Something to think about

"Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination."

- Harry S. Truman, Address at the National Archives, Washington, D.C., 15 Dec., 1952, in Public Papers of the Presidents: Harry S. Truman, 1952-53, at 1077, 1079 (1966)

Opposition Growing

The natives are restless throughout the state…

Opposition to the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) seems to be growing. Click here for KHOU report on restless landowners who are upset with TxDOT's plan to destroy their homes/businesses for the sake of creating a network of highways, rail lines, toll roads, etc. for big business to profit.

We know that these citizens aren't going to get nearly as much as their land is worth and it is just pathetic that Rick Perry cannot but his agenda aside to help the people of Texas!

No city in the country has ever tolled FREEways! Don't let Austin be the first!

SAY NO TO TOLL ROADS!

The double tax that will come about on implementing tolls on already existing freeways in Austin, TX is beyond ridiculous. We need to get more people to join the fight and vote in a block to replace the double tax tollers and endorse candidates that will fight to stop the phase 2 toll plan.

Do you know the Austin Toll Plan will cost the average Austin Family $100.00 or more a month? Did you know our tax dollars will pay for the construction of the toll roads? Did you know the plan seizes over $100 million dollars of our tax financed roads/projects right here in Austin and converts them into Toll Roads? This plan calls for most our daily commute highways to be turned into toll roads. That has never been done anywhere in our country. We will dwarf Dallas and Houston in Toll road miles.

What does this have to do with Big Brother? Honestly, toll booths are there to monitor drivers. There are cameras all over the stops and most new tolls don't even allow you to use coins or cash to pay for the toll charge. Instead, we see new measures that force drivers to purchase electronic toll tags that automatically charge you when your car passes through a toll booth sensor. While some citizens may see this as a convenient features that helps save them time and the hassle of having to stop at the booth and toss change into the collector bin, it is actually a means of control. Local authorities will be able to trace your travels around town by seeing which toll booths you go through. Also, they'll be able to take snapshots at these booths that are supposed to take only photos of your license plate. However I am suspicious that there's a lot more that shows up in the pictures than we'd like to think!

Help the cause! Here is some event information to stop the toll roads from taking over our city:



Jimmie Vaughan & Friends will play a benefit concert to help stop the Double Tax Toll Roads. Jon Emery Band and Bruce Jones & the Monotones (formerly with Omar and the Howlers) have also stepped up in an effort to put an end to tolling roads we've already paid for.

This "must see" event of the year will also have very Special guests, Awards, Door prizes and more! Help stop the Tolling of TEXAS FREEWAYS and see:
• Grammy Award Winner Jimmie Vaughan
• GRAMMY Winner, Blues Harp "Legend" James Cotton, (Muddy Waters!)
• Jon Emery Band, Bruce Jones and other VERY special guests!

Hear from anti-double tax toll champions:
• Carole Keeton Strayhorn (R), Texas Comptroller
• Chris Bell (D), Potential candidate for Governor
• Terry Keel (R), State Representative
• Garnet Coleman (D), State Representative
• Todd Baxter (R), State Representative
• Brewster McCracken, City Councilmember

April 21st, 2005
Doubletree Hotel North
6505 IH-35 North
Austin, Texas

$25 in advance, $30 at the door

Big Brother's next weapon: Tracking your letters with microchip stamps

Beginning with bulk or commercial mail, the Postal Service will require "enhanced sender identification" for all discount-rate mailings, according to the notice published in the Oct. 21 Federal Register. The purpose of identifying senders is to provide a more efficient tracking system, but more importantly, to "facilitate investigations into the origin of suspicious mail." -Washington Times

Now, we're not even safe sending a love letter to the ones we care without the government knowing where it came from. Forget about sending that angry letter to a representative or congressman that didn't listen to your community's demands because very soon there will be a way to trace that letter directly back to you!

