QUOTE OF THE MONTH
From Columbia Records: “I’m not ready to make nice. I’m not ready to back down…And how in the world can the words that I said, send somebody so over the edge that they’d write me a letter sayin’ that I better shut up and sing or my life will be over. I’m not ready to make nice. I’m not ready to back down.”
The Dixie Chicks
Martie Maquire, Emily Robison, & Natalie Maines
2007 Song of the Year, “I’m Not Ready to Make Nice”
2007 Album of the Year, “Taking the Long Way”
(Editor’s Note: Natalie Maines, Dixie Chicks lead singer, made the following statement to a London audience on March 10, 2003, ten days before Bush launched the Iraq war:
“Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”)
SENSE AND NONSENSE – THE POWER OF THE INDIVIDUAL
From the editor: One of the most common refrains I hear from callers on C-Span and Air America, is the question, “What can one individual do to change things?” The question is usually asked with a hint of pessimism and frustration as if to underscore a general feeling of powerlessness.
In this age of the super rich; the extreme right propaganda machine ala the “Swift Boat” conspirators; the Rupert Murdoch and Fox anti-news media conglomerate; the corporate take-over of Congress and the Executive branches of our government; the global warming “denial” campaign led by Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe; the tax-supported conservative think tanks that supply “talking heads” to PBS’ News Hour with Jim Lehrer; the fossil fuel industry lobbyists; pharmaceuticals who wage war against “free market” competition; government agencies such as FEMA and Homeland Security issuing no-bid contracts in Iraq and Louisiana; and religious demagogues claiming that God speaks directly to them, it is certainly easy to understand why an individual in this country feels almost totally powerless to influence public policy.
I am the first to admit being overtaken by such a feeling from time to time while publishing this newsletter uninterrupted since November 3, 2004. But after publishing 68 issues of The Compass, I keep returning to one fundamental reality: individuals can and do wield the power to change things.
Whether it is Patrick Henry proclaiming that personal liberty is worth dying for; Martin Luther King standing before the Lincoln Memorial sharing his “dream” for America; Ghandi leading by non-violent example; or a single Mom raising two young children in anonymity, it is clear to me that the most admirable and effective power has always resided in the individual.
Although there is certainly power in numbers, it is self-defeating to think one must be a part of a “movement” to make a difference. That, I think, is why the 1989 image of a single Chinese protestor standing in front of a column of 4 tanks in Tiananmen Square in Beijing is such a powerful and timeless image.
I am not talking about “rugged individualism” or “celebrity status” or “high name recognition” here. To use a few examples from the Compass Society membership, I am talking about Fred Bender’s tireless campaign to focus attention on ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; about Auzie Blevins’ successful effort to help elect a Democratic Senator from Montana; about frequent well-written letters to the editor of The Santa Fe New Mexican by Bonnie Leon; about Liz Mathewson attending a 14-hour class on Democracy awareness in the State of Washington; about Bill Hanna’s information sharing network; about Eben Carsey and Lynn Gilbert’s annual trips to provide health care in Haiti; about Don and Judy Bishop hiking up Pike’s Peak for charity; about Andrea and Jay Baugher’s work with The Heifer Foundation, and about Sister Buffy Boesen’s devotion to the truth.
I end this column with a satirical version (author unknown) of the 23rd Psalm titled “The 23rd Sigh,” first shared with The Compass by Sister Buffy back in February, 2005.
Bush is my shepherd; I dwell in want.
He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.
He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.
He restoreth my fears.
He leadeth me in the paths of international disgrace for his ego’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and war,
I will find no exit, for thou art in office.
Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control, they discomfort me.
Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the presence of thy religion.
Thou anoinest my head with foreign oil.
My health insurance runneth out.
Surely megalomania and false patriotism shall follow me all the days of thy term.
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever.
Power to change these things does, indeed, reside with the individual.
Maynard Chapman
Editor, The Compass Newsletter
C-SPAN OFFERS A RESOURCE FOR TAKING ACTION
From the editor: I ordered C-Span’s 2007 Congressional Directory last May, and it is a wonderful resource document for any individual interested in contacting and communicating with any elected individual in Congress or any office in the White House. The directory includes color photos of every member of Congress with biographical information, addresses, phone numbers, staff members and committee assignments. It costs $11.45 plus $5.50 for shipping. You can order online at HYPERLINK "http://www.c-span.org/shop" www.c-span.org/shop or call toll-free at 877-662-7726.
Other features include key websites for the White House, the Supreme Court, political parties, and key national media outlets. It lists key telephone numbers including the US Capitol Switchboard, the Congressional Budget Office, the Library of Congress, and the House and Senate Cloak Rooms. It includes email addresses and phone numbers for President Bush, Vice President Cheney, First Lady Laura Bush as well as phone numbers for every Bush Cabinet member and their key staff members. It also includes photos and websites for every state governor and tells you who is up for re-election in the US House and Senate and in what year they face re-election.
