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Activist Times Inc. Issue 352
With tears and heavy heart I dedicate this
issue to the late Pfc. Lori Piestewa of Tuba
City.
HOW MUCH MORE KADDISH KAN AMERIKA MAKE???
ELIJAH, WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG?!?
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This week I give over my Publisher's Column to
journalist Brenda Norrell. I think I've done
this before. Enjoy this phenomenal analysis:
BIG MOUNTAIN TO BAGHDAD: Bush's Coal and Oil
Contributors Pave the Way
By Brenda Norrell [ Originally pubbed in Navajo Times ]
BIG MOUNTAIN, Ariz. -- The road from Big Mountain to
Baghdad is short, it goes right through the White House.
What makes Big Mountain and Baghdad sister cities?
The oil and coal companies that contributed to
President Bush's campaign.
The proof is in the nation's energy plan, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruling against the Navajo Nation in the
Peabody coal royalty case and the corporate friends of
Bush in line to profit from the rebuilding of Iraq and
oil development after the war.
As bombs fell on Iraq, American Indian activist Renee
Still Day in Pueblo, Colo., pointed out that Bush has
already lined up corporations who would benefit from
billions of dollars in contracts. The corporations
include Halliburton Company, where Vice President
Dick Cheney served as CEO for five years.
"This could have been solved diplomatically but
that was never an option with this 'selected' leader
of our country. The fact is he has already opened the
door to Halliburton and other 'old buds' with contracts,"
Still Day said.
The five firms tentatively chosen for the rebuilding
effort contributed $2.8 million in campaign contributions
over the past three years, most going to Republicans.
Those companies include Kellogg, Brown and Root, whose
parent company is Halliburton. Bechtel, who helped
rebuild Kuwait after the Gulf War and allegedly
supplied weapons to Saddam Hussein in the 1980s,
and Flour.
While heading Halliburton, an oil supply and development
company, Cheney received $36 million in income in 2000.
Those who contributed to Bush and Cheney's campaigns and
careers are in line for contracts to rebuild roads, schools
and hospitals and develop oil in Iraq. Iraq's oil reserve,
estimated at 110 billion barrels, is the second largest in
the world, exceeded only by Saudi Arabia.
Follow the money
From Big Mountain to Baghdad, from the Arctic National
Wildlife Reserve to sacred sites throughout Indian country,
the Bush-Cheney national energy plan focuses on increasing
oil, coal and nuclear plants.
From the beginning, Cheney's task force on energy development
included those who contributed to his political campaign,
including Peabody Coal. Cheney has refused to release the task
force documents to the General Accounting Office, Time magazine
and the Los Angeles Times report.
Before gaining access to Cheney's energy task force, Peabody
Coal, the largest coal company in the world, and its affiliates
have given more than $900,000 to the Bush campaign.
When Cheney's final energy report was released May 16, 2001,
it called for additional coal production. Five days later
Peabody issued a public stock offering, raising $60 million
more than expected.
Clean air standards for power plant emissions were rolled
back; Bush reneged on a campaign pledge to restrict power
plant emissions.
Irl Engelhardt, chairman of Peabody, was a major contributor
to the Bush-Cheney transition team, as Peabody lobbied for Bush
to lower standards of arsenic levels in water. Peabody contributed
$100,000 for the inauguration and $25,000 for a party honoring
Bush May 21, 2002.
Navajos have been resisting forced relocation at Big Mountain
and elsewhere on Black Mesa, where Peabody uses the only source
of drinking water to slurry coal. Meanwhile, Navajo live without
runnning water and electricity in the area.
"The president is friendly to energy, and so is the vice president,
and thank God," said Fred Palmer, a vice president at Peabody Energy.
Even before the Navajo Nation lawyers went before the U.S. Supreme
Court to argue their case against Peabody Coal this year, the Bush
administration took the unusual step of persuading the U.S. Supreme
Court to rule against the Navajo Nation's $600 million case against
Peabody.
The Navajo Nation alleged that a conspiracy between energy companies
-- including Peabody and the Salt River Project -- and the Interior
led to the Navajo Nation being denied a fair royalty rate for its
coal.
The Department of Justice urged the U.S. Supreme Court to rule
against the tribe, saying the U.S. government could face "adverse
consequences."
"The decision below will encourage the filing of damages against
the United States for breach of trust," Solicito General Ted Olsen
wrote March 15, 2002. "At a minimum, such a development will subject
the United States to costly litigation."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that it was irrelevant that former
Interior Secretary Donald Hodel met behind closed doors with officials of
Peabody Energy as he was deciding the royalty rate issue.
The Supreme Court ruling against the Navajo Nation and in favor of
Peabody in March came less than three weeks before war was launched
in oil-rich Iraq.
American Indians point to oil, treaties and losses in trust
On Rosebud tribal land in South Dakota, Andrew Catt-Iron Shell, Sicangu
Lakota and Eastern Cherokee, said large numbers of American Indians fight
wars with little recognition or honor from the United States government
who continues to dishonor their treaties.
"How do they thank us? By ignoring treaty obligations mandated by the
United States Constitution and perpetuating an atmosphere of animosity
between our two sovereign governments," Iron Shell said.
