� Edited by Jim Hightower and Phillip Frazer � Vol. 8 No. 02 � February 2006

Forget Washington, all GOOD politics is local

States, cities go for Living Wage,Clean Elections, and medical pot

The

hat an embarrassment ournational government is.Mired in the sickening muckof corrupt corporate moneyand right-wing ideology, ourso-called leaders continue todivert our public treasury

and our nation’s unlimited potential for good into war,into the pockets of the superrich, into the self-servingwhims of greedheaded corporate executives, into arising police state, into the careless desecration ofnature…into waste.

Then why am I laughing, why am I almost giddy withoptimism about where we’re heading? You might say,That’s an easy question, Hightower—you’re either stupidor insane. Indeed, I know a few leaders of progressivegroups based in Washington who have been drainedof all optimism. Looking at the national scene, theyshare Woody Allen’s despairing observation: “Westand today at a crossroads: One path leads to despairand utter hopelessness. The other leadsto total extinction. Let’s hope wehave the wisdom to make theright choice.”

Luckily,however,my work isnot based inWashington,and my fre-quent travelsallow me to bein touch with agrassrootsAmerica that’sunabashedly pro-gressive andon themove. Yes,Washington isignoring ourcountry’s realneeds and squan-dering our democratic

promise, but out beyond the Beltway (and below theradar of the Powers That Be) there are folks, groups, coali-tions, and even elected leaders who’re taking action atthe state and local level to build an America based on ourhistoric ideals of fairness, justice, and equal opportunity

for all. I have great hope, becausegrassroots people are so much

stronger, more resilient,more creative, and more

American than the goober-heads at the top, andthey’ll not long be held

down or held back. There is a ferment for

change in our land today andundeniable movement towardit. We should take heart in ourpeople’s history, which is thelong story of ordinary folks

agitating, organizing,and mobilizing fora little more jus-

tice. Progressoften gets divertedor dammed up by theavaricious powers,but it ultimately finds

another outlet. I can give my

own testimonial tothis dynamic.

Coming of politi-cal age in segre-gated Texas inthe 1960s, recal-

citrant state andlocal officials were

blocking progress—soall of us involved in the

civil rights movementlooked to Washington

as the channel for produc-ing progressive action—and we made progress.

Likewise, in the 1970s, it

PENTAGON AND COMPANIES ARESPYING ON US

Should the mighty U.S.military be concerning itselfwith a small group of Quakersin Lake Worth, Florida?

The answer, of course, isno…but they’re doing itanyway. Two years ago, topPentagon officials (including“Howling Paul” Wolfowitz,then the number-two hon-cho) directed a little-knownagency called Counter-Intelligence Field Activity(CIFA) to create a new data-base for snooping on U.S.citizens. The database wasto include “informationrelated to potential terroristthreats directed against theDepartment of Defense.”

Whether or not CIFA’sdatabase has snared anyAl Qaeda plotters, it hassnared the Lake WorthQuakers. Indeed, a 400-page Pentagon report listsa meeting of a dozen or soof these antiwar Quakersas a terrorist “threat.”

What were these fiendishQuakers doing? Planning apeaceful protest againstmilitary recruitment at localhigh schools.

The database, obtained byNBC News, shows that somefour dozen antiwar meetingswere under military surveil-lance on the grounds thatthey posed a terrorist threatto the Pentagon. Also, CIFAhas doled out over $33 mil-lion in contracts to LockheedMartin, Northrop Grumman,Computer SciencesCorporation, and others tosearch the private recordsof Americans to detect“threats.” CSC, for example,got Pentagon money for itscomputer-based “InsiderThreat Initiative” to search,detect, and investigate“abnormal activities and‘behaviors’ ” of people ofinterest.

This takes America backto the dark days of theVietnam War, when a para-noid Pentagon was infiltrat-ing and spying on groups ofU.S. citizens involved in anti-war and civil-rights protests.Like then, today’s Pentagonspokesman refuses to com-ment, except to say that alldomestic intelligence infor-mation is “properly collected.”

