12/11/1996
by Bob Fitrakis

Prior to the Chief James Jackson controversy, I can count on my middle finger the number of times I’ve supported Mayor Greg Lashutka in a political battle. The only other time concerned the building of Tuttle Mall in Columbus. Since I detest malls and that whole culture, I half-heartedly sided with the mayor’s position that a mall and its tax revenue would benefit the city more than the suburbs. Yet, on the Chief Jackson issue, I enthusiastically endorse the mayor’s inquiry. Hell, I believe the Big Guy’s showing some guts and character for the first time in his political career.

Now that an obscene gesture has been turned into a peace or victory sign, let me say that I think the mayor is ill-advised in his vilification of Gwendolyn Rogers, the head of Columbus’s Equal Business Opportunity Office. Lashutka’s voice has been joined by city council member Jennette Bradley, a fellow Republican who must live in a glass house. Bradley, who was quoted in Tuesday’s Columbus Dispatch as calling for a thorough investigation of Rogers’ office, must be forgetting the cloud of disgrace under which she left the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority. The Dispatch extensively reported mismangement and waste at CMHA while she was executive director of the agency.

As strongly as I believe the Jackson investigation is not racially motivated, I believe just as strongly that the media campaign against Rogers—led by the Dispatch—is racist. The Columbus Dispatch, I contend, is punishing Rogers because she refused to play the role of Good House Negress. During the last three weeks, Professor Vincene Verdun, an African-American law professor at OSU, has been questioning the legality of Mayor Lashutka “waiving” the Title 39 statute that set goals for the city purchasing goods and services from minority- and female-owned businesses.

Rogers has been doing her job in questioning how the mayor received sole power to waive a statute, particularly since she drafted the original statute that had the term “joint” power in the ordinance language. Simply put, the City Council and the mayor may be acting illegally.

Not surprisingly, no front-page stories appeared in the Dispatch on this dispute, unlike Rogers’ trip to Hawaii. The Dispatch’s coverage of Rogers’ trip amounts to guilt by location. The trip was to Hawaii, it must be illegal!

Make no mistake, Rogers is being McNeal-ed. This is a time-honored Dispatch technique, perfected first in the Soviet Union by another daily monopoly, Pravda. Associated in central Ohio with the Dispatch’s campaign against Palmer McNeal, being McNeal-ed means you’re tried and condemned by the multi-millionaire Wolfe family, their editorial lapdogs and their executioners masquerading as “objective journalists.”

Let’s analyze the initial hatchet job that appeared as the lead story in the Metro section last Wednesday, December 4. Reporter Barbara Carmen’s third paragraph reads, “‘Aloha,’ Rogers said when the phone rang.” The Dispatch editorialists make this seem equivalent to Rogers saying, “I kidnapped and murdered the Lindbergh baby.”

The article tells us that the 10th anniversary Conference on Counseling and Treating People of Color, “according to the registration brochure…is for administrators, social workers, physicians, nurses, dentists, health and mental health workers, and other professionals.” This insinuates, of course, that Rogers had no business being there. Let’s see. Rogers easily falls into the categories of “administrators” and “other professionals.”

To really appreciate Carmen’s character assassination of Rogers, you’ve got to go to the seventh paragraph. Here, the article says: “Rogers’ office is responsible for developing programs that help small companies sell goods such as backhoes, computer software, construction contracts and cleaning services to the City.” The last, obviously, isn’t a “good,” it’s a “service,” a term that Carmen must avoid at all cost.

Now, to understand what the Disgrace is doing, let me rewrite the paragraph for you as if it concerned a lackey politician that the Dispatch wished to protect: “Rogers’ office is responsible for developing programs that help small companies sell goods and services such as medical supplies, computer software for health care providers, mental health service contracts, and diversity training programs to the City.” Ever heard of the city Health Department? Rogers is responsible for making sure that diversified small businesses have an opportunity to sell goods and services to that department, a fact intentionally ignored by the Dispatch in its quest to publicly spank Rogers. “Backhoes,” indeed.

