Readers' Comments

"During his speech in Salt Lake City on Mondy, President Bush for the first time mentioned the number of U.S. soldiers who have died there" I was not aware that much combat was taking place around Salt LAke City

As someone with a sociology background who is very interested in the stigma of fatness, I am so sick of the junk food issue being raised exclusively with the issue of childhood obesity. It is harmful for 2 reasons: 1) It focuses too much attention of fat children, to the point that we are hyper conscious of them, which in turn causes them to be far more self-conscious than they need to be. They also become scapegoats and are blamed for why the rest of the kids can't enjoy treats. Nor should they have to live with being set up as examples of what can happen to someone who drinks too much coke. There is no reason fat kids have to hate their bodies. Body hatred has been used as motivation for weight reduction for an entire century and anyone who can't see it as counterproductive has their heads in the sand. 2) Secondly, fatness is not the only reason why soda is bad. Too much sugar, caffeine, brittle bones, artificial sweetners are bad for all people, not just kids who happen to be over some arbitrary height weight charts. We should broaden the focus to nutrition period. Until we curb the hysteria and realize what a complex issues this is, and stop using the same old tried and untrue counterproductive attempts at solutions, we will get nowhere.

The commercial (for the Army Reserves) that really gets my goat is the one where the father and son are playing pool and the father is totally against it, until his son explains that he'll be eligible for good training and be able to stay close to home until he's called up (which seems to be ASAP these days). Then the father changes his tune. I suppose if he's well-trained and he dies, then it'll be ok. Jeffrey Brown 6-year veteran, United States Navy, North Las Vegas, NV

Meanwhile the Siberian permafrost is melting and the only places I personally saw it covered was a BBC news program carried by a local PBS station and a website whose founder believes he has been abducted by space aliens. Although this should be one of the biggest stories going it seemed to be ignored in the US. (I don't have cable though so can't comment on those stations.) Also, some places may experience cooling as weather patterns go haywire. This does not mean global warming is not happening; in fact, it could be another result of it. During a cooler than normal summer I had the misfortune of work with "educated" people in an education related position as they laughed, "So much for global warming." I wanted to slap them!!!

Ah, isn't the corruption that free enterprise entails magnificent? And we Americans are the good people who further it. And our pride overflows.

Is Stan just saying that because anybody can say anything these days, true or not, factual or not, supported by nothing, and it is supposed to go unchallenged and be ok? This is a real "Well, duh" ... Should somebody tell him? Or is it hopeless?

Just wondering out loud how typical news releases are viewed versus VNRs. Both serve the same purpose but use different formats. Is there an outcry on news releases? While some in PR are unethical, most are ethical. Ultimately, it's up to the media outlet to decide what is news and what is not. And, yes I work in public relations. -- Mike