W

WHAT WE CANLEARN FROM COWS

Do you sometimes fearthat the American peoplehave become as fat, lazy,and submissive as a bunchof cud-chewing cows, thatwe can be led anywhere thePowers That Be choose totake us? Well, if you thinkthat We the People havetotally lost our rebelliousspark, let me tell you aheartening cow story.

Few creatures in the ani-mal kingdom are perceivedto be as doltish and docileas your average bovine,which seems content tospend its short life standingin a field mooing, eating,and pooping—before beingled to slaughter. So, imag-ine the surprise of peoplein Southern California tolearn that a herd of ninewily, wiry, and wild cowsare loose in the canyonsand brush of the SantaMonica Mountains.

These are renegade cowsthat escaped from arancher’s pen five years agoand bolted into the neigh-boring national recreationarea in the mountains.Though you’d think that itwould be easy to track downa herd of thousand-pound,brown-black-and-white cat-tle in a frequently used parkjust across Interstate 405from Beverly Hills, theserebels have rarely beenseen, much less rounded up.

How could such lumberingsirloins-to-be avoid detection?

It turns out that evenslow-moving farm animalsnever really lose their wildside. One park ranger whohas seen some of the wildSanta Monica 9 reports thatthey are elusive, cunning,and surprisingly fleet of foot.“I came close to them,” hesays, “and they just took offrunning like a deer might ifyou were to get too close.”

If these feral rebels arecaptured they will have toresign themselves to theiroriginal fate, the meat mar-ket. The lesson here is thatwe all have the seed ofinsurgency within us, readyto empower us to breakloose from the confines ofthe corporate order and livelife on our own terms.

February 2006 The Hightower Lowdown 2

Do something!Information and Agitation: To join ongoing efforts or to help start your own action group where you live, these threeadvocacy organizations provide excellent materials, models, connections, advice, how-to instructions, and other sup-port on the main issues covered in this Lowdown:� The Living Wage Resource Center

88 3rd AvenueBrooklyn, NY 11217718-246-7900, ext 230www.livingwagecampaign.org

�Public Campaign1320 19th Street, NW, Suite M-1Washington, DC 20036202-293-0222www.publiccampaign.orginfo@publiccampaign.org

�Marijuana Policy ProjectP.O. Box 77492Capitol HillWashington, DC 200131-877-JOIN-MPP (1-877- 564-6677)www.mpp.org

was through the national governmentthat we opened channels for progresson women’s rights, worker safety,environmental protections, etc.

By the 1980s, however, themonied interests were locking downboth parties in Washington, and pro-gressives were largely stymied. Butnot for long—a trickle of action soonbegan coming out of cities andstates across the country. I was oneof those small trickles. Having beenelected Texas agriculture commis-sioner in ’82, my office became asource of action for small farmers,organic production, pesticide regula-tion, direct marketing, rural develop-ment, renewable energy, and more.

Since then, with corporate andright-wing interests seizing all threebranches of the national govern-ment, and with the Democratic lead-ership being either co-opted or inept,the flow of progressive energy hasmoved steadily out of Washingtonand (like water finding a new course)into grassroots organizing. In thepast decade, these feisty groups—using street actions, ballot initiatives,lawsuits, the internet, mediaexposés, local elections, radio,potluck suppers, festivals, satire, andevery other tool at their disposal—have become a powerful force on awide range of issues, and they arechanging American politics from theground up. Let’s take stock of someof the progress being made.

Wage warsFor years, Washington and Wall

Street have been waging a war onAmerican wages, using everythingfrom monetary policy to immigrationpolicy in their constant effort topush workers’ pay down.

The most visible of these effortsis the obscene sight of fat-cat CEOsand well-paid Congress critters con-spiring to keep our country’s wagefloor stuck at the subpoverty level of$5.15 an hour (about $10,500 ayear). As John Edwards says, “it’s a

moral disgrace.” Yet despite supportfor boosting the minimum wagefrom 86% of Americans (includingthe chairman of Wal-Mart, who wailsthat these poverty workers can’tafford to shop at his stores), corpo-rate lobbyists have kept hourly paynailed down at $5.15 for nearly adecade. Washington won’t budge,so there’s nothing we can do, right?