By Friday, the Rogers story had jumped to the front page—signaling that the Dispatch was organizing a public print media lynching. Council President John P. Kennedy in the second paragraph blusters, “This is not good stewardship of taxpayer dollars.” Oh? Kennedy’s never had to account in the Dispatch pages for what he might know about legislation that benefited those close to him. What about T & R Properties, John? (see Columbus Alive November 13, page four) Was that good stewardship?

Mayor Lashutka should know better than to open a two-front war in the black community. Particularly against an administrator whose main offense seems to be being “too uppity.”

2010 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OBSERVANCE
OCTOBER 12, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY
Mourning Ceremony6 (@ City Hall, Broad Street Steps, with the Mourning Walk converging at the Santa Maria “Slave Ship” Replica.)
Located at Marconi Blvd. and Broad Street
The Indigenous Peoples Day, October 12, 2010, will begin with a Mourning Walk from the City of Columbus City Hall, 10:30 a.m. and will converge at the Santa Maria Replica in the Scioto River. A Fast for Justice will be broken at this time. The People of the Land historically have experienced occupation, invasion, discovery, encounter, torture, imprisonment, decimation, devastation, globalism, slavery, and resource exploitation. Today, The People of the Land face ongoing cultural isolation, political silence, and economic degradation. Join neighbors, friends, and David Rovics at this annual commemoration of the day when Colonialism made it to the American Hemisphere.
THE EVENT WILL COVER CULTURAL IMPERATIVES, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES, AND UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS
CONTACTS:
Mark Welsh, 614-443-6120, naicoo@aol.com or Mark D. Stansbery, 614-517-7237, walk@igc.org
and
Dave Rovics in Concert! – OCTOBER 12 from 5-9pm
Carabar, 115 N. Parsons
Dave sings “Songs of Social Significance” including Halliburtons’s Boardroom Massacre and odes to Cindy Sheehan and Hugh Thompson. No cover, donations welcome. Tuesday is “Dollar Tacos” night at the Carabar!! Sponsored by the Free Press.
253-2571, truth@freepress.org

You are invited to the Free Press Second Saturday Salon
40th Anniversary “Halloween” Salon

Saturday, October 9, 2010
6:30pm-midnight

Celebrate 40 years of struggle, solidarity, social justice, and successes. The Free Press first hit the streets in October 1970 as a reaction from the OSU activist community to the Kent State killings. Ever since then it has been at the forefront of the great moral issues of our day.

This salon will have the usual food, drink, music, and will feature the three-dimensional art of Jim Beoddy.

This is also a Halloween salon — costumes preferred, but not necessary.

Please join us to mark our 40th anniversary commemorative celebration!

1021 E. Broad St., side door, parking in rear.
253-2571 truth@freepress.org

Second Saturday Salon 6:60- Midnight. Come in costume! Meet Christine O’Donnell in her “I’m not a witch” costume, along with her African-American friend, Sarah Palin. 1032 E Broad Street. Be there, be scared!!

In the 1930s, Woody Guthrie liked to write “This machine kills fascists” on his guitar. It was a period when folk musicians stood with the people against corporate greed. This is one of the reasons that folk musicians were attacked and blacklisted during the McCarthy era.

But they rose again as the reporters that offered the soundtrack for the civil rights movement in the mid to late 50s. Phil Ochs told us more about what was going on in Mississippi than scholars and intellectuals.

Today, if you want to know what’s going on in the world, you want an accurate report on where injustice is being done and people are being oppressed, the best single source of news is David Rovics. I consider him one of the greatest singer-songwriters of our time. In the same way many people watch The Daily Show over the corporate for-profit news shows, Rovics albums give us a far more insightful view on what’s really going on in the world today.

Not only that, if you want a truly factual rendition of U.S. history, Rovics is also your source. His ballad regarding Hugh Thompson is my personal favorite. Hugh is an often overlooked but genuine American hero. Many have heard of Lt. Calley and the My Li massacre, but its Rovics who celebrates Thompson, who stood Calley and his men down and stopped the war crimes in Vietnam.

