ETS! encourages comments, feedback, tips, corrections, and info! Please keep them as concise as possible so we can print as many different voices as possible: ETS!, P.O. Box 85541, Seattle WA 98145, or e-mail ets@scn.org.

Democrats are Swell

ETS!,

Regarding Henry Hyde's closing remarks at the Senate trial:

I am proud to say, I'm one of those who regularly sent "hate mail" to Henry Hyde and others--my own form of protest ("Adulterer yourself! Thou hypocrite!")--and it sure warmed the cockles of my heart to hear that they actually read our mail, and that it hit home! (I was careful not to make any "death threats," however. Come the next election, many of them will be politically dead, anyway.)

I beg to disagree with Geov that this crapola will "alienate ordinary Americans from politics." It could--but not necessarily so--if we're smart and fast and seize the moment! Lots of Americans are more mad than alienated. Items to consider:

1) Jesse Ventura's campaign slogan (a winning one!): "Retaliate in '98!" (Retaliate against whom do you suppose?)

2) The unusually high turnout for a mid-term election, defying all predictions.

3) The fact that contributions to the Democratic Party are flooding in, a great many of them from small contributors--$10 and $20--and not from fat cats.

4) Jesse Jackson's drive to register two million new voters in southern states!

What we must do is keep momentum going, register (or re-register) as many people as we can--especially women, minorities, gays, young people, and felons! (The League of Women Voters pamphlet no longer erroneously says felons can't vote in this state.) Conservative white males no longer rule! In this state, also, we can have Initiatives on the ballot that will appeal to young voters--such as the proposed repeal of Sidran's infamous No-Postering Ordinance; and the last election's Medical Marijuana Initiative, and future de-criminalizing pot initiatives, for instance. That will get a turnout of new voters who will realize that elections mean something to them, directly.

It is up to us--we can do something to counteract "apathy"--if we're not "apathetic" ourselves. Use that anger--it won't go away!

Barbara Tomlinson, Seattle, WA

Usus Totallus Understandus

ETS!,

Jobus needus badus, nocanbevolunteerus.

--Thornton Kimes, via e-mail

Reference Room I

please, I need to know information on the word ETEWUA. I want to know if it person's name used in some indigenous tribe of the Amazons. Of being this way, serve to grant met to you all the details possible envelope the some one, especially the meaning and antecedents. Without but and awaiting a prompt answer, I greet him sincerely.

zapata@sion.com, via e-mail

Reference Room II

ETS!,

I am happy we live in a country that allows us to speak our minds. I am a college student who has to write a research paper for a US History class. I am searching for a topic that will bring light to some scandalous act(s) that took place against Native Americans around 1877-1892. You seem like a good place to start. I've found a few things in your site, do you have any more suggestions or ideas on topics or where to get more info.? I will be happy to mention your web page in my cited work for some free advertisement. Thanks!

lindsey@xyz.net, via e-mail

Ed. reply: "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown. It's a book. And how the fuck are we supposed to know Amazonian vocabulary? Again: We are volunteers. We are not a library. Geez.

The Times' Cross Words

ETS!,

About the plan to give us a double-dose of morning newspapers. There has never been much difference between the P-I and the Times except maybe sometimes the P-I editorials are a little more agreeable than the Times editorials and occasionally the Times columnists are a little less right-wing than the P-I columnists. Indeed, in the context of "big" issues, the only reason I subscribe to the P-I is that I like a morning newspaper and I prefer to do the NY Times crossword puzzle.

Suddenly, the Times announces that it will also be a morning paper. We are, however, immediately assured that it will make no difference and the P-I will continue to flourish under the JOA [Joint Operating Agreement].

But, for those of us tuned in to the "little picture," a first insidious shovel full has already been dug in preparation for the burial of the P-I. Last Sunday, for the first time, the Sunday NY Times crossword puzzle appeared in the Times, not the P-I.

Wonder what the next shovel full will be?

Thalia Syracopoulos, Seattle

We'll Call You

ETS!,

Hello again, I'm the same fellow that recently sent a note about your submissions policy.

With a name like "Eat the State!," at least to some extent you might exploit the "eat" tangent a bit more than is currently done. For example, "This Week's Special Recipe" referring to an answer for a fundamental concern or problem, "Heartburn" for the worst this or that, "Breakfast Special" dealing with a day-time or morning or school-related issue, and so forth. Also, if you're going to eat (the state), might as well leave room for dessert (some good stuff to take the edge off the nasties).

Martin Siegel, via e-mail

Nuke Ads and GES

Dear ETS!,

I just read the "short" on "Nuclear Power Gets Clean". I thought you'd be pleased to know that the Better Business Bureau criticized the Nuclear Energy Institute ads as misleading and demanded they be yanked.

I work for a clearinghouse dedicated to tracking the enviornmental backlash movement. I've pasted the original article about the ads from the newsletter I write, "A CLEAR View" and the follow-up piece from the most recent edition.

I'm sure you already have plenty to read, but you might consider subscribing to our newsletter. It is free, of course. You can check out back issues on-line at http://www.ewg.org/pub/home/clear/clear.html If you are interested, send a message with no signature to clear-view@ewg3.ewg.org with "subscribe" in the subject line.

