— Today's National News We are very lucky to live in the area served by Tennessee Valley Authority. The following is news about California from Corporate Watch You're Clear to Land By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN y friend Stephen Kobrin, a professor at the Wharton School, called the other day with a great proposal for how to deal with all the air traffic delays in America these days: "faith-based air traffic control." Seriously, think about it. The federal government, we're told, can't afford more air traffic controllers or radars. But most international airlines like El Al, Gulf Air, Alitalia, Thai Airways, Air India land in major cities, like New York and Los Angeles, where there would be plenty of mosques, synagogues, Catholic churches or Buddhist temples to guide them in, using shortwave radios and secondhand police radar guns, says Steve. Jews would land El Al planes, Muslims Gulf Air, Buddhists Thai Airways, etc. "Think of the possibilities for innovation that will emerge from thousands of small faith-based groups trying to guide planes safely and efficiently through our overcrowded skies," Steve adds. "It will transfer tax dollars from overfed government bureaucrats back to the people. The airlines will be forced to become self- reliant, instead of depending on the public dole and publicly funded air traffic controllers. And while proselytizing may happen while planes are being guided in, at least passengers will have the chance to listen to stirring, faith-based messages full of family values, instead of watching a movie full of sex and violence." Steve's real point, of course, is that to listen to President Bush, you'd think our only two choices today were a tax cut that returns the surplus to the people or having it wasted by the government. He never discusses a third possibility that government provides essential services in our lives, that we as Americans are fortunate to have the services we have, and that we constantly need to be reinvesting in them because we have a collective responsibility to our children's future, and to the less fortunate, to ensure that the government always has the resources to provide. Being a U.S. citizen is a privilege and a responsibility. It's not just a transaction about how much you paid in taxes and how much you get back. So when Mr. Bush repeats his mantra that the budget surplus "is not the government's money, it's your money," he's right. But the sentence is incomplete. We must finish the thought: "It's not the government's money. It's your money. But it's also going to be your responsibility to pay your parents' nursing home bills when they get old and you find that Social Security and Medicare are underfunded because of today's excessive tax cut." "It's not the government's money. It's your money. But it's also going to be your traffic jam, when the government can't afford to invest in mass transit around cities so your 20- minute commute becomes an hour." "It's not the government's money. It's your money. But it's also going to be your dilapidated public school, because of a lack of funds for new school building." "It's not the government's money. It's your money. But it's also going to be your busy signal, when you call a federal agency for help in five years and you're put on hold for a week because it's understaffed." "It's not the government's money. It's your money. But then, it's also your favorite national park that will be underfunded, provided Mr. Bush hasn't sold it off to an oil company." "It's not the government's money. It's your money. Of course it's also going to be your home alarm system that you'll need to install to deal with the rise in crime when all those kids who should have Head Start today but don't for lack of funds, or the 44 million Americans without health care, become desperate adults." I suppose all this won't hit home until the Republican Party realizes that, without the surplus, there won't be any more federal buildings to name after Ronald Reagan. It isn't enough that you now drive past the Ronald Reagan office building in downtown D.C., past the George Bush Sr. C.I.A. building, until you get to the Ronald Reagan National Airport building (and fly over the Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier), but Republicans now want to erect a memorial to Mr. Reagan while he's still alive! on the capital Mall. No, on second thought, once the surplus is gone there will still be a boomlet in one area of federal buildings: prisons. Indeed, it would be rather fitting that the newest one be named the "George W. Bush Federal Penitentiary." Understanding The Vote Count Media Bias ~ Rally To Protest Fox Cable Fox Lied We Distort ~ We Decide Who Killed JFK? ~ New Evidence God Help Us Are Republicans Building Facist Future? Who Needs Crummy Ole Oscar ~ The Rotton Apple Awards! Corporate RULE How do you feel about Bush's Tax Cut Plan? Read this! And See If You Still Feel The Same Way Separation of Church and State 03-25-01: Carolyn Gibson reviews: A Coup Attempt in Washington: A European Mirror on Our Recent Constitutional Crisis By Peter H. Merkl Palgrave, January 2001, 288 pages ISBN: 03122383122 Hardcover, $35.00 Apparently, Europeans thought Americans had gone mad when some tried to impeach and remove President Clinton based on a sex scandal that was dredged up by partisans and overblown by the media. The words of several foreign newspapers are quoted as Peter Merkl notes the excesses, irregularities and abuse of legal procedures of the Independent Counsel. Europeans "saw the Republican effort as a five-year vendetta culminating in a quasi-constitutional coup attempt, not just the pursuit of a scandal, and believed an important part of U.S. media was involved in the 'vast right-wing conspiracy' to overthrow Clinton," writes Mr. Merkl. A must-read for those who want to broaden their perspective on the 1998-1999 Constitutional Crisis. IT IS now known that Bush stole the election. He did not win the popular vote, nor the electoral college. You would think that he would seek to be moderate, realizing that he DOES NOT have a mandate of any kind. But if you are sleazy enough to steal an election, then you are sleazy enough to do anything. These are a crooked bunch, the usual suspects. EAST COAST: The Voter Rights March to Restore Democracy - East Coast will be held on Saturday, May 19, 2001at the West Capitol steps (including First to Third Streets by the Mall), the National Mall area, and Lafayette Park in Washington, DC from 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m. Here is the Election of 2000 If you are working class, poor, or middle class and you consider yourself to be republican, then this page is for you. Home |  Main Street Journal 2000  |  Rationally Speaking  |  Site Map  |  Archives  |  Feedback  |  Southern Stories   |  Play Games  |  Your Letters  |  Discussion Forum