"It is really a sad world that the white man has created."
Iron Shell said he is in full support of the soldiers who have chosen
to serve the United States. His own grandfather served in the Armed
Services before he was accepted as a United States citizen.
American Indians were among the first U.S. military to leave for
Iraq.
"Many of our young Native men and women were again some of the very
first to volunteer for duty in these challenging times," Iron Shell said.
"It's very ironic to me personally, that we have been fighting the
terrorism that has been bestowed upon our Indigenous Tribal Nations
since 1492 but yet we still are the first to react to threats against
our homeland now called America.
"When Congress and the George W. Bush look at who sends the most
warriors to battle to protect our Nation, I hope they realize that
Indian Country has more volunteers to the Armed Services per our
specific population than any other race in this country."
In Pueblo, Colo., Still Day said in this war, for the first time
since its war of genocide against American Indians, "The United
States is the aggressor, the bully, the warmonger.
"No one supports Saddam Hussein, he is an abomination and a
horrible person, but who made Bush God?
"That we could defeat Saddam was a foregone conclusion, this
was not even a question in anyone's mind. But we should never
forget that the actual weapons that Bush claimed Saddam had,
came directly from Bush the first, Donald Rumsfeld and the
whole band of renegades that now attack him."
Still Day said we now live in a police state where an
attorney in New Mexico was arrested for speaking out against
Bush and demonstrators are arrested for wearing peace shirts.
"The government is now talking about those who placed themselves
as human shields in Iraq to protect the civilians, suggesting that
they be prosecuted at traitors. These were nuns, Medal of Honor
winners, decorated war veterans and people of conscience, who
went there unarmed to protect the innocent.
"Now they will be labeled at traitors? What next?"
Still Day said Bush has set a dangerous precedence.
"If a country doesn't like another country's leader, this action
says, "it is now acceptable to take them out."
"With all the enemies Bush has made across the world and the danger
that he poses to them, he has set himself up as the possible next target."
Still Day points out that American Indians know too well what it means
to place oil in trust.
"The oil of Iraq will now be placed 'in trust' for the people of Iraq,
according to Colin Powell. Anyone living in Indian Country already knows
how that will work, it won't!
"This war was for oil, for the Bush cronies and damned what the rest of
this country or the rest of this world believed. Calling for impeachment,
Still Day said, "I support the impeachment of Bush and all his cronies
for war crimes and the rejection of our Constitution."
Danny Zapata, a supporter of the struggle at Big Mountain who lives in
Europe, said the real machinery behind the war in Iraq is oil, not human
rights.
"When our peoples' hear and remember these words from Bush saying we're
there in Iraq to fight for their freedoms, their human rights to
self-determination, sovereignty and to liberate them from oppression,
hey great! When can we start that in America?
"It's hard to have any remorse for bullies, whether they are Saddam
Hussein or this sawed-off version of a trigger happy Texan cowboy."
On the Northwest coast, Victoria Redstarr, Nez Perce and descendant
of Chief Joseph, said the war will expose America at its root.
"The forces that started this war are the same forces that went
against us, as a people. In some strange sense, this war is showing
the world how evil those forces really are.
"The divide it is creating throughout our country and the world is
very telling. Very essential. We mustn't back down from the challenge
to get even stronger spiritually -- together.
"We can't be afraid!"
Meanwhile, on Interstate 20, driving through West Texas, the plumes
of smoke rising over the oil and gas refineries of west Texas -- where
the legacy of "Bush and friends oil" began mirrors the smoke rising
from the bombing of Baghdad.
On a lonely dirt road, a flock of large, black and shining vultures,
one by one, picks over the corpse of a dead animal as the bombs of the
United States and allies fall on Iraq. Crossing west Texas as the bombs
fall on Iraq, in truck stops and on talk radio, there are racial slurs
about Arabs and Moslems.
One radio host, aired in Odessa, says Northern Korea should also be
bombed because North Koreans have bad attitudes.
But not everyone is in favor of the war, even in Bush country.
And now, the numbers:
http://skippy.com
http://www.xiph.org
http://www.tldp.org
http://whitehouse.org
http://www.cokewatch.org
http://www.imnotready.com
http://www.onlinejournal.com
http://www.protest-records.com
http://www.rationalanarchism.org
http://www.justpeacecoalition.org
http://www.thethursdayshow.com/peace
http://www.skeptictank.org/flist018.htm
http://electroniciraq.net/news/488.shtml
http://members.aol.com/drovics/cokel.htm
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/recommends
http://www.michaelkelly.fsnet.co.uk/aaron.htm
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff04032003.html
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=308385
http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=303
http://www.petertatchell.net/international/kissinger2.htm
http://www.quechuanetwork.org/news_template.cfm?news_id=672&lang=s
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0404missingsoldiers-ON.html
http://www.bubblemonkey.org/cheesencrackers/txt/005-crackheadz.txt
http://chefmoz.org/United_States/AZ/Tuba_City/Tuba_City_Truck_Stop_Cafe983937662.html
AIRPLAY 101
-----------------
By Bryan Farrish
Payola (part 5 of 5), What You Can Do
1) http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/ati334.txt
2) http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/ati341.txt
3) http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/ati344.txt
4) http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/ati349.txt
A lot of what small indies can do is covered by the previous fifty
Airplay 101 articles. These articles are, after all, designed to
show you how you can push your own record to radio, using your
own phone calls, for a minimal cost. At a higher level, however,
the articles also show you how to work with a radio promoter(s)
who will do it for you.