Wrong. Led by ACORN, the inno-vative community-organizing group,a broad coalition of wage-increaseadvocates has shifted the battlefieldto the cities, counties, and states,putting forth a concept called the“Living Wage.” The idea is that cor-porations getting contracts, subsi-dies, or other benefits from localgovernments should not get awaywith poverty pay. Pushing local ordi-nances or ballot measures, theLiving Wage coalitions propose payscales that raise the minimumabove the region’s poverty level,with most proposals requiring somehealth-care benefits and manyindexing the pay levels to inflation.

Well, you might think, that’s anice proposition, but people are waytoo conservative to go for it. Wrong.In fact, when put before voters,Living Wage initiatives typically winby more than two thirds of the vote.A telling case is Florida. In 2004, amodest initiative was on the ballotproposing to raise the state’s mini-mum wage by a buck, to $6.15 anhour. John Kerry’s presidential cam-paign studiously avoided supportingthis measure, fearing that voters inthis red state were so conservativethat being associated with a wagehike would hurt his chances. Somuch for his political genius—72%of Floridians approved the payincrease! Kerry, on the other hand,got only 47% of the vote.

For these Living Wage battles,coalitions have been forged amongworkers, poor people, women,churchgoers, small-business own-ers, neighborhood groups, civil-

rights advocates—and even someconservative business leaders whoeither see it as a moral issue orunderstand that higher pay meansmore spending and a stronger localeconomy. That’s a pretty stout coali-tion! While it has received littlenational media coverage, these com-bined efforts are achieving stunningsuccesses all across the country.More than 130 cities, counties, andstates have already enacted someform of the Living Wage.

These victories are not just com-ing in the liberal outposts of, say,New York City and San Francisco,but also in such places as Dayton,OH ($9.30 per hour, with benefits);Palm Beach, FL ($9.73, with bene-fits); Louisville, KY ($10.20, indexedto inflation); Pima County, AZ ($8.35,with benefits, indexed); Bozeman,MT ($9.73, with benefits); RochesterNY ($9.43, with benefits, indexed);Covallis, OR ($9.00, indexed); theRichmond, VA, school district ($8.77,with benefits); and the CentralArkansas Library System ($9.00,with benefits, indexed).

Clean ElectionsWhat a scream it was last month

to watch George W, Tom DeLay, andsome 60 other top elected officialsrush out to throw tens of thousandsof dollars at various charities. Thesewere campaign funds they had pre-viously taken from sleazeball super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. UntilJanuary 2, none of these politicianshad been even slightly squeamishabout banking Jack’s checks. But onthat day, the GOP’s leading influ-ence peddler pleaded guilty to threecounts of money corruption involv-ing his lobbying operation.

As part of his plea deal, Abramoffagreed to “tell all” to federal prosecu-tors about his money-for-favors rela-tionships in Washington…and to tes-tify against his former politicalcohorts. When the lead prosecutordeclared that the corruption “is very

For more info on children and pesticides in last month's Lowdown, the correct number is 218-226-4164.

LOCAL ACTION ONGLOBAL WARMING

Instead of recognizing theobvious—that global warm-ing is fast reaching the tip-ping point where it becomesirreversible (and disastrous)—the Bushites continue tokeep their heads up thetailpipes and smokestacks ofthe industries pumping outthe greenhouse gases caus-ing the unnatural warming.

So, we’re doomed, right? Not necessarily.While Washington foolishly

fiddles, officials at the statelevel have been springinginto action. Unlike the WhiteHouse, state leaders are upclose and personal with theeffects of global warming.These range from declinesin the production of somecrops to having to plan forrising sea levels alongcoastlines. So these officialshave gotten serious aboutrestricting the amount ofcarbon dioxide and othergreenhouse gases comingout of vehicle tailpipes, thesecond-largest (and fastest-growing) source of global-warming gases.

