May 31, 1998
Issue #87
by: Doug Fiedor
E-mail to: fiedor19@eos.net
With tobacco, as everyone knows by now, their method of providing legal cover was to "protect our health." In so doing, a couple hundred shysters sued tobacco companies in the name of addicted smokers, government medical plans, and whatever. Then the ever-oppressive Congressional lawmakers got involved and compounded the issue under the dubious mantra of "stopping children from smoking."
In truth, some in Congress noticed that private attorneys, and some State governments, were about to realize a windfall of billions of dollars. Congress wanted in on that, and so raised the cost to the American public to hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes and other hidden costs.
Forgotten in the confusion of things is the fact that the original private attorneys starting this foolishness will all become multimillionaires from this one case. And we, of course, will ultimately be the ones to pay them.
We warned months ago that if this case was allowed to proceed, many thousands of lawyers would be shopping around for another such fat cow to slaughter for a great payday. And, sure enough, here it comes.
Last week we read: 'A coalition of health organizations and medical experts has identified the fast food industry as being vulnerable to the same regulations which threaten to snuff out cigarette producers.' No doubt, we thought, and so started doing some snooping around.
Found in one place: "A recent report in the journal of the influential American National Cancer Institute (Who's that?) pointed out that the risks of contracting diseases through eating too much fast food were almost the same as those caused by smoking."
Found in another place were proposals by a group of do-gooders for curbs on junk food advertising aimed at children. And, of course, they want compulsory physical education and nutrition classes in schools, too. So, to pay for that they demand a "junk food tax" on unhealthy meals.
Another buttensky group, the American Health Foundation, reports: "According to Advertising Age, the 1996 advertising budget for Coca-Cola Classic was $131 million, for McDonald's, it was $599 million. The National Cancer Institute's budget for the five-a-day promotion of fruit and vegetable consumption was under $1 million."
"Not fair!" say the small chorus of do-gooders wishing more control over the lives of others. So they intend to "fix" that. Which, of course, will involve lawyers, courts, massive lawsuits, and 40% commissions for all of the law firms participating.
"Ideas that were once considered ridiculous are now being taken seriously," warned Jacob Sullum, a Libertarian writer on smoking issues. "Just look at how you could easily say that the fast food chains explicitly target children as young as five, and you can see how things might go. We know, for example, from the [McDonald] McLean that they can remove fat from these products. So the next step will be to ask, why don't they do so?"
The groups are assembling their "scientific" facts, too. Among these "facts" is a 600 page report titled "Food, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective," presented as a major new international report on cancer prevention.
The report examines "the relationship between dietary factors and 18 specific cancers, provides new dietary guidelines for cancer prevention and offers public policy recommendations to help make cancer prevention an achievable goal."
The report can be found at: http://www.aicr.org/report2.htm
So here we go folks. The do-gooders will soon be urging Washington to curb the unhealthy effects of eating too many Big Macs and Quarter Pounders, and certainly they'll be going after those large servings of onion rings and French fries too. They will be requesting legislation to clamp down on companies like McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King in the very same way they did Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man.
Anyone with deep pockets is fair prey for these social scavengers with law degrees. And the budgets of the fast food industry are very large.
Janet Colwell, a columnist for the San Francisco Business Times, says that "if a high- cholesterol, fat-laden diet with no redeeming nutritional value is an express ticket to the grave, McDonald's may one day find itself explaining its marketing strategy to the courts and an increasingly hostile public. We may one day find burger-eaters alongside smokers huddled pathetically in alleyways, victims of an anti-cholesterol establishment."
When the federal government wanted to outlaw alcoholic beverages, it found there was no authority within the bounds of the Constitution to do so. Therefore, Congress proposed a Constitutional Amendment. Today, we see an assault on tobacco products, another legal product. Again, there is no authority within the Constitution allowing the federal government to even speak on the subject. But yet they proceed. And we allow that.
