Guru has a long standing habit (about 40 years) of sitting through all the weekend news/talk TV programs he can possibly take in. "Meet the Press," etc, all of them ... subject only to the limitations that are caused by time conflicts when two or more such programs are shown at the same time.
This weekend the programs provided a basis for comment which we think not only has relevance to the EMF issue, but which is central to the EMF issue at this time in its development ... though not one of the "talk" shows mentioned EMF.
[A Saturday night NBC "news" report out of New York, however, did refer to a meeting of pediatricians at which the alarming increase in childhood cancer/leukemia caused by "environmental" factors was mentioned. EMF was cited as one of the "suspect" causes.]
So ... what was the issue on the "talk" shows that guru is saying is so important to the EMF controversy?
Money and Politics!! Every show this weekend was concentrating on the "issue of the moment" -- the extent to which the American "democratic" political process is now totally corrupted by BIG money contributors ... who thereby have special access to the President and to his appointees (e.g., Commerce Department or Energy or Health, EPA, etc.) to an extent that ordinary citizens do not.
The President has publicly defended this practice by claiming that such "access" does not mean that his or "the government's" policy is thereby influenced. He therefore does not consider this "fund raising" activity to be "illegal" and he does not intend to curtail the practice. Guru has previously reported that.
The problem is ... well ... there are really TWO problems: (1) Nobody BELIEVES that such special access does not influence the policy process, and (2) EVIDENCE is now 'seeping out' which disputes the President's claim that his policies have not been influenced by these big contributions! (Some of this evidence involves big contributions by "foreigners"! Heaven forbid!!)
Of course the President claims that he is not the only one to do this -- the Republicans do it too! "And they raise more money than I do," he was quoted as saying this week.
He's right. The Republicans do it too ... and they do raise more money than he does. Most of the weekend "talkers" acknowledge the truth of that ... and they virtually all emphasized that this is not just a problem involving the White House. Congress is equally corrupted!!
One of the stories of the past week was about a Republican "congressional junket" to a thousands-of-dollars-per-day Florida Hotel for a few days .. to hear speeches from the "Republican Leadership." That's Trent Lott and Newt Gingrich. The required "contribution" to attend this event (from which the "press" was excluded) was reportedly over $100,000. When asked about the "appropriateness" of this kind of fund raising, Trent Lott replied (to the camera): "It's the American way...."
All of Washington stinks ... with the SMELL of "The American Way" influence buying!!!!! That is what dominated the talk shows this weekend.
In his "Follow the Money" article which appeared in the latest issue of NETWORK NEWS, guru related this same SMELL (of money and power) to what we are experiencing in EMF research and reporting -- particularly the "P.R." aspect -- and to the unholy alliance of Big government and Big industry which have decided that they have a mutual interest in making sure that EMF is NOT found to be a health hazard. (Regardless of what science is finding.)
Guru believes that the present awakening of the nation about its "money contaminated" political process, as reflected in the weekend talk shows, is a propitious moment for those who are concerned about the EMF health hazard ... to get out in public and make their case for AWARENESS that:
The nation's public policy on EMF is being contaminated by the very same forces and in the very same way as is the political process. The SMELL is the same. The RESULT is the same. Public policy is not being made to protect the people....
***It is being made to protect industry -- the BIG money contributors of the electric and telecommunications industries who have bought the "ear" of government (the influence) that "the people" do not have.
***These are the same BIG money contributors who reportedly sent 2000 lobbyists to Washington and "wrote" the telecommunications bill in 1996. No matter how that bill is "looked at," it is an "industry" bill. Written BY industry, FOR industry, and written in response to industry's "insider" influence through the contaminated political process described above.
[Remember. This is the bill that gave cell-tower companies the "carte blanche" to put their towers anywhere they want to without regard for public safety concerns.]
Oh, it was surrounded by millions of words of propaganda about what it would do to "lower costs" to the public. Such bills always are..... (In the Ozarks, we have a word for such propaganda. The initials are B.S.)
In fact, the Telecommunications Act is clearly going to lead to bigger concentrations of power in the telecommunications industry. In the long run, that is more likely to lead to exploitation of the public through monopolistic practices.
Irregardless of what may happen on that score ... the Telecommunications Act flouts public health and safety considerations by embracing industry-dictated provisions that tie the hands of local and state authorities (and citizens) in giving industry the right to build or place its towers wherever it wants without regard for EMF health concerns.
Guru's theme, here, should not be mistaken to be simply an effort to rewrite the Telecommunications Act. We think that will have to occur in any event. (In a number of aspects, it is probably unconstitutional.) That Act is being cited here merely as the most recent example of industry's political influence that is exploiting the public's lack of information about the EMF situation.
As members of EMF-L know well, this same "SMELL" of BIG electrical/telecommunications industry money in the political process permeates all aspects of the EMF issue -- from research to public information (lack of) to the federal government's unwillingness to consider measures to protect the public health from EMF effects.
We think the time is ripe for a challenge to that situation. The initiation of a serious effort ... to raise public AWARENESS about this EMF issue ... along with the movement for major changes in the way America finances its political process.
The two causes are not merely related ... they are the same!!!!
(Now a "puzzler" before we close this one... Who knows the name of the
ONLY Republican Senator who voted AGAINST the Telecommunications Bill?
Hint: He is also the only Republican Senator who has
joined in a bipartisan effort to drastically change our political funding
procedures. He is one of the two sponsors of the ______/Feingold Bill.)
Cheerio,
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