In short, it is a very valuable resource, and allows an individual to feel connected to policy makers in Washington, D.C. The Compass highly recommends this publication as part of any social and political action library.
(Note: The 2007 Directory includes corrected and updated information through March 1, 2007)
EXXON-MOBIL, AEI, SEN. INHOFE, AND NEWSWEEK
From the editor: To understand how the fossil fuel industry’s propaganda machine is wired, the American public has to peel back layers and layers of subterfuge, deception, white-collar bribery called “honorariums” by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and Congressional support to get out their propaganda about global warming – and all of it paid for by taxpayers. The following series of events provides a rare documented account of a sorry partnership between ExxonMobil, the American Enterprise Institute, Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, and Newsweek columnist Robert J. Samuelson.
On Friday, February 2, 2007, Ian Sample, science correspondent for The Guardian of London reported that “scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world’s largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.” (the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control or IPCC).
Sample wrote, “Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN’s Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).”
(Compass Editor’s Note: Sample’s reporting was misleading because his words implied that AEI is exclusively funded by ExxonMobil. AEI has many contributors, all of whom are allowed to write off those contributions as tax deductible. The Economist magazine reports in its June 9-15, 2007, edition on page 62 that “Donations to American think-tanks are also tax-deductible.” Reporter Sample goes on to accurately report that ExxonMobile has contributed more than $1.6 million to AEI.)
The August 13, 2007 issue of Newsweek ran an article titled “The Truth About Denial,” which documented the oil and gas industry’s campaign to debunk scientific research on global warming dating back to the late 1980’s. In response to this article, Newsweek columnist Robert J. Samuelson penned an opinion piece in the next issue (Aug. 20-27, 2007) claiming that “The story was a wonderful read, marred only by its being fundamentally misleading.”
On page 4 of the Aug. 20-27 issue, Newsweek’s editor Jon Meacham writes, “In this issue, Robert J. Samuelson (or ‘Sam,’ as he is known to his colleagues) takes exception to last week’s cover story on global warming. To him, our story was an ‘object lesson of how viewing the world as ‘good guys vs. bad guys’ can lead to a vast oversimplification of a very messy story.’ He adds: ‘Global warming has clearly occurred; (emphasis added) the hard question is what to do about it.’”
Meacham continues, “That is the question, but the point of the cover story stands, for the question of what to do about global warming is made more difficult when influential voices from talk radio to Capitol Hill speak as though global warming is, in Rush Limbaugh’s term, a ‘hoax.’ (Sam says he does not question the scientific consensus that warming is a serious concern.)”
(Compass Editor’s Note: So Newsweek’s true “Editor” takes the unusual step of devoting almost an entire column toward clarifying, qualifying, and debunking one of its own columnists’ attempt to cast doubt upon global warming. In his column, Editor Meacham also clarifies AEI’s attempt to offer thinly veiled bribes as “honorariums,” to any scientist who would “thoughtfully explore the limitations of climate model outputs.”)
Meacham writes, “ExxonMobil was a contributor, among many others, to AEI, which sought scholars to research and write critiques of the IPPC. (And the think tank offered a $10,000 honorarium to scientists who might accept.) Did ExxonMobil commission such work? No, and we did not say it did.”
And using an advance copy of Samuelson’s column, ranking Republican member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works James Inhofe posted the following article on the official website of the EPW Minority Page: “Newsweek Editor Calls Mag’s Global Warming ‘Deniers’ Article ‘Highly Contrived.’” The article dated Sunday, August 12, 2007 with a Washington DC dateline says, “Robert J. Samuelson, a contributing editor of Newsweek, slapped down his own Magazine for what he termed a ‘highly contrived story’ about the global warming ‘denial machine. Samuelson, writing in the August 20, 2007, issue of Newsweek, explains that the Magazine used ‘discredited’ allegations in last week’s issue involving a supposed cash bounty to pay skeptics to dispute global warming science.”
(Compass Editor’s Note: The inaccuracies from Inhofe’s office include taking the words “highly contrived” out of context. Deep into his column Samuelson does use the phrase “highly contrived” to refer to the difficulty in cutting carbon dioxide emissions worldwide given our track record. Second, Samuelson’s use of the word “discredited” refers to The Guardian’s failure to make clear that ExxonMobil is one of many contributors to AEI rather than the sole source of funding. And, finally the cash bounty offered by AEI is not a “supposed cash bounty.” It was an actual cash bounty.)
One reason that Inhofe can get away with such propaganda posted on the Committee’s website resides in the composition of the committee. By rule Democrats should have majority membership. Technically they do. There are 8 Democrats with Sen. Barbara Boxer acting as chairperson. There are 9 Republicans with Sen. Inhofe serving as ranking member. And there are 2 Independent Senators -- Joe Lieberman and Bernard Sanders. Democrats technically have 10 members since the 2 independents joined the Democratic Caucas. The reality is that the 9 Republicans plus Lieberman give the Republicans de facto control of the Committee.
The Compass Society Newsletter
Maynard Chapman, Editor
Published by The Compass Society
