From our Mailbag 11/10/03 - 12/20/03
by YOU
THE WORLD - 
From Jon M., (No City Provided), USA:
SUBJECT: Your response to my email regarding your anorexia article
Hello Stuart,
Wow, I am impressed. I never thought that people would plagurize what I wrote. Makes me feel special.
I am definately digging your idea about starting a religion, though. Since I appear to be the author of this email that people have decided to plagurize, I guess that'd make me God of it.
You should join up. You don't even need to renounce your other religions you subscribe to. All you'd need to do is do the sacred sacriments, which involve spreading smart assedness across the world, which you are already doing a good job of.
So good, that you could even become an officially ordained reverend of my church. I think I'd call it the Church of the Latter Day Smart-asses. You'd get all sorts of benifits such as being tax exempt and be able to marry people.
Or maybe you'd care more for the title of patron saint. My religion wouldn't require you to be dead before you get cannonized, you can live it up as a living saint. What could be better than that? You'd even get a fancy certificate certifying such. Imagine the looks of your friends and co-workers when they find out that you are a saint. You could even charge them money for blessing them with the gift of smart assedness.
It'd be bigger than Scientology!
-Jon, The most smart assed one of the Church of the Latter Day Smart-Asses
STUART ALTMAN RESPONDS: Dear Jon,
Glad to see you will be following my advice about starting the religion. I would strongly considerİbecoming a reverend in the Church of Latter Day Smart asses. First of all as you already pointed out I do a pretty good job of being a smart ass myself. I take that asİsort of a compliment. I mean at least it's better thanİbeing a dumb ass.
SecondlyİIt's not like my religion of Judaism would even miss me consideringİİI haven't been toİtemple since my Bar Mitzvah. (YesİI took the money and ran)
I also love the idea of the living saint and tax exempt status. We also have one step on scientology because we don't have to write a book like "dianetics." We already have every smart asses bible in the famous "Snappy answers to Stupid Questions."
I think you have something here Jon keep up the good work.
Stuart Altman
From Beatrice G., (No City Provided,) UK:
SUBJECT: Patrick Mutahi's article on Sheng
I am studying a course that allowed me to check different sites which have something to say on Sheng, and thats when i came accross the insight-full articlearticle by patrick.
I however would like to point out a few things about sheng. It is not only a combination of English and Swahili, but a combination of both languages and a native language. It was spoken first in the 1970s and not the 80s.
other than that, its a job well done and i do join in hoping that linguists can have a closer look at sheng as a language.
With thanks
Beatrice.
ROD RESPONDS: Thanks for writing! Obviously, I enjoyed Patrick's article myself. I had hoped that he could respond to your e-mail by this edition, but my lack of regular 'Net acess and the time-crunch precluded that, so I am speaking in his stead. Thanks for keeping us on point and accurate. As soon as I get an e-mail back from Patrick, I'll send it along.
Cheers!
From Mikhail (No City Provided,) BELARUS:
SUBJECT: From Belarus?
Ha, fun! Something from Belarus!!! Thanks for mentioning Vysotsky and Tsoy.
Good article
Mikhail
ROD RESPONDS: Yeah, Mikhail, your World's Magazine managed to break through that stone wall for a while. We even got to publish an article from a place veiled in silence. The silence shut down that wonderful voice again, but not before we shared it with everyone. Wish us luck in keeping the torch of FREE SPEECH alive.
Cheers!
FromMax H. Perth, AUSTRALIA:
SUBJECT: GENE HARRIS
Hey Bob.
Can you help me please.?
I'm searching for a Gene Harris CD that includes the track "I'll Be Home for
Christmas".
I would be most grateful to get the information.
Many Thanks.
Sincerely,
Max R. H.
- Perth, Western Australia
ROD (Again) RESPONDS: This is getting embarassing. THIS TIME, I lost Bob's response becaue I thought it was attendanst to a future article. Not only did he send me a link for your query, but a place I could download a Gene Harris pic. I'm becoming a dumb-shit as an editor and need to be replaced.
Hello! Rod needs to be replaced as edtior of the G21.
Why niggaz look mad?
Y'all s'pose to be happy
I'm free --Tupac
From Ric W., Austin, TX, USA:
SUBJECT: Mariani law suit against the Bush administration
The following provides some information on the
Mariani law suit against the
Bush administration:
You are urged to take whatever action you can in
terms of spreading this
infomation.
*************************************************************************
**
from www.septembereleventh.org
National 9-11 Visibility Project
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ALL PEACE & JUSTICE
ORGANIZATIONS THROUGHOUT THE
UNITED STATES AND WORLD!
