QUOTE OF THE DAY
"There weren't any weapons of mass destruction. We knew and we know the war was a fraud. I've been a mayor and I understand where the weapons are, Mr. Bush. You come to urban America - we'll show you weapons of mass destruction. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. Homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction And lying to the American people is a weapon of mass destruction."
- - Congressman Dennis Kucinich (At last weekend's Rainbow PUSH conference)
JUNE 24th IN HISTORY:
1971 -- First "White House Enemies List" is circulated by the staff of Special Presidential Counsel Charles W. Colson. John Dean, Counsel to President Nixon, described a "siege mentality" in the White House. Dean testified Nixon approved a plan to use wiretaps, burglary & other forms of surveillance against citizens he considered radical or subversive. Dean also made public a White House "enemies list" of 256 persons in the media, business, entertainment, politics & the academic world. The idea was to "use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies" through such government actions as tax audits. He also said the CIA was used to "block a full FBI investigation of Watergate".
Nixon On Tape
RHINO HERE:
Everybody who thinks the military spends too much American Taxpayer money raise your hand! If you had to think twice, bear in mind the U.S. bombs dropped to kill Osama & Saddam & to foster democracy in Afghanistan & Iraq were running us about 1.5 million bucks each, and are Saddam & Osama dead? And is there democracy in those countries?
Now let's move to Chicago this last weekend to the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition 32nd annual conference. This is Jesse Jackson's organization responsible for many admirable efforts in America's urban areas over the last many decades, not the least of which is the registration of hundreds of thousands of Black voters. So Dennis Kucinich, in answer to a question about the "Digital Divide" separating minorities & the poor from middle class whites in computer access, says, "As long as we're spending so much money for the Pentagon, and so little money for education, we're going to have all kinds of divides in this country. The only way we're really going to close the divide in this country is to start cutting the Pentagon budget and put that money into education."
Howard Dean spoke next & said, "I don't agree with Dennis about cutting the Pentagon budget when we're in the middle of a difficulty with terror attacks." Rhino really wants to like the Governor, in case he gets the Dem nom, but get real! Congress appropriates mega bucks to the Pentagon so they can line the pockets of Lockheed Martin et al & meanwhile, these same Congressmen refuse to make the chemical companies move their huge storage tanks, which are rarely guarded or even fenced off, out of urban areas. Just one example of the hypocrisy of the supposed war on terror.
Rhino sez, "VOTE KUCINICH IN THE MOVE ON PRIMARY TODAY !!
Democratic Candidates Court Black Voters
By MONICA DAVEY, NY Times, 6/23/03
CHICAGO, June 22 - As the Rev. Jesse Jackson looked on from the front row, center, most of the Democratic candidates for president courted his followers in a hotel ballroom this afternoon, presenting the image of a group generally united behind issues of social justice and racial equality and against a single man, President Bush. To the cheers of hundreds of people at the 32nd annual conference of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Mr. Jackson's organization, seven Democratic hopefuls told of their firm support for affirmative action, their concerns about the criminal justice system and their blunt disgust at Mr. Bush's policies on just about everything, including education, tax cuts and poverty. ...
...15 years since Mr. Jackson ran for president, but he had advice for these Democrats. Before the candidates' forum, Mr. Jackson, who ran in 1984 and again in 1988, urged Democrats to pursue a "Southern strategy," and not to abandon the South to Mr. Bush, as he said the Democrats did in their 2000 loss. "We must not write the South off, it is the key to the emancipation of the whole country and the preservation of the Union," Mr. Jackson said. "We must launch a new Southern strategy of reconciliation, shared economic security and hope and healing."
For his part, Mr. Jackson said he planned a "massive" voter registration drive for 2004. And for those who suggest that his role as one of the nation's leading black voices might be slipping away, Mr. Jackson was quick to point out that he and his organization had registered an endless string of voters over a period of decades. "We have currency in the field," he said in an interview. In this ballroom, Mr. Jackson remains a rock star. He draws standing ovations. And his endorsement for president, which he says will come "no time soon," is a coveted prize....
ENTIRE ARTICLE AT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/23/politics/campaigns/23JACK.html?th
Democratic Candidates Skewer Bush in Appeal to Black Voters
Differences between liberals and centrists take back seat
to calls for change at Rainbow / PUSH Coalition event.
By Eric Slater, LA Times, 6/23/03
....With a Supreme Court decision on the affirmative action case expected this week, several of the office-seekers praised the university's policy. A fiery Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio led the way by pledging that as president, he would pen executive orders to "enshrine" affirmative action - not only in higher education but in housing and other areas as well. "We deserve a president of the United States who doesn't call fairness to minorities a special preference," added Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry...
...Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who has led the call for the party to return to its roots, was one of several to criticize Bush on the foundering economy, the nation's deficit and on Bush's $1.7 trillion in tax cuts, which he and Gephardt have promised to repeal in their entirety if elected. "What people are going to say is, 'I'll take the jobs, education and health care because I didn't get the president's tax cut' " anyway, Dean said.
Several candidates lamented the fact that there are more black men in America in prison (about 900,000) than in college (about 600,000), and they criticized the long-running war on drugs as a failure that has devastated minority communities. "This isn't a war on drugs, it's a war on people," said Moseley Braun, adding that she would seek to allow felons who had served their sentences to regain some rights, such as the right to vote...
READ IT ALL AT:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-chidems23jun23,1,5361576.story
RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE is by poet & writer Eliot Weinberger and is one of the best short analyses of the Bush administration's policies. It was first published by "Vorwarts," on June 8, 2003. Two other excellent articles by Weinberger, "New York-One Year After" & "New York - Sixteen Months After" are posted at:
http://www.makethemaccountable.com/wein/
Weinberger's bio is at:
http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?45442B7C000C000D0F
6:55:12 AM 
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