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He Found the Nicole Brodeur Column

Thank you for your excellent coverage of Bolivia.

I accidentally received the Seattle Times for a couple weeks, and their coverage of this story was buried on page sixteen or something. I read their story and couldn't even decipher what was happening. The story didn't give any background, so I was stuck with what I knew about the nation. They spoke nothing of relevant factors, Bolivia's culture or the drug war for instance. Your reporting had relevant information, historical context, and what these events mean for your average Bolivian. Textbook journalism.

The Times, on the other hand, mentioned nothing of Bolivia's history, culture, America friendly ruler, and nothing about the privatization of their country to foreign investors. Thanks for another excellent read!

Drew Vance, via e-mail

Dear ETS!,

Regarding the "celebrate the allegations that Rush Limbaugh has abused prescription painkillers" entry in the "Eat These Shorts!" section of your October 8, 2003 issue:

We appreciate Geov Parrish's attempt to show how "Rush Limbaugh's case may help convince enough conservatives...of the sheer public policy lunacy of the War on Drugs." However, that realization matters only if one buys the Drug Warriors' logic that they really just want to reduce/end drug use. Any objective review of the facts suggests their logic is likely quite different:

* A 1995 Rand study (see www.rand.org/publications/randreview/issues/RRR.spring95.crime/treatment.htm l) found treatment to be seven times more cost-effective than incarceration at reducing drug use. That study is not unknown in policy circles, and in fact many Latin American leaders are now calling for an end to a US-style "War on Drugs" and treating drug use as a health issue.

* A 2000 Human Rights Watch report (see www.hrw.org/reports/2000/usa) found that African Americans comprise 75% of non-violent drug violation inmates, even though other studies have found the percentage of illegal drug users and dealers who are African American varies little from the percentage of the general public who are.

A good description of the real goals of the Drug War can found in Christian Parenti's book "Lockdown America", which contends those goals are: to scapegoat a racialized "other" who are then pointed to as the "real criminals" in a divide-and-conquer tactic; and to devise a control system for handling excess labor in an era when capitalism cannot hope to provide decent living standards for all. We would add another goal: to devise a mechanism--preferential access to the multi-billion dollar U.S. illegal drug market--to give incentive for proxy armies to act in the U.S. ruling class' interest, as a way for them to avoid putting their own soldiers in harm's way and risking their citizens' wrath (see www.odci.gov/cia/reports/cocaine - the CIA's own "admission" regarding Gary Webb's "Crack/Contra" story originally published in the San Jose Mercury News).

Those, along with the liquidity that drug money provides, are strong motivations for U.S. corporate interests to maintain the "War on Drugs," regardless of how many unwise-to-the-real-reason conservatives become convinced of its obvious hypocrisy.

Seattle Affiliate October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation

Are there still leaps to be made to get these policies changed? Obviously, and they're formidable. Limbaugh is famous, wealthy, and beloved; most War On Drugs victims aren't. Different manifestations of the War are more and less susceptible to repeal. Most importantly, there are a number of political and social reasons for the War's ongoing expansion despite all the facts; I don't think it's as simple as either you or Drug Warriors portray. Expansion of state power, racial and class scapegoating, and very real public health and crime problems are just part of what's intertwined. But that continuing expansion of the War on Drugs' draconian measures, in defiance of experience, strained budgets, and the facts, is exactly why a case like Limbaugh's, or a dozen of them, has to be part of the movement to shut the WoD down. When facts won't stop it, what's left is emotion. Emotion--e.g., fear of crackheads and stereotypical black welfare junkies--fueled its public support. As more and more of us learn through personal experience how misguided those approaches are, appeals to emotion--as in attachment to a figure like Limbaugh--also need to be used to stop the War.

Others to Rally Around

Top ten best known Republican drug addicts ((c) zearle.com): 1) Richard Nixon (alcohol, speed, phenytoin); 2) Betty Ford (alcohol, anti-depressants); 3) Rush Limbaugh (oxy-contin, speed); 4) Noelle Bush (heroin, barbiturates); 5) Arnold Swartzenegger (steroids, speed, pot, cocaine); 6) Maria Shriver (alcohol, anti-depressants); 7) George W. Bush (alcohol, cocaine); 8) Barbara Bush (alcohol, anti-depressants); 9) Nancy Reagan (speed, heroin); and 10) Maime Eisenhower (alcohol).

Eric, via e-mail

What She Said

Spread the word... spread the love. Don't discriminate nor hate the people of the States. We stand united, not denied our privacy of our personal lives. Help put your foot down to sneak and peek searches as well as the damn Patriot Act. Act for a better tomorrow, not people scared of living in today.

Arnica Briody, Bellingham WA