California has been in thelead and has adopted a rulethat 10 years from now carsand trucks must have tech-nology in place reducing theemission of these gases by30%. No, scream theautomakers, this will causemarketplace chaos, car saleswill cease, the sky will fall!

The industry refuses tosupport any restriction ontailpipe emissions of carbondioxide, instead rushing tocourt to stop the Californiarule and to require that onlythe federal government canregulate these gases. Ofcourse, that would maintainthe status quo of do-nothingism. One environ-mental lawyer says, “We aregoing to become the dump-ing ground for the dirtiestcars made in the world.China will have more strin-gent standards than the U.S.in 2010.”

Meanwhile, eight states—from Connecticut to Oregon—have adopted theCalifornia rule. For more info,contact the Union ofConcerned Scientists at 617-547-5552.

February 2006 The Hightower Lowdown 3

extensive,” that did it. Suddenly ourstalwart leaders were spontaneouslystruck with the need to offer up loadsof cash to charity—as if such a showygesture could remove the indeliblegreen stain that contaminates themand our national capital. Of course,giving back a few bucks doesn’t alterthe culture of corruption (notice, forexample, that while George W grandlydonated $6,000 of his Abramoffmoney to charity, he refused to giveaway as much as $200,000 that Jackhad raised for his ’04 run).

Sheesh. The spreading Abramoffscandal, coupled with DeLay’s Texasindictments for money laundering,the Duke Cunningham bribery convic-tion, and the relentless pursuit of cor-porate dollars by practically all of ourtop political leaders shows that weno longer have elections—we haveauctions. Can’t something be done?

It can be…and is—but not inWashington. Once again, the actionis in the countryside. In the pastdecade, eight states and fourteencities have passed “Clean Election”laws to end the money chase intheir political races, and eight otherstates and at least one major cityare moving toward passage of suchlaws this year.

The key component of CleanElections is to provide the alterna-tive of public financing for the cam-paigns of all candidates who agreenot to accept money from corpora-tions or other favor-seeking inter-ests. This means that people run-ning for mayor, governor, thelegislature, a judgeship, or whateverdon’t have to spend the bulk of theircampaign time in corporate suites orat the watering holes of lobbyists—and if elected, they owe absolutelynothing to the monied powers! Italso means that regular people (aschoolteacher, factory worker,nurse, farmer, shopkeeper, cab-driver, Lowdown subscriber, et al)

can run for office, for they couldqualify for a level of public fundingthat would make them competitivewith a lobbyist-financed candidate. Itgives us a meaningful tool forreclaiming our democracy.

Maine, Arizona, and Connecticutnow have public-financing laws forall of their state offices, from gover-nor to corporation commissioner.Vermont and Massachusetts havealso approved statewide systemsbut have not yet implemented them.In addition, North Carolina hasokayed public funding for its judicialraces, New Mexico has done so forcandidates seeking to be on itsPublic Regulation Commission, andNew Jersey has approved a pilotproject for public financing in fourlegislative districts.

Cities are on the move, too.Portland, Oregon, will have theClean Election alternative for all ofits city races this year. In 2005 69%of Albuquerque’s voters said “yes”to a charter amendment providingpublic funds for its mayoral and citycouncil candidates. Another 12 citieshave put partial systems in place,and Los Angeles is presently struc-turing a plan for full public financing.

Most important, the Clean Electionsystem works. In Maine, the stateAARP, AFL-CIO, Common Cause,Council of Senior Citizens, DirigoAlliance, League of Women Voters,Peace Action, Peoples Alliance, andothers joined hands in 1996 to passan initiative creating the nation’s firstpublic-financing program. When firstimplemented in 2000, half of thestate’s senators and 30% of housemembers were elected without tak-ing a dime in special-interest money,and the program has grown moresuccessful with each election. Today83% of Maine’s senate and 77% ofits house are made up of legislatorswho ran “clean.”