I can’t wait to hear Rovics’ new songs. Their titles themselves speak volumes about what we can expect at his concert in Columbus. We look forward to hearing: Halliburton Boardroom Massacre, Paul Wolfowitz, New Orleans, How far is it from here to Nuremberg, Tsunami, and When Johnny Comes Marching Home.

Join us for a Dave Rovics experience:
Tuesday, October 12, 5-8pm
Carabar, 115 Parsons
253-2571
truth@freepress.org
No cover, but donations requested.
Also, Carabar offers Dollar Tacos on Tuesday nights!

Dave Rovics Songs

Closed Council meetings = Better informed public
Absurd “less is more” rationale for Issue 12 from the Columbus Dispatch

By Suzanne Patzer

It is hypocritical for the Dispatch, a consistent champion of open records and sunshine laws, to advocate for Issue 12, the ballot issue allowing closed City Council meetings (“Open Secrets,” Tues., Sept. 21 editorial). Tax-paying Columbus citizens do not need to be shielded from hearing varying opinions and disagreements between our elected representatives. In fact, some dissent would be a refreshing change from the homogenous and suspiciously “unanimous” votes we repeatedly witness.

The Dispatch editorial explained that most of Council business goes on “outside of public meetings” already, so why not give them our blessing to continue these backroom deals by changing the charter language. We don’t like the backroom deals going on now, and we certainly don’t want Council emboldened to hold sanctioned secret meetings.

The Dispatch’s absurd claim that the “City charter change would provide public with more information” insults all Columbus citizens. With this logic, then, if the Dispatch stopped printing its newspaper, I’m sure we would all be more informed citizens.

Monday, Sept. 27, 6-7:30pm
Wine and Cheese fund-raiser with the
Green Party Governor and Lieutenant Governor Candidates
Dennis Spisak and Anita Rios
Come meet Dennis and Anita, learn about Green Party key issues, get involved!
1021 E. Broad St., side door, parking in rear
253-2571

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Tuesday, Sept. 28, 7:30pm
“Wetback” – The Undocumented Documentary
Free Press free film night
Drexel Theater, 2254 E. Main St., Bexley, Ohio
Sponsored by the Free Press, Central Ohio Green Education Fund and the League of United Latin American Citizens
Wetback, a quietly commanding documentary, follows in the footsteps of immigrants traveling on an extraordinary and extremely dangerous journey from Central America to “el Norte” – the United States. On their journeys, they encounter gangs and vigilantes, as well as border patrol. But these immigrants navigate real-life nightmares with uncanny calm, grace, even humor in their perilous pursuit of a better life. This powerful film puts into perspective the lives of those labeled “illegals” in this time of hostility toward immigrants in the United States. And director Arturo Perez Torres does all of us a favor by getting out of the way and allowing them to tell their stories. The film has won many awards, including Best Documentary, Cinequest Film Festival; Best Story, Festival Pamplona Punto de Vista; Spectrum Award Full Frame; and Audience Award, Chicago Latino Film Festival.
253-2571, truth@freepress.org

12/03/1996
by Bob Fitrakis

Attorney General Betty Montgomery vows to close the “loophole” that allows doctors to prescribe marijuana in Ohio; the governor’s spokesperson claims “it was snuck into the bill” unbeknownst to the Guv; and Franklin County Judge Dale Crawford asks, “How did it get there?” It’s called democracy and the legislative process.

O.K., so Voinovich, Montgomery and Crawford are all incompetent public officials incapable of either following publicly debated legislation or reading a newspaper.

That’s the only logical conclusion one can draw after reading last Wednesday’s Dispatch article, “State smokin’ over pot loophole,” and last Thursday’s “Lawmakers hid rule in plain sight.”