Tomorrow, they will tell us how fast we can drive, what type of food we can eat, how much water we can use in the toilet, how we may use our land, and where we can drink a beer.
Whoops, I forgot. They already unconstitutionally created authority to do all that. Tomorrow they crack down on Whoppers and Big Macs. Then comes sugar.
How long will it be till they get to the stuff you like?
Over the Memorial Day weekend, three quarters of a million people invaded the District of Columbia. There were so many people there that they disrupted traffic for three days. There were so many people there that their parade took about four hours to pass. The national news, however, did not cover it. These were American Patriots. And unfortunately, for the liberal national news, patriotism is no longer politically correct in these United Sates.
The media people heard it, though. They had to hear it. This was ROLLING THUNDER!
The name Rolling Thunder arose, as we ground- pounders know, from B52 bombers carpet bombing vast stretches of jungle during the Vietnam war. Awesome, that. Today, the term pertains to motorcycles -- as in big Harley Davidsons. And in this case, many thousands of big Harley Davidsons, along with a few other brands.
Yes, National Chairman Artie "The Dictator" Muller pulled it off again. This was possibly the biggest and best Rolling Thunder yet. Check it out at: http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/5975/rt11.htm Click around and look for pictures. They're there someplace, and well worth searching for.
The organizers say: "Rolling Thunder is about Pride. It is about the pride we have as Americans. The pride we have in the men and women of the Armed Services that provide the blanket of freedom and security we so often take for granted.
"Rolling Thunder is about bikers taking a message to Washington, DC. They ride to honor the fallen, to thank those that returned and to demand an accounting for those still missing."
"This gathering of real Americans is designed to send a message to Washington that those that were willing to die for their country will never be forgotten or forsaken. We are only getting stronger!" Artie Muller explained.
American Patriots of the highest order, one and all, we add.
And I also add: Rolling Thunder is a message about liberty and freedom, from those who fought for it once and will do so again if it becomes necessary. The pride and determination of these veterans and their friends never ceases to bring tears to the eyes and a sinking feeling in the heart of those of us not fortunate enough to attend.
In fact, it's time I force these old bones to make that pilgrimage one more time. It's been a few years. Perhaps next year we should all attend. Perhaps we can show Artie that there are still well over a million patriotic American citizens out here who really do care. Maybe we could show ourselves too, and that belligerent leviathan we call government.
Next Memorial Day. At the Pentagon's parking lot. Early. Bring good earplugs. And trust me folks: You will never -- EVER -- forget Rolling Thunder! Such a demonstration can only happen in the United States.
A report by Matthew L. Wald in last Friday's New York Times is a case in point. If we wish to be kind, we can file this information under unintended consequences. Actually though, it more properly belongs in the sloppy science file. That is, the government's so called "scientists" did not do their research properly before proposing strict new regulations.
As Wald reported: "The catalytic converter, an invention that has sharply reduced smog from cars, has now become a significant and growing cause of global warming, according to the Environmental Protection Agency."
Catalytic converters, it turns out, rearrange the nitrogen-oxygen compounds to form nitrous oxide, which most of us know as laughing gas. And as it happens, nitrous oxide is reported to be a potent greenhouse gas. The EPA "experts" assert that carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas warming the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide, the same experts say, is more than 300 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Recently, the EPA estimated that nitrous oxide comprises about 7.2 percent of the gases that cause global warming. The catalytic converters on cars and trucks produce nearly half of that nitrous oxide. And, according to EPA, the nitrous oxide emissions are increasing rapidly.
As the New York Times reported, Wylie J. Barbour, an EPA official who worked on the recently published report, said that the problem created by the converter is classic. "You've got people trying to solve one problem, and as is not uncommon, they've created another."
Sure. That usually happens when sloppy science is the rule and proper research discouraged. Perhaps there's a reason the "scientific method" is neither easy nor fast? Christopher S. Weaver, an engineering consultant who wrote a study on the subject for EPA, said, "We haven't cared enough to establish standards." Right. Neither has EPA cared enough to do the proper research.
