News & Views You Can Use
Jul 16, 2003
City Pages
To George Hanson, ACC Tax Assessor
Dear Mr. Hanson: Uncle! I give! You win! C'est la fin de la guerre!
As a result of my having filed an appeal of my 2003 property tax assessment, two inquisitors from your office appeared at my door yesterday (June 24). Within about five minutes, they made it resoundingly clear to me that if I pursued my appeal further, they would recommend an increased assessment. If I had known such decisions were made before any hearing, I certainly would never have wasted your time with my initial appeal. So much for due process...
Therefore, please cancel my appeal. I will, under duress, accept the valuation stated on your letter dated 6/9/03 (copy attached) even though it represents a 28.721610115 percent increase over last year. I now realize that your office has the power to assign any value they choose on my property and that my only real avenue of appeal is legislative. If you up the value to $1 million, I'll either have to pay... or move. I hope we can all work together to arrive at some form of "cap" on property assessments (similar to a California-style Proposition 13) so that homeowners who choose to live in their homes may continue to do so without the threat of being taxed out of their neighborhoods. Perhaps something like inflation plus two percent in any given year would be more equitable. I would like to become involved in working for such legislation and have copied this letter to a few people who may be able to help me with this issue.
My experience yesterday was quite dreadful. After one of your assessors said I was "ignorant," I realized it was time to invite them to leave. They did. I certainly hope I never have to go through something like that again! I apologize for the problems I have caused your office by seeking an appeal.
Joseph S. Causey
Joe Causey is the C.F.O. of Farm Electric, an electrical supply company in Athens, and he is also a well-known pianist.
Truth Deflector
Is our president a liar? Well, even if you're a Bush backer, you have to admit he's never going to win the Little George Washington "I-cannot-tell-a-fib" award.
George W would never admit to being an out and out liar, but he has certainly spent a lifetime as a deflector, deflecting inconvenient truth as routinely as a Teflon pan rejects sticky food.
For example, here's a sticky question: even though he was a hawkish supporter of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, did he dodge service in that war by using his famous family's political connections to cut in line ahead of thousands of other young men who were seeking slots in the Air National Guard - thus allowing young George to spend his war years defending Houston against the Vietcong? Bush deflects the truth by impatiently declaring that no member of his family intervened with officials to give him a special break.
Come on, George - you know that families of privilege don't leave fingerprints by seeking such favors directly. Instead, the dirty work in this case was handled by Sid Adger, an oilman neighbor of the Bushes who called the speaker of the Texas house of representatives at the time, getting him to call the head of the Texas Guard, and - Shazam! - George zipped to the front of the line.
Well, says a defiant Bush, the Guard is a legitimate branch of the military, and I'm proud of my service there. More deflection. No one is challenging the legitimacy of the Guard, George - the challenge is how you pulled political rank to get into it. And, by the way, if you were so proud of being there, why and how were you able to go AWOL for a year of your National Guard duty, simply disappearing and not reporting for your assignments?
This is Jim Hightower saying: those who now wonder whether Bush is blatantly lying to us about everything from weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to the true impact of his tax giveaways to the rich - you need only to look to his past record. George never lies - but he's an inveterate deflector of the truth.
Jim Hightower
Jim Hightower is a political columnist, radio commentator and former Texas agriculture commissioner.
No Carrier:
Hackers and Hype
On July 2, an unknown (as of time of writing) person or persons set up a website announcing a "Defacement Challenge" which would take place on July 6. The idea was that hackers (note that there is an ontological debate over the word "hacker") from around the world would compete to see how many websites they could deface. If anyone could manage to deface 6000 websites in six hours, they would win 500M of on-line storage space.
The initial response from persons with a clue was that the contest was either a hoax, or at best very naive. The prize didn't make any sense - 500M is a positively paltry amount of storage these days, and no one charges for space anymore. They charge for bandwidth used - and announcing a contest like this in a high-profile manner is a very stupid thing to do.
