LIADA Newsletter February 2002  

DEFIANT ASHCROFT UNDER FIRE

After much delaying, the oft-criticized Attorney General, John Ashcroft, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

However, instead of concretely answering questions about his liberty-crushing anti-terror campaign, Ashcroft shot barbs at his detractors: "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and dimmish our resolve."

In other news, the Justice Department recently barred the use of background checks for gun purchasers in terror investigations. Considering how aggressive the investigations have been overall (FBI allowed to listen in on attorney-client talks, etc.), the sudden insistence on "privacy" for gun owners — even those detained as terror suspects — points to Ashcroft's rigid pro-gun ideology.

VICTORY: BRAME WITHDRAWS As CANDIDATE FOR NLRB POST

America's workers scored a big victory when J. Robert Brame, III officially withdrew his name as a nominee for an NLRB post. This triumph may have been a quiet victory, coming in the form of a discreet letter from Brame to the White House, but it was important nonetheless.

ADA has led the campaign against Brame for several months. From the NLRB, Brame could have done serious harm to worker rights.

In the end, outcry over Brame's extremist positions, such as execution for homosexuals and adulterers, amy have done him in. We thank all ADA'ers for their hard work on this issue.

THE GREAT ASHCROFT COVER-UP

Maybe it's the agnostic in me, but I couldn't trust a man who leads his staff - regardless of different faiths - in a prayer meeting before they start work each morning. There is something very doubtful about this practice. It implies the boss has an open channel to God, and - more dangerously -that the work which is about to be performed serves His special purpose. In these conditions, staff must find it a lot more difficult to challenge the wisdom of orders that come down from on high. *

Such a man is John Ashcroft, the United States attorney general, who is beginning to show signs of worrying and pathological fundamentalism. For as long as anyone can remember, the attorney general had given press briefings at the Department of Justice in front of a partly clothed 1930's art-deco statue known as Minnie Lou. Press photographers have traditionally enjoyed aligning the attorney general's head with Minnie Lou's unclad breast.

But they no longer will be able to do so because Ashcroft has decreed that the breast be covered up with an elaborate drape that had cost his department $8,000. There is surely a fascinating lack of self-awareness in this move, which displays precisely the fear of nudity and of a woman's sexual appeal found with the Taliban. The similarity is so striking that you wonder why Justice Department officials didn't mention it to him.

Perhaps the prayer meeting culture was responsible for that. At any rate, we will know the symmetry is complete when poor Minnie Lou suffers the same fate as the Buddhist carvings in Afghanistan.

Get your mat boys, and praise the Almighty rhat public morals have been saved from the naked female form.

— Henry Porter

GRUCCI, KING UNDERMINE LABOR, ENVIRONMENT, HUMAN RIGHTS

With their votes, Representatives Felix Grucci and Peter King provided the margin of victory for the Bush Administrations and the corporate lobby's effort to pass "fast track" legislation. The final tally in the House was 215-214.

Once passed by the Senate, this will authorize the administration to negotiate trade agreements that the Congress will not be able to modify. Based on previous experience, we can be sure that such agreements will further erode the rights of working people, environmental, health and safety protections, human rights, and democratic self-government.

We applaud Representatives Ackerman, Israel, and McCarthy for their opposition to fast track. As our struggle to defend these values continues, we must not forget the votes of Grucci and King. We will have more to say about this vital issue in the months to come.

RETHINK L.I. TRANSPORTATION PLAN

The Department of Transportation's 20-year plan calls for the creation of an Island wide express bus system that would operate over an extensive network of new High Occupancy Vehicle lanes. The buses would operate in lanes no different from HOV lanes - with special on and off ramps on the parkways and lots of new park-and-ride lots.

ADA and the Long Island Progressive Coalition feel this is more of the same road paving that the DOT has been doing all along while neglecting the concerns of the local communities and businesses that need to move people and goods on Long Island. The DOT must consider alternatives such as light rail and station access programs, as well as land-use alternatives, just to name a few.

We need to actively organize around this important issue and demand real public transportation. If you wish to get involved and do something about this important issue, please call Bernie Bellush at 516-487-4091.

WANTED: PRESCRIPTION PRICE CONTROLS

Here is the final argument for the need for prescription price controls: After at first trying to protect the price of Cipro, the Bush administration was forced to "bargain" with Bayer, the maker of the drug. Proudly, they announced that they had gotten the price down to $.95 per tablet, and Bayer admitted they would still be making a profit.

But if you need Cipro for its most important use - that is, to combat bacterial infections - be aware that Bayer is still charging pharmaceutical distributors the normal price - $4.65 per tablet!