Finally, EPA may be properly exposed for using junk science to back up obnoxious regulations. Last week, Congressmen David McIntosh (R-IN) and Richard Pombo (R-CA), the National Wilderness Institute (NWI), career EPA scientist David Lewis, and the Landmark Legal Foundation charged that EPA under Administrator Carol Browner: grossly misuses science for political ends; intimidates and harasses employees who question agency policies; and commits or condones numerous unethical and possibly even illegal activities.
In a press release dated May 12, the Landmark Legal Foundation lays out the problem:
"Landmark Legal Foundation and the National Wilderness Institute (NWI) today are calling on Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate widespread abuses at the Environmental Protection Agency. The demand follows the release today of an NWI-sponsored investigative report of EPA misconduct ranging from violating agency ethics rules and federal whistle-blower laws, to falsifying documents in federal judicial proceedings.
"In his letter to Attorney General Reno, Landmark President Mark R. Levin pointed out possible violations of the Hatch Act and the Congressional Review Act. Moreover, the NWI report, 'The People v. Carol Browner: EPA on Trial' details allegations of possible federal crimes by EPA officials including perjury, fraud and false statements, coercion of political activity by agency employees, and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
"The wide-ranging and pervasive misconduct revealed in the NWI report cry out for an immediate and full investigation of the EPA administrator and her department by Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department's criminal division. Moreover, the conduct of Justice Department lawyers working with the EPA raises serious questions that must be reviewed by the Department's Office of Professional Responsibility."
Dr. Bonner Cohen, Editor of EPA Watch and the report's author noted that, "In my research I was struck by one recurring theme: none of this misconduct is even remotely related to protecting our environment."
NWI Director Rob Gordon noted that "EPA under Vice President Al Gore's protégé, Carol Browner, has become a rogue agency driven by self-interest, not by a concern for science, law, people's welfare or protection of the environment."
Among the charges made in the report are the EPA and Army Corps of Engineer practice of abusing the rights of citizens by violating the Congressional Review Act and establishing unwritten and unpublicized regulations. In other words, the practice of enforcing secret regulations that property owners have no chance of complying with because the regulations were not published.
Actually, many of us believe that both EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers make up the supposed regulations as they go along, on a case by case basis. Regardless, the practice is both unconstitutional and tyrannical, and those involved should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
The full National Wilderness Institute report by Bonner R. Cohen, Ph.D. can be found on the NWI web page at: http://www.nwi.org/Special%20Studies/EPAReport/EPAstudy.html
It appears that the centuries-old slash & burn practice Mexican farmers use to clear farmland got a bit out of hand this year. The "burn" part, that is. Now, along with all the illegal drugs, Mexico is sending us smoke.
Over 1,000,000 acres are burning in Mexico. The resulting smoke -- read air pollution -- is all the way up to the central United States. There are out of control fires over most of Mexico, a Mexican government representative reported last Wednesday. And, of course, he was worried about endangered species. The fires affect about 1,500 endangered plants, the Mexican official said. Migratory birds, too. Not a lot was said about the people, mostly just plants and animals.
They blame it on El Niño. NOAA said that "El Niño is a disruption of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific having important consequences for weather around the globe. Among these consequences are increased rainfall across the southern tier of the US and in Peru." . . . "El Niño was originally recognized by fisherman off the coast of South America as the appearance of unusually warm water in the Pacific ocean, occurring near the beginning of the year. El Niño means The Little Boy or Christ child in Spanish. This name was used for the tendency of the phenomenon to arrive around Christmas."
For more information and an interesting MPEG animation, check out the NOAA web page at: http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/toga-tao/el-nino-story.html
The United States received more rain than necessary, especially in our deserts. And it appears that certain places in the North East United States are about to have a bumper crop of all plant life this year. But, Mexico is not getting enough rain. So, they're having this little problem, which is quickly becoming our problem.