However, the trade media, helped along by choice quotes from network security companies, got hold of the story and ran with it. They made it sound like Armageddon was upon us, that every website in existence was in mortal danger. Some even predicted that the imminent "attack" could "cripple" the net and theorized that the event was terrorist related because it happened over the long July 4 weekend.
All of this was pure hype. Let me give you some good, solid background information and you'll see why.
Let's start with defacing a website. What exactly does this mean? In practical terms it means gaining access to a website's files or editing interface and changing or replacing the homepage of a site. If you've never seen a defaced site, the replacement page is usually a poorly designed, badly spelled, obscenity-laced list of taunts, threats, shout-outs and assertions of the defacer's supremacy and/or masculinity. This is because most hackers are not super-intelligent criminal masterminds: they are bored, immature, posers and almost exclusively white males (in the US - Korea also has a lot of these guys).
It works like this: a reasonably intelligent person with a malicious bent will discover, through research or luck, a flaw in a program or the setup of a server. This flaw is known in the parlance as a "sploit," short for "exploit." The smart person will create a set of instructions and/ or software tool to apply the sploit in an automated fashion. This is known as a "rootkit." Then the bored posers get the rootkits and run around trying them on every server they can find, and eventually it works. With very few exceptions, cracking computer systems is about probability and economies of scale, not careful penetration of specific systems by highly-skilled individuals.
Calm reasoning tells us that there's not any more to worry about here than there is on any given day. There's a limited pool of hackers, because most net users are decent people, and there's a limited pool of vulnerable servers, because most sploits are fixed very quickly and most server admins are good about keeping up with security issues. This leaves the threat of "crippling" the net. Well, the shotgun approach of most hackers does have the potential to generate some network traffic, but not enough to matter in the big scheme of things. The kinds of attacks that cripple the net are worms and viruses, but that's a topic for another column.
So what happened in the end? Almost nothing happened. In fact, the website which announced the challenge disappeared almost as soon as it started. After the fact, some of the same news outlets which were predicting the imminent death of the Internet were pointing and laughing at the silly hackers, pointing out that it was likely a hoax and almost no damage was done. Just another day on the net.
Shawn Boyette
Athens
Shawn Boyette has spent way too much time around computers as well as old textbooks, good movies and cooking. He has an embarrassing fondness for 1980s metal.
Whether, Not Who:
The 2004 Election
He has canceled elections in Iraq. He will probably cancel them in Afghanistan. Will George W. Bush put the kibosh on elections in the United States next year?
That's the big question buzzing around left-of-center political circles. Even the most cynical pundits, journalists and activists wouldn't give this nightmare scenario a passing thought under normal circumstances. But things no longer seem normal. The thuggish manner in which the current administration seized power in 2000, combined with its radical unraveling of the Bill of Rights and a knack for getting its way no matter what, have led some progressives to worry that Bush might suspend the 2004 race as a prelude to dictatorship. They've read a similar tale before - it was set in Germany in 1933 - and they don't like the part where they end up wearing grey in a prison camp. "I don't even mind if the Democrats get stomped next year," a writer who despises Bush tells me. "I expect that. So long as they lose because the elections actually take place, I'll be happy."
Frightened by Bush's rapidly accruing personal power and the Democrats' inability and/ or unwillingness to stand up to him, panicked lefties worry that he might use the "war on terrorism" as an excuse to declare a state of emergency, suspend civil liberties and jail political opponents.
People who have spoken out against Bush are talking exit strategy - not Alec Baldwin style, just to make a statement, but fleeing the U.S. in order to save their skins. "Do you or your spouse have a European-born parent?" is a query making the rounds. (If you do, you can obtain dual nationality and a European Union passport that would allow you to work in any EU member nation.) Those whose lineage is 100 percent American are hoping that nations like Canada and France will admit American political refugees in the event of a Bushite clampdown.