(On an unrelated issue, if you want to know more about the Greening Earth Society and the Western Fuels Association, also mentioned in the last issue of ETS!, check out the report I did last November entitled, "Western Fuels Association's Astroturf Empire". It's also posted on our web site.)

Emily Headen, via e-mail

Goo

Dear Maria, Geov & Friends,

Thought you'd like to see a younger audience enjoying your rag. Our daughter can't seem to get enough ETS!. She does seem a little bit confused about the "Eat" part of the title, some folks are so literal...

Keep up the good work!

--Corey, Meadow, & Cosma Davis, Cannon Beach OR

More on the WTO

Dear ETS!

The people putting on the WTO conference in Seattle will doubtless make sure that any gainsayers of clout (e.g., Ralph Nader or any public interest groups) are excluded because it is felt they would be "counterproductive" (read "disruptive"). As for the seriousness of the future implications of the MAI, consider the words of Abraham Katz, president of the U.S. Council for International Business (as quoted in "Sierra" magazine, August 1998, p. 17): "We will oppose any and all measures to create or even imply binding obligations for governments or business related to environment or labor." If that isn't a declaration of war, what is? Therefore, as for having any kind of mitigating effect on the conference, there are only two basic actions I have so far been able think of:

1) Legally proving exclusion, and mounting a legal challenge to that exclusion on the grounds that personal and local sovereignty are being deliberately overruled by fiat with no input (i.e., defense) from the affected parties (the public). Or mounting a legal ethics challenge even to the very existence of the WTO, since by its own admission (refer to the WTO challenge to the recently invalidated Massachusetts selective purchasing statute vis-`-vis Burma) the organization refuses to consider human rights as any part of a basis for business decisions.

2) Organizing a general strike throughout the greater Seattle area for the duration of the conference (okay, okay, laugh--but somebody had to say it). What does Jobs With Justice have to say about the conference? (Go ahead--pick up the gauntlet.)

Unfortunately, the first action would probably cost a lot of money; I personally know a certain large Seattle law firm that I am 99.99% sure would get out the major guns to counter any perceived threat to the conference (I wouldn't even be surprised to learn that they are playing a big part in putting it on). The second would require a daunting amount of public education; as you pointed out, the public has already seemingly been gulled into conflating corporate profit and public benefit. Thus, such education would need to successfully counteract and override what will surely become nonstop mainstream media paeans to the conference and Seattle's consequent imminent glory as a world trade center, sufficient to wrench the public out of its daily commutes and finally make the world's future matter more than individual tomorrows. Neither action would be impossible--just extremely difficult.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm glad ETS! exists; please keep up the good work. I'll be sure to send some more pictures of dead white presidents when I can.

--Kerry Canfield, Portland, Oregon

Ed note: the date and time for the next organizing meeting of anti-WTO was incorrectly listed in the print version of ETS! last week due to an anticipated change. The correct info: Saturday, March 20, 11 AM-4 PM at the Labor Temple. For info, call 1-877-STOP-WTO. Be there!

And while we're making corrections: two weeks ago the contact number for the folks combatting Seattle's poster ban somehow lost a digit. The correct number: 206-781-7371.

Who Bombed Judi Bari?

Dear Editor:

I discussed the February 24 "Nature and Politics" reprint from "Counterpunch" with Maria Tomchick when she and I crossed paths recently. I thank Maria for the invitation and encouragement to write in about my concerns.

I think that Cockburn and St. Clair have done some very one-sided writing in their article reporting an allegation that it was Judi Bari's ex-husband, rather than FBI operatives, who bombed Bari and Darryl Cherney. All that the Counterpunch article does is summarize another article, which was published in Flatland Magazine. Flatland's publisher, judging from its own web site, specializes in books on UFO, aliens-among-us, weird science and conspiracy theory themes.

That article is not yet available on Flatland Magazine's web site. Apparently it relies primarily on the work of an English professor named Don Foster. Moonlighting as a "literary detective"--whose previous "findings", such as identifying the author of "Primary Colors" and a lost Shakespeare elegy, either repeated common knowledge or have been rejected by the academic community--Foster claims to demonstrate that the bomber's letter must have been written by Bari's ex. Foster's evidence is at best questionable and I'm surprised that Cockburn and St. Clair accept it uncritically, regardless of Cockburn's longstanding criticism of Bari.

Readers should follow up differing viewpoints and judge for themselves. Flatland conscientiously posts a link on its web site to that of Mike Sweeney, the possibly defamed ex-husband. Flatland's site is www.flatlandbooks.com/flatland, and Sweeney's is www.saber.net/~sweeney.

--Billy Kreuter, Seattle

G.P. replies: I will confess to being mystified by Bari supporters' hostile reaction to the Flatland article, and Cockburn & St. Clair's description of it. I would think any new insights, however tenuous, into the mystery of the bombing and its culprit(s) would be welcomed. Instead, the consensus seems to be that this is a threat to the long-supposed notion that the big bad FBI did it. So far, there's no proof of that--or anything else, except that the investigation was a farce. Why the closed minds?