The USPS calls this new microchip tracking stamp as a way to keep the mail system more secure. I laugh at this. I think it's just another way of the government reaching deeper into our lives and keeping track over all the things we do. The ability to identify the sender in a quick and computerized way is extremely frightening. All those Anthrax scares in the mail post 9-11 really have hit our privacy and personal liberties extremely hard.

Identification requirements will be the next wave of the future. Every stamp on a package of envelope will be unique and trackable. Is anyone here thinking about privacy issues? Isn't sending mail an expression of free speech? With the anonymity of mail disappearing right before our very eyes, I see political speech eventually being manipulated as well.

"In the deregulated market, profits are privatized and losses are socialized." -Greg Palast

Case Study: Propaganda efforts by the "right" during the 2000 Election was incredible! Journalism enhanced the Republicans because Bush's team continued to release reports to the press saying that they "had" this election and that they were sure of victory.

Greg Palast from Great Britain reported that Jeb Bush published a list of ex-fellons before the election in order to prevent this certain group of people from voting. This story was published during the recount time but it was never really brought to the mainstream media. It wasn't until after the recount that this story was confirmed. 90% of the people on the list were innocent and roughly 54% of them were Black. Palast broke this story and CBS called him up but ended up not covering this story. Why? CBS had called Jeb Bush's office and said that it didn't check out and decided to not go with the story. Again, we see the press picking and choosing the stories they report to specifically stick to a narrow frame of thinking.

The most powerful special interest group in D.C. is the media! Lobbyists are out everyday getting themselves noticed and heard with the millions they throw down. It is the same with the media. They are the ones who channel how a public should hear and react to certain news stories. The public interest is gone and it has been replaced by the will of others.

Inventing Stories

"For better or for worse, our company (The News Corporation Ltd.) is a reflection of my thinking, my character, my values." -Rupert Murdoch

The networks cover the basics -- the White House and the Capitol. That is the extent of federal government coverage. It is pretty shocking and pathetic. Watching network news is like watching a really poorly produced reality television show.

How did journalism get this way? To remove controversy, there is reliance on traditional sources. People who have political and business powers become the people who give out assignments to the journalists. Journalists are more controlled these days. It is much harder for them to report groundbreaking stories that forces change in the American landscape. Instead, journalists are now channeled topics to write or report on so that the elite will receive a certain type of coverage for their own alterior motives. As Americans, we are usually only told on the news what government or big corporations want us to know. It is a controlled environment!

News is no longer just reported but managed!

"But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." -George Orwell

Fewer and fewer people vote. Fewer and fewer people understand the poltical process. Thus, the media makes "news" entertaining and not educating. The media no longer teaches us what it is like to live in a democracy. So instead we now we have media focusing on trivial stories that don't have any resonance at all. What are the most important issues facing our countries today? Globalization? Free trade? Education? Who would know? We sensationalize sex trials and celebrity murders that have little bearing on improving our life as an American citizen.

Has the mainstream media become an anti-democratic force in the United States?

People always forget. You need a healhty media system to counteract with this forgetfullness -- how else will we pay attention and feel the need to protect ourselves? Spectacles and bullshit will be forgottein in a few days if the news continues to be dramatized. A good example of this is the fact that 51% of Americans think that Sadaam Hussein is personally responsible for the September 11th attacks!

Americans just don't know! Forgetting would even be better now that I think about it because most Americans just have no idea what is going on!

Patterns

Are their patterns in the way the news is covered?

Only 1 in 4 people trust the government compared to 4 out of 5 back in the 1960s. The level of trust in the country is down even from Watergate. It is frustrating to see how Americans think that the U.S. sense of democracy is the best form of democracy in this world. It is the high water mark of the human race! Howis it that two political parties represent 280 million people in this country!?!

A sense of powerlessness is spreading across America. A significant amount of people in our country already don't vote or care about the issues -- tuned out entirely. The top 1% controls 90% of the wealth and have the power of two major political parties doing their bidding for them. The other 99% have no represenation at all. Yet that same 99% runs around with American flag stickers on their classes screaming that America is a great place to live because we have freedom and rights.