To these people, whether or not the 2004 elections actually take place as scheduled is the ultimate test for American democracy. At Guantánamo Bay the United States is converting a concentration camp into a death camp where inmates will be executed without due process or legal representation. Never before in history has a U.S. president contemplated the denaturalization of native-born citizens - thus far even people executed for treason have died as Americans - but Bush has drafted legislation that would allow him to strip anyone he calls an "enemy combatant" of their citizenship and have them deported. By any objective standard he has already gone way too far, but for many it would take the cancellation or delay of the elections to confirm that we are trading in our wounded democracy for a fascist state.
Lincoln considered suspending the 1864 election because of the Civil War, but ultimately tabled the idea. To date nothing has ever prevented an American presidential election from being held on time.
It's easy to come up with a scenario in which canceling the 2004 election could be made to appear reasonable. Imagine that, a few weeks before Election Day, "dirty bombs" detonate simultaneously in New York and Washington. Government, media and political institutions and personnel lie ruined in smoking rubble and ash; hundreds of thousands of people have been murdered. The economy, already teetering on the precipice, is shoved into depression. How could we conduct elections under such conditions?
Republicans have already floated the don't-change-horses-in-midstream argument. After Democratic presidential Sen. John Kerry criticized Bush recently, GOP National Committee Chairman Mark Racicot took him to task not for his specific remarks, but rather for "daring to suggest the replacement of America's commander-in-chief at a time when America is at war."
The White House website's "frequently asked questions" section indicates that the "war" is expected to continue well beyond 2004: "There is no silver bullet, no single event or action that is going to suddenly make the threat of terrorism disappear. This broad-based and sustained effort will continue until terrorism is rooted out. The situation is similar to the Cold War, when continuous pressure from many nations caused communism to collapse from within. We will press the fight as long as it takes."
The Cold War lasted 46 years; does Bush intend to remain in office that long?
Our boy president has plenty of reason to worry about his election chances. A new CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll says that only 50 percent of Americans would vote for Bush over a generic unnamed Democrat - the lowest number since 9/11. Two-thirds say that Bush lied about or exaggerated the threat from Iraq's WMDs, and a steady flow of body bags from Afghanistan and Iraq has made 53 percent aware that the occupations are going poorly. Pollsters report that most people trust Democrats to rescue the sinking economy - and few believe that Bush's tax cuts will help them.
Bush may be the kind of guy who sees 99 percent odds as two percent short of a sure thing, but I bet he'll look at his $200 million campaign war chest and decide to let the people decide. He'll surely want to win legitimately in 2004 - albeit for the first time. Though they're capable of anything, Bush's people probably know that Americans wouldn't stand for two putsches in four years. Still, you have to hand it to him: The fact that Democrats are terrified of ending up imprisoned by an American Reich is the ultimate tribute to Bush's artful bullying - and sad confirmation of the impotence of his would-be, should-be opponents.
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a cartoonist and is the author of Gas War: The Truth Behind the American Occupation of Afghanistan.
Make Your Own Voice
Heard in Washington
I have some pretty serious problems with the Bush administration, and since his appointment, I've been reading major newspapers where I didn't before, and I've been taking notes on every event that concerns or just flat out scares the hell out of me. I've been contacting my Congressional representatives on every issue that concerns me or will involve, at some point down the line, my family.
Calling your representatives is easy to do, inexpensive, and it doesn't take much time. They're available through email, and their various offices are posted on their websites (see below). They're busy folks, but it's their job to respond to voters.
If they don't respond, call back and keep calling. You will get a response if you're persistent.
Also, there are several things you can do to let them know to take you seriously.
o Register to vote. If you're not a voter, you're off the radar screen - if only because they know you're not going to do anything that will affect them.
o Be informed. If any issue concerns you, read up on it. Most major newspapers are available on-line at no cost. Try the New York Times (newyorktimes.com) or the Washington Post (washingtonpost.com). Follow an issue, get divergent opinions and have stats and quotes ready to support your opinion.
o Be specific. Don't call up yammering about world peace or sweatshops in third-world countries. Not much to be done about either issue except draft resolutions calling for or decrying either one, which would be a waste of their time.
