Rod Amis - Unbound

NEW ORLEANS -

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
A CONSPIRACY & A PLAN

18 June, 2004: I have never been a conspiracy theorist. Long-time readers know this. Rather, I have asked you to consider that small and committed groups of people can make plans that have far-reaching ramifications. Indeed, I believe that individuals can do the same thing and have argued that history bears me out.

So listening to the 9/11 Commissions report this last week, I did not think: "There's the evidence of the conspiracy." What I thought was that the Bush Junta had been provided -- might even have assisted -- in enabling the set of circumstances which would allow them to actualize their fondest plans.

They had written these plans during the Clinton Administration. We covered that ground in the many articles, including references in this space, about the Project for the New American Century when the Afghanistan war loomed large. It was old news, as far as This Reporter was concerned.

The Plan was in place before Mr. Ashcroft covered the breasts of the statue of Justice and before Messrs. Rumsfeld, Perl and Wolfowitz unpacked their personal boxes and put the pictures on their desks. One would have to be extremely naive, I believe, not to have understood this then or now.

The challenge, for you and me, the little people whose lives are being put at risk, who must (once again, as happened in the late '60s and early '70s) travel abroad wearing Canadian maple leafs on our backpacks and luggage in order not to be killed or kidnapped, is to make sure the full extent of The Plan is not realized.

The Boogie Man -- ehm, Bin Laden -- ehm, Saddam --ehm,
al-Sadr. No! Wait! It's Zarquawi! Yes! It's him!

That saying goes: "Be afraid. Be VERY afraid."

And how many people do I want you to be afraid of? "Let's try as many as possible with the vaguest details I can supply." That's the strategy of Mr. Bush and Mr. Rove and you seem to be going for it.

"Care for another canapé of terror? We've got an endless supply. If this non-descript 'raghead' doesn't scare the bejesus out of you, we can trot out someone else. There are plenty of them to choose from and we don't even have to explain to you in detail what they have done and why you should afraid of them -- other than that they are NOT white, NOT American, and you don't have to listen to their defense. Take our words for it. This is not propaganda, this is NEWS."

And Rod says: You know what? I'm afraid of YOU."



I Told You So When this conflagration started, I told you that the word "conscription" (the military draft) would of necessity enter you vocabulary again. That it why I was not at all surprised when this e-mail came across my transom yesterday:

Pending Draft Legislation Targeted for Spring 2005
The Draft will Start in June 2005

There is pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163) which will time the program's initiation so the draft can begin at early as Spring 2005 -- just after the 2004 presidential election. The administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public's attention is on the elections, so our action on this is needed immediately.

$28 million has been added to the 2004 Selective Service System (SSS) budget t o prepare for a military draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005. Selective Service must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has lain dormant for decades, is ready for activation. Please see website: http://www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html to view the sss annual performance plan - fiscal year 2004.

The pentagon has quietly begun a public campaign to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots nationwide.. Though this is an unpopular election year topic, military experts and influential members of congress are suggesting that if Rumsfeld's prediction of a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan [and a permanent state of war on "terrorism"] proves accurate, the U.S. may have no choice but to draft.

Congress brought twin bills, S. 89 and HR 163 forward this year, http://www.hslda.org/Legislation/National/2003/S89/default.asp [or http://tinyurl.com/yq2ht] entitled the Universal National Service Act of 2003, "to provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons [age 18--26] in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes." These active bills currently sit in the committee on armed services.

Dodging the draft will be more difficult than those from the Vietnam era.

College and Canada will not be options. In December 2001, Canada and the U.S. signed a "smart border declaration," which could be used to keep would-be draft dodgers in. Signed by Canada's minister of foreign affairs, John Manley, and U.S. Homeland Security director, Tom Ridge, the declaration involves a 30-point plan which implements, among other things, a "pre-clearance agreement" of people entering and departing each country. Reforms aimed at making the draft more equitable along gender and class lines also eliminates higher education as a shelter. Underclassmen would only be able to postpone service until the end of their current semester. Seniors would have until the end of the academic year.

Even those voters who currently support US actions abroad may still object to this move, knowing their own children or grandchildren will not have a say about whether to fight. Not that it should make a difference, but this plan, among other things, eliminates higher education as a shelter and includes women in the draft.

The public has a right to air their opinions about such an important decision.

Please send this on to all the friends, parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and cousins that you know. Let your children know too -- it's their future, and they can be a powerful voice for change!