And now, our U.S. EPA is wondering how to respond. Driving might be curtailed in our Southern States, too. Not that it would help anything, of course. But EPA would like an excuse to pass even more strict regulations, and Al Gore wants us out of our cars. The smoke provides a good excuse.
Yet, the source of the problem is in Mexico. And the fires were started by humans. Intentionally. They clear land like that every year. No matter, though. Our EPA bureaucratic lawmakers are on the job. And they cannot be expected to sit back and do nothing for very long.
The United States offered fire-fighting help in the form of manpower and aircraft. But the Mexican officials said they do not need anymore aircraft help from us, which seems very strange. The aircraft carry water, and dump it on the fires.
The problem is that the largest water source down there would be the oceans. However, salt water on farmland is not really good for the proposed crops.
So, they have over one-million acres burning, and we get the smoke. And soon, probably, the new EPA regulations.
Isn't it great? Our embattled Speaker has once again located his spine. Lately he has been blasting the White House and its treasonous occupants on everything from selling our national security to turning the White House into a bordello. Way to go, Newt! At last you're saying the things that have needed saying for five years.
But wait a minute. I just started looking at some of the things you're doing -- or more accurately, not doing. All of us who follow the Internet know about the atrocious and unconstitutional American Heritage Rivers Initiative that our President authorized with an Executive Order on April 8th. That order, which would strip all state and local control of our rivers and tributaries and send it to a federal bureaucracy, has been decried by state legislatures across the country. It also caught the attention of one of the few members of Congress who actually seems to care about the United States Constitution. I'm referring to Idaho's Helen Chenoweth, who introduced HR 1842, which would defund the AHRI. This is a straightforward bill that all our Congress people, except those 58 Members in the socialist "Progressive Caucus," would have to support.
So what has happened to Helen Chenoweth's HR 1842 since it was introduced last year? According to Tom DeWeese in his latest report, it has been sitting on Newt Gingrich's desk, gathering dust. If Newt would release it to the floor for a vote, there is little doubt that it would move quickly to the Senate for ratification with a veto proof vote. But it seems Newt is too busy talking the talk to walk the walk.
The same goes for President Clinton's latest abomination against state sovereignty and the rights of the American people. This is his Executive Order that makes state and local governments subservient to federal regulators. He did this without his usual fanfare in the rose garden, surrounding himself with a crowd of multiracial children, all wondering why they were there. No, he signed this one quietly while hiding away in England. No cameras, no press releases. We had to find it out by tapping into the White House web site. This particular Executive Order, in one stroke of the Presidential pen, eliminates the freedoms our forefathers guaranteed us and we have been fighting to preserve ever since. It was signed on the 14th of May and will become law thirty days after the signing. Unless it is stopped by Congress, that is.
And here again, if our Speaker of the House doesn't get up and act like the leader of the majority party by denouncing this assault on state sovereignty before it becomes law on June 14th, we will see a completely unfettered onslaught of federal regulatory agencies treading upon our liberties. But the blame cannot end with Newt Gingrich alone, because one strong voice by any member of Congress would light a flame that would kill this Presidential order.
I live in Kentucky, and I know full well the determination of Kentuckians to resist federal regulators intent on taking away our freedoms. I know how we have besieged our Kentucky Congressional delegation, headed by Jim Bunning, with demands that they support us by getting us out of the AHRI. We have been met with silence. This has caused us to stop and wonder what has happened to our fiercely conservative Congressman Bunning who once stole our hearts by standing firm against the excesses of big government.
Now, when our state, which is bordered on three sides by the Ohio River, is threatened by the American Heritage Rivers Initiative, Congressman Bunning will not even go so far as to request that his district be excluded from this program. Today, Jim Bunning, Newt Gingrich, and all of those who we brought to the dance, seem to be telling us that their dance cards are filled.
I would remind you; extremism in the defense
of liberty is no vice. . . . And let me remind you also,
that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
-- Barry Goldwater
at the 1964 Republican National Convention