o Focus on issues that pertain to public interest. If you call Zell Miller's office on behalf of your favorite niche organization ("Free Hats for the Bi-Polar" or "Narcoleptics for Christ"), you'll get a polite listen. But nothing will happen. On the other hand, if you're representing a larger organization that's politically active and if you're informed, you can be genuinely helpful. There are issues that would concern our representatives - if they knew about them. They depend on us as sources of information.
o Be courteous. Dissent is a fundamental component of democracy, but so are cooperation and respect. Being a jerk and asking for cooperation may be quirky but it's ineffective.
o When you call, find out who to talk to. This works: "Hello, this is Billy Claude Puckett calling from Representative/ Senator Snarf's district. I'd like to talk to the aide focusing on [your issue here]." They'll transfer you or connect you to the aide's voice mail. If you leave an email address, the aide will most likely respond. If not, call again, and again. Make yourself heard: action is freedom.
o How to get in touch. The Roll Call website (capwiz.com/rollcall/officials/congress/?state=GA&azip=30606&lvl=C) provides the email and snailmail addresses for your representatives, as well as a search engine, if you're not sure who they are. The site will also connect you with their record on key votes, information on committees with which they work, and personal information that might help you determine their stand on particular issues.
o Follow up. If you call, your opinion will be registered. If you call again (and again), you will become a known entity, and they'll pay more attention. Your voice will be more likely to influence the aide's opinion on the subject.
o Informed and active, you can be a voice, an opinion in the mix that will eventually form a consensus. It might not seem like much, but the alternative is inaction, a non-being sort of death-in-life, white noise walking....
Billy Claude Puckett
Billy Claude Puckett is a car salesman living in south Georgia. He is an ex-Peace Corps volunteer and a minister in the Church of Signs Following. He takes up serpents.
Let Gypsy Entertain You
The Broadway hit comedy musical Gypsy is making its way into Athens this summer, but not by the usual means of a New York company stopping by the Classic Center for one performance. Our very own Athens Creative Theatre is putting up this extravagant production for five shows in the historic Morton Theatre, opening this Friday. (I'll be honest- I'm in the show, so you'll have to excuse my exuberance.)
Gypsy, a musical based on the autobiography of the famous stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, is set in late 1920's America when radio and film had yet to replace live entertainment. This show tells the story of the overly aggressive stage mom Rose who is determined to turn the younger of her two daughters, June, into a Vaudeville star. But the onset of the Depression and the hard knocks of show business eventually force June to elope and Rose to focus her efforts on the older and notably less talented daughter Louise. The slow and painful death of the Vaudevillian age lands the act in a "house of burlesque," (that's a strip club for all you laymen out there) where Louise first takes the stage as Miss Gypsy Rose Lee.
Starring as Mama Rose is Amy Wright, a seasoned Broadway performer and native Athenian. Playing Louise is ACT's Megan Rocks, a young woman whose name you might recognize from just about every theatre venue in Athens. Also starring, and choreographing, is Scott Earle, another Broadway veteran playing Herbert, Rose's longtime friend and manager. The show is directed by ACT's Tom Coleman with musical direction by Teresa Ruiz.
The original Gypsy opened on Broadway in 1959, starring Ethel Merman as Rose. The musical was adapted by Arthur Laurents and Steven Sondheim with musical score by Jule Styne. It was revived this year in New York starring Bernadette Peters as Rose and was nominated for several Tony awards, including Best Revival. You may recognize several classic show tunes from Gypsy such as "Let Me Entertain You" and "Everything's Coming Up Roses." The show's success stems not only from the familiar score and provocative theme, but also from the blatant humor that sugarcoats the underlying family conflicts that anyone in the audience can identify with. Besides, this stuff really happened!
Even if musicals are not your cup of tea, Gypsy is one show that has something for everyone. Gypsy opens Friday, July 18 at 7:30 p.m. and runs Saturday, July 19 at 7:30 p.m., Friday, July 25 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, July 26 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, July 27 at 3 p.m. in the Morton Theatre on Washington Street in Downtown Athens. Tickets are on sale at the Morton Theatre box office: $15 for adults, $13 for senior citizens and $10 for children and students.