“Hid?” Hogwash. Poppycock. Twenty-mule-team dung droppings. Dispatch writer Catherine Candisky’s lead in Wednesday’s article is curious. “Ohio lawmakers quietly legalized the medical use of marijuana last summer . . . ,” scribed she. Evidently, she doesn’t read her own paper. On March 25, 1996, the Big D’s Dennis Fiely penned an excellent and informative piece, “Forbidden Medicine.” The balanced and non-hysterical article is well worth rereading. Or, in Voinovich’s, Montgomery’s and Crawford’s cases, a first reading. Had that clueless collage read the story in the first place, they might have seen the following:

“Senate Bill 2, one of Ohio’s crime bills, recognizes the medical use of marijuana as an ‘affirmative defense’ when an offender has a prior written recommendation from a doctor.” Or that, “The law, which will go into effect July 1, seems to lend ‘some credence to the idea that a doctor is on safe ground to make the recommendation’…”

Either our outraged trio was too busy thinking up new ways to throw AIDS and cancer patients into prison for using marijuana to relieve their suffering; or perhaps the three simply smoked something that impaired their memory.

The Dispatch articles are reminiscent of the heyday of the Hearst papers’ “yellow journalism.” William Randolph Hearst-“Citizen Hearst”-pioneered mass-hysteria reporting at the turn of the century. Hearst papers demanded prohibitions against alcohol, cigarettes, public dancing and popular music. The anti-Hispanic bigot had both a financial and ideological stake in his campaign against hemp and “marijuana,” both legal products in the U.S. before Hearst’s crusade. The hemp plant, the world’s premier renewable source of high-quality paper products, was in direct competition with poor-quality, highly acidic wood pulp paper that Hearst had a huge financial interest in promoting. He owned timberland, paper mills, and produced wood pulp paper products with DuPont.

Although you couldn’t get high off the low THC content in industrial hemp, this didn’t deter Hearst papers from first linking hemp to “marijuana” and next to “dope” associated with narcotics. Ignoring the Spanish word for hemp, can~amo, Hearst equated hemp with “marijuana” or “Mary Jane,” a slang word for pot.

Inflamed by the Mexican revolution, Hearst’s papers’ anti-Hispanic rhetoric led to the fist local ordinance against marijuana in 1914 in El Paso, Texas. There, a City Council composed of primarily drunken cowboys outlawed marijuana because of fear of violent Mexicans.

His reporters popularized the term “marijuana” especially after the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa seized 800,000 acres of prime timberland that Hearst owned in Mexico in 1916 and gave it to the Mexican peasants. The Mexican peasants and most of the rest of the world preferred hemp products for paper, clothing, rope and fuel.

Thus Hearst, through his newspapers, systematically demonized the use of both hemp products and the medical use of marijuana for his personal gain. Hearst’s Herald-Tribune enthusiastically promoted Mussolini’s crusade against pot in the 1920s with such headlines as “Mussolini leads way in crushing dope.”

By 1937, industrial hemp, a product grown and advocated by both Washington and Jefferson, was now illegal and the dreaded marijuana was a Schedule One narcotic-with “no therapeutic” use- alongside heroin. By contrast, both cocaine and morphine, an opium-derivative, are Schedule Two narcotics and can be prescribed by doctors.

Kenny Schweickart, spokesperson for the Ohio Industrial Hemp and Medical Use Coalition, said, “The only reason why the Dispatch recently wrote that marijuana has no recognized therapeutic benefits is because it is currently listed as a Schedule One narcotic, not because it’s actually true. Read Dennis Fiely’s earlier coverage.”

In 1988, Drug Enforcement Agency Law Judge Francis Young, after an extensive hearing, ruled that marijuana was one of the safest and most therapeutic substances known to humankind. His ruling rescheduled marijuana as a Schedule Two narcotic, but was overruled.

Marijuana, the Forbidden Medicine, a Yale University Press book, lists marijuana as medicine for not only AIDS and cancer patients but for those with chronic pain, epilepsy, glaucoma, insomnia, labor pains, menstrual cramps, migraine headaches, mood disorders, multiple sclerosis, nausea, paraplegia and quadriplegia.

Ohio’s “affirmative defense,” despite the Dispatch’s claim, does not “legalize” marijuana. It does, however, make it virtually impossible to prosecute any pot-smoker with a written prescription from a recognized physician.