The result is that Maine’s state

government is able to reflect thepeople’s will. In 2003, for example,Maine became the first state topass a bill providing health care forall of its people. As a state legislatorsays, “There is just no way this billwould ever have seen the light ofday under business-as-usual politicsdominated by private campaign con-tributions. Instead, we took on thebig pharmaceutical and insurancecompanies and adopted a health-care plan that serves the peoplerather than special interests.”

Now the incumbent Democraticgovernor and two of his threeRepublican challengers have takenthe “clean” pledge for this year’selection. Last year the state fixed aloophole in its law by requiring thatin the last 21 days of an election, allattack ads or other campaign mater-ial put out by so-called “indepen-dent” groups must disclose thesource behind the ads. In addition,the state will provide public match-ing funds for the candidates whoare attacked, so they can respond.

There’s similar success else-where. In Arizona, for example, 58%of the house, a fourth of the senate,and 10 of 11 statewide officials(including the governor) are “clean.”The grassroots coalition that passedArizona’s public-financing system ina 1998 ballot initiative has alsoremained vigilant, beating backseven court challenges and repeatedefforts by corporate interests torepeal the law.

Again, there’s no need to wait onWashington for electoral reformwhen you can make it happen inyour own city, county, school dis-trict, state, or any other jurisdictionyou choose to tackle.

Reefer medicineIsn’t being horribly sick punish-

ment enough without having theFBI, DEA, and other police agents

EDITORS: Jim Hightower, Phillip FrazerCOPY WIZ: Gwenda Blair ARTISTE: Matt WuerkerDESKTOP: Sahu Barron CIRCULATION: John Ernst

RESEARCH: Laura Ehrlich PUBLISHER: Phillip Frazer

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02/06

PENTAGON SAYSTROOPSUNPROTECTED

Good God Almighty! Isthere no one at the Pentagonor in the White House with abrain...or a soul?

From the beginning ofBush’s wretched war in Iraqthree years ago, our troopshave been screaming to getadequate armor for boththeir bodies and their vehi-cles.Yet, astonishingly, Bushand the other dunderheadsat the top have fumbledthese life-and-deathrequests. Now, a secretPentagon report reveals thatup to 80% of the marineskilled in Iraq from upper-body wounds would nothave died if they had theproper body armor.Yet themarine brass did not evenbegin buying this armor untillast September—and morethan 90% of the unitsordered still have not beendelivered to Iraq.

Equally disgusting, manysoldiers have died becausetheir lightly armoredHumvees are easily pene-trated by roadside bombs.An armored truck called theCougar could have savedtheir lives, but the Pentagonstarted ordering this vehicleonly last May, and deliveryto Iraq is three monthsbehind schedule!

This delay comes becausethe Cougar contract went toa small, politically connectedoutfit in South Carolina thathad never mass-producedvehicles and botched the job.A dozen prototypes did getto Iraq, but they had to berecalled because of failingtransmissions, etc.

Meanwhile, our blasé lead-ers dismiss criticism, sayingthey’re doing all they can asfast as can be expected.

If George, Dick, andRummy really gave a damnabout soldiers, top corpora-tions like General Motorswould have been brought intoa crash program immediatelyto meet the needs of our vul-nerable troops. Instead ofcontinuing to make $50,000Hummers for war-evadingyuppies, GM should’ve beenenlisted to make Cougars.But that would require a realpresident.

February 2006 The Hightower Lowdown 4

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8:02 February 2006STATES, CITIES GO FOR

LIVING WAGE, CLEAN ELEC-TIONS AND MEDICAL POT

1 Pentagon & companiesare spying on us

2 What we can learnfrom the cows

3 Local action on global warming

4 Pentagon says troops unprotected

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busting down your door to throwyou in jail? Unfortunately, the federalgovernment’s crackpot drug war hasturned cops into drug thugs as theypursue an insane, inhumane, ideo-logically driven policy of crackingdown on seriously sick people whouse doctor-prescribed marijuana totreat the chronic pain and nausea ofcancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis,polio, and other harsh illnesses.