Joanna Brooks
Dear Mr. Hanson: Uncle! I give! You win! C'est la fin de la guerre!
As a result of my having filed an appeal of my 2003 property tax assessment, two inquisitors from your office appeared at my door yesterday (June 24). Within about five minutes, they made it resoundingly clear to me that if I pursued my appeal further, they would recommend an increased assessment. If I had known such decisions were made before any hearing, I certainly would never have wasted your time with my initial appeal. So much for due process...
Therefore, please cancel my appeal. I will, under duress, accept the valuation stated on your letter dated 6/9/03 (copy attached) even though it represents a 28.721610115 percent increase over last year. I now realize that your office has the power to assign any value they choose on my property and that my only real avenue of appeal is legislative. If you up the value to $1 million, I'll either have to pay... or move. I hope we can all work together to arrive at some form of "cap" on property assessments (similar to a California-style Proposition 13) so that homeowners who choose to live in their homes may continue to do so without the threat of being taxed out of their neighborhoods. Perhaps something like inflation plus two percent in any given year would be more equitable. I would like to become involved in working for such legislation and have copied this letter to a few people who may be able to help me with this issue.
My experience yesterday was quite dreadful. After one of your assessors said I was "ignorant," I realized it was time to invite them to leave. They did. I certainly hope I never have to go through something like that again! I apologize for the problems I have caused your office by seeking an appeal.
Joseph S. Causey
Joe Causey is the C.F.O. of Farm Electric, an electrical supply company in Athens, and he is also a well-known pianist.
Truth Deflector
Is our president a liar? Well, even if you're a Bush backer, you have to admit he's never going to win the Little George Washington "I-cannot-tell-a-fib" award.
George W would never admit to being an out and out liar, but he has certainly spent a lifetime as a deflector, deflecting inconvenient truth as routinely as a Teflon pan rejects sticky food.
For example, here's a sticky question: even though he was a hawkish supporter of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, did he dodge service in that war by using his famous family's political connections to cut in line ahead of thousands of other young men who were seeking slots in the Air National Guard - thus allowing young George to spend his war years defending Houston against the Vietcong? Bush deflects the truth by impatiently declaring that no member of his family intervened with officials to give him a special break.
Come on, George - you know that families of privilege don't leave fingerprints by seeking such favors directly. Instead, the dirty work in this case was handled by Sid Adger, an oilman neighbor of the Bushes who called the speaker of the Texas house of representatives at the time, getting him to call the head of the Texas Guard, and - Shazam! - George zipped to the front of the line.
Well, says a defiant Bush, the Guard is a legitimate branch of the military, and I'm proud of my service there. More deflection. No one is challenging the legitimacy of the Guard, George - the challenge is how you pulled political rank to get into it. And, by the way, if you were so proud of being there, why and how were you able to go AWOL for a year of your National Guard duty, simply disappearing and not reporting for your assignments?
This is Jim Hightower saying: those who now wonder whether Bush is blatantly lying to us about everything from weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to the true impact of his tax giveaways to the rich - you need only to look to his past record. George never lies - but he's an inveterate deflector of the truth.
Jim Hightower
Jim Hightower is a political columnist, radio commentator and former Texas agriculture commissioner.
No Carrier:
Hackers and Hype
On July 2, an unknown (as of time of writing) person or persons set up a website announcing a "Defacement Challenge" which would take place on July 6. The idea was that hackers (note that there is an ontological debate over the word "hacker") from around the world would compete to see how many websites they could deface. If anyone could manage to deface 6000 websites in six hours, they would win 500M of on-line storage space.
The initial response from persons with a clue was that the contest was either a hoax, or at best very naive. The prize didn't make any sense - 500M is a positively paltry amount of storage these days, and no one charges for space anymore. They charge for bandwidth used - and announcing a contest like this in a high-profile manner is a very stupid thing to do.
