has made medical aid one of its chief exports. Cuban medical personnel provide primary health care in Venezuela in exchange for petroleum for Cuba, and whenever there is a disaster in the world, Cuban doctors and nurses are there to help out.

And, by the way, Ivan, a category 5 hurricane, went over Cuba last year, bringing 160 mile-an-hour winds and a 20-foot storm surge, slightly stronger than Katrina. The Cubans evacuated a million and a half people—in a country where private cars are the exception, not the rule—and nobody died. People were allowed to take pets and prize possessions with them, and there was no looting. Ah, these backwards, third-world, communist countries. They’ve got a thing or two to learn from us, don’t they?

So now the spinning and the finger-pointing have begun, along with aid to the victims of this human-assisted natural disaster. There have been demands that various federal officials be fired for malfeasance and incompetence, but we have a government that really appreciates malfeasance and incompetence, so don’t expect any action there—and even if they did get rid of someone, maybe for not being venal enough, the Bush Junta would find an even more obnoxious replacement for them—look at trading Ashcroft for Gonzalez, look at the Supreme Court—Bush nominates good Nazi John Roberts as an associate justice, ignites a storm of well-justified criticism, and responds by—nominating Roberts for CHIEF justice. THAT’S justice? Since when do criminals get to select their judges? What really makes me gag is that a lot of Democrats seem to be willing to go along with giving us a Supreme Court that’s way out in right field.

The Bush junta is probably feeling a bit relieved by the news shift blown in by Hurricane Katrina. Iraq is out of the headlines, Cindy Sheehan is out of the headlines, and the Justice Department’s decision not to challenge Georgia’s new voter registration rules, which some are calling the reintroduction of Jim Crow, didn’t even make it into the headlines. The Republifascists get to try and look like good guys, if they can keep George from sticking his foot in his mouth babbling about rebuilding Trent Lott’s house, and if the skinny on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Kafkaesque rules doesn’t get out too far—they will only mail you the forms you need to your home address, but what if you’ve been evacuated due to a—duh, emergency, and can’t go home because the government won’t let you?

And of course all these wonderful billions of dollars they’re so magnanamously voting to spend are going to be borrowed from the Chinese. At least the Junta had the sense not to try and repeal the estate tax at the same time. Maybe the estate tax repeal is now off the table for good. Maybe. Just maybe. And maybe this whomp upside America’s head will keep the government too occupied to jump off on Iran like they were working up to. Maybe. Just maybe. Stay tuned.

Last month I told you about snowballing (if you’ll excuse the expression) methane escape rates from the thawing arctic permafrost. This month brings news that the planet’s accelerating release of greenhouse gasses is not confined to the tundra. A group of scientists at Cranfield University, in England, has been studying soil CO2 levels for the last 25 years, and has discovered that, evidently due to a warming climate (which increases the level of biological activity), England’s soil has released thirteen million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which more than offsets the estimated twelve point seven million tons of carbon that has been prevented from entering the atmosphere due to antipollution measures.

Guy Kirk, the leader of the study, said, “It’s a feedback loop. The warmer it gets, the faster it is happening,” Just like what’s happening in the tundra, friends.

Last month I pointed out to you that the rate of carbon release into the atmosphere from human activity is like having seventeen thousand active volcanoes going on the planet. With this discovery, that number probably just jumped by a few thousand.

Asked if there was anything that could be done to stop this, Ian Bradley, another scientist involved in the study, said, “If we were prepared to turn all of arable England back to trees, that would work - but there’s no realistic possibility of that.”

Recent studies have indicated that pine tree farms, touted as a cure for rising CO2 levels, are not nearly as effective as mixed hardwood forests in sequestering CO2, due to the greater biodiversity in natural hardwood forests.

The scientists also noted that the escape of carbon dioxide from the soil would eventually lower soil fertility, but said that so far there has been no sign of that.

This study only measured what is happening in England, but England is merely a representative sample for something that is a worldwide phenomenon, and not one that is limited to plowed or otherwise disturbed ground, as was previously thought.

The very earth beneath our feet is rising up against our reckless ways. It’s too late to completely avert disaster, although a concerted effort might slow our fall. But this ride is out of control, and it’s going to get more out of control before it slows down. The apocalypse is here, folks. Don’t forget to be good to each other.