Please also contact your representatives to ask them why they aren't telling their constituents about these bills -- and contact newspapers and other media outlets to ask them why they're not covering this important story.

=====
Hank De Zutter

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A small, independent and outspoken magazine like this one can't reach you every week without the support and patronage of its readership. As our way of thanking those who have committed to keep your World's Magazine here on your desktop through their generous donations, we feature their names and cities here in our Roll of Honor. BECKY ALTEMUS, Houston, TX, USA IAN CRYSTAL, Ph. D, New Orleans, LA, USA CHERYL HILL-NATION, VT, USA LARS KEFFERSTAN, New York, NY, USA MATT STOWELL, New Orleans, LA, USA DARHL STULTZ, Largo, FL, USA TERRY TERRIAN, Sebastopol, CA, USA We encourage you to add your name to this Roll of Honor. GENERATOR 21 cannot continue and thrive without your support. Thanks in advance. To support G21, please send checks or money orders to: G21: The World's Magazine Attn: Rod Amis 1844 1/2 Burgundy New Orleans, LA 70116-1923 To donate by credit or debit card, please go to the Western Union website by following the highlighted link. Should you donate via Western Union, please notify us via e-mail. Please make all remittances payable to Rod Amis. Again, thanks.

ALSO Across Rod's Transom

I'm sure I've told you, my loves, that my favorite news station these days -- as far as broadcast goes -- is Newsworld International. From what I understand, former Vice President of the United States Albert Gore and some of this associates will be buying this North American 24-hour news channel from the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC). I can only hope that that does not ruin one of the last broadcast stations I can still stomach.

I believe the increasing concentration of the Mouthpiece Media (MM) is a reason why I depend on my little Internet transom so much. For example, I don't expect I'd get this blackly humorous piece by former Monty Python Terry Jones if I soley depending on the MM. You can read it here.

And among your online reading, you should be reading the Christian Science Monitor, journalists we can still respect and American Friends Service Committe Web sites. I do.

You see, my darling, the most encouraging thing which has happened during the Bush regime, from the perspective of an old dissident, is that I feel less every day that I have been preaching to the choir. There is a lot of evidence out there -- in film, here on the Internet -- that the rest of you are finally catching up with my objections to Things As They Are and deciding that Things Could Be Better.

I do not feel as alone I did when launching this decidedly Leftist and internationalist magazine in 1996. It took you eight years, but I've always been a patient man.

LISTEN:

The unprecedented potential impact of the Indian vote in 2004 can be reckoned from the simple fact that in some states, Indian voters can swing the vote for both the presidency - and the majority party in the Senate.

The National Congress of American Indians is spearheading efforts to turn out more Indian voters in 2004 than ever before. NCAI takes note of the following figures:

• In Alaska, Alaska Natives make up 16 percent of eligible voters. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican appointed to fill the Senate seat of her father, Frank Murkowski, after he became the state's governor, is up for re-election.
  
• In Arizona, almost 300,000 Indians make up 5.7 percent of the state's population.
  
• In Colorado, Indians make up 1.5 percent of the population. With Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell retiring, one Senate seat is open.
  
• In Michigan, Indians make up 1.3 percent of the state's population; in Minnesota, 1.6 percent.
  
• In Nevada, where Republican Sen. Harry Reid is up for re-election, the Indian percentage of the population is 2.1.
  
• In New Mexico, Indians are 10.5 percent of the population.
  
• In North Dakota, where Sen. Byron Dorgan, a Democrat, is up for re-election, Indians are 5.5 percent of the population.
  
• In Oklahoma, where Republican Sen. Don Nickles is up for re-election, Native people make up 8 percent of the total population.
  
• In Oregon, where Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden is up for re-election, Indians make up 2.5 percent of the state population.
  
• In South Dakota, 9 percent of the state population is Indian. Sen. Tom Daschle, the Democratic Minority Leader, is up for re-election. As mentioned above, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth, winner of a special election to the House of Representatives June 1, will face the voters again in November.
  
• In Utah, where Republican Sen. Robert Bennett is up for re-election, Indians make up 1.8 percent of the population.
  
• In Washington, where Democratic Sen. Patty Murray is up for re-election, Indians are 2.7 percent of the state's population.
  
• In Wisconsin, where Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold is up for re-election, Indians make up 1.3 percent of the population

. I can feel it comin' in the air tonight. Karma. What IF the Native vote could turn this election? If I were (still) a consultant to a politcian running in a Senate race, I just might ask that question.