(9-11 widow) Mrs. Mariani's racketeering suit
against Bush is designed to
protect and defend the United States Constitution
and bring an end to the
illegal
international war on terror initiated by Defendant
George W. Bush, et al. -- Phil Berg, Ellen Mariani's attorney in the
suit, is the former deputy attorney general for
Pennsylvania
see: http://www.tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=27
********************************************************************
Government Executive Magazine posts Marian RICO
suit against Bush for 9-11
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1203/121203lb.htm
Legal Briefs
December 12, 2003 , Raising a Racket
------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- -- --
Every Friday on GovExec.com, Legal Briefs reviews
cases that involve,
or provide valuable lessons to, federal managers.
We
report on the
decisions of a wide range of review panels,
including the Merit
Systems Protection Board, the Federal Labor
Relations Authority and
federal courts.
By Chris Strohm and Amelia Gruber
cstrohm@govexec.com
The wife of a victim of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks has filed a
lawsuit in federal court alleging President Bush
and
several other
high-ranking administration officials failed to
prevent the attacks
from occurring and are now obstructing justice.
Ellen Mariani filed a lawsuit Nov. 26 under the
1970
Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act
with
the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania. The suit
alleges that President Bush and other officials
knowingly and
willfully failed to act to prevent the murder of
her
husband, Louis
Neil Mariani, who was a passenger on United
Airlines
Flight 175,
which crashed into the south tower of the World
Trade Center.
Mariani's attorney, Philip Berg, said he plans to
call former federal
employees with firsthand knowledge and expertise
of
military
intelligence to testify in support of the suit. He
alleges that the
White House, Pentagon, Justice Department, Federal
Aviation
Administration, CIA and FBI were negligent in
preventing the attacks
and now are withholding information about the
incidents.
Berg said he believes the lawsuit is the first
Sept.
11 case filed
under the RICO Act, which the government enacted
to
fight organized
crime. The lawsuit is an amended version of a
lawsuit Mariani
previously filed in court.
Berg added he hopes other Sept. 11 victims and
federal employees will
support or join the lawsuit. However, he
speculated
that government
workers are afraid to come forward with
information.
"The word is out: 'Don't divulge information
here,'
" he said. "We
have many people in the government who are afraid
to
come forth with
information. They're afraid for their jobs."
A court hearing is schedule for Jan. 14. Richard
Manieri, spokesman
for the U.S. attorney's office, declined to
comment
on the case.
"We're reviewing the compliant and considering our
options," he said.
Mariani vs. Bush, U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of
Pennsylvania (03-5273), Nov. 26, 2003.
******************************************************************
http://www.nancho.net/911/mariani.html
9/11 IN NEVERNEVERLAND
-- Widow's Bush Treason Suit Vanishes in Blink of
Media Eye
by W. David Kubiak
"The decision 'not to do the story' appears to be
multiplying all over the
nation." -- Fred Powledge, ACLU
"Whoever said `no news is good news,' was BADLY
misinformed."
-- Dan Rather
Think you're already amazed, alarmed or appalled
enough by the state of US
journalism today? Chew on this a while and think
again.
Grieving New Hampshire widow who lost her man on
9/11 refuses the
government's million dollar hush money payoff,
studies the facts of the
day for nearly two years, and comes to believe the
White House
"intentionally allowed 9/11 to happen" to launch a
so-called "War on
Terrorism" for personal and political gain.
She retains a prominent lawyer, a former Deputy
Attorney General of
Pennsylvania, who served with distinction under
both
Democrats and
Republicans and was once a strong candidate for
the
governor's seat.
The attorney files a 62-page complaint in federal
district court
(including 40 pages of prima facie evidence)
charging that "President Bush
and officials including, but not limited to
Cheney,
Rumsfeld, Rice,
Ashcroft and Tenet":
1.) had adequate foreknowledge of 911 yet failed
to
warn the county or
attempt to prevent it;
2.) have since been covering up the truth of that
day;
3.) have therefore abetted the murder of
plaintiff's
husband and violated
the Constitution and multiple laws of the United
States; and
4.) are thus being sued under the Civil RICO
(Racketeering, Influence, and
Corrupt Organization) Act for malfeasant
conspiracy,
obstruction of
justice and wrongful death.
The suit text goes on to document the detailed
forewarnings from foreign
governments and FBI agents; the unprecedented
delinquency of our air
defense; the inexplicable half hour dawdle of our
Commander in Chief at a
primary school after hearing the nation was under
deadly attack; the
incessant invocation of national security and
executive privilege to
suppress the facts; and the obstruction of all
subsequent efforts to
investigate the disaster. It concludes that
"compelling evidence will be
presented in this case through discovery, subpoena
power, and testimony
[that] Defendants failed to act and prevent 9/11
knowing the attacks would
lead to& an 'International War on Terror' which
would benefit Defendants
both financially and politically."
Press releases detailing these explosive
allegations
are sent out to 3000
journalists in the print and broadcast media, and
a
press conference to
announce the filing is held in front of
Independence
Hall in Philadelphia
on November 26th (commemorating the end of the
first
futile year of the
independent National 9/11 Commission).