However, the trade media, helped along by choice quotes from network security companies, got hold of the story and ran with it. They made it sound like Armageddon was upon us, that every website in existence was in mortal danger. Some even predicted that the imminent "attack" could "cripple" the net and theorized that the event was terrorist related because it happened over the long July 4 weekend.
All of this was pure hype. Let me give you some good, solid background information and you'll see why.
Let's start with defacing a website. What exactly does this mean? In practical terms it means gaining access to a website's files or editing interface and changing or replacing the homepage of a site. If you've never seen a defaced site, the replacement page is usually a poorly designed, badly spelled, obscenity-laced list of taunts, threats, shout-outs and assertions of the defacer's supremacy and/or masculinity. This is because most hackers are not super-intelligent criminal masterminds: they are bored, immature, posers and almost exclusively white males (in the US - Korea also has a lot of these guys).
It works like this: a reasonably intelligent person with a malicious bent will discover, through research or luck, a flaw in a program or the setup of a server. This flaw is known in the parlance as a "sploit," short for "exploit." The smart person will create a set of instructions and/ or software tool to apply the sploit in an automated fashion. This is known as a "rootkit." Then the bored posers get the rootkits and run around trying them on every server they can find, and eventually it works. With very few exceptions, cracking computer systems is about probability and economies of scale, not careful penetration of specific systems by highly-skilled individuals.
Calm reasoning tells us that there's not any more to worry about here than there is on any given day. There's a limited pool of hackers, because most net users are decent people, and there's a limited pool of vulnerable servers, because most sploits are fixed very quickly and most server admins are good about keeping up with security issues. This leaves the threat of "crippling" the net. Well, the shotgun approach of most hackers does have the potential to generate some network traffic, but not enough to matter in the big scheme of things. The kinds of attacks that cripple the net are worms and viruses, but that's a topic for another column.
So what happened in the end? Almost nothing happened. In fact, the website which announced the challenge disappeared almost as soon as it started. After the fact, some of the same news outlets which were predicting the imminent death of the Internet were pointing and laughing at the silly hackers, pointing out that it was likely a hoax and almost no damage was done. Just another day on the net.
Shawn Boyette
Athens
Shawn Boyette has spent way too much time around computers as well as old textbooks, good movies and cooking. He has an embarrassing fondness for 1980s metal.
Whether, Not Who:
The 2004 Election
He has canceled elections in Iraq. He will probably cancel them in Afghanistan. Will George W. Bush put the kibosh on elections in the United States next year?
That's the big question buzzing around left-of-center political circles. Even the most cynical pundits, journalists and activists wouldn't give this nightmare scenario a passing thought under normal circumstances. But things no longer seem normal. The thuggish manner in which the current administration seized power in 2000, combined with its radical unraveling of the Bill of Rights and a knack for getting its way no matter what, have led some progressives to worry that Bush might suspend the 2004 race as a prelude to dictatorship. They've read a similar tale before - it was set in Germany in 1933 - and they don't like the part where they end up wearing grey in a prison camp. "I don't even mind if the Democrats get stomped next year," a writer who despises Bush tells me. "I expect that. So long as they lose because the elections actually take place, I'll be happy."
Frightened by Bush's rapidly accruing personal power and the Democrats' inability and/ or unwillingness to stand up to him, panicked lefties worry that he might use the "war on terrorism" as an excuse to declare a state of emergency, suspend civil liberties and jail political opponents.
People who have spoken out against Bush are talking exit strategy - not Alec Baldwin style, just to make a statement, but fleeing the U.S. in order to save their skins. "Do you or your spouse have a European-born parent?" is a query making the rounds. (If you do, you can obtain dual nationality and a European Union passport that would allow you to work in any EU member nation.) Those whose lineage is 100 percent American are hoping that nations like Canada and France will admit American political refugees in the event of a Bushite clampdown.
To these people, whether or not the 2004 elections actually take place as scheduled is the ultimate test for American democracy. At Guantánamo Bay the United States is converting a concentration camp into a death camp where inmates will be executed without due process or legal representation. Never before in history has a U.S. president contemplated the denaturalization of native-born citizens - thus far even people executed for treason have died as Americans - but Bush has drafted legislation that would allow him to strip anyone he calls an "enemy combatant" of their citizenship and have them deported. By any objective standard he has already gone way too far, but for many it would take the cancellation or delay of the elections to confirm that we are trading in our wounded democracy for a fascist state.
