Oct. 17, 2002 - 19:55 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Insistent

I guess reading the newspapers is a bit better than avidly following the chatter of CNN and other TV sound bite whirlygigs with the crawlers below shoving other stuff at the eyeballs on the bottom of the screen. But at times I do wonder just how much. Printed news is often slanted and things that should be mentioned in an article aren't. "Twas ever thus I guess and probably 'twill always be. I have to remind myself that the funds to keep newspapers going come from company and corporation advertising in greater proportion than indiviual subscriptions and newstand profits. Thus there appears to me a form of blackmail in operation -- see the news our way or we will go somewhere else to advertise.

I see an article in this morning's newspaper by Dafina Linzer of the Associated Press that key U.S. allies in the United Nations oppose the use of force against Iraq. And those who might eventually side with us will only do so when the "ifs" fall into place -- if the Iraq arms inspections fail etc. The U.N.'s Security Panel's five permanent, veto powered members are divided over how to proceed on Iraq now that it has agreed to the return of inspectors after nearly four years. It also seems to me that the "allies" Mr. Bush said he has in his war efforts some are in opposition, others in support only in a half hearted way if certain things come to pass.

Ron Fournier of the Associated Press has a piece about Bush signing the War Powers Resolution. Quote, "In a flurry of activity, Bush tried to use Sharon's visit and the vote of support in Congress to ease opposition at the United Nations for a tough new anti-Iraq resolution." Unquote. So now by the blessing of most of Congress we can use military force against Iraq regardless of what the consensus is at the United Nations. A thing that disturbs me in Fournier's article is his last small paragraph. "Bush has threatened to build a coalition of allies outside the United Nations to confront Saddam."

Makes me wonder, are there enough other countries in our world with clout enough to be viable allies of ours ?

I see in the paper that Arthur Andersen LLP the auditing firm has been given a $500,000 fine for the Enron cover up. And then, I just can't understand the machinery and justification for giving the firm five years of probation too. Andersen LLP once employed 28,000 people is now down to fewer than 1,000 workers. To my way of thinking A. Andersen LLP should be completely out of the business which by our tradition requires absolute integrity and honesty. Can't understand any one wanting to use said LLP. More smoke and mirrors I guess.

Now our nasty little local fiasco is flickering into flame again. The ACLU claims that the City Of Denver could create a whole new set of spy files with the information it wants in a federal lawsuit. The ACLU, this year filed a lawsuit to stop the Denver Police Department from keeping files on peaceful protesters and advocacy groups. In Sue Lindsay's column in today's Rocky Mountain News she says, "The city's requests for evidence it might use in its defense are so broad they violate the very right the lawsuit is trying to protect, said a motion filed by attorney Lino Lipinsky on behalf of the ACLU." The following quote cites what the city wants, "The city has asked that plaintiff organiztions supply membership lists for the past four years and a list of every organization they have been affilitated with since 1999 along with the names of other participants. The city also wants plaintiffs to provide details of each time they have talked about the spy files, including the names, addresses and employment of every person who may have heard their comments." Further along, "The motion seeks a court order "to stop the city from using the tools of civil discovery in what will be perceived as a brazen effort to supplement the city's dossiers on plaintiffs' political opinions, activities and associations."

The whole thing is turning into a three ring circus now. The city has already admited that the files violated city policy against collecting information on individuals and groups unless there is reasonable suspicion that the subject may be involved in criminal activity. Yet the push to preserve the files and accumulate additional data for their files is being persued.

Spy files, hit lists and other mechanisms seem to pretty well demonstrate we live now in a big brother society. Homeland security where every one is supposed to tell the feds about some thought, word of dissent another person might have or any other McCarthy suspicion. Denverland Security seems to entail the supposed great need of the city to have a file, dossier, list or whatever, on any person or organization that might dissent about anything regarding civil rights or anything else the paranoid biggies deem to -- maybe some time in the future be a threat to our city government's control over everything. A paranoid, "what they might do someday," sort of thing.

Spy Files, dossiers, hit lists seem to be dirty little secrets kept from the public at any cost. In my opinion it seems to be a widespread philosophy of governments - city - state - and federal that they have a right to keep secret files on people who dissent about anything that is opposite to the ironclad thought of the biggies. Their urge toward power and desire for absolute control continues to be ever Insistent . . . . . . . .

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