Imagine the world-churning implications of these
charges. Imagine the
furor if just one was proved true. Imagine the
courage of this bribe-
shunning widow and an eminent attorney with his
rep
on the line. Then
imagine a press conference to which nobody came.
(Well, more precisely, imagine a press conference
at
which only FOX News
appears, tapes for 40 minutes, and never airs an
inch.)
Now imagine the air time, column inches and talk
show hysteria that same
night devoted to the legal hassles of Michael,
Kobe,
and Scott Peterson,
and divide that by the attention paid to our
little
case of mass murder,
war profiteering and treason. (OK, this is really
a
trick question because
no number divided by zero yields any answers
whatsoever, which evidently
in this case is the result preferred.)
When you present documented charges of official
treachery behind the
greatest national security disaster in modern
history and the press
doesn't show, doesn't listen, doesn't write - just
what in fact is really
being communicated? That despite all the deaths,
lies, wars, and bizarre
official actions that flowed from 9/11 there's
actually nothing there to
be investigated at all? That addressing desperate
victim families' still
unanswered cries for truth is not a legitimate
journalistic concern? That
news will now be what the corporate media say it
will be, so drink your
infotainment Kool-Aid and kindly shut up?
(While the 9/11 blackout is the most flagrant sign
of current media
dysfunction, it hardly stands alone. Where, for
example, was our free and
fearless press when Pentagon powerbroker Richard
Perle confessed to a
London audience last month that yes indeed, our
war
on Iraq was illegal as
hell? He calmly explained that "in this case
international law stood in
the way of doing the right thing& [it] would have
required us to leave
Saddam Hussein alone, and this would have been
morally unacceptable."
(Guardian/UK, 11/20/03) And what news have we seen
of the thousands of
Depleted Uranium deaths and birth defects now
desolating Afghanis, Iraqis
and our own Gulf War troops? And whose looking
into
the $1.2 trillion the
Pentagon admits is "missing" or the half trillion
in
laundered funds now
propping up our banks? And how many times have you
seen it reported that
unbid Iraq contracts have pushed the worth of VP
Cheney's 433,333
Halliburton stock options to $26 million plus? But
to return to 9/11, the
funny business has just begun. If you thought
press
performance after
JFK's death was a cynical farce, you ain't seen
nothing yet.)
A few years back Harold Evans of the London Sunday
Times, observed that
the challenge facing American newspapers "is not
to
stay in business -- it
is to stay in journalism.'' As corporations'
authoritarian, profit-driven
consciousness comes to dominate both media and
governance, you can expect
a lot more serial celebrity scandals and even less
news on the way things
work or anything that really counts.
There is a clear method and message in this
obscurantist madness. All this
media consolidation and tightening control is
strategically aligned with
deregulation, privatization, social
program-gutting
deficits and free
trade regimes. They are all convergent tactics to
enforce corporations'
full spectrum dominance over democratic humankind.
If your progressive or
conservative instincts bid you to arise against
this
coup, standing with
our 9/11 widow is a good place to start. Her name
is
Ellen Mariani, her
lawyer is Phillip Berg and their complaint is now
online at
http://www.nancho.net/911/mariani.html. Read it
and
weep, wail, or whack
out a dozen letters to the editors around your
town,
but for god's sake
make some noise. When 9/11 bombshells fall silent
in the corporate
media's forest it's up to us to make them resound.
- End -
*************************************************************************
----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2003 12:23 PM
Subject: Now is the time to fight, to push back
the
Patriot Act and bring
back our freedom
Now is the time to fight, to push back the Patriot
Act and bring back our
freedoms as they stood under the Bill of Rights
and
the Declaration of the
Independence.
-- Atty for 9-11 Widow Ellen Mariani (suing Bush
for pre-knowledge of
9-11, & a subsequent cover up). Berg is a former
deputy attorney general
for
Pennsylvania Ellen Mariani had to turn down a $1
MILLION bribe from Bush
(they call
it a "settlement") to bring this case to trial.
SHE
DESERVES OUR SUPPORT
A former deputy attorney general for Pennsylvania,
Berg said he was
confident of success and denied the current War on
Terrorenvironment might
lead to
the case being squashed before it even gets to
court.
Just today, a former FBI agent handed in a sworn
affidavit that there was
intelligence of the attacks as early as March
2001said, Philip Berg,
Mariani's attorney
In actual fact, this is a very good time to have a
case like this. The war
in Iraq is escalating, our troops are being put in
harms way yet there are
no weapons of mass destruction there.
Now is the time to fight, to push back the Patriot
Act and bring back our
freedoms as they stood under the Bill of Rights
and
the Declaration of the
Independence.
GET INVOLVED TODAY !! sign up and read at:
www.septembereleventh.org
EMAIL www.septembereleventh.org to everyone you
know, post it everywhere you
can, share it with every discussion group,
chatroom,
etc. etc. you can.
via e-mail.