Lincoln considered suspending the 1864 election because of the Civil War, but ultimately tabled the idea. To date nothing has ever prevented an American presidential election from being held on time.
It's easy to come up with a scenario in which canceling the 2004 election could be made to appear reasonable. Imagine that, a few weeks before Election Day, "dirty bombs" detonate simultaneously in New York and Washington. Government, media and political institutions and personnel lie ruined in smoking rubble and ash; hundreds of thousands of people have been murdered. The economy, already teetering on the precipice, is shoved into depression. How could we conduct elections under such conditions?
Republicans have already floated the don't-change-horses-in-midstream argument. After Democratic presidential Sen. John Kerry criticized Bush recently, GOP National Committee Chairman Mark Racicot took him to task not for his specific remarks, but rather for "daring to suggest the replacement of America's commander-in-chief at a time when America is at war."
The White House website's "frequently asked questions" section indicates that the "war" is expected to continue well beyond 2004: "There is no silver bullet, no single event or action that is going to suddenly make the threat of terrorism disappear. This broad-based and sustained effort will continue until terrorism is rooted out. The situation is similar to the Cold War, when continuous pressure from many nations caused communism to collapse from within. We will press the fight as long as it takes."
The Cold War lasted 46 years; does Bush intend to remain in office that long?
Our boy president has plenty of reason to worry about his election chances. A new CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll says that only 50 percent of Americans would vote for Bush over a generic unnamed Democrat - the lowest number since 9/11. Two-thirds say that Bush lied about or exaggerated the threat from Iraq's WMDs, and a steady flow of body bags from Afghanistan and Iraq has made 53 percent aware that the occupations are going poorly. Pollsters report that most people trust Democrats to rescue the sinking economy - and few believe that Bush's tax cuts will help them.
Bush may be the kind of guy who sees 99 percent odds as two percent short of a sure thing, but I bet he'll look at his $200 million campaign war chest and decide to let the people decide. He'll surely want to win legitimately in 2004 - albeit for the first time. Though they're capable of anything, Bush's people probably know that Americans wouldn't stand for two putsches in four years. Still, you have to hand it to him: The fact that Democrats are terrified of ending up imprisoned by an American Reich is the ultimate tribute to Bush's artful bullying - and sad confirmation of the impotence of his would-be, should-be opponents.
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a cartoonist and is the author of Gas War: The Truth Behind the American Occupation of Afghanistan.
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Make Your Own Voice
Heard in Washington
I have some pretty serious problems with the Bush administration, and since his appointment, I've been reading major newspapers where I didn't before, and I've been taking notes on every event that concerns or just flat out scares the hell out of me. I've been contacting my Congressional representatives on every issue that concerns me or will involve, at some point down the line, my family.
Calling your representatives is easy to do, inexpensive, and it doesn't take much time. They're available through email, and their various offices are posted on their websites (see below). They're busy folks, but it's their job to respond to voters.
If they don't respond, call back and keep calling. You will get a response if you're persistent.
Also, there are several things you can do to let them know to take you seriously.
o Register to vote. If you're not a voter, you're off the radar screen - if only because they know you're not going to do anything that will affect them.
o Be informed. If any issue concerns you, read up on it. Most major newspapers are available on-line at no cost. Try the New York Times (newyorktimes.com) or the Washington Post (washingtonpost.com). Follow an issue, get divergent opinions and have stats and quotes ready to support your opinion.
o Be specific. Don't call up yammering about world peace or sweatshops in third-world countries. Not much to be done about either issue except draft resolutions calling for or decrying either one, which would be a waste of their time.