Now, if the Dispatch would just quit doing its Hearst imitation and George, Betty and Dale would quit watching that Reefer Madness video, then we could alleviate some real human suffering.

Bob Fitrakis
September 13, 2010

It’s happening here: mindless nationalism coupled with the acceptable of cold-hearted mass murder. Former mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani’s appearance on Meet the Press underscores the rise of the new American jackboot movement.

Giuliani emerged as an apologist for forces in America that seek the clash of cultures, many driven by a longing for Armageddon and a Christian fundamentalist notion of the rapture. This idea of salvation through apocalypse echoes the Nazi belief that God was on their side during the World War II in the holocaust against perceived lesser people.

Giuliani shamelessly attacked Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf for wanting to build an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan. This makes no sense. Should we fight against building Christian community centers in Oklahoma City that are within a few blocks of the old federal building? After all, Tim McVeigh was a member of the racist and radical Christian Identity sect. Shouldn’t we suspect all Christians of being terrorists and murderers because McVeigh was a Christian?

There’s the good Imam and the bad Imam, Giuliani told David Gregory. Here’s the case for Rauf being the “bad” Imam: “..there’s the bad imam who said America is an accessory to September 11.” This is worth discussing openly. The United States government helped create al Qaeda in its battle against the Soviet Union. Our nation worked closely with the Saudis to finance and train this terrorist network. We also incubated the Taliban in the madressas of Pakistan. Several of the hijackers learned how to fly in the U.S. in Oklahoma, Florida, and New York. Sure, Presidents Reagan and Bush were calling them “freedom fighters,” but they were always terrorist thugs. So, an argument that our government was an accessory is more than plausible.

Giuliani’s next accusation was that the Imam is “bad” because he said that “America has more Muslim blood on its hands than vice versa.” We should not attack the Imam because he knows basic math and refuses to tell a convenient lie. In the aftermath of the first Gulf War alone, half a million Iraqi children died as a result of our illegal and inhumane bombing of the Iraq infrastructure. When asked by CBS’ Lesley Stahl on 6o Minutes asked Secretary of State Madeleine Albright “We have heard that half a million children have died [as a result of sanctions]. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?” Albright replied: “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it.”

After the first 3½ years of the Iraq War, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reported that 654,965 Iraqis as a direct result of the U.S. invasion. The Hopkins study correctly used a “but for…” analysis, a common U.S. legal analysis. That is, had the U.S. not invaded Iraq, dismantled their police and army, and shocked and awed their people and infrastructure with massive bombings, how many more people would be alive today based on the expected death rates in the country. The U.S. military only likes to count the casualties we directly kill, not the ones who die as result of the ill-planned and haphazard invasion and occupation.

The vast majority of people killed in Iraq were Islamic. We can see from these two examples alone that the U.S. government is responsible for the deaths of more than a million Muslims. This is a holocaust against a Muslin country that was not a threat to the United States, had no weapons of mass destruction and, indeed, could not fly over two-thirds of its sovereign territory due to U.S. military presence.

The government of the United States, both the Clinton and W Bush administrations, has far more Muslim blood on its hands than the small U.S.-trained Islamic terrorist group al Qaeda has American blood on their hands. But, the key point is that terrorism is terrorism, and crimes against humanity are crimes against humanity whether done by the Bush administration or by bin Laden.

As long as the U.S. government continues to deny that its last president George W. Bush is a war criminal who should have been hung along with Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity, we will proceed along a path that leads to endless war against Islamic people. This new crusade, that is blasphemy against Jesus, the Prince of Peace, will be embraced by opportunists like Giuliani. Giuliani’s rhetoric about Ground Zero signals that facts don’t matter, only blind nationalism, and that genocide against Muslims is acceptable. Gott Mit Uns.


Bob Fitrakis is Editor & Publisher of https://freepress.org, where this article first appeared.

Fight Back August 12, 2010 Diebold, Recorded August 12, 2010
Dr. Robert Fitrakis PHD JD and Connie Gadell-Newton JD
Discuss:
Diebold voting machines in the news, Columbus City Council secret meetings.