Two years ago, nine armed mem-bers of a DEA task force raided DonNord’s home in Hayden, Colorado,arresting him and seizing his threemarijuana plants. Nord is no drugdealer—he’s a disabled, wheelchair-bound, 57-year-old man battling kid-ney cancer, diabetes, lung disease,and other problems. He was not tok-ing on reefers for a joy ride, butusing the marijuana under a doctor’ssupervision as a medical necessity.

Meet Suzanne Pfeil. She is para-lyzed by post-polio syndrome andwas under the care of WAAM, theWo/Men’s Alliance for MedicalMarijuana in Santa Cruz, California.In 2002, she was awakened by fiveDEA agents pointing automatic riflesat her head. WAAM is a non-com-mercial medical co-op that, with theblessing of local officials, maintaineda marijuana garden at its hospice totreat its 225 members, 85% ofwhom were terminally ill. In theearly hours of September 5, theDEA burst in. They terrified thepatients, charged two with violatingfederal drug law, ripped up thecoop’s garden, handcuffed WAAM’stwo founders, and took them to jail.

This was too much even for thearch-conservative editors of theOrange County Register, who calledDEA’s actions “an unwarranted andextreme operation against sick peo-ple…Such cruel raids suggest that alaw that can be used to terrorize

sick people is in need of reconsider-ation.” But Washington—underDemocratic administrations as wellas Republican—has done nothing tostop the stupidity, instead continu-ing to sanction such extremism inthe name of looking tough in thedrug war. Last year on June 15, forexample, Congress voted 264-161against allowing the ill to use thisproven treatment.

These people are nuts…and dan-gerous. Luckily, though, there’s sanityamong grassroots folks. Polls con-stantly show overwhelming supportfor laws to let the sick use doctor-pre-scribed marijuana. The latest Gallupsurvey shows 78% of Americansbacking such common sense. Lestyou think that’s a lot of blue-state,smoke-induced, exhippie sentimenttalking, independent polls in the deepred states of Alabama and Texas reg-ister three-to-one margins in favor ofmedical marijuana, including 67%support among Texas Republicans!

More significantly, when given achance, people are voting their con-victions. Led by the Marijuana PolicyProject, coalitions of doctors, nurses,and patients have come together toraise common sense to high places.Defying the furious fulminations andfervid opposition of assorted drugczars from Washington, voters in 11states and numerous cities havealready approved the medical use ofmarijuana by compelling margins.Let’s do a brief roll call:

� In 2004, while Bush was easilywinning the majority of Montanavoters, those same peopleapproved by a two-to-one margina medical marijuana initiativethat the White House hadadamantly opposed.

� In 2003, Maryland GovernorRobert Ehrlich became the first

Republican head of state to signmedical marijuana into law. Thiscame in the face of ferociouscampaigning by the White Housedrug czar to get Ehrlich to vetothe bill. Flexing his ignorance,the czar told Marylanders thatmarijuana was “medicinal crack.”

� This year, Rhode Island becamethe 11th common-sense statewhen more than three-fifths oflegislators voted to override theRepublican governor’s veto of abill to protect medical-marijuanapatients from arrest. The bill hadpassed 30-0 in the senate, 52-10in the house.

� In Michigan, cities are taking theinitiative. In the past two years,Detroit okayed marijuana use bya 60-40 vote, Ann Arbor by 74-26, Ferndale by 61-39, andTraverse City by 63-37.

The power is oursOn big issue after big issue—

such as dramatically cutting thegreenhouse gases that cause globalwarming, declaring energy indepen-dence with a crash program ofrenewable energy and conservation,bringing the troops home fromBush’s war of lies in Iraq, and givingAmericans relief from the pricegouging of drug companies—Washington has become the enemy.But rather than wring our handsabout that, we can roll up oursleeves and join hands with thegrassroots groups that are takingaction on these problems and mak-ing progress. Congress and presi-dential candidates are too corruptedor too cowardly to lead our countryback to its democratic ideals. Wehave to lead ourselves—and there isopportunity for you to be part of therenewal right where you live.