o Focus on issues that pertain to public interest. If you call Zell Miller's office on behalf of your favorite niche organization ("Free Hats for the Bi-Polar" or "Narcoleptics for Christ"), you'll get a polite listen. But nothing will happen. On the other hand, if you're representing a larger organization that's politically active and if you're informed, you can be genuinely helpful. There are issues that would concern our representatives - if they knew about them. They depend on us as sources of information.
o Be courteous. Dissent is a fundamental component of democracy, but so are cooperation and respect. Being a jerk and asking for cooperation may be quirky but it's ineffective.
o When you call, find out who to talk to. This works: "Hello, this is Billy Claude Puckett calling from Representative/ Senator Snarf's district. I'd like to talk to the aide focusing on [your issue here]." They'll transfer you or connect you to the aide's voice mail. If you leave an email address, the aide will most likely respond. If not, call again, and again. Make yourself heard: action is freedom.
o How to get in touch. The Roll Call website (capwiz.com/rollcall/officials/congress/?state=GA&azip=30606&lvl=C) provides the email and snailmail addresses for your representatives, as well as a search engine, if you're not sure who they are. The site will also connect you with their record on key votes, information on committees with which they work, and personal information that might help you determine their stand on particular issues.
o Follow up. If you call, your opinion will be registered. If you call again (and again), you will become a known entity, and they'll pay more attention. Your voice will be more likely to influence the aide's opinion on the subject.
o Informed and active, you can be a voice, an opinion in the mix that will eventually form a consensus. It might not seem like much, but the alternative is inaction, a non-being sort of death-in-life, white noise walking....
Billy Claude Puckett
Billy Claude Puckett is a car salesman living in south Georgia. He is an ex-Peace Corps volunteer and a minister in the Church of Signs Following. He takes up serpents.
Let Gypsy Entertain You
The Broadway hit comedy musical Gypsy is making its way into Athens this summer, but not by the usual means of a New York company stopping by the Classic Center for one performance. Our very own Athens Creative Theatre is putting up this extravagant production for five shows in the historic Morton Theatre, opening this Friday. (I'll be honest- I'm in the show, so you'll have to excuse my exuberance.)
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Gypsy, a musical based on the autobiography of the famous stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, is set in late 1920's America when radio and film had yet to replace live entertainment. This show tells the story of the overly aggressive stage mom Rose who is determined to turn the younger of her two daughters, June, into a Vaudeville star. But the onset of the Depression and the hard knocks of show business eventually force June to elope and Rose to focus her efforts on the older and notably less talented daughter Louise. The slow and painful death of the Vaudevillian age lands the act in a "house of burlesque," (that's a strip club for all you laymen out there) where Louise first takes the stage as Miss Gypsy Rose Lee.
Starring as Mama Rose is Amy Wright, a seasoned Broadway performer and native Athenian. Playing Louise is ACT's Megan Rocks, a young woman whose name you might recognize from just about every theatre venue in Athens. Also starring, and choreographing, is Scott Earle, another Broadway veteran playing Herbert, Rose's longtime friend and manager. The show is directed by ACT's Tom Coleman with musical direction by Teresa Ruiz.
The original Gypsy opened on Broadway in 1959, starring Ethel Merman as Rose. The musical was adapted by Arthur Laurents and Steven Sondheim with musical score by Jule Styne. It was revived this year in New York starring Bernadette Peters as Rose and was nominated for several Tony awards, including Best Revival. You may recognize several classic show tunes from Gypsy such as "Let Me Entertain You" and "Everything's Coming Up Roses." The show's success stems not only from the familiar score and provocative theme, but also from the blatant humor that sugarcoats the underlying family conflicts that anyone in the audience can identify with. Besides, this stuff really happened!
Even if musicals are not your cup of tea, Gypsy is one show that has something for everyone. Gypsy opens Friday, July 18 at 7:30 p.m. and runs Saturday, July 19 at 7:30 p.m., Friday, July 25 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, July 26 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, July 27 at 3 p.m. in the Morton Theatre on Washington Street in Downtown Athens. Tickets are on sale at the Morton Theatre box office: $15 for adults, $13 for senior citizens and $10 for children and students.
Joanna Brooks
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