Specifically, however, regarding paying money to stations, here is
what small indies can do. Keep in mind that this is high-level stuff
for small indies, and it is not cheap; it should be used only after
ALL your other basic promotion, booking, and PR has been
taking care of. This means that, only after you have set up the
budget for standard PR for 6 months ($6000 to $20,000), along
with standard radio promo for 3 months ($3000 to $20,000), and,
you also have a full-time person who handles booking (in-house
or agent,) you then can consider some of the options below.
Retail promotion and marketing is not mentioned here, because it
is just not a feasible area for a new label/artist who is putting out
their very first release, with no experience; your sales should
instead be at your gigs, only.
BUYING ADS: Do this before you do a show in each station's
market. You are probably trying to get to the late-night crowd, so
ask the stations for a one-week flight with a frequency of 3 or 4 in
7p-mid. This will run you about $300 per station in small markets,
and $1000 to $5000 per station for medium markets. You would
do well to leave major markets alone.
GIVE-AWAYS: If you have cheap access to merchandise or
trips, then give them to the station for use as on-air give-aways, in
return for "tagging" the artist's name as the provider of the items.
Talk to the PD about this, not the salespeople. Good merch
would be DVD's, TV's, computers, etc., and they should be
available in quantity for each station.
MARKETING PIECES: If you are in any way capable of helping
a station get it's name out to the public, you can trade this for free
commercials or other things. Can you print 10,000 of their
bumper stickers for them (per station)? Can you print 10,000
flyers of one of their upcoming events, and distribute the flyers to
200 places around town (per station)? Can you put up street
signage at 100 places around town (per station) if the stations
provide you with the signs? Can you get 500 to 1000 new
people to sign up to the station's email list? Can you promote the
station's site so that it shows up in the top 5 of whatever search
they tell you to do? Can you call 500 people on the phone and
invite them to come out to the station's next remote? Whatever
you are good at, or whatever you have the time to do, talk to the
PD and see about a trade. Don't plan on putting your artist-info
on any of the printed marketing pieces, however.
STREET PROMOTIONS: If you are good at organizing people
who are spread out around the country, then set up an organized
campaign, and convince people to contact each station's
promotion director in order to volunteer to help with street
promotions in their local towns. You'll probably have to run paid
ads in the local papers to get the volunteers, and, you'll need to
keep in contact with them in order to keep them motivated.
VEHICLES: If you can get good deals on used vans, trucks or
SUV's, then you can get one for each station, (again) in trade for
commercials or some other promotion. If you can arrange for the
vehicles to come pre-wrapped with the station's logo, all the
better. Don't expect to be able to put your artist info on it,
however. Vehicles are good because as long as they are
running, the stations will remember who provided them.
Conclusion: Paying stations is not a tool for a small indie to get
airplay. The alternate options presented above are for individuals
who have the money, who have already hired PR, radio, and
booking personnel, and who are looking to build consumer
awareness in smaller markets so they can ink a reasonable
distribution deal and book more and bigger gigs.
------------------------------------------------------
Bryan Farrish Radio Promotion is an independent radio
airplay promotion company. http://www.radio-media.com.
------------------------------------------------------
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Poetry ends the week out:
Grief: The Knife
by BMC
You bought me a knife for Christmas, standard Army and Navy issue. There
was a compass in the top, but it never pointed the right direction.
Still, it was perfect for cutting the twine on hay bales. Square bales,
second cut, waterlogged. At minus twenty, frozen. About 40 pounds each.
We carried one in each hand and forced our bodies forward.
Down in the dugout we fed the cows. Fresh snow had covered the trampled
bedding, so we grabbed new straw. Fifteen bales, thirty red strings.
Like villains we hacked and hewed, kicking each blonde pile free of its
binding. The knife was so sharp I could cut off the dead cow's frozen
ears and sew them into a mitten for my sister.
Before spreading out the straw, we flopped down in the pile and smoked a
couple of hand-rolled cigarettes pulled from an empty pack of Acklands
bolts. The paper cracked with fire and we thought maybe the whole
universe was one big cigarette and we were just a shred of tobacco that
would eventually be smoked.
Later, when you attacked me in the tractor barn, I said I'd kill you with
your own knife, right in that same spot where they found you five years
later.
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| (_| | | (__ | |_ | | \ V / | | \__ \ | |_
\__,_| \___| \__| |_| \_/ |_| |___/ \__|
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PROVERBIAL PROVERB
Pride Goeth Before The Drink
"COCA-COLA AND THE CONTOUR BOTTLE DEVICE ARE
REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF THE COCA-COLA COMPANY."
Send lettuce to the edifice to:
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