We can stop the war in Iraq by boycotting the defense contractor General Electric corporation. I want each and every person who wants to stop the War in Iraq to contact the defense contractor General Electric. Go to http://www.ge.com and send them email to the effect that you have decided not to buy any GE products including Ovens, stoves, refrigerators, light bulbs, televisions, radios, telephones, video recorders, dvd recorders and players, etc. UNTIL their company executives get the President of the United States aka THE CHIMP to hold a press conference announcing that he will withdraw all US Troops from Iraq, to get replaced by UN troops to defend Iraq until Iraq troops can defend their own country. In addition to sending email from the web site you can make these demands of GE through their public relations officials. Please act polite when contacting them. Gary Sheffer Executive Director, Communications and Public Affairs (203) 373-3476 gary.sheffer@ge.com Peter O'Toole Director, Public Relations (203) 373-2547 peter.o'toole@ge.com Yes his name's really Peter O'Toole but Bush appeared the one Lying in Winter about the Iraq war. When we join together and withhold our purchases from some targeted Republican contributors we can wield power that will force the executives of these Republican contributors to go to the Republican party do our agenda. Now, the agenda written below does not address everything but you can choose a big company that gives aid and comfort to the Republican Party and demand that their executives get the Republican Party to do what you want. You can excercise this power every day and you can get other people to join and exercise this power every day. What company executive would want thousands of people demanding a set of progressive agenda, every day with a legal threat of losing your business? Join me and I promise you a peaceful revolution. No need to go out in the streets, no need for first amendment zones, no arrests. You create a no buy zone for some selected Republican contributors such as Walmart, etc. Join me, please. A political message from the Revolution for progressive legislation. Here's how we force congress to pass a progressive agenda. Companies do not like boycotts. I suggest you email these demands to Walmart, Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Curves for Women health clubs, each big Republican contributors. Also include Eckerd, CVS, and Walgreens Pharmacy chains. You can send this to other companies as well. Send this email to your friends and to others on political mailing lists. Thank you. Send this text in email or fax to a company you can afford to boycott which either heavily supports Republicans or should know better that we need progressive legislative change. We demand that your company executives get the Republican Party to hold a press conference and accede to these demands and then finally legislate and sign these into law. Until such a press conference happens and the legislation gets passed I will boycott your products. We demand that the Republican party end their aggressive and hateful action to end a woman's right to choose abortion or not. We demand the resignation of Tom Delay. We demand that the United States withdraw from Iraq. We demand that the Congress of the United states and the president of the United States enact a law to increase the minimum wage to TEN dollars an hour and also to extend unemployment benefits for all people whose unemployment benefits expired after 6 months even though they still seek work. We also demand that the Congress of the United States to not privatize social security benefits in any form including taking a percentage of the social security tax and placing it in private accounts. People can already create their own pensions with money after taxes in the private sector. We also demand that the congress make all of a person's earned income taxable for social security FICA tax purposes and remove the 88,000 dollar salary cap. This will make social security solvent for many years to come. We demand the congress increase the payroll tax in order to make social security solvent as well. We also demand congress and the president enact a prescription drug benefit under Medicare Part B which covers 80 percent of medication cost, with no extra premium, no extra deductibles, no means test and no coverage gaps, and no penalties for signing up in a succeeding year.. We also call for the complete repeal of the faulty Medicare law HR 1 / S 1 passed by congress in Nov 2003. We also demand vote by mail throughout the United States of America. This will prevent Republicans from vote suppression by skin color which happened electronicly and in person in the 2000 and 2004 elections. Demand that your state implement vote by mail with ballots easy to fill out and difficult to change or invalidate by Republican Party officials. We demand Civil servants on every state payroll should keep track of voter registrations and vote counting of mail in votes in each precinct and not companies such as Choicepoint. We need to take the Republican Party out of the business of keeping track of voter registration and counting votes. We demand States ban the secretary of state from engaging in politics especially acting as a campaign official for a presidential campaign. ______________________________________________________________________________ We do this in the spirit of peaceful resistance to a congress that refuses to enact this legislation If you don't support what the Republicans did since they took over the House of Representatives in 1995 and don't support the Republican party's plans for this year then Join the revolution for progressive legislation and sign the petition at http://www.boycott-republicans.com HIT REPUBLICAN CONTRIBUTORS IN THEIR WALLETS !! Write this url on your one, five and ten dollar bills in the white areas in Pencil. -------------------- To each person reading this if you agree with my message please tell your friends and have them tell their friends. We can stop the war in Iraq by boycotting the defense contractor General Electric corporation. I want each and every person who wants to stop the War in Iraq to contact the defense contractor General Electric. Go to http://www.ge.com and send them email to the effect that you have decided not to buy any GE products including Ovens, stoves, refrigerators, light bulbs, televisions, radios, telephones, video recorders, dvd recorders and players, etc. UNTIL their company executives get the President of the United States aka THE CHIMP to hold a press conference announcing that he will withdraw all US Troops from Iraq, to get replaced by UN troops to defend Iraq until Iraq troops can defend their own country. In addition to sending email from the web site you can make these demands of GE through their public relations officials. Please act polite when contacting them. Gary Sheffer Executive Director, Communications and Public Affairs (203) 373-3476 gary.sheffer@ge.com Peter O'Toole Director, Public Relations (203) 373-2547 peter.o'toole@ge.com Yes his name's really Peter O'Toole but Bush appeared the one Lying in Winter about the Iraq war. Join the revolution for progressive legislation http://www.boycott-republicans.com progressive activism group on myspace. http://groups.myspace.com/revolutionforprogressivelegislation my web log http://www.campusprogress.org/page/community/blog/maximus Liberal America forum. http://www.network54.com/Forum/259017 http://www.cafepress.com/revolution09 The Revolution for progressive legislation podcast For the complete list of podcasts look here http://savefile.com/projects/330309

Note that if the web became the ultimate tool for recruiting "born again muslims", it also turned into a media battlefield between terrorists : leaders sometimes praise each other but most of the time, different groups are competing for audience / brand recognition (ie the indecent race after each terror attack). ______________________________________________________________________________________ Stephane MOT - http://www.stephanemot.com ______________________________________________________________________________________

Note that Wal-Mart are already targeting communities these days : they teamed up with Venezuela's giant Cisnero group in order to launch Movida Communications, a mobile virtual network operator designed for the hispanic communities. Big bucks are already planned for ads and Cisnero could also help for the PR. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Stephane MOT - http://www.stephanemot.com ______________________________________________________________________________________

For another take on this story, go to http://jabbs.blogspot.com/2005/08/williams-admits-error-in-accepting.html It includes extensive background on the Williams story, and links to two previous articles about the Williams payola scandal. One question, by the way, that remains unanswered -- Did Williams return the money?