Interestingly, even some of the pundits of MM are now beginning to admit, grudgingly of course, that GENERATOR 21 might have always been on the correct side of the philosophical and cultural debate about what is sound and rational policy. We have always spoken for the people on the street. You can't go far wrong doing that, as even this week's articles will demonstrate.

WE HAVE BROUGHT FIRE by being subtle. No dramatic bursts. Just an accumulation of real people sentiments building up weak after week. Water erodes mountains and we have been like drops from a waterfall hitting a rock face week, after week, after week, after week for fourteen years in general and eight years here on the World Wide Web. We never stop. That is why our outlook, YOUR outlook, must win.

As Gandhiji said, "Every tyrant in history has failed. Every one. And they always will."

Like a fellahin, G21 shall endure. Your voice will always be heard.

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Because of my long celibacy, I am sure that it would be easy for some of you to believe my life is loveless. I don't blame you.

But there is also this:

What do you say about someone with whom the last time you talked with them is about the same as the first time you talked with them? The sense of humor might have matured, but the sensibility is still the same.

It's seamless. You have, neither or you, missed a beat. The similes and metaphors are as challenging as they ever were. The laughter? The same.

These are not your first or last conversations because you have been talking to each other for centuries, lifetimes.

That is what it is like.

RA

One woman still squeezes these types of emotions out of me.

Rock & Roll Publisher

The picture to your left is of my friends in Serbia, the place I was before New Orleans, Dragan and Dragana Vicanovic, in our favorite place, the Roman city Romuliana. When I saw this picture, I was as happy as I have been in many a moon. Let's rock!

I've often compared what happens in this magazine to jazz band but this week is totally rock 'n' roll! Yes, it rocks. Between AAMERA JIWAJI's look at 21st Century of online dating and H. SCOTT PROSTERMAN's devastating remembrance of the Reagan era, we are jammin'!

And that's the way it should be. I didn't start this magazine to cater to the timid.

Oh wait! We've got eleven new features here this week. I only mentioned two of the best.

Let me make a recommendation: READ IT ALL until we come back. This edition is a keeper.

Wow! I just sounded like a traditonal magazine publisher.

Thanks for coming back this week. Keep me in your prayers as I keep you in my own.

THINGS I NEED THIS WEEK

1. A new love.

2. Enough to pay my rent, my debts and buy food.

3. Having the Glass House book out of my obsesive hands.

WAIT! WAIT! Are we done? Are you telling me we're gonnah launch the magazine, Rod? I had somethin' else I wanted to say,! Hold up.

[Sound of creaking door.]
Voice-over: "Rod moves in mysterious ways."

"Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching ... "

Love,
Rod

Search www.g21.net [ ] Our Link Partners the Web for

ROD AMIS has published this magazine since 1990. It first appeared as a hardcopy 'Zine. In March, 1996, he launched it here on the Web. Rod was a Contributing Editor at Suite101.com, where he wrote the " 'Net Publishing" feature. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online, NRV8, and at WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was also a contributing writer on technology for Faulkner Information Services. He wrote on Web issues for MethodFive.com's Hyper newsletter.

Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He was also principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviewed technology issues weekly, producing 383 editorials. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000, and left in September of the same year. He was a contributing writer for ACCESS magazine, which appeared both on- and offline for 10 million readers in 100 newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, Boston Herald, Austin American-Statesman, Denver Post and Orlando Sentinel, among others. Rod was the US reporter for Silicon.com, a division of Network Multimedia Television in London, UK, reaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.

In 2002, he worked as Assistant to the General Manager of a Big Easy company that does restaurants and nightclubs. (Think: The Boy.) Oh yeah, Rod's had Day Jobs working construction. Mostly renovations of old New Orleans structures, houses and a bar. Sometimes he designs Web sites for other people so that he can get his creative juices flowing the way he can't at a staid publication like this one. And he's been the instructor in Editing for Internet Publications at the Novi Sad School of Journalism in Yugoslavia. Our Resident Philosopher is attempting to secure enough part-time work to perhaps equal the income of a single good full-time position. In his spare time, he chases women in the manner that a fly pursues a spider.

Rod barely survives in New Orleans, Louisiana. This town is eroding his normal sense of driven purpose. He wants to live somewhere civilized when he grows up. Wish him Luck.

Rod is "noodling" away at the Glass House book.

He continues to be committed to integrity, chastity and a dose of humility.

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© 2004, GENERATOR 21.

E-mail your comments. We always like to hear from you. Send your kudos, brickbats and suggestions to rod@g21.net.