....LMB: "Fucked Up News"....

June 18, 2003

DEA Uses RAVE Act Threats to Block Montana NORML/SSDP Benefit- maybe you've heard of the RAVE Act. Using the truly minor drug-related danger of rave parties on our nation's beloved and innocent teens, our government passed a law which effectively made venue owners responsible for any drug use going on at one of their functions. In other words, if you are a club owner, and someone in the audience smokes a joint while a band is playing on your stage, you can be arrested. As I recall, after failing to get legislative support several times, the RAVE Act was sneakily attached to the AMBER Alert bill, which was about finding children who'd been kidnapped.

As though that wasn't bad enough, we've got this recent incident in Montana. Two activist organizations who focus on reforming America's drug laws, were going to have a benefit concert at a local club. "On May 30, the day the event was set to take place, a Billings-based DEA agent showed up at the Eagle Lodge, which had booked the concert. Waving a copy of the RAVE Act in one hand, the agent warned that the lodge could face a fine of $250,000 if someone smoked a joint during the benefit, according to Eagle Lodge manager Kelly, who asked that her last name not be used." The scared club owner cancelled the show.

So essentially, agents of the U.S. government used this law to stifle political speech. They didn't actually apply the law, but the threat to do so was enough.

Protestors Are Not Terrorists- "Under the guise of President Bush's all-consuming, yet amorphous, war against terrorism, police agencies across the country are spying and compiling dossiers on citizens exercising their constitutional rights. The Bush administration – all war against terrorism, all the time – has consistently supported policies and legislation allowing for the collection and cataloging of data on the political, religious, or social views of individuals and organizations regardless of whether they present any imminent threat to the nation's safety."

Hidden Agenda- "In the short run, the Republicans hope to win in 2004 by running as tax cutters against tax-and-spend Democrats. In the long run, Republicans plan to starve and thus drastically shrink federal government, especially spending on social programs. As budgetary crises resulting from the tax cut unfold, the only solutions will be devastating cuts in programs—including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And if the economy suffers, as is likely, the prescription will be more tax cuts."

The Screwing of Cynthia McKinney- many people consider former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney to be a nutcase. Until reading this article, I was one of them. I never knew much about her, but I'd heard that she believed in several conspiracy theories that I considered crazy, and pretty much wrote her off. But this article, by smart journalist Greg Palast, says that she never was a conspiracy theorist. Palast traces McKinney's unsavory reputation to allegations that "McKinney implied that the [Bush] Administration knew in advance about September 11 and deliberately held back the information." And while many media outlets ascribed such beliefs to McKinney, Palast's research cannot turn up the original quotes that these claims must have ostensibly come from. He theorizes that McKinney's demand for a particular investigation ("why was Osama bin Laden's family off-limits to American intelligence pre-9/11, as ordered by the Bush administration?") was misinterpretted (intentionally or no) into these whacko conspiracies. Not 100% sure if Palast is right, but he generally seems to be a good reporter.

Supreme Court Battle of a Lifetime- "Reproductive rights, environmental protections and civil liberties could all be in danger if the one or two rumored vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court this summer